Acer - Chromebook Spin 714 Laptop - 14.0" 2-in-1 Touchscreen - Intel Evo Core i5 – 8GB – 256GB SSD - Slate Blue

Even though my grand daughter has all Apple products, my wife and I found the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 to be superior in many ways. It is a combination of a Laptop and a Notebook as is the case with the iPad. But it differs in the following ways: 14" vs 13" monitor, Touch Screen, Electronic Pen, and many other features at far less the cost. It was a no brainer. So we bought it for our granddaughter who will be starting college. We just gave it to her and she was thrilled. Check it out.

Excellent laptop, fast and perfect for work. I love it

It's an excellent chromebook that more than meets my needs.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 8GB Ram 256 Disk I have not had a lot of experience with Chromebooks as I have almost exclusively used another operating system for a very long time. Students use these devices and seem to function very well in performing their tasks in school. My daughter uses a Chromebook in school and she has an older model for use at home. I wanted to be familiar with these devices to offer support to my daughter and the students who come to me for help. This Acer Chromebook 714 seems to me to be well built. I’ve looked at these devices since they started to come out and for the most part my impression was that the build and construction were on the cheap side. I was impressed with the construction overall. I did think it seemed a little bulky but not overly so. The keyboard and mouse functioned adequately though it did take me a while to get used to the feel. I was mildly and positively surprised to learn that this computer was equipped with an Intel I-5 processor. I was able to run various applications with no noticeable lag whatsoever. The computer is equipped with a 14 inch touch enabled display which was bright and clear. I thought the display was adequate. The unit that I received came with a generous 8 gigabytes of RAM and a very generous 256 gigabyte hard disk drive. For a Chromebook, it would seem to me that it would be more than sufficient for years to come. As far as ports are concerned, the computer I received came with two USB-C ports (one would be used for charging and running off electricity. The computer also contained a USB port, a HDMI port, a headphone jack. In my opinion, a glaring absence of a micro-SD card slot or a SD card slot was noticeable. Another aspect of this device is that the sound from the speakers is not very good. Its tough listening to music on the computer but I don’t buy computers to listen to music As far as battery life, I averaged about eleven hours on a single charge. That is stellar in my book. You could work all day and still have battery life left over. I would estimate that my use was light so battery life may less or more depending on use. I suppose there is much documentation and evaluating on the Google Chrome operating system. My previous, limited experience with a Google Chromebook made me realize that this is a viable computer, with good specifications and an easy to learn operating system. Without doing too much digging there were a sufficient number of downloadable apps from the Play Store. I still have a lot to learn about what this machine is capable of doing and the apps that are available for it. Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the build of the hardware. Acer has manufactured a very usable, functional computer with and coupled it with an operating system that students find easy to use.

This is my 7th Chromebook and it has been the best yet (Samsung, Dell, HP, Acer). The processor in this unit is amazingly quick, tethered to 8 gig it is fantastically productive and eliminates delays seen in other Chromebooks. I have had an Acer CB in the past and this unit shows how far they have come in the past decade. OK, the pop issue, it does not bother me as I know what is likely occurring, however if you are an audiophile or a Misophonia person (you may not be aware that you have this) that every tiny noise accumulates to you pop off this may not be the unit for you. Let's say I am a "Maturing", lol, adult who recalls the analog days and that how the slight low volume pop sounds, like an amp engaging a speaker. Likely causes were last minute amp changes and someone mismatched inductance or forgot to add a bleed resister or missed adding a cap to their circuit causing the pop when the amp energizes it engages the speakers which drain the pre-charge voltage. It's not often, however its not only on the boot-up as these devices are heavy power economizers to extend battery life and amps are big drain, maybe even more than the screen, so power management switches the amp off, then when you hit a page or an app with sound, the circuit re-energizes and you hear the tiny pop in both speakers. Nothing is perfect and that is the only tiny imperfection that doesn't bother me. Given this, the sound is far loud enough to go over most public background noise situations and it does sound high in fidelity. The screen is low power, but you will not realize it, its a beautiful 1080p IPS, not the old LCD, I see not difference in this from my last QHD Samsung IPS, however if one is heavy into image editing 4k maybe the way to go if your resolution needs are at that level. The keyboard is awesome and back lit, best I have had and so is the gorilla glass IPS screen and glass touch pad. Battery life seems amazing, more than 8 hours of typical mixed work, not certain if you can do 8 hours of heavy video editing or not, however it is amazing quick in every regard during video editing, I am impressed with this new match of the intel i5 Evo. Oh, there is a fan, only every now and then when i am in a quiet area can I barely hear the fan, could not say it's silent, however I believe most people will not even hear it.

Verdict. This is my first Chromebook… And Chromebooks are great! Who knew?! This Acer laptop provides a lot of value and versatility into an affordable system, with a great operating system (OS). There is a lot to love here. First impressions. It is sleek, light, with a nice display, a comfortable backlit keyboard, and a large touchpad. It comes with a power adapter, a mouse, and a stylus (neatly tucked away in the lower-front-right of the laptop). Features. This is where the laptop shines. The laptop has a very responsive touchscreen that can fold all the way back so you can use the laptop as a tablet. Yes, many laptops do that, but the vast majority do not come with a stylus, and most are much more expensive. Additionally, the high-definition screen is gorilla glass! With convertible laptops, I am always worried about the screen. In this case, I feel much better when hauling around this computer all day, on commutes, to class, and at home. The laptop uses the 12th gen i5 processor and 256GB of SSD memory. While 256GB is not a lot, the SSD paired with the i5 provides a zippy experience and great performance for most daily tasks. The laptop has ample ports too: regular USB, USB-C (x2), and and HDMI port. The computer has a built-in dock that stores and charges the stylus... this is great, because styluses get lost or damaged easily, and you have to remember to charge them. This laptop makes owning a stylus super easy. Chromebook benefits. This is my first Chromebook, coming from the other two main OS. I was concerned about the potential learning curve… and I was pleased to find out that there really isn’t one. The OS is very intuitive for the most part, it is very fast, it has built-in virus protection, and it makes all google tools accessible directly from the desktop. I am very impressed with having access to all of my google things as soon as I login with my google credentials. Native or built-in access to google tools is very very nice since I use many of their tools on a daily basis to email, store documents, watch videos, and create/edit documents. I prefer another suite of document creator in general, and I was able to use my subscription on the Chromebook without any issues, so the Chromebook aspect doesn’t limit the use of your favorite software. In fact, access to the playstore will give me added functionality I think because I haven’t really considered apps on the OS I normally use. Perhaps, I have been stuck in an old paradigm, until now. For students. I used this laptop for a couple days a week when going to class for grad school. The laptop is great for typing notes, accessing stored documents, and communicating with others by messenger or video (with HD webcam!). It is light, so it’s easy to cary around, and I don’t bring the mouse to class. I could access Blackboard normally and login to classes online when needed. While the tablet mode is neat, taking notes with the stylus took some time to adjust. I normally use a different tablet and stylus pencil to write notes, and the feel is different, so it will take some time to get used to this system. Additionally, I had a bit of a hard time to save written notes, then finding where I saved them, and then trying to send them out by email. This is a small learning curve, and the only part of the experience I didn’t find intuitive. Once I figured it out, the workflow was faster on the next try. My daughter, a high school student, absolutely loves this laptop because she uses all google tools, especially all the document creating tools, and her school uses google classroom, so the integration is complete and perfect. Also, the fact this laptop comes with a stylus and mouse adds even more value for students who want a versatile and capable system. Finally, the extended battery life means that you don’t even have to take the charging cable to class! The laptop can go up to 10 hours on a full charge, and in a pinch, you can get four hours of battery on just a 30 minute charge. I haven’t actually tried to go the full 10 hours, but we regularly use it for 4 to 5 hours without charging, it still has more than 50% battery life. Things I love: - Sleek and compact - Sufficient ports - The screen folds all the way back so you can use the laptop as a tablet - It comes with a mouse AND a stylus!! - The stylus has a built-in dock that stores it and charges it - Easy access to apps in the playstore - All-day battery life! 10 hours without a charge, and quick-charge option to get 4 hours in just 30 minutes of charging - HD webcam - i5 processor and SSD provide a fast experience - Wifi 6 - Anti-microbial Gorilla glass screen!! Things I don’t love: - 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage may not be enough for some people. On the other hand, at the price point of this laptop, this is a fair offering. Moreover, if you are using the google ecosystem, you may already have access to substantial cloud storage, so storage may not be a concern at all. If you don’t run heavy apps and keep tons of tabs open at once, 8GB should be enough Overall, this is great laptop, offering lots of value and versatility in general, and more specifically, it’s a very compelling package for students. The Chromebook OS performs well and enables access to all google tools right from the desktop… I really like this aspect. It’s simple, convenient, and powerful. I will now consider Chromebooks for all future laptop purchases. For students who use google classroom, the utility is even better. I highly recommend this laptop.

This is my second Acer and first Chromebook. The ports are the first thing I check when buying a laptop. The Acer Chromebook Spin Laptop comes with (1) USB type A, (2) USB type C, (1) HDMI, and (1) headphone port. I would have liked one more USB type A and a SD card port, but I'll use a docking station to solve that issue when it arises. I have used this for about a week now and the battery life has been impressive. To test the battery’s capabilities, I ran the Chromebook for 8 hours before my 3 hour lecture and I still had plenty of charge left. The next day, I ran it some more and it lasted about half way through the day. I got down to 3% battery life and plugged it in. It took a little less than 2.5 hours to charge back up to 100%. It may have been a skosh faster because I wasn't watching it too closely. That is really fast though!! The other thing I like about the battery life indicator is that it tells you how much longer it will run until it dies (see picture). That is helpful. On the keyboard, there is no 'Delete' button. What to do? Apparently on a Chromebook all you have to do is press 'alt' and 'backspace' at the same time, viola. This week I used the Chromebook for my college course lecture. Up until now, I always used the university’s PC set up which is a touch-screen all-in-one PC. The picture is provided showing my Chromebook in front of the PC. The University also has a Creston docking and presentation system that is tied to an overhead projector thru connection ports. The connection that I used to dock my Chromebook was the HDMI connection. I did not perform a dry run with the Chromebook and just went into my lecture cold. This was risky, but I felt it was the only way to truly test the Chromebook. When providing lectures to my class, I not only provide a PowerPoint presentation, but I also run the University’s web-based Blackboard system which connects to a Zoom call for students that cannot attend in person. Therefore, during my lecture, I have to weave in and out of shared screens, PowerPoint, Whiteboard, and sometimes YouTube in situations (when I want to show videos as examples.) I have been using this system with the College’s PC since 2011. My Chromebook performed outstanding. First the functionality for the Zoom call was almost identical to the PC set up. I did notice something cool. I noticed that the Chromebook identified the display screen as a Creston screen which I had not seen come up on the University’s PC. (Picture shown.) When going into my applications, I did not notice coming across PowerPoint and only saw Word. Yet when I uploaded my PowerPoint file from Blackboard, the file showed up ready for presentation. I did notice, however, that the menu features on PowerPoint were different than a Windows based system, but that is due to the Chromebook. The functionality was similar enough for me to get my presentation done without any issues. One of the coolest things that I picked up on was speed of uploading video and web-based applications. During my lecture, I had to switch over to YouTube to show an example of a foundation collapse and the sound menus somehow set themselves up. When using the University’s PC on the Creston docking system, I have to sometimes go in manually and set up the sound because the settings are changed from the docking system sound to the PC sound. The Chromebook did this on its own. That saved me time from having to pause my lecture to trouble shoot audio issues. Also, I ran a web base USDA Soil Survey application which is a database of soil properties across the US. The Chromebook ran this database FAST. That was nice because sometimes I have to wait on the University’s PC to upload the data depending on the size of the report that I am running. Overall, I am pleased with the Chromebook's performance as a get up and go system. One more observation: my kids think it is a great laptop and want to use it when I am not busy with it. One of them downloaded a free art app. I then paid about 10$ to unlock better art features. See picture of on of the art doodles. Art skills being developed = bonus!

Great ACER portable laptop to use on for work and on the road/go. Excellent as for professionals and for students. It’s easy to use and it’s easy to use as a tablet too.