Acer Spin 3 (SP314-51-38XK) Review - Review 2022

We recently raved about the $329.99 Acer Spin one, the Taiwanese tech giant's to the lowest degree expensive 2-in-1 convertible laptop. The Spin three ($499.99) is Acer's side by side step upward, slotting in above the Spin one and beneath the Spins 5 and vii. Every bit budget ii-in-1s go, the Spin 3 has a skilful feature set and respectable performance, and its 1TB hard drive offers reams more storage than the Editors' Choice Spin 1's 32GB of eMMC wink. Just the five,400rpm drive is a drag on functioning, and launching apps takes patience. Thoroughly spoiled past PCs with SSDs, we would recommend spending $100 more than to get an upgraded model of the Spin iii with a 256GB solid-country bulldoze and twice the memory that's in our base configuration.

Crosshatched Cool

A classy-looking convertible, the Spin three has an aluminum lid etched with fine horizontal and vertical lines (the keyboard deck and palm rest are horizontal brushed aluminum). Like other Lenovo Yoga workalikes, you can fold its display dorsum from Laptop to Tablet manner, as well as an easel-mode Stand mode for presentations and an A-frame Tent mode for using impact apps in confined spaces.

It measures 0.82 by xiii.two by 9.1 inches, making it a bit bigger than the Asus ZenBook Flip xiv UX461UN (0.55 by 12.9 past 8.9 inches) but smaller than xv.6-inch hybrids like the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro (0.67 by 13.vii past nine.4 inches). At iii.75 pounds, it weighs virtually exactly every bit much as the Notebook 9 Pro, or noticeably more than the Flip xiv (3.31 pounds). Simply the Acer and its small-scale, foursquare Ac adapter are no brunt in a briefcase.

Medium-thick bezels surround the glossy screen, which has a webcam centered above it (there's neither a face up recognition camera nor fingerprint reader for Windows Hi logins). The webcam captures pretty good images that are slightly soft-focus just well lit and non grainy.

A speaker grille to a higher place the keyboard wraps around the rear edge for, Acer claims, sound that faces you no thing which mode you're using. The Spin 3's audio is impressive—while non the loudest we've heard (though enough to fill up a medium-sized room), information technology sounds clear and crisp without being distorted or tinny. Yous won't hear a ton of bass, only you'll enjoy listening to your MP3s and streaming music.

The Missing Port

On the convertible's left side, you'll find the AC adapter connector, an HDMI port, and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. The right border holds a USB 2.0 port, an SD menu slot, and a headphone jack likewise as the power button and a lock slot. We're disappointed by the lack of USB-C connectivity, though we don't insist on information technology in under-$500 systems, a category the Spin three fits by a penny.

The keyboard is non backlit and lacks defended Home and End keys (they're doubled up on the Page Up and Folio Down keys), but to its credit offers inverted-T instead of single-row cursor arrows, every bit well equally Ctrl and Delete keys in their proper lower left and upper correct corners respectively. Information technology has a shallow and plasticky, only not uncomfortable, typing feel, with firm tactile feedback.

We're less satisfied with the Spin 3's touchpad: It glides smoothly plenty and responds well to taps, just its bottom-corner buttons take considerable pressure and the right-click button feels loose and rattly.

The xiv-inch 1,920-by-ane,080 IPS impact screen is attractive albeit cogitating—visions of lights, windows, or objects in the room interfere with its wide viewing angles. Seen from close to straight on, yet, information technology offers sharp details and bright colors, though we could wish for one or two more clicks of backlight effulgence. Touch screen operations are precise and responsive.

Acer preloads the Windows 10 Home convertible with utilities and links ranging from the useful (Dashlane) to the commercial (Booking.com, Ebates) and backs it with a one-yr warranty.

Performance vs. Cost

Available in 14-inch and 15.6-inch flavors, the Spin 3 has a variety of CPU and storage configurations available. Ours is the base model with a Core i3-8130U, a 2.2GHz (three.4GHz turbo) dual-core processor, and a minimally adequate 4GB of RAM. That latest-generation CPU led the Spin 3 to easily outpace the less expensive, Celeron-based Spin 1, just as it gets its butt kicked by the more than expensive, Core i7-powered Asus ZenBook Flip fourteen. Its functioning is more than in line with its fellow Core i3 hybrids, the 12.5-inch Lenovo Yoga 720 and the 13.three-inch Dell Latitude 3390.

See How Nosotros Examination Laptops

The Spin 3 posted a perfectly respectable score of 2,819 in our PCMark eight office productivity benchmark (we consider 2,500 adequate and iii,000 excellent) and completed our Handbrake video-editing exercise in nether two-and-a-half minutes (though that's twice as long equally the quad-core Asus).

The ZenBook and its Nvidia GeForce MX150 discrete graphics crushed the Spin 3 and the other integrated-graphics 2-in-1s in our 3DMark test and Valley and Heaven gaming simulations. The latter are definitely destined just for casual or browser-based games, non the latest loftier-octane titles. The Spin iii's best examination result was in our bombardment life rundown, where it lasted for xi hours of video playback, 2d just to the Asus and almost five hours longer than the Latitude 3390 ($599.00 at Dell Technologies) .

Merely while our test machine's objective benchmark scores were acceptable, subjectively it felt unresponsive, forcing us to expect a shell for Windows' settings menu or losing a pace when nosotros loaded a dozen browser tabs. The system's 4GB rather than 8GB of RAM probably has something to practice with it, but we'll assign the panthera leo'southward share of the blame to the hard drive—tempting united states, as we said, to cure both ills by climbing to Acer's $599.99 model.

Worth a Spin?

Unfortunately, that upgraded model was harder to find online at the fourth dimension of this writing, leaving the Spin 3 in the same budget convertible segment where we've already chosen to highlight the Spin ane. We don't dislike the Spin 3, simply we dislike its spinning platter. If you lot can find the Spin 3 with upgraded RAM and an SSD, it's worth the $100 premium. Otherwise, if you store most of your files in the cloud, the Spin one is an excellent culling that costs most $200 less.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/netbooks-products/21393/acer-spin-3-sp314-51-38xk-review

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