The Acer Chromebook 714 is here to dethrone its little brother
Next @ Acer unveiled a whole slew of PCs and desktops, but alongside those announcements came two brand-new Chromebooks — and theAcer Chromebook Spin 514 (3H)that we previewed two weeks ago. The Acer Chromebook Tab 510 is another 10-inch Snapdragon-powered Chrome OS tablet with a mind towards durability. However, with only “Up to 4GB RAM”, you’ll likely want to skip it in lieu of 8GB models like the HP Chromebook X2 (which is still$300 off right now) or the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5, which are two of the best Chromebooks on the market today.
The singlebest Chromebookyou can buy right now, the Acer Chromebook Spin 713, might be getting dethroned this August by Acer’s latest and greatest model. Meet the Acer Chromebook 714, a 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio Chromebook packing the 12th-gen Intel Core i5 (or i7, if you want to splurge) and a fingerprint sensor for $750.
Laptop aspect ratios seem to come in waves, and the darling for premium Chromebooks this year is 16:10, not quite as long as the standard 16:9 but not as overly tall as 3:2. This aspect ratio makes for excellent split screening and multi-tasking, and it comes in both 1080p and 2K (2560 x 1600 px) resolutions depending on your configuration — and like the Spin 713 before it, the 2K option is bright enough to use outside, packing 425 nits of brightness. The option for a garaged USI stylus for that outstanding touchscreen is appreciated, but since it’s standard USI, you could opt for a more comfortable stylus like theLogitech Penif a particular model doesn’t come with it.
The Spin 514 also looks to correct one of the Spin 713’s biggest annoyances: the speakers are finally up-facing instead of down, so the sound goes to your ears and not into your lap. Unlike most 13 and 14-inch Chromebooks to feature up-firing speakers, the stereo speakers here sit at the top of the keyboard near the hinge rather than sandwiched on the sides of the keyboard, hopefully keeping them cleaner and not dampening the sound as much when you’re listening whilst typing.
Acer Chromebook Spin 714
Acer Chromebook Tab 510
Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (3H)
14-inch IPS multi-touch, 2560 x 1600 px, 16:10, 425 nits, 14-inch IPS multi-touch, 1920 x 1080 px, 16:9, 250 nits
10.1-inch IPS multi-touch, 1920 x 1200 px, 16:10, Corning Gorilla Glass
14-inch IPS multi-touch, 1920 x 1080 px, 250 nits
USI stylus support
Processors
12th Gen Intel Core i5, i7
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 compute platform
AMD Ryzen 3, 5, 7, 5000-Series Mobile processors
Up to 16GB
Up to 4 GB
Up to 512GB SSD
Up to 64GB eMMC
128GB-256GB SSD
Up to 10 hours
1080p MIPI webcam
5MP front, 8MP back MIPI webcams
1080p with privacy shutter
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, LTE Category 13
Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Up-facing DTS Audio-tuned stereo speakers
Two speakers
Dimensions
312.6 x 224 x 18.05 mm, 1.4kg
257 x 161.6 x 9.74 mm, 0.47kg (Tablet), 269 x 174.8 x 21.94 mm, 1.03kg (Tablet and Keyboard Folio Case)
322.6 x 224 x 17.35 mm, 1.5kg
Starting price
Release date
August 2022
Coming back to the Acer Chromebook Tab 510, the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 will be fine for casual browsing and content consumption. However, for a device aimed at the Enterprise market and the “working on the go” set, only offering 4GB of RAM will limit the experience. Only offering one USB-C port where models from Lenovo and HP have two is also a small letdown for a tablet that will start at $400, the same starting price as the Lenovo Duet 5.
The bulkier slot-in dock for the keyboard cover might also be a bit of a turn-off for many when compared to other Chrome OS tablets around today. The keyboard does not separate from the kickstand, so if you want to just prop up the tablet for some YouTube bingeing without the cramped keyboard in the way, you’ll have to grab a third-party kickstand. The texturing across the back of the tablet itself matches what you’d expect on Acer’s education Chromebooks, with gray corner bumpers breaking up the black plastic frame.
The Acer Chromebook Tab 510 will arrive in July for $400, while the $750 Acer Chromebook Spin 714 won’t release until August, with the $580 Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (3H) coming later in Q3. The Spin 714 could very well pull me away from my belovedAcer Chromebook Spin 713, but we’ll need to get it in for review first.
Pixel 10 Pro XL charges faster wirelessly
Carriers get the upper hand
Google’s made several improvements over the years
Things get red hot for Magenta
From faster storage to better speakers
No more excuses
