Chromebook Spin 514 is Acer’s first AMD Ryzen Chromebook

As Chromebooks continue to mature, device makers have also started to integrate a wider variety of components. This year, Acer is announcing its first AMD Ryzen-based offering in the Chromebook Spin 514.

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 514 comes with an AMD Ryzen 3000 C-Series processor with Radeon graphics. AMD announced in September 2020 that there were better processors coming out for Chromebooks, and that’s the Ryzen 3000 C-Series. So far, there hasn’t been much talk about what Chromebooks would get for this processor upgrade, but it’s no surprise that Acer is offering one. It was only a matter of time!

Starting at just $ 480, Acer’s Chromebook Spin 514 is poised to be one of the best performing and most durable Chromebooks in its segment. It is because it is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700C processor, which is a 4-core / 8-thread processor with 2.3GHz base clock (4.0GHz boost), 6MB cache, 10 Radeon cores at 1400MHz and 15W TDP. This is a huge step up from the A6 and A4 processors that AMD presented for Chromebooks at CES 2019.

There’s also 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and Acer claims the Chromebook Spin 514 has “military-grade” durability thanks to its sandblasted aluminum chassis (available in silver, gray, and green), which has been tested to withstand drops from heights. at four feet.

Acer also included a 1920 x 1080 IPS touchscreen with Gorilla Glass on the front, as well as some handy features including a backlit keyboard and somewhat low-res but still usable HD webcam. However, while Acer says it has reduced the Chromebook Spin 514’s bezels to 6.1mm, its overall screen-to-body ratio of 78% doesn’t strike me as that impressive.

The Chromebook Spin 514 comes with a decent selection of ports, including two USB 3.2 Type-C ports (both supporting video output and charging), a microSD card reader, and even an optional HDMI port on some models. . You also get Bluetooth 5 support, two stereo speakers, and two microphones for better video call handling. Unfortunately, unlike many other new laptops that will debut at CES 2021, the Chromebook Spin 514 will have to make do with 802.11 ac Wi-Fi instead of Wi-Fi 6 support.

Finally, thanks to a closer partnership with Google, as well as standard Chrome OS features such as support for running Android apps, the Chromebook Spin 514 is also Google Assistant Lab certified. Google’s built-in AI should therefore be able to better understand your questions and commands.

The standard Chromebook Spin 514 is expected to go on sale in North America in February starting at $ 480, and the higher-performing Chromebook Enterprise Spin 514 is expected to be available later in March for $ 780.

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