As Chromebooks continue to mature, device manufacturers have also begun to incorporate a wider variety of components. This year, Acer announces its first AMD Ryzen-based offering on the Chromebook Spin 514.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 514 comes with an AMD Ryzen 3000 C-Series processor with Radeon graphics. AMD announced it in September 2020 which released better processors for Chromebooks, and that’s the Ryzen 3000 C-Series. So far, not much has been said about which Chromebooks would get this processor update, but it is not surprising that Acer has released one. It was only a matter of time!
Starting at just $ 480, Acer’s Chromebook Spin 514 is about to be one of the best-performing and most durable Chromebooks in its segment. This is so equipped with up to an AMD Ryzen 7 3700C CPU, which is a 4-core / 8-wire processor with a 2.3 GHz base clock (4.0 GHz increase), 6 MB cache, 10 Radeon cores at 1400 MHz and 15W TDP. It’s a big step up from the AMD A6 and A4 processors introduced for Chromebooks at CES 2019.
There’s also 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, and Acer says 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 descents to four feet.
Acer has also included a 1920 x 1080 IPS touch screen with Gorilla Glass on the front, along with useful features that include a backlit keyboard and a slightly low-resolution but still usable HD webcam. However, while Acer says it has reduced the frames of the Chromebook Spin 514 to 6.1mm, its screen-to-body ratio of 78% doesn’t seem so impressive to me.
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The Chromebook Spin 514 includes a good selection of ports, including two USB 3.2 Type C ports (both compatible with video output and charging), a microSD card reader, and even an optional HDMI port on some models. You’ll also get support for Bluetooth 5, dual stereo speakers, and dual microphones to better manage your video calls. Unfortunately, unlike many other new laptops introduced at CES 2021, the Chromebook Spin 514 will have to settle for Wi-Fi 802.11 ac instead of supporting Wi-Fi 6
Finally, thanks to closer collaboration with Google, along with standard Chrome OS elements such as support for running Android apps, the Chromebook Spin 514 is also certified by the Google Assistant Lab, so the wizard Google Integrated AI should be able to better understand your questions and commands.
The standard Chromebook Spin 514 is scheduled to go on sale in North America in February starting at $ 480, and the higher-end Chromebook Enterprise Spin 514 is expected to be available in March for $ 780.
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