The second round of CES 2021 has arrived, and with it, Acer announced the company’s first AMD Ryzen Chromebook. The Acer Chromebook Spin 514 and Chromebook Enterprise Spin 514 follow in the footsteps of Lenovo’s recently launched ThinkPad C13 Yoga and the next HP Chromebook Pro C645. Acer chose to reach not only corporate users, but also consumers in general with the new addition to the Spin family and I think it is a very smart decision on their part. More on that soon. First, let’s take a look at Acer’s newest Chrome OS 2 in 1.
Acer Chromebook Spin 514
Don’t let the “company” nomenclature confuse you. The only difference between the business and consumer models will be the inclusion of an update to Chrome Enterprise in the latter. The hardware will be the same among comparable models. Speaking of this hardware, the Spin 514 will feature AMD’s series of APUs tuned for Chromebook. These processors range from entry-level Ryzen 3 and Athlon Silver to Ryzen 5 and 7 more robust APUs. Each of these processor options features AMD Radeon graphics that we hope will deliver significant performance gains over the UHD graphics found on comparable Intel CPUs on today’s Chromebooks.
Aesthetically, the Spin 514 favors its brother, the Chromebook Spin 713 equipped with Comet Lake, with the obvious difference of being a 16: 9 14-inch Full HD screen. The chassis is anodized aluminum on the cover and base, which I assume is a plastic or magnesium keyboard. The touch screen features Corning Gorilla Glass for durability and scratch resistance. The chassis of the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 also has MIL specifications to accommodate a drop of 1.2 m and support 60 kg of force down on the cover. While it clearly seems like a good option for businesses, Acer emphasized the fact that the new Spin 514 was designed for a wide range of users who need a powerful, versatile and durable device for remote work and personal use.
The combination of AMD RyzenMobile processors with a durable design makes the new Acer Chromebook Spin 514 an excellent choice for users who need to work from home
James Lin, general manager, notebooks, IT product business, Acer Inc.
Acer also expects AMD’s Zen architecture and Radeon Vega graphics to appeal to creatives who need more powerful graphics processing to run tools such as video editors and coding tools. Along with the Chrome Enterprise upgrade option, business customers can opt for Zero-Touch Enrollment, which allows IT administrators to send devices to employees who can simply sign in and everything they need is already installed through Google Admin console. It’s a brilliant and quick way to deploy Chrome OS devices in bulk for employees and / or students working remotely. Here is a more detailed look at what the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 has to offer:
Chromebook 514 specifications
- Chrome OS / Chrome OS with Chrome Enterprise update
- 14 “IPS screen, touch panel, Full HD 1920 x 1080
- AMD Ryzen accelerated processing unit (APU)
- Up to 16 GB of DDR4 system memory
- AMD Radeon Vega Mobile Graphics
- Up to 128 GB eMMC, up to 256 GB NVMe SSD
- 2 – Type C USB ports with support for USB 3.2 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)
- USB-C display port
- USB 3.2 Type A port
- HDMI® port (Acer Chromebook Spin 514 with Ryzen 5 or 7 APU will have an integrated HDMI port. For other SKUs, such as Ryzen 3, Athlon Silver will not have an integrated HDMI port)
- 3.5mm headphone / speaker jack, compatible with built-in microphone headphones
- Dimensions: 322.6 (W) x 225.5 (D) x 17.35 / 17.35 (H) mm (12.7 x 8.88 x 0.68 / 0.68 inches)
- Weight: 1.55 kg (3.42 lbs.)
- Battery life: up to 10 hours
- Wireless: Wi-Fi 5 2 × 2 MIMO Bluetooth 5
- Audio: Two integrated stereo speakers; Two built-in microphones
- Durability: US MIL-STD 810 (sand and dust test based on MIL-STD 810F.)
The Acer Chromebook Spin 514 will be available in the United States to consumers in February with a starting price of $ 479. This will likely be the Athlon or Ryzen 3 model with 4 GB of RAM. It will go on sale in EMEA in March and will cost 529 EUR. The business model will cost $ 749 here in the states and will be available in March, with the EMEA reaching 799 euros in March as well. We are very interested in seeing the performance of this Chromebook as soon as it is available in the retail market. That said, we were fortunate enough to get a pre-production model from Acer yesterday and are working to get the initial video out as soon as possible. Stay tuned to learn more about this Chromebook and more about our CES 2021 coverage.