Acer Chromebook^™ Enterprise Spin 713 Product Testing

The 30-Day Review

Acer recently approached me with a 30-day challenge to replace my conventional Windows 10 laptop with the latest Acer Chromebook™ Enterprise Spin 713 as part of the continuing Connection Test Drive Program. While I’m familiar with Chromebooks, I’ve never had the opportunity to try one firsthand and experience Chrome as an Enterprise OS.

Once the device was configured to work with our internal systems, I was well on my way to experiencing the latest in mobile computing. My workflow tends to put a little more pressure on the average machine due to the nature of my position. Plus, applications like Adobe Photoshop and the audio editors I use for podcasting tend to take up a lot of system resources. I was curious to see how well the Chromebook™ Enterprise Spin 713 would stand up to other laptops and desktops I’ve used in the past.

One of the more evident and pleasant surprises was the build quality. With a sleek aluminum top, aluminum bottom, and full-spaced quality plastic keyboard, its design rivals that of “premium” laptops. The military-grade durability gives it a real rugged feel—important as I have been known to be a little rough on my mobile technology. It’s fairly lightweight and thin, sitting at around 16mm. Robust hinges allow for a full 360° rotation for an instant conversion from laptop mode to tablet mode complete with touchscreen. This was a real plus for me, as I spend half my computing time on laptops and the other half on tablets.

You Had Me at Laptop

I’m a freak for engineering. When engineers decide to go the extra mile to make sure they understand the plight of the user, I’m the first to recognize and praise the effort. The Chromebook™ Enterprise Spin 713 delivers with a one finger lift, 360° hinged screen rotation, and 3:2 aspect ratio for more vertical space—giving the 13.5" screen the feel of a 15" with more portability. The resolution is amazing at 2256 x 1504, and the screen is super bright. It’s greater than 1080p but not quite 4K—I believe what Acer has determined to be 2K or Quad HD. The higher res makes everything sharper and reduces eye strain and blurred vision.

As I mentioned before, the keyboard is well spaced, backlit, and just has a great click feel to it. The trackpad is rugged, easy to use, and very responsive. There are USB-C ports on each side, as well as one microSD port. However, one port that stands out and is a luxury not typically found on laptops is the HDMI port. This “bonus” port was great for my workflow, as it allowed me to connect to other displays without a docking station or to hook up to a projector to make presentations. The 720p webcam is good quality and convenient for Zoom, Webex, Teams, and other virtual meeting apps.

The Ease of a Convertible

I’m a convertible fan, and this performs as well as any tablet I’ve worked with. The Google Chrome operating system continues to gain in popularity and comes equipped with built-in virus protection and updates automatically. My favorite features included the instant on, responsive touchscreen, and secure, easy app downloads. The 360° hinge creates the perfect stand to put the Chromebook in “tent mode” for video viewing or for presentation sharing. It was also great how easy it was to flip from laptop mode for fast typing and then into tablet mode to take advantage of the touchscreen.

Chromebook as a Culture

Fast, simple, secure, and mobile—sounds like the perfect recipe for 2021 and beyond. If you’re a Windows user like me, it will take a little time to adapt to a new operating environment, but everything feels pretty intuitive before you know it. Much like the Apple App Store, Google Play offers a host of apps for the Chromebook. Above and beyond that, there are what is known as Progressive Web Apps or PWAs. These are websites that function like an app but don’t require a download. Some examples are Forbes, Pinterest, Trivago, Twitter Lite, Starbucks, and Lancome.

Another interesting feature and “cultural change” for laptop users is the Google Chrome multiprocessor architecture, which allows individual tabs to run as separate processes. That means a hung-up webpage doesn’t result in a browser shutdown. To access the Chromebook performance, you will need to launch the Chrome Task Manager. Ctrl-Alt-Delete has been replaced with SHIFT-ESC. Similar to the Windows Task Manager, you can review the CPU, memory, and network usage, and you can end specific tab processes.

Recently, Chromebooks have adapted to the demands of increasing local storage. When they were first introduced, they were primarily for online access. Although this is still a large part of the charm, with the increased RAM and hard drive space, the Chromebook™ Enterprise Spin 713 is competing nicely with other conventional laptops.

Under the Hood

The Chromebook™ Enterprise Spin 713 has all the latest and greatest advances to help you connect and access the best speeds available: 10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 processor, 16GB RAM, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, 250GB SSD NVME technology storage, and USB-C. I was truly impressed with the overall performance of this Chromebook and all the connectivity options. Having great Internet speeds and the most recent routers doesn’t mean anything if the device isn’t capable of taking advantage of the technology. I was able to easily connect and experience truly fast download speeds. The instant-on capability of this Chromebook has given me a real glimpse into the future of all laptops.

Mobility

We all have the need to learn and work from anywhere in our new world, and this device provides a lot of options with a large SSD hard drive for local storage and a generous amount of cloud storage with each Chromebook. Work locally, back up to the cloud, and connect from just about anywhere in the world at any time. Welcome to the new office!