Acer Chromebook Spin 311 convertible laptop Intel Celeron N4020 review

Low-cost and versatile, Acer’s Chromebook Spin 311 may be a compact convertible laptop that’s an honest fit grade-school students and light-browsing, light-duty shoppers. Find more in Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Convertible Laptop Intel Celeron N4020 Review.

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Pros & Cons

PROS
2-in-1 versatility on a budget
Responsive keyboard and touchpad
Both USB Type-A and USB Type-C ports

CONS
Small, low-resolution display with thick bezels
Meager 32GB of internal storage
Brief battery life

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Convertible Laptop Intel Celeron N4020 Review

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 311 ($249.99 as tested) seems like your typical 11.6-inch Chromebook. It comes adorned during a plain silver plastic chassis. Thick bezels frame the undersize display, which itself may be a low-res, somewhat dim affair. Inside, it follows the quality budget Chromebook recipe of using an Intel Celeron CPU and 4GB of RAM while offering just 32GB of local storage (as eMMC flash memory). What the Spin 311 can do this other Chromebooks at this price usually can’t, however, is pull double duty as an Android tablet, with the touch screen ready to rotate 360 degrees into tablet mode. the tiny display and meager components will have most users looking elsewhere, but younger students will appreciate the added versatility this Chromebook affords, letting you play Android games when the remote school day is completed .

The Design: a touch of Apple reminder

The Spin 311 seems like any number of small Chromebooks that are trying to tug off a mini-MacBook look. The compact chassis is silver, with contrast afforded by matte-black keys and piano-black display bezels.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 rear view

Unlike an Apple laptop, though, the Acer isn’t made from brushed aluminum but basic plastic. Some flex on the lid and bottom panel is clear , but to not the degree of becoming worrisome, largely because the unit’s trim dimensions don’t leave large expanses of plastic. Also unlike MacBooks and other modern laptops that feature wafer-thin screen bezels, the borders round the Spin 311’s screen are super-thick. The effect of such beefy bezels makes the general design look clunky, while also making the tiny display appear to be even smaller than it’s .

Measuring 0.8 by 11.7 by 8.1 inches (HWD) and weighing 2.6 pounds, the Spin 311 certainly isn’t an onerous traveling mate, but it also is not the trimmest among 11.6-inch Chromebooks. By comparison, the Lenovo Chromebook 3 is slightly more compact at 0.7 by 11.3 by 8.1 inches and lighter at 2.4 pounds. Move up in price, and therefore the displays get bigger while the footprint stays roughly an equivalent . The premium 13.3-inch Google Pixelbook Go, for instance , measures 0.5 by 12.2 by 8.1 inches and weighs just 2.3 pounds.

The keyboard feels a touch cramped to my adult hands, but school-age kids will likely find it suitable. The keys are a touch narrow but feel snappy and responsive. like other Chromebooks at its price, the Spin 311 lacks keyboard backlighting. The buttonless touchpad recorded my mousing gestures accurately and offers the right amount of travel, with firm feedback for mouse clicks.

Spin for the Win – Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Convertible Laptop Intel Celeron N4020 Review

The Acer’s 11.6-inch display combines touch support with a 1,366-by-768-pixel native resolution. It falls in need of having the ability to display full HD video and appears a touch grainy when seated on the brink of the display, but 1080p screens simply aren’t on offer at this price. A pixel measure of 1,366 by 768 is merely acceptable here in 2021 at this screen size or smaller; you’ve got every right to demand 1080p in any larger panel.

While testing the machine, I had it dialed to the utmost brightness setting in the least times for the straightforward reason that the display otherwise looked dull. Even then, it looked dim when weak winter sunlight shone through my office window.

The touch support is beneficial for tapping to open and shut apps, control YouTube videos, and nudge your active windows around. the tiny size of the display makes finer control with a fingertip challenging, and therefore the display doesn’t offer pen support that might help with tap-and-poke accuracy.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 tent mode

The touch display is of greater use when playing Android games than when navigating Chrome OS. Putting the “spin” within the Spin 311 is its 360-degree hinge, which allows you to fold the display all the way around into tablet mode. you’ll also prop the notebook up sort of a tent or rest it, kiosk- or easel-fashion, on the keyboard. additionally to the Chrome Web Store, the convertible comes with the Google Play Store installed to form it easy to feature Android apps and games to the Chromebook. Finding this 2-in-1 versatility during a Chromebook at this price is rare and is that the Spin 311’s chief attraction.

A 720p webcam above the display offers acceptable video quality, with an oversaturated picture with some noise evident and slightly reddish skin tones. For a 30-child Zoom scrum during a crowded virtual classroom, it’s likely fine; for chats together with your boss, but optimal.

The Spin 311’s downward-firing stereo speakers rise to an honest volume but sound predictably tinny. They suffice for videos and games, but music playback would require headphones or a Bluetooth speaker for full enjoyment. The system offers Bluetooth 5, the newest iteration of the wireless standard, but it’s limited to 802.11ac Wi-Fi, which may be a generation behind the present 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) specification. (Budget systems like this largely haven’t adopted Wi-Fi 6 quite yet.)

The Spin 311 scores some extent for offering both sorts of USB ports but loses one for lacking an HDMI output. you will find two USB 3.1 Type-A ports and two USB Type-C ports, one each on either side of the laptop. Helping to hide for the shortage of an HDMI video output is that the USB-C ports’ support for DisplayPort, supplying you with an option for connecting an external monitor.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 left ports

In addition to the 2 USB ports on the left side, you’ll notice a headphone/microphone combination jack and a microSD card reader. Given the Spin 311’s paltry 32GB of internal storage, the microSD slot may be a useful avenue for expanding local storage.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 right ports

Bookending the 2 USB ports on the proper side are a Kensington lock slot and a volume rocker. Since you will have dedicated volume buttons and a mute button on the highest row of the keyboard, you will not reach for the quantity rocker when the Spin 311 is in laptop mode, but it comes in handy when the keyboard is disabled during tablet mode.

Testing the Spin 311: Celeron Power’s a Split Between ARM and a Core i3
With a dual-core Intel Celeron N4000 processor and 4GB of memory, the Spin 311 offers enough muscle to navigate Chrome OS smoothly. It boots up in 10 seconds, which is average for a Chromebook, and offers smooth performance under most usage scenarios. only I had a dozen or more browser tabs opened did it feel sluggish, but an equivalent are often said about my MacBook Pro. (See more about how we test laptops.)

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Convertible Laptop Intel Celeron N4020 performance Review

In our benchmarks, the Spin 311 performed needless to say , finishing before the Lenovo Chromebook Duet and its ARM-based MediaTek CPU and behind pricier Chromebooks supported the Intel Core i3, like the Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook and therefore the HP Chromebook x360 14c. Rounding out the charts is that the Lenovo Chromebook 3, which features the newer and slightly faster Celeron N4020 versus the Spin 311’s Celeron N4000. The HP Chromebook x360 14c also has the advantage of 8GB of RAM, double that of the opposite four Chromebooks here.

The first objective benchmarks we use are Principled Technologies’ venerable CrXPRT (a suite of simulated Chrome OS productivity apps) and newer WebXPRT 3 (a browser-based test of HTML and JavaScript throughput).

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 CrXPRTAcer Chromebook Spin 311 WebXPRT 3
The Spin 311 basically tied the Lenovo Chromebook 3 in these tests, which isn’t surprising given their similar specs. Both systems finished rich the pace set by the 2 Core i3 Chromebooks but before the ARM-based Lenovo Duet.

JetStream 2 is another online performance test; it combines 64 JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmarks to live a browser’s (in this case, the default Chrome’s) suitability for advanced web applications.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 JetStream 2

As we saw within the first two tests, the Spin 311 and Chromebook 3 sat squarely between the Core i3-based systems and therefore the ARM-based Duet.

We’ve recently added UL’s PCMark for Android Work 2.0 test to our Chromebook regimen. This test suite runs during a small smartphone-style window and mimics productivity operations starting from text and image editing to data charting and video playback.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 PCMark for Android

The Spin 311 again finished before the Lenovo Duet and behind the pair of pricier, Core i3-based Chromebooks. The Lenovo Chromebook 3 was reviewed before we started using the PCMark for Android test, but I’d wager it might have finished very near the Spin 311.

Finally, to check a Chromebook’s battery life, we loop a locally stored video with screen brightness set at 50 percent, audio volume at one hundred pc , and Wi-Fi disabled until the system quits.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 battery life

Laptops with small, low-res screens typically offer decent battery life because powering the display pixels is that the single greatest drain on battery resources. Unfortunately, that logic doesn’t reach the Spin 311, whose tiny 3-cell battery ran out hours before the opposite Chromebooks here. you’ll expect a extended runtime under more normal usage scenarios than continually playing a video, but it isn’t competitive with similarly sized Chromebooks.

Affordable Versatility

With its plastic chassis and an 11.6-inch display backed by an Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of memory, the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 initially blush seems like a mean budget Chromebook that’s one rung up from an entry-level, ARM-based model. With its touch panel and 360-degree hinge, however, it’s an Android tablet additionally to a Chromebook, adding tremendous value to the present $249.99 machine.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 left angle

For parents trying to find a serviceable Chromebook for grade-school students, the Spin 311 will fit most budgets while also giving kids the power to play Android games after they need finished their last Zoom class and Google Classroom assignment of the day. Even considering its convertible versatility, however, most users would be better served spending a touch more for a bigger Chromebook. With only a 11.6-inch display, the Acer is best fitted to smaller hands and lighter tasks.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Convertible Laptop Intel Celeron N4020 customer Review

Decent Entry Level Machine
Unboxing Upon first opening the Acer Chromebook Spin 11, I was impressed by what was included in the box. Acer provides not only the Chromebook Spin 11 itself, but a nice stylish grey sleeve and a Wacom EMR pen (stylus). They also of course included a charger. Included Carrying Sleeve All of the accessories fit nicely into the provided carrying sleeve. The chromebook itself fits in the large center area while the charger and Wacom pen fit into the smaller front pouch. All are protected by a soft felt lining.
Build Quality
Overall this laptop has a rugged build and feel. It is made of mostly plastic, though a rubberized button makes it grippy and hold tight to the surface you sit it on. It also seems to help with scratches and also protecting wooden tables. The screen itself is made of Corning Gorilla Glass so it is capable of handling drops and is fairly scratch resistant. The keyboard is rather cheap feeling. The keys feel small and I often found myself disappointed with any lengthy typing session. I feel that Acer meant for this to be used by a child. Small form factor, rugged, and fairly bullet proof. For such a small laptop, this also feels fairly heavy at 3.09 lbs.
Display
The display shows sharp and colors show accurate on this IPS 1366 x 768 screen. The 11” screen size paired with the very low resolution of 1366 x 768 make this less than ideal for anything other than light web browsing or basic note taking. Though ChromeOS allows you to force a higher resolution of 1536 x 864, since this is not native to the display, the image becomes much blurrier. The display is also a glossy mirror finish so using this in light or sunny areas results in terrible glare. In dark rooms this is a lot less noticeable. There is a thick black bezel around the display. This is terrible in laptop mode but becomes useful in tablet mode as it give your hands a place to hold and not interfere with the display.
Tablet Mode
Tablet mode is my least favorite mode. ChromeOS is weird to use and having the keyboard behind the display is awkward. I much prefer in laptop mode, or, tented for youtube, netflix, etc… video viewing. The stylus is a must use when in tablet mode as it helps press the close X or click on smaller icons fingers are just too big for.
Battery Life
Acer claims 10 hours of use. I’ve been able to get about 6-8 depending on usage. More than enough for a days work or taking notes in a classroom. Charging the laptop only takes limited time to get a useful burst of power though. In my case, about an hour fully charged from completely deal.
Charging
The Acer Chromebook Spin 11 battery was initially depleted so I had to charge it. This is done via one of the 2 included USB C ports on either side. This is nice since I can choose which side to charge from depending on my changing needs depending on where the laptop is at the time. Charging was quick. In about an hour it was fully charged.
Powering on/boot up
This thing boots up very fast. Hit the power button and you are presented with a logon screen within a couple seconds.
Performance
With a standard Intel processor and 4 GB of RAM ChromeOS runs fairly well. Windows open pretty snappy and general web browsing and app use is acceptable. If you’re planning to run some heavier Android apps or doing some photo editing, I found the performance to be lacking. I also found when connecting to an external display and pushing more pixels (connected to a 1920×1080 monitor) the machine struggled to even open apps and overall felt very sluggish.
Connecting to External Display
I connected to a pair of 1920 x 1080 monitors using USB-C to HDMI cables. I plugged one of each into each of the 2 USB-C ports and was able to view both screens. As mentioned above, performance was less than ideal. I also had a strange issue where Android apps only displayed a black screen and were unusable. This was not an issue when using the laptop by itself.
Ports
Acer provides a ton of connectivity ports on this machine. 2 USB 3.1, 2 USB-C, headphone jack, a security port for locking. This provides the ability to use any number of USB 3.1 or USB C adaptors to connect all sorts of things.
Wacom
Pen I found the pen to be a great tool for note taking and generally navigating ChromeOS. The stylus requires no batteries and when detected by touching the screen, ChromeOS shows a pen icon on the taskbar that allows you to quickly take screenshots, or notes. I found this super useful. Since the touch pad is a little clunky and cheap feeling, I prefer the pen over the touch pad. When taking notes, turning the pen over offers the ability to erase just like a pencil. When taking notes, the pen felt natural and the chromebook kept up with my writing speed and it felt as though I was actually writing on the screen itself.
Webcam The camera quality is ok. This is more useful for quick Google hangouts, skype, or DUO calls. Don’t expect current mobile phone camera standard here. It was perfectly adequate for its purpose but slightly grainy and fuzzy videos should be expected Overall this is a decent device. I would suggest use cases be either for a younger child who is no ready for a more expensive computer, or, anyone looking for an inexpensive device to browse the web, and who is already in, or planning to be in, an all Google environment.
By elitegangsta at Best Buy