I guess Acer is looking to compete better on price against the new Dell and Lenovo Chromebooks. Or maybe it’s just Amazon trying to move some inventory? Either way, it doesn’t matter: Amazon is currently selling the $899 Acer Chromebook Spin 13 for $699 (affiliate link), the same price it was on Black Friday.
I find it amazing that you can get the lesser model with Core i3, 4GB of memory, and 128 GB of storage for $720 when this deal bumps up your processor and doubles the RAM for even less money. And the normally priced $899 model has 64 GB of storage while this deal ups the eMMC to 128 GB capacity.
When I reviewed this configuration (with 64 GB storage) of the Acer Chromebook Spin 13, there was no task it couldn’t handle with ease. The performance was great regardless of how many Chrome tabs I had open. Android and Linux apps were also smooth.
Frankly, if I didn’t want a pure detachable device like the Pixel Slate, I probably would have gone with this Acer. And more than a few readers here have bought this same device; so far nearly every observation or comment from them has been positive. (But chime in if you have the Core i5 model of the Spin 13 and found something that’s not quite up to par).
Compared to the Core i5 Pixelbook from last year, for example, it benchmarks very well:
| Test | Google Pixelbook | Acer Chromebook Spin 13 |
|---|---|---|
| Speedometer 1.0 | 117 | 164.1 |
| Speedometer 2.0 | 69.4 | 96.73 |
| JetStream | 118.74 | 174.52 |
| Basemark | 414.2 | 426.18 |
| Octane 2.0 | 22,309* | 36,448 |
*Note: I have seen many Pixelbooks score into the low-to-mid-30,000 range on Octane tests. I don’t know why my results are much lower, although it may be due to running Chrome OS 71 Dev Channel. This appears to be an outlier and suggests that while the Spin 13 benchmarks higher in Octane, the difference isn’t as dramatic as my results above.
As a reminder, this 2-in-1 has an integrated EMR pen that stores in the aluminum chassis, a fantastic 13.5-inch IPS 2256 x 1504 Gorilla Glass touchscreen, a pair of USB Type-C (USB 3.1, Gen 1) ports, a USB Type-A (USB 3.0) port, a microSD card reader, headphone jack, microphone, and stereo speakers. It’s a bit heavy for extended tablet use at 3.31 pounds but I think you’re buying this for powerful performance on a desk, lap, or in tent mode with occasional tablet mode usage.
