Acer Spin 3 (SP315-51-79NT) - Review 2022

Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to exist tempted by the price and characteristic gear up of the Acer Spin three (starts at $499, $659.99 as tested), with its lovely 15.half dozen-inch full HD In-Aeroplane Switching (IPS) screen, bulky 1TB difficult drive, Cadre i7 CPU, and 12GB of RAM. In a crowded marketplace, though, the Spin 3 is lacking some features in comparable 2-in-1 convertible laptops, like an SSD and a USB-C port, and in terms of functioning, it lands toward the back of the pack. With enough of capable and cheap desktop-replacement laptops, do you lot fifty-fifty need a 2-in-ane at this screen size?

A Bit Bulky, Merely a Beautiful Screen

Measuring 0.89 by 15.02 by nine.88 inches (HWD) and weighing iv.75 pounds, the Spin 3 is heftier than competing models. The same-screen-size Lenovo Yoga 710 is half a pound lighter, and the fifteen-inch Samsung Notebook 9 Pro shaves a full pound off the weight of the Spin 3. The size and weight of the organisation make it hard to utilize it in one paw in Tablet mode for longer than a few minutes.

The full Hard disk drive (1,920-by-1,080) IPS touch screen is brilliant and beautiful, and in Tent mode, the laptop becomes an attractive vehicle for video commitment. The panel, surrounded by thick, black bezels, is bright and viewing angles are very expert, with excellent color representation and contrast, even when viewed off-center. Many laptops we've seen in this price range cut corners with a i,366-past-768 screen, so we're happy to see full Hard disk drive hither. An integrated 720p Hd webcam above the screen offers crisp images for video calls.

The case is synthetic from black plastic with an attractive brushed finish, although it's susceptible to fingerprints. Ii hinges let you switch between Laptop, Tablet, Stand, and Tent modes. The hinges feel a bit flimsy, though, and feel a bit wiggly when switching between modes and during vigorous typing sessions. Nosotros much prefer the sturdy feel of the single long hinge on the fifteen-inch Samsung Notebook seven Spin.

The full-size keyboard has a glace, plastic-like feel, and has a blue backlight that automatically turns off after ninety seconds of non-utilise. The number pad, with its half-size up and down arrow keys, shifts the rest of the keyboard over to the left side of the deck. Even so, the keys provide a skilful bit of travel and it's clear that they were built strong to withstand harm from employ in Tablet mode, where the keyboard faces out. The same can't be said for the plastic around the keyboard, still. Our examination unit picked upwardly a significant scratch only under the number pad while using the laptop in Tablet mode on a tabular array.

The big touchpad is off-centre, placed directly nether the space bar. It's big enough for three-finger gestures from the largest of hands, and glides smoothly even though it feels somewhat fragile.

Worth noting: When performing taxing tasks, the Spin 3'southward fan racket gets quite loud and the case can go very hot, particularly on the bottom right hand side of the keyboard deck where your right wrist would typically rest.

2 stereo speakers on the base higher up the keyboard provide a decent amount of sound, although in that location'south not much bass. They audio best when they are facing up in Laptop style. If you identify the laptop in Stand mode the speakers face up down at the tabular array and are muffled; in Tent mode they face away from you and once more, the sound quality suffers.

Big Hard Drive, No SSD

The generous 1TB hard drive means that you lot can save a ton of files, but information technology's a single 5,400rpm drive, which is slower to boot than laptops with SSDs. In testing, the organization took an boilerplate of 42 seconds to boot up and display the login screen. While things run more or less smoothly after that, y'all can hear the difficult drive whirring to life when opening intensive programs such as Microsoft Visual Studio.

HDDs aren't as durable as SSDs either, which is an important gene to consider if you're going to be tossing this laptop into your handbag and running to meetings with it. On the other paw, the lack of a solid-state bulldoze surely keeps the cost of the Spin 3 down.

The left flank of the chassis features two USB 2.0 ports, a power push, a volume rocker, and a Kensington lock slot. On the right, there's a single USB 3.0 port, likewise as an HDMI port, an SD menu slot, a standard 3.5mm audio jack, and the port for the 45W ability adapter. Noticeably missing here is USB-C, which is no longer considered cutting-edge connectivity. It'south standard on many systems. The Spin three integrates 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth iv.0 for wireless connections. And Acer backs the laptop with a one-year warranty.

Backside the Pack

Packing an Intel Core i7-6500U CPU that runs at 2.50GHz, 12GB of memory, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 520, the Spin three achieved mediocre results in our multimedia testing. Its lackluster score of 2,768 on our PCMark 8 Work Conventional test, which measures general productivity, was far lower than much of the competition, with the exception of the HP Spectre x360. Other test results were lackluster as well: Photoshop (4:24), Handbrake (2:51), and Cinebench (3:22). These results show that this laptop is no speed demon, but is fine for everyday tasks like surfing the web or watching movies on Netflix.

Most laptops in this realm employ integrated graphics, which aren't suitable for intense gaming. With the exception of the Samsung Notebook Pro 9 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5-1570 (among the few models here with detached graphics cards), none of these 2-in-1s manage the 30 frames per second mark that we consider passable for quality gaming. If yous need a break from the grind while using this notebook, y'all'll demand to stick to Minecraft or Solitaire.

The Spin three tin't claim stellar battery life either, lasting 8 hours and 1 minute on our rundown exam. That'due south less than the Acer Spin 7 and Aspire R 14, which managed more than 9 hours, and much less than the Yoga 710'due south 14 hours and 17 minutes. This model will simply barely get you through a workday without needing a charge.

Not a Standout

While information technology certainly has an attractive toll and a large, beautiful screen, the Acer Spin 3 (SP315-51-79NT) just doesn't hold upward confronting the competition. Mediocre performance, dated port selection, and the lack of an SSD make information technology a tough sell, even at its lower cost. The Samsung Notebook vii Spin and the Editors' Choice Lenovo Yoga 710 are similarly priced 15-inch 2-in-1s that offering the functioning, battery life, and features that the Spin 3 is lacking. Some other important question to enquire is whether a 15-inch convertible is applied for your purposes. If you tin get by with a 13-inch screen, a smaller 2-in-1 like the Dell 13 7000 (7378) is spring to be more comfortable to use in Tablet way.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/laptops/17868/acer-spin-3-sp315-51-79nt

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