Acer Chromebook Spin 311 Review

Our Verdict

The Acer Chromebook Spin 311'south solid battery life and peachy keyboard help it stand out in a market overflowing with pocket-sized, budget-friendly Chromebooks.

For

Solid battery life
Exceptional keyboard
Tough Gorilla Drinking glass screen

Against

Dim, depression-resolution screen
No USB 3.0 Type-A port

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Acer Chromebook Spin 311's solid battery life and groovy keyboard help it stand out in a market overflowing with small, budget-friendly Chromebooks.

Pros

+
Solid bombardment life
+
Exceptional keyboard
+
Tough Gorilla Drinking glass screen

Cons

-
Dim, low-resolution screen
-
No USB 3.0 Type-A port
-

Acer'southward Spin 311 is exactly what many people expect of a Chromebook: Small-scale, inexpensive, and capable plenty to handle work and light play every day. For students, children, or anyone looking for an extremely portable motorcar that gets the essentials right, the Spin 311 is one of the best Chromebooks for kids that can also compete with some of the best Chromebooks of comparable toll. It also won a recommendation for all-time budget laptop in our Tom's Guide Awards 2021.

It's a highly functional unit of measurement with 1 of the best laptop keyboards I've seen yet. That said, I ran into some issues (and some strange blueprint choices) while conducting this Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review. Although it'south a capable Chromebook around $300, it's far from the merely ane.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 specs

CPU: two.0GHz octa-core MediaTek MT8183
Graphics: ARM Mali-G72 MP3
Display: 11.half dozen inches, 1366 x 768
Retention: 4GB
Storage: 32GB eMMC, 64GB eMMC
Size: xi.7 ten 8.1 x 0.74 inches
Weight: ii.65 pounds
Ports: USB-C, USB-A
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11ac

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Price and availability

The Acer Chromebook Spin 311 released in July 2020 at a starting price of $259, though you can expect the price to rising into the $279 range if you cull a model with improved storage. You tin can buy it straight from Acer.com or seek it out at your retailer of choice.

For an eleven.half-dozen-inch 2-in-ane Chromebook, a roughly $300 price tag is par for the course. Lenovo's C330 is the same price, while the Asus C204 is slightly more expensive (if you can find one in stock). There are other ii-in-1 Chromebooks that opt for a tablet design over the clamshell design of the Spin 311 that are cheaper, namely the Lenovo Duet.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Design

The Spin 311 looks like the ideal ideal of a Chromebook: Thick bezels effectually the screen, an all-aluminum silver chassis, and a build that'due south meant to exist both durable and portable.

And the Spin 311 is successful on those last two. There'due south no flex around whatever indicate of the torso, including the keyboard and the hinges. The screen is protected with Gorilla Glass, too, so it should exist able to withstand a few falls.

For portability, the Spin 311 has an advertised weight of ii.65 pounds, but we measured simply 2.3 pounds on our test unit of measurement. The difference between the two is splitting hairs; at this size and weight, the Spin 311 isn't probable to strain your dorsum.

Speaking of size, the Spin 311 is tiny, with a footprint smaller than a standard A4 canvas of paper. Information technology's just a hair thicker than the Samsung Chromebook 4 -- 0.74 inches compared to 0.66 inches.

The Spin 311 is tiny, and that's as much of a pro as it is a con. It doesn't really thing what you lot're doing on the machine, information technology feels cramped. For carrying around or casually using at abode, the Spin 311's size isn't besides much of an upshot. For heavy users, though, the limited space is at least abrasive, and at almost a deal-breaker.

That's a criticism of a Chromebook this size, not of the Spin 311 itself. The build quality is excellent, and although the aesthetics are bromidic, information technology even so manages to look sleek and attractive.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Ports

The Spin 311 is light on ports, simply Acer even so went out of its way to include a USB Type-A connection. On the correct side of the chassis, there's the sole USB-A port side by side to a Kensington Lock and the volume rocker, and on the left, a USB-C connection adjacent to a headphone/microphone philharmonic jack and the power push. The USB-C port supports DisplayPort over USB-C, allowing you to use an external brandish. Information technology'south also the charging port.

The Spin 311's port selection is in line with what I'd expect at this price, given that competing Chromebooks similar Lenovo's C330 come with the same range of ports.

Nevertheless, the C330, the Samsung Chromebook 4, and several other competing Chromebooks from HP and Asus all come with a USB 3.0 (or better) connexion. The Spin 311's USB-A port is only rated for USB 2.0. Even considering the price bracket, at that place's really no excuse for an older USB standard when other devices and peripherals have already defenseless up.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Display

The Spin 311 sports an eleven.6-inch IPS display with a resolution just above 720p (1366 10 768). It'due south a screen of compromises. On one hand, the display is covered in antimicrobial Gorilla Glass, providing protection from virtually falls. On the other, the peak brightness is depression, equally is the resolution, and the bezels are thick.

I watched through Gone Daughter and Skilful Time to see how the screen would hold up. In Gone Girl, the Spin 311's screen didn't handle the various shades of greyness in that film'due south color palette well, often washing the darker areas out with any nearby colors. Skilful Time had a like problem, implying the correct colors without always striking them.

Between both movies, however, the resolution stood out well-nigh. Fifty-fifty at 11.six inches, the resolution was as well low. It was like watching a video file that had been compressed ane too many times, with fast-paced scenes falling autonomously in a smear of pixels.

Our benchmarks back up much of what I experienced using the Spin 311. We measured a peak brightness of merely 204.2 nits, dropping below the 200 marker in some corners. The Spin 311's display likewise only produced lxx.4% of the sRGB color spectrum, which is disappointing when you consider that a similarly-priced competitor like the Acer Chromebook R 11 is able to deliver a 73.2% sRGB spectrum rating.

In short, it's non a great screen for watching movies or Goggle box shows. That said, I fired up Destiny 2 on Stadia and didn't have whatsoever issues. Even in a fast-paced FPS, the screen handled motion well, and in the context of a game, the lowered resolution is like shooting fish in a barrel to forgive.

As a touchscreen the display works well, but it's not perfect. A few hiccups similar accidentally clicking a link while scrolling go along the tablet experience from being perfect. At this cost, though, a few pocket-sized annoyances are like shooting fish in a barrel to contend with.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Keyboard and touchpad

The Spin 311'southward keyboard is undoubtedly its strongest feature. Even as a self-proclaimed mechanical keyboard snob, I was able to wing while typing on the Spin 311. It even rivaled the typing experience of my Dell XPS fifteen, which is seriously impressive because how inexpensive the Spin 311 is.

Information technology's non an blow that the typing experience is great, either. The Spin 311's keys take a travel distance of 1.6mm, adding a overnice amount of snap and responsiveness to each keystroke.

This is a feature Acer displays prominently, even on the Chromebook'south pre-applied factory sticker. It seemed like zilch more than a marketing gimmick, but later on using the Spin 311, I'm a believer.

The touchpad is similarly responsive, despite being on the small side (it measures 2.four x 4.1 inches). It's wide but short, then while I was able to swipe from side to side without issues, my finger would occasionally fall off when moving up or down. That'southward non a criticism, simply still something to note.

Gestures are a fair betoken of criticism, nevertheless. Google hasn't quite nailed the feel of Windows Precision drivers notwithstanding, but it's shut. Two fingers scrolls, and iii fingers brings up an overview of your open windows. Scrolling worked most of the time, but using three fingers to bring upwardly the overview usually required a few tries.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Audio

The bottom-firing stereo speakers on the Spin 311 work surprisingly well, fifty-fifty if they're not all that impressive. The speakers are small, and the sound has a heavy upper midrange bias. That'due south peachy for movies and TV shows, accentuating the dialogue.

For music, information technology makes certain instruments stick out more than others. In a riffing pianoforte tune like Anomalie's Valours, for example, the upper midrange of the piano would jolt out of the music. In such a melodically dense piece, the sudden jump in book can exist jarring.

Still, the speakers work. They can get loud without distorting -- something even premium Windows machines struggle with -- and they were always clear, even when the Spin 311 was sitting on my lap.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Performance

The Spin 311 is powered by MediaTek'south MT8183 8-core processor. Four of those cores are congenital on ARM'south Cortex-A73 architecture, while the other four use the Cortex-A53 architecture. The result is an 8 core processor with 4 ascendant cores, plus an additional four for aiding or handling other tasks.

Acer pairs the MediaTek chip with 4GB of retentivity, and either 32GB or 64GB of eMMC storage.

The processing power is great for a machine of this size. Jumping from window to window feels snappy, even when you lot have a couple of lightweight applications open. For some difficult numbers, we measured a multi-core score of 5,507 and a single-core score of 1,361 in Geekbench iv.

The more telling benchmark is CrXPRT, which is built specifically to test Chromebook performance. In the latest version, the Spin 311 received an average score of 41. The Lenovo Duet received the same score, while Acer's pricier Spin 715 earned a higher score (65).

In improver to our lab testing, I put the Spin 311 through a Chrome torture test, opening every bit many tabs equally possible before the notebook started to deadening down. At eight tabs, Chrome became noticeably sluggish, but information technology didn't interruption. Y'all'll observe slower performance if you're switching between a lot of tabs (around 10) at once, but below that, information technology holds up.

For well-nigh utilize cases, that'southward adequate. The Spin 311 isn't powerful, only information technology's surprisingly efficient given the hardware inside.

Information technology'due south not perfect, though. I as well downloaded Cobblestone 9 and Fallout Shelter to test a few games. Asphalt nine crashed a scattering of times before finally working, and although the game ran, it had framerate issues. Fallout Shelter was great, however, loading and running without whatsoever problems.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Battery life

The Spin 311 has a big enough bombardment to final through a full workday, simply it still falls short of the advertised 15 hours of bombardment life. In our web surfing battery test, the Spin 311 lasted for 11 hours and 41 minutes, which is good, but still more three hours shy of 15 hours.

Given the display's resolution, I hoped for more than. The Lenovo Duet was able to concluding an hr longer in the same test, despite sporting a higher-resolution screen.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Webcam

You accept to cut a few corners to get a usable motorcar under $300, and a popular place to do that cutting is in the webcam. The Spin 311'due south 720p webcam isn't very good. Even under decent lighting conditions, the webcam displays a layer of noise beyond the entire image, which is only exaggerated as things get darker.

The colors aren't great, either. My lips, for example, would announced either pale or blue under near lighting conditions (a mirror confirms this is, indeed, a webcam consequence and non malnourishment).

I never expected much out of the webcam, and you shouldn't either. It does the job for video calls and the like, but y'all won't be conveying around the Spin 311 to have pictures.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: ChromeOS

ChromeOS is like Android for a full-sized machine, at to the lowest degree for the most part. Although you can still browse the Google Play store and download most apps to the Spin 311, there are still quite a few that aren't supported. And they aren't no-name apps, either. GeForce Now, for example, isn't supported.

Google Play is just one office of what makes ChromeOS a compelling option, notwithstanding. Google has seamlessly integrated its ecosystem of apps in the operating system, not only because they're pre-installed, just besides because your search queries pull up documents yous accept stored in Google Drive alongside local files and applications.

There are pocket-sized, quality-of-life features, too. Casting a YouTube video, for example, takes no more than than a couple of presses.

ChromeOS isn't nearly as characteristic-rich as Windows, only it nonetheless gets the basics correct. Managing your apps is a breeze, and although multitasking features similar split up screen aren't perfect, they're at least nowadays.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 review: Verdict

The Acer Chromebook Spin 311 is another sub-$300 silvery Chromebook in a market pond with them. That makes information technology hard to justify, especially compared to something like the Lenovo Duet, which does what the Spin 311 does better in many areas, and is even cheaper.

The saving grace is the Spin 311's keyboard, which is truly excellent. It's not as practiced equally the best laptop keyboards, but the fact that an 11.6-inch Chromebook is even in the give-and-take should speak volumes. The battery life is solid, too, and although performance isn't great, it's plenty to handle light, day-to-day tasks.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/acer-chromebook-spin-311-review

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