Acer Spin 1 Review: An Average-performing Convertible Laptop

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Acer Spin 1: At First Glance

The Acer Spin 1 is one of the smallest and less-powerful laptops among Acer’s convertible laptop series. This makes the laptop one of the least expensive 2-in-1 convertible laptops made by the Taiwan-based tech giant.

Specifically, when I wrote this article in January 2022, this laptop had a starting price of $164.00. Despite its inexpensive starting price, this laptop comes with an attractive design and a sharp display.

However, like most cheap laptops, the Acer Spin 1 is bound to feature some downsides.

Is the cheap price tag enough for you to consider the Acer Spin 1? Please read on to find out.

Acer Spin 1: Design, Dimensions and Weight

Acer is a company that is very good at designing laptops that are able to withstand abuse. However, the Spin 1 is a bit different as it comes with a cheap plastic chassis.

This isn’t surprising though as the laptop is one of Acer’s cheapest laptops. On a positive note, the interior of this laptop is made of aluminum with a brushed stainless finish.

However, there are somewhat thick bezels surrounding the Acer Spin 1’s display screen. These bezels may cause some obstructing when viewing the laptop’s display.

Speaking of the display, this laptop’s 14-inch display is a touchscreen that comes with FHD (1920 x 1080) resolution. Thanks to its FHD resolution, this touchscreen display offers decent picture quality for watching movies.

Moreover, being a convertible laptop, this touchscreen display is capable of rotating to a full 360-degrees. Thus, you will be able to use the Acer Spin 1 as a tablet.

Impressively, this laptop’s 14-inch FHD touchscreen display features IPS technology. This display technology allows a display to offer exceptional viewing angles.

Therefore, even when viewing the display from the sides or extreme angles, the picture quality of Acer Spin 1’s display will remain constant. Moreover, good viewing angles are very important for convertible laptops like the Acer Spin 1.

This is because convertible laptops are meant to be used in various modes. These modes include laptop mode, tent mode, stand mode, and tablet mode.

In addition to its impressive viewing angles, the Acer Spin 1’s touchscreen display supports 10-point multi-touch. Therefore, you will be able to use up to ten fingers on this laptop’s display simultaneously.

Just above the Acer Spin 1’s touchscreen display, you will find an HD webcam. This webcam isn’t great for taking pictures as it offers blurry picture quality.

However, for casual skyping and video conference calls, this HD webcam will serve you well.

Moving on, the Acer Spin 1 comes with a spacious keyboard that offers a not-so-good typing experience. To give more details, the keys on this keyboard require a bit of force to properly register an input.

Therefore, reducing one’s overall typing speed and accuracy. Likewise, the trackpad below the keyboard is okay but not really the sort of thing you may want to be using for hours daily.

Specifically, the trackpad is averagely fast and accurate. Also, the integrated click button requires some amount of force to register an input.

Besides, it isn’t particularly easy to perform complex gestures like drag-and-drop on the touchpad.

As for the audio and sound output, the Acer Spin 1 offers two stereo speakers. These speakers aren’t particularly good, but they produce decent sound quality.

However, the speakers aren’t loud enough to fill even a small room.

For the ports, the Acer Spin 1 offers a decent number of ports despite being so slim. Specifically, this laptop features one USB 3.2 Type-A port, a USB Type-C port, and an HDMI port on the left side.

On the right side of the laptop, however, there is another USB 3.2 Type-A port, a Kensington lock, and a headphone/mic jack. As for wireless connectivity, this laptop comes with Bluetooth 5.0 and IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI.

Proceeding to the weight and dimension of the Acer Spin 1, this convertible laptop weighs 1501.3 g and measures 325.1 x 228.6 x 18.7 mm (W x D x H). Therefore, this laptop is lightweight and compact enough to carry easily.

In fact, competitors like the Dell Inspiron 14 5482 and HP Pavilion x360 both weigh more than Acer Spin 1. Specifically, these laptops weigh 1860 g and 1720 g respectively.

All in all, I will rate the Acer Spin 1 an eight out of ten in this design review section.

Acer Spin 1: Processor (CPU) Performance

Acer equipped the Spin 1 with an Intel Celeron N5100 processor. This CPU is a power-efficient processor that features a 4-core and 4 MB cache memory.

In terms of speed, this processor has a 1.10 GHz base frequency and a 2.80 GHz maximum frequency. Hence, with the Celeron N5100 processor, the Acer Spin 1 will offer average performance.

For the most part, this laptop will perform just fine when handling basic productivity tasks like web browsing. However, you may experience a bit of lag when performing some Windows 10 navigation, but it’s not too troublesome.

Similarly, the Acer Spin 1 can be slowed down significantly by web pages that have too many ads. However, scrolling through basic websites on the laptop won’t warrant any issues.

That said, we will now discuss the Cinebench R15 test result based on the Acer Spin 1 processor performance. Cinebench R15 is a benchmark test that evaluates the general processing performance of a computer.

Additionally, according to this benchmark test, the higher the points scored, the better the performance. So, on this benchmark test, the Acer Spin 1 scored 198 points.

Impressively, this laptop’s score is above the category average of 160 points. Not only that, the laptop scored higher than the ASUS VivoBook Flip 12 which scored 167 points.

All things considered, I will rate the Acer Spin 1 an eight out of ten in this CPU review section.

Acer Spin 1: Memory (RAM) Performance

In the aspect of memory, the Acer Spin 1 comes with a standard memory of 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM. Unfortunately, 8 GB is also the max memory size that this laptop supports.

Also, the Acer Spin 1 comes with only a single RAM slot. Therefore, upgrading the laptop’s memory beyond 8 GB RAM is impossible.

Notwithstanding, with 8 GB RAM, the Acer Spin 1 should be able to handle simple computing tasks with ease. Besides, the Acer Spin 1 with this amount of RAM will be able to perform light multitasking.

Speaking of multitasking, this laptop will be able to effortlessly handle 12 Chrome tabs simultaneously. Moreover, with 8 GB RAM, the Spin 1 should be able to juggle between these Chrome tabs and other applications like Microsoft Word without lagging.

For more understanding of this laptop’s capabilities, I will now share its result on the PCMark 10 benchmark test. PCMark 10 is a benchmark test that assesses a computer’s performance by simulating daily computing tasks.

More so, according to this benchmark test, a high score represents better performance. Hence, the Acer Spin 1 scored 1,181 points on the PCMark 10 benchmark test.

In comparison, the Acer Spin 1’s score is less than that of the ASUS VivoBook Flip 12. To be more specific, the ASUS VivoBook Flip 12 scored 2,094 points on the PCMark 10 test.

After thorough consideration, I will rate the Acer Spin 1 a seven in this review section for its average RAM performance.

Acer Spin 1: Storage Options and Performance

When it comes to storage, the Acer Spin 1 offers 256 GB PCIe SSD storage. I am sure that 256 GB of storage space won’t be enough for most users.

Unfortunately, this laptop doesn’t come with an SD card storage for storage expansion. Therefore, if you need more storage, you will have to purchase an external hard drive.

That said, now let us discuss the performance of the Acer Spin 1 on a file transfer test. Moreover, since SSDs are the fastest storage drive available today, one would expect an outstanding performance from the laptop in this test.

Thankfully, that is exactly what the laptop delivers. To be more specific, on the file transfer test, the Acer Spin 1 was able to transfer 2.59 GB of combined media files at a transfer rate of 125.25 MBps.

Impressively, this laptop’s transfer rate is faster than the Dell Inspiron 11 3000‘s 94.35 MBps.

Using a benchmark test result, we will now further highlight the performance of the Acer Spin 1’s storage. To give more details, the benchmark test result of this laptop that I will be offering is from the CrystalDiskMark test.

This benchmark test measures the storage performance of a computer by calculating its read speed and write speed. Just in case you are wondering, read speed is the time it takes for a storage drive to open a file.

On the other hand, write speed is how fast it takes the storage drive to save a file. On the CrystalDiskMark benchmark test, the Acer Spin 1 recorded a read speed of 467.3 MBps and a write speed of 305.9 MBps.

Impressively, the Acer Spin 1 has a faster read and write speed compared to the Dell Inspiron 3000 3510. Specifically, the Dell Inspiron 3000 3510 has a read speed of 164 MBps and a write speed of 159.39 MBps.

In summary, the Acer Spin 1 offers limited storage space that won’t be enough for most users. To make things even worse, this laptop doesn’t come with an SD card reader for storage expansion.

However, this laptop’s SSD is quite fast compared to other SSDs on competing laptops. Therefore, I will rate the Acer Spin 1 a seven out of ten in this storage performance review section.

Acer Spin 1: Graphics Card Performance

For performing graphics-related tasks, the Acer Spin 1 comes with integrated Intel UHD Graphics. This graphics card has a base frequency of 250 MHz and a maximum frequency of 800 MHz.

Moreover, as an integrated GPU, the Acer Spin 1’s GPU lacks dedicated VRAM. Also, it is soldered directly into the laptop’s processor.

Thus, to perform graphics-related tasks, this GPU shares the systems memory with the CPU. As a result, the Acer Spin 1 won’t be able to perform graphics-demanding tasks such as high-end gaming or video editing.

However, if it is low-end games like Candy Crush, the Spin 1 with this graphics card will handle it just well.

That said, now let us discuss the performance of the Acer Spin 1 on a 3DMark test to further determine its GPU performance. Briefly, 3DMark is an application-based benchmark test that measures how well a computer can render both 2D and 3D graphics.

Moreover, on this benchmark test, the higher the score, the greater the performance. So, on this GPU benchmark test, the Acer Spin 1 scored 24,193 points.

Sadly, this laptop’s score is far below the category average of 25,000 points. However, the laptop’s score is about 5000 points more than the Dell Inspiron 11 3000‘s 19,255 points.

In conclusion, the Acer Spin 1’s GPU performance is somewhat disappointing because it comes with an integrated GPU. Therefore, I will be rating the laptop a six out of ten in this section.

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Acer Spin 1: Battery Life and Performance

For the battery, a Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery powers the Acer Spin 1. Acer advertised that this laptop will last up to 10 hours with this battery.

However, a lot of laptop manufacturers hype the battery life of their products because people want a laptop with long battery life. That is why we usually confirm the battery life of a laptop here at www.itechguides.com.

To do so, we will now discuss the results of this Acer Spin 1 on a battery rundown test. This battery test involves continuously surfing the internet using a WIFI connection while the laptop’s brightness is set to 150 nits.

Thus, according to this battery rundown test, the Acer Spin 1 has a battery life of 6 hours and 44 minutes. Comparatively, the Spin 1 has the same battery life as the Dell Inspiron 11 3000 2-in-1.

However, the battery life of the Acer Spin 1 is about an hour more than the HP Pavilion x360‘s battery life. Nevertheless, none of these laptops were able to surpass or meet the category average of 8 hours.

As a result, I believe the Acer Spin 1 deserves a seven out of ten in this battery review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

As a buyer, you will first need to understand that the Acer Spin 1 is an average-performing convertible laptop. Thus, it should be on your list only if you desire a laptop for basic computing tasks.

Also, if you are after a laptop with a convertible form-factor and a nice IPS touchscreen, then you should consider the Acer Spin 1. However, you will still have to determine if you can cope with its downsides like the poor keyboard and touchpad.

The downsides further include small storage space and a low-end GPU. Notwithstanding, the pros of this laptop are more than its cons.

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