Acer Spin 7 Review: Expensive but Effective!

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Acer Spin 7: At First Glance

Acer is one of the most popular laptop brands in the world today. They are known for manufacturing regular-type laptops or convertible laptops.

To add to its collection of convertible laptops, Acer released the Acer Spin 7 in 2021. The Acer Spin 7 is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop with a decent design, impressive performance, and a slim and portable build.

However, this laptop is a bit too expensive. To give more details, in January 2022, when I published this review, the Acer Spin 7 had a starting price of $1,599.99.

Does the Acer Spin 7 have enough features to make potential buyers overlook its expensive price tag? The only way to find out is to read on!

Acer Spin 7: Design, Dimensions, and Weight

As far as laptop design goes, the Acer Spin 7 features a very sleek design. Specifically, this laptop comes with an aluminum chassis.

Furthermore, the aluminum body of this laptop has a smooth black finish that gives it a premium look and feels. Also, this laptop comes with curve edges that might make you mistake it for an Apple MacBook.

That said, the lid of the Acer Spin 7 is just as sleek as its entire body. To give more details, the lid features a grey “Acer” logo at the center.

This logo adds to the already-appealing look of the laptop. However, the lid of the laptop flexes even when pushed a bit.

The reason behind this is that the laptop features weak hinges. This is a very huge flaw or drawback, considering the fact that the Acer Spin 7 is a convertible laptop.

Basically, since the hinges of convertible laptops are meant to be rotated 360 degrees, the Acer Spin 7’s hinges might get faulty quickly. On a positive note, the hinges of the Acer Spin 7 have a smooth silver finish and are really pleasing to look at.

Moving on, upon opening this laptop’s lid, you will be greeted by a 14-inch touchscreen display, as expected from a convertible laptop. This display features an FHD (1920 x 1080) screen resolution.

With this screen resolution, the Acer Spin 7’s display should be able to deliver colorful content and decent picture quality. However, the picture quality of this display won’t be exceptional or comparable to a display with a 4K resolution.

Notwithstanding, this laptop’s display is really bright. To be more specific, this 14-inch display has a maximum brightness of 347 nits.

Therefore, users will be able to use the Acer Spin 7 in a well-lit or sunny environment. Asides from its impressive maximum brightness, the Acer Spin 7’s display is surrounded by somewhat slim bezels.

At the center of the top bezel, you will find an HD webcam. This webcam isn’t particularly great for taking pictures, but it is ideal for casual video calls.

Moving on, as a convertible laptop, you will be able to use the Acer Spin 7 in four modes. These modes include laptop mode, which is the conventional mode for laptops.

The other modes include tablet mode, which basically means rotating the laptop’s screen to a full 360 degrees. That’s not all; you can also use the laptop in stand mode and tent mode.

Stand mode is when you place the keyboard upside-down on a desk while the screen of the laptop is facing you. Tent mode, on the other hand, is basically an upside-down “V”.

That said, the keyboard is one of the major highlights of the Acer Spin 7. To be more specific, the Acer Spin 7 features an island-style keyboard that is very comfortable to type on.

Moreover, this keyboard features soft keys that make minimal noise when typing.

Below this keyboard, you will see a huge touchpad with a glass surface. Performance-wise, this touchpad is very responsive, smooth, and lag-free.

Therefore, you shouldn’t have any issues with it. Also, the touchpad features two integrated click-button that works as they should.

Moving on to the port, unfortunately, the Acer Spin 7 comes with a very small number of ports. To be more specific, this laptop features only two USB Type-C ports on the right side.

One of these USB Type-C ports is for charging the laptop. Therefore, when charging the laptop, you only have one USB Type-C port at your disposal.

The left side of the laptop, however, features a headphone jack, a DisplayPort, and a power button. With this minimal amount of ports, it is best you purchase a Docking station with the Acer Spin 7 to get decent connectivity options.

Moreover, I believe the major reason why the Acer Spin 7 features such a small amount of ports is due to its slim build. Specifically, this laptop measures 325.1 x 228.6 x 16 mm (W x D x H) and weighs only 1401.6 g.

With this dimension and weight, the Acer Spin 7 is definitely one of the slimmest and lightest laptops ever. In fact, this laptop is lighter and slimmer than popular portable and lightweight laptops like the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro.

To give more details, this Apple MacBook Pro measures 358.9 x 247.1 x 18 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 2040 g.  

In conclusion, the Acer Spin 7 features a pretty sleek design that matches its price tag. However, due to its lightweight and compact size, this laptop features a really disappointing amount of ports.

Therefore, I will be rating the Acer Spin 7 an eight out of ten in this design review section.

Acer Spin 7: Processor (CPU) Performance

For the processor, the Acer Spin 7 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx gen 2 5g processor. This processor is an 8-core processor with a base frequency of 3.10 GHz.

In addition to its base frequency, this processor also comes with a cache memory of 2 MB.

In terms of performance, this processor is similar to the Intel Core i5-8250U processor. Therefore, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx gen 2 5g processor, the Acer Spin 7 should be able to handle any task you throw at it.

Basically, you should be able to multitask and run powerful apps like Corel Draw on the Acer Spin 7 with ease. Also, with this Qualcomm processor, the Spin 7 will stay cool even under intense workloads.

To further verify the performance of the Acer Spin 7 with this processor, I will now share the laptop’s result on a Geekbench 4.1 test. Briefly, the Geekbench test is an app-based benchmark test that measures the overall processing performance of a computer.

Furthermore, on this app-based benchmark test, a high score/points indicate better performance. So, based on the result from the Geekbench 4.1 test, the Acer Spin 7 recorded a score of 2355 points.

This score is actually impressive and high if I may add. In fact, the laptop’s score beats the category average of 1700 points.

However, when compared to the HP Envy 13t which uses an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, the Acer Spin 7 fell short. To be more specific, on the Geekbench 4.1 benchmark test, the HP Envy 13t scored 3100 points.

In conclusion, although the Acer Spin 7 performed less than one of its competitors on a CPU benchmark test, it is still adequate to handle intensive computing tasks. Hence, I will rate the laptop an eight out of ten in this review section.

Acer Spin 7: Memory (RAM) Performance

Despite its $1500+ price tag, you will be disappointed to find out that the Acer Spin 7 features just a single RAM slot. To make matters even worse, this laptop comes with a standard memory of 8 GB, which is also the maximum RAM capacity it supports.

Thus, the upgradability of memory is impossible on the Acer Spin 7. To be honest, 8 GB RAM alongside its Snapdragon CPU is enough for this laptop to carry out most computing tasks.

In fact, with this amount of RAM, this laptop will be able to multitask easily. To give more details, the Acer Spin 7 should be able to run about 20 Chrome tabs simultaneously without lagging.

Also, this laptop will be able to juggle between the Chrome tabs while working on other apps like Microsoft Word without slowing down. However, what is disappointing about this laptop’s single RAM slot and max size of 8 GB RAM is that less expensive laptops offer more.

To give more details, laptops like the Dell Inspiron 13 5000 2-in-1, which costs a little over $700, offer two RAM slots. Also, this laptop supports a maximum RAM capacity of 16 GB.

With all that being said, now let us discuss how the Acer Spin 7 fared up on a PCMark 10 test with its 8 GB RAM. For clarity, PCMark 10 is a benchmark test for measuring the performance of a computer while handling office-related tasks.

Also, this benchmark test measures how well a computer can multitask. Moreover, a high score on this benchmark test represents a great performance.

So, based on the PCMark 10 test results, the Acer Spin 7 scored 4012 points. Sadly, when compared to the HP Envy 13t again, this laptop falls slightly short.

Specifically, the HP Envy 13t recorded a score of 4134 points on the PCMark 10 benchmark test.

In conclusion, despite its expensive price, the Acer Spin 7 offers just a single RAM slot and a limited maximum memory capacity. Also, even though the laptop’s 8 GB RAM is enough for multitasking, on a benchmark test, the laptop still falls short compared to one of its competitors.

All things considered, I will rate the Acer Spin 7 a seven out of ten in this memory review section.

Acer Spin 7: Storage Options and Performance

For storage, the Acer Spin 7 is equipped with an SSD storage type. Moreover, this laptop supports a maximum storage capacity of 512 GB SSD.

With all honesty, I strongly believe that 512 GB of storage space will suffice for most users to save their important files. However, for storage-hungry users, it is the exact opposite.

Sadly, this laptop lacks an SD card reader for storage expansion. Therefore, if you are a storage-hungry user, it is recommended that you purchase an external hard drive.

That said, to measure the performance of the Acer Spin 7’s SSD storage, I will now discuss the laptop’s result on a file transfer test. SSDs are one of the fastest, if not the fastest, storage drives out there.

Therefore, one would expect the Acer Spin 7 to perform flawlessly on the file transfer test. Regrettably, this laptop disappoints as it disgraces SSDs in general and falls short of most of its competitors.

Specifically, on the file transfer test, the Acer Spin 7 transferred 4.97 GB of multimedia files at a transfer rate of 124.1 megabytes per second. This transfer rate is way below the category average of 176.9 MBps.

Besides, competing laptops had way better transfer rates than the Acer Spin 7. One of these laptops includes the HP Spectre x360, which delivered a transfer rate of 318.1 MBps on the file transfer test.

Moreover, the Apple MacBook Pro had the fastest transfer rate on the test, delivering a transfer rate of 508.9 MBps.

Sadly, the Acer Spin 7’s poor storage performance doesn’t end here, as it also falls short of competing laptops on a CrystalDiskMark test. In case you are wondering, CystalDiskMark is a benchmark test that calculates the read speed and writes speed of a computer’s storage drive.

Read speed simply means how long or how fast it takes a device to open a file. Write speed, however, is the opposite, meaning how long it takes for the device to save a file.

So, on the CrystalDiskMark test, the Acer Spin 7 recorded a sequential read and write speed of 472.6 MB/s and 407.7 MB/s, respectively. Comparatively, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 4 has a faster sequential read and write speed than the Acer Spin 7.

Specifically, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 4 recorded a sequential read speed of 1510 MB/s on the CystalDiskMark test. Also, this laptop recorded a sequential write speed of 1193 MB/s.

In conclusion, the Acer Spin 7 offers sufficient SSD storage space but lacks an SD card reader for storage expansion. Besides, this laptop falls shorts of most of its competitors on multiple storage performance tests.

Therefore, to end this storage review section, I will rate the Acer Spin 7 a seven out of ten.

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Acer Spin 7: Graphics Card Performance

For the graphics card, the Acer Spin 7 makes use of the Adreno 685 GPU. This graphics card is an integrated GPU usually embedded into Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.

Furthermore, as an integrated GPU, the Adreno 685 lacks a dedicated VRAM. What this means is that the GPU won’t be able to carry out graphics-demanding tasks like high-end gaming or video editing.

Notwithstanding, this graphics card is enough for streaming movies. Also, with this GPU, the Acer Spin 7 should be able to run a few outdated games smoothly at low graphics settings.

For instance, this laptop will be able to deliver around 50 fps while playing Tomb Raider (2013) at low graphics settings. For clarity, fps means frame per second.

That said, now let us look at the performance of the Acer Spin 7 on a 3DMark test. 3DMark is an application-based benchmark test for measuring how well a computer can render 2D and 3D graphics.

Moreover, on this type of benchmark test, the higher the score, the greater the performance. So, on this GPU benchmark test, the Acer Spin 7 scored 1968 points.

This score isn’t particularly great, but it also isn’t bad – it is more like an average score. However, when compared to the HP Envy 13t, which uses an Intel Iris Xe graphics card, the Acer Spin 7 falls short.

To be more specific, the HP Envy 13t achieved a whopping 3,709 points on the 3DMark test.

According to the facts above, I believe the Acer Spin 7 doesn’t deserve a rating of more than seven out of ten.

Acer Spin 7: Battery Life and Performance

For the battery, a 4-cell Lithium Polymer (Li-Polymer) battery powers the Acer Spin 7. Acer never mentioned how long this laptop would last with this battery.

Besides, even though Acer did mention it, it might not be accurate. So, what’s the use?

Well, to figure out the battery life of the Acer Spin 7, I will now discuss the laptop’s result on a battery test. This battery test is all about browsing the web continuously via a WIFI connection till the laptop runs low.

So, on the battery test, the Acer Spin 7 lasted 6 hours and 53 minutes. This laptop’s battery life is decent but not enough to compete with other laptops in its class.

To give more details, the 15-inch Apple MacBook Pro lasted 9 hours and 50 minutes on the same battery test. Not only that, the HP Spectre x360 lasted 10 hours and 6 minutes also on the battery test.

All in all, I will rate the Acer Spin 7 a seven out of ten in this battery review section.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

In my opinion, for a $1500+ laptop, the Acer Spin 7 delivers adequate but not exceptional performance. Basically, there are some major areas where I believe that this laptop should have done better.

For instance, the Acer Spin 7 comes with just a single RAM slot, whereas laptops that have lesser price tags come with two or more RAM slots. Also, the laptop’s SSD is slow compared to SSDs in other laptops.

However, all these that I mentioned above don’t mean that the Acer Spin 7 is entirely bad. To give more details, this laptop has a sleek design, slim build, and impressive processor performance.

Therefore, if you feel you can cope with its flaw, the Acer Spin 7 is worth considering!

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