Acer Spin 5 Review: A 14-in Convertible with Character

Acer Spin 5 Review

Everything about the Acer Spin 5’s hardware just feels right for people who lean toward mobile work. The .67 by 12.3 by 8.6-inch laptop weighs in at a svelte (for a laptop) 2.87 lbs. The well-sculptured exterior houses a 2,560-by-1,600-pixel IPS (WAXGA) touchscreen, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB NVMe solid-state drive. An Intel Core i7-1260P with four performance cores, eight efficient cores, and 16 threads powers the computing experience. All solid specs.

Acer pre-installs Windows 11 Home along with some unfortunate bloatware, but overall the Spin 5 is a worthy competitor in the convertible class or straight-up against similarly priced traditional laptops.

What we like

I love and hate convertible laptops. I make no secret that I love my iPad Pro and use it more than I do my iPhone or any other device. I find convertible laptops aspire to too many ambitions to make the tablet experience anything more than a novelty. Still, for those who require the occasional novelty of marking up a PDF on their laptop or taking notes in a meeting, the Acer Spin 5 will adequately capture notes and scribbles, redlines and signatures—and when it isn’t in tablet mode, it’s a pretty great notebook computer with the stylus stowed.

The Acer Spin 5 feels snappy and responsive. Looking over several benchmarks reinforces that it holds its own against equivalent Intel-based laptops.

It’s pretty clear that one-upping Apple’s MacBook Air was a goal of Acer’s design team. And by one-upping, I mean including all the bells and whistles that Apple never includes, like touch screens, pens, and a 360-degree design.

The thin 5.25mm bezels and WAXGA display offer a great viewing experience in the 14-inch laptop, which matches that of Apple’s M1 MacBook Air. Competing laptops often fall shy of Apple’s specs. While the M1 chip will outpace the i7-1260P, the other specifications, including memory and storage, will drive an equivalent MacBook Air to about $1,600. Other PCs may be less expensive, but with an eye on the MacBook Air, Acer offers a compelling competitor. 

The 14-inch Spin 5, however, does not reach the perfection and performance of Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro’s 3024×1964 HDR display with its high refresh rates. But Acer offers a beautiful display with deep, saturated colors, solid blacks and brilliant whites.

The Spin 5 supports the latest Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth® 5. More importantly, compared to the MacBook Air, it sports a complete set of ports, including two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, 1 USB 3.2 Type-A, a MicroSD slot and an audio jack, along with a security slot for locking mechanisms.

The 1080 Full-HD camera was designed to capture clear images in low light, informed by Acer’s TNR (Temporal Noise Reduction) technology, and it does that well. After several years of subpar laptop video, the latest devices deliver the quality video so desperately called for during the core of the pandemic. AI noise-reduction technology known as Acer PurifiedVoice™ combines with DTS to offer great sound during calls.

As a content creator, I like the keyboard in general. Some might not like the small function keys, but they don’t bother me. Function keys tend to be hunt-and-peck, not part of a mental map. I also don’t mind the boxy arrow keys that abandon the inverted “T” for a box with the up and down keys smaller and tucked between larger left-and-right arrows. Traditionalists will also miss the outside row of the page up and down keys, home and delete that hide as alternatives to the arrow keys.

The trackpad, while not overly large, works well, though it can be a bit overly sensitive. Mostly, it stays out of the way until called upon.

Content creators are also content reviewers, which means the included 4,096 pressure-level AES 2.0 stylus and touch features offer an easy way to markup content, particularly PDFs. Those who want to draw can also do so with included OneNote or other note-capture or art software. The pen supports up to 55° tilt and faster response than the earlier AES 1.0 stylus.

The unit does kick on the fan to keep the CPU cool. It is pretty quiet, though the fan is noticeable when engaged. Dual fans keep things cool using Vortex Flow and Dual D6 copper pipes to dissipate and distribute the heat.

I also like that the Acer Spin 5 is just the Acer Spin 5, not some long, convoluted name with model numbers and descriptors that make SEO a nightmare.

What could be improved

Acer’s bloatware isn’t near the levels found in old PC purchases that often started the new owner lifecycle with the need for a clean OS install ahead of enjoying or employing the purchase. I don’t mind utilities and business software trials that last for a few months or a year (I’ll return to that). There is no need for Forge of Empires on the Spin 5, nor Evernote or Booking.com—or, for that matter, Disney+. 

Apps are easy enough to download, and Microsoft even restores previously installed apps from old machines as part of a set-up. Save a security utility or proprietary update app, a copy of Microsoft 365 ready for activation—but there is no excuse for bloatware, of course, save the fees likely provided to load up the disk image. Bloatware is a business choice and I find it a poor one when attached to such sleek hardware.

One of the more annoying choices comes from Norton, which on the review unit included an Ultra implementation signed in by the review team. Unfortunately, the subscription isn’t Ultra enough as scans kept revealing issues that required an upgrade to repair. If a laptop comes with a year of security software, offer the full experience, not a neutered one.

Security features prove less than ideal, with no IR support on the camera for Microsoft Hello, which also lacks a privacy shutter. The fingerprint reader does support Hello, but it is smaller and seemingly less accurate than fingerprint sensors on other devices. I have two fingers encoded, and it often has a difficult time recognizing either, quickly switching to a pin for login over biometrics.

I would also like to see Acer step-up audio on the Spin 5. After great sound from devices like the MacBook 14 and Lenovo X1 Extreme, it’s disappointing to hear muddy audio with meager volume. Though the laptop claims DTS, neither the technology nor the presets improve the audio experience.

Acer’s laptop does not offer a plastic-free experience. The plastic-wrapped 360-degree hinges need to be reconsidered. They were unnecessarily wrapped in a plastic protective sheet that I’m sure arrived with the component and was just left on during manufacturing. The plastic keeps the part clean and protects it during manufacturing. Still, it then becomes annoying to remove after delivery—if the point was to keep the hinge looking nice, that fails as the plastic gets picked at until the owner realizes it can be completely removed, with some tugging and pulling.

The Acer Spin 5 feels more business to me than consumer, so I’d like to see it with Windows 11 Pro rather than Home pre-installed.

Acer Spin 5: The Bottom Line

The Acer Spin 5 offers a highly versatile computing experience. Its basic features match those of general clamshell designs in its price range, while its other features elevate it above its competition. I’m not overly fond of convertibles, as several features usually fail to meet expectations. The Spin 5, however, performs well as a laptop, and it is light enough to double as an occasional tablet, even though the onboard stylus is too small for serious stylus input.

Acer provided the Acer Spin 5 for review. Images courtesy of Acer.

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