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Acer Chromebook Spin 713 Review : Great For Students!

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Parents are looking for great but affordable laptops for their kids, and the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 may just hit the sweet spot!

Take a look at my review of this MIL-STD-rated convertible laptop, and find out why it’s great for students!

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Fast + Tough

The 2021 Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W) is the world’s first Intel Evo platform-verified Chromebook, guaranteeing snappy performance out-of-the-box.

As an Intel Evo-verified laptop, it comes with an 11th Gen Intel Core processor with Intel Iris Xe Graphics, built-in Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, and is designed to wake up in less than a second!

Even though it is a convertible laptop, it is MIL-STD-810H rated for drops of up to 122 cm, and MIL-STD-810F rated against ingress of sand and dust!

So you now have a basic idea of why we think it’s great for students!

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Price + Availability

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is available in Malaysia with a retail price of RM3,799.

Here are some online purchase options in Malaysia :

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Specifications

Let’s start with the specifications of this review unit :

Specifications Acer Chromebook Spin 713
Model CP713-3W-503Z
Display 13.5-inch VertiView IPS touchscreen display
2256 x 1504 pixels, 220 ppi
Durability Corning Gorilla Glass
MIL-STD 810H
Operating System Google Chrome OS 94.0
Processor Intel Core i5-1135G7
Graphics Intel Iris Xe Graphics
Memory 8 GB LPDDR4X
Storage 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Camera 720p HD webcam
Connectivity Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX201
Bluetooth® 5.1
microSD Reader Yes
Ports 2 x USB Type C ports
1 x USB Type A port
1 x HDMI port
1 x 3.5 mm audio port
Sensors Accelerometer (G-sensor), Gyroscope
Audio Smart Amplifier with DTS
Stereo speakers
Battery 56 Whr Li-Ion battery
Up to 10 hours of battery life
Supports quick-charging
Dimensions 300.6 mm wide
235 mm deep
16.9 mm thick
Weight 1.37 kg

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Unboxing

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes in a brown cardboard box, with two labels on the side to confirm the model and specifications of the unit inside.

Please make sure the security seal is unbroken when you receive the box. Once you remove everything, this is what you will find inside :

  • one Acer Chromebook Spin 713 laptop
  • one 45 watt power adaptor with USB Type C cable
  • one localised power cord
  • one set of Setup Guide + Warranty booklet

Next Page > Chromebook Spin 713 Key Features

 

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Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Hands-On Experience!

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is a convertible laptop, with a 13.5-inch display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels.

The display can flip completely around, letting you use it in the laptop mode, tent mode or the tablet mode – very useful for presentations and collaboration in school.

As this is a Chromebook, it runs on Google Chrome OS, but otherwise, appears and works like any other laptop.

It is quite thin at just under 17 mm at its thickest point, and weighs only 1.37 kg. It will have no problem fitting into schoolbags.

13.5-inch Touchscreen Display

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 13.5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels – much higher than most Chromebook laptops.

This is a touchscreen display, which is the main input method in tent and tablet modes. Even so, you will find it very useful in the laptop mode as well.

You will be glad to know that the display is protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass, so it is resistant to scratches.

720p Webcam

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 720p webcam at the top of its display, with two microphones to pick up your voice.

It would be be nice if Acer included a 1080p webcam, but hey, even the Dell XPS 13 (9300) came with a 720p webcam!

Available Ports

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a range of useful ports. On the left side, you will find :

  • two of the latest USB Type C / Thunderbolt 4 ports!
  • a full-size HDMI port
  • a 3.5 mm audio port

On the right side, you will find a physical Volume control button, with a microSD card reader, a USB 3.0 Type A port and the Power button.

Speakers

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 has two downward-firing speakers on the underside (in laptop mode).

They are pretty loud and bright, and seem optimised for voice – which may appear to be what they are targeting.

But they will sound hollow and lack dynamism and bass, so music and movies are less enjoyable.

Keyboard + Touchpad

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a full-size keyboard, with a large touchpad.

The keys are backlit, which is fantastic in low-light conditions, and have decent key travel.

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Next Page > Performance, Verdict + Award!

 

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Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Performance

Our Acer Chromebook Spin 713 laptop was powered by the Intel Core i5-1135G7, which is a 4-core, 8-thread processor that runs at up to 4.2 GHz.

It comes with integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and is paired with 8 GB of RAM and 256 of PCIe NVMe SSD storage.

Battery Life

The Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 3-cell 56 Whr lithium-ion battery, that Acer says all last up to 10 hours.

To test its battery life, we set its display to 50% and ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test, until its battery capacity dropped to 20%, repeating several times.

Unfortunately, we could not get 10 hours – the best we could do was just under 7.5 hours. But please note that this is a stress test that involves non-stop running work applications.

In real life, you will likely see longer usage times. And it is certainly more than long enough for a full day at school!

Battery Recharging Speed

The Chromebook Spin 713 comes with a 45 watt fast charger, that Acer says will give you 4 hours of battery life in just under 30 minutes.

Look at that! It only took 1 hour 31.5 minutes to fully recharge the Chromebook Spin 713 from 20% to 100%!

That gives it a battery life : recharging ratio of almost 5:1. A general rule of thumb – for one hour of battery life, you will need to charge it for 12 minutes.

Work Performance : PCMark Work 3.0

As this laptop runs on Chrome OS, we can only compare it to mobile SoCs.

Its PCMark Work 3.0 score puts it firmly in between the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ and the Samsung Exynos 990.

In other words – this laptop is as fast as flagship mobile devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ and Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

Gaming Performance : 3DMark

As the Chromebook Spin 713 runs on Chrome OS, you can Android apps on it. Yes, that includes games that your kids are already playing on your Android phone. 😉

Its graphics performance is really good, coming in more than TWICE AS FAST as Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ and the Samsung Exynos 990.

In other words, you won’t have to worry about running any mobile games on this laptop. It will have no problem handling them.

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Verdict + Award

People often think of Chromebook laptops as cheap throwaway devices that you only resort to when you have “no other choice”.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 puts paid to that perception, offering a sleek convertible design with high-end features like :

  • Intel Evo and MIL-STD-810 certifications
  • 2K touch display with Gorilla Glass protection
  • Powerful Intel Core i5 processor with Intel Xe Graphics
  • Two USB Type C / Thunderbolt 4 ports

What you get is a truly versatile laptop with snappy work and gaming performance, with an excellent high-resolution display.

If you are a parent looking for a good and sturdy laptop that your child will have a hard time breaking, you really can’t go wrong with the Acer Chromebook Spin 713.

That’s why we have no qualms giving it our Reviewer’s Choice Award! Great job, Acer!

 

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 : Where To Buy?

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is available in Malaysia with a retail price of RM3,799.

Here are some online purchase options in Malaysia :

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Free GIGABYTE Thunderbolt 3 Upgrade

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Taipei, 25 August 2016 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards is proud to announce today, a new collection of GIGABYTE Motherboards that have been certified for Intel’s Thunderbolt 3 technology. GIGABYTE is the leader in developing this technology as many devices in the market were created using GIGABYTE Motherboards as the golden sample.

Shortly after its release of the new designare and ultra gaming motherboards GIGABYTE is announcing that many of these newly released boards have Thunderbolt 3 technology available to the users. Updating the BIOS and a simple software upgrade is all that is required of users to enable this feature. With a 40 Gb/s bandwidth, along with its ability to transmit data, video, audio, and power all in one cable, Thunderbolt technology is highly sought after for its rapid transfer speeds and ability to simplify cables around the computer. Users are able to daisy-chain up to six devices per port with an additional monitor at the end.

 

Thunderbolt 3

Thunderbolt 3 utilizes a Type-C connector, this reversible connector is also capable of supporting the USB 3.1 protocol for future devices.

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In addition, GIGABYTE is also officially debuting the world’s first front panel Thunderbolt 3 drive bay. This bay can be installed in a 5.25” expansion slot and has support for Power Delivery 2.0, up to 100 watts. Users will also get the benefit of having USB 3.1 support in both Type-A as well as Type-C connections.

Lastly, for users whose motherboards do not support Thunderbolt 3 natively, GIGABYTE is also releasing an add-on card, the GC-ALPINE RIDGE. This card is compatible with many GIGABYTE motherboards that have an onboard thunderbolt connector enabling the board to support thunderbolt functionality.

All of these features and products will be available to the public by the beginning of September 2016, for more information on how to get your motherboard Thunderbolt™ enabled please check on the GIGABYTE website.

 

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QNAP Unveils New Thunderbolt 2 NAS @ CeBIT 2016

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Taipei, Taiwan, March 14, 2016 – At the opening of CeBIT 2016, QNAP Systems, Inc. (at Stand B75, Hall 12) unleashed full-throttle network-attached storage innovations, including the new Thunderbolt 2 NAS, versatile & compact M.2 SSD NASbook, the powerful Enterprise ZFS NAS with dual active controllers, and multiple game-changing features including network-defined Virtual JBOD, QPulse unified remote server management, Linux Station, Hybrid Backup Sync, and more. QNAP also teamed up with Seagate and WD at CeBIT 2016 to showcase joint solutions of QNAP NAS with a wide range of HDDs.

 

Next-generation TVS-x82T Thunderbolt 2 NAS

The new TVS-x82T Thunderbolt 2 NAS is powered by the latest Intel 6th generation Core processor and features an enhanced hardware design that remarkably improves computing power and system performance. The TVS-x82T series not only features Thunderbolt 2 technology but also has dual 10GbE ports giving greater flexibility to deliver incredible performance. Additional advanced hardware includes built-in SATA M.2 SSD, dedicated 2.5” SSD trays, compartmentalized smart cooling, tool-less hard drive trays, three HDMI ports (including one HDMI 2.0), and more.

“The TVS-x82T’s hardware is extraordinary and fully realizes tiered storage and rerouted networks for various applications with greater efficiency,” said David Tsao, Product Manager of QNAP. “It’s more powerful, multi-functional and reliable, providing a complete business-ready storage solution to build a reliable private cloud.”

Besides offering DAS/NAS/iSCSI SAN triple solution, the TVS-x82T series is capable of playing 4K, 60fps videos, and is a perfect match for Thunderbolt-equipped Mac users for 4K workflows, file storage and high-speed sharing.

 

The compact TBS-453A M.2 SSD NASbook

Powered by an Intel Celeron N3150 quad-core processor and up to 8GB RAM, the TBS-453A provides full-fledged NAS functions with RAID protection, but also can act as a switch and share network access with multiple clients. It supports up to four M.2 SSDs, features dual HDMI output and 4K H.264 video display & transcoding abilities, and supports HDMI-enabled desktop OS such as Ubuntu. The revolutionary compact chassis of the NASbook provides effortless portability allowing users to take it wherever they go.

 

Enterprise ZFS NAS with active-active dual controllers

QNAP’s supercharged ZFS-enabled ES1640dc with its dual-controllers is targeted for mission-critical business applications that demand high reliability and high availability. With Intel® Xeon® E5 processors, dual active controllers, ZFS, HPE Helion compatibility and fully supporting virtualization environments, the ES1640dc delivers “real business-class” cloud computing data storage.

The ES1640dc features the brand-new QES operating system that allows almost limitless snapshots, block-level data deduplication, and thin provisioning with reclaim, assisting businesses in building the most cost-efficient VDI platform and storage for critical data.

 

Virtual JBOD for maximizing sharing economy

In addition to using physical JBOD, storage of a QNAP NAS can be expanded with multiple NAS devices by using the VJBOD (Virtual JBOD) method. VJBOD allows users to mount iSCSI LUNs from up to eight NAS units to a host NAS as virtual disks, and they can further create virtual Storage Pools and use them as local disks for shares, applications, and even creating another LUN. “VJBOD introduces an economical way to utilize unused NAS storage,” said Ripple Wu, Product Manager of QNAP. “It provides users with an additional flexible storage expansion solution, and makes ‘Software-defined storage’ accessible to businesses to maximize utilization of available storage for demanding needs on file storage, backup, and more.”

 

QPulse: Centralized Remote Server Management Solution

QPulse is QNAP’s Centralized Remote Server Management solution designed for IT teams in every industry which relies heavily on computing devices such as servers, PCs, embedded PCs, and thin clients. It provides a single-point solution to discover, map, monitor and manage all of the critical computing devices on the network. QPulse provides customizable dashboards to simplify server management, increases visibility for the health status of mission-critical servers, maps discovered devices in a graphic topology diagram, and provides a remote KVM solution (supported for IPMI devices from Supermicro and IEI Technology Corp.) for IPMI and KVM recording/playback. Non-IPMI compatible devices are also supported.

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Q’center: centrally monitor and manage multiple QNAP NAS

Compared to QPulse, Q’center is a light-weight solution that allows home or business users to monitor and manage one or multiple QNAP NAS from a host NAS, server, or even a laptop with the Q’center app or virtual appliance. It becomes convenient to centrally analyze storage space usage, monitor hardware and disk health, customize system settings and firmware, and deploy apps to one or more NAS units.

 

Linux Station for accessing the open-source Linux platform

Linux Station provides QTS users with a convenient platform to install the Ubuntu OS and services, and turns a QNAP NAS as a gateway for IoT solutions to other smart devices. The Ubuntu desktop can be output on an HDMI display connected to the QNAP NAS, allowing users to access the popular open-source Linux platform to freely install and develop more apps. As a private cloud combining storage and IoT applications, QNAP NAS with Linux Station fosters a complete IoT experience for unlimited potential.

 

Hybrid Backup Sync simplifies multifunctional backup and recovery plans

To enhance the efficiency of data backup, file synchronization and disaster recovery, QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync consolidates backup, restoration and synchronization into a single app for easily transferring data to local, remote and cloud storage as a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery solution. Users can experience an easier way to arrange backup tasks, and enjoy efficient management with multi-version backup, flexible job scheduling, smart data reduction, and more features.

 

New Thunderbolt 2NAS Availability

The availability of TVS-x82T series, TBS-453A, ES1640dc, VJBOD, QPulse and Hybrid Backup Sync will be announced separately.

 

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