My first impression of the Acer Chromebook Spin was how incredibly light and thin it is. It has a nice sleek finish and seems like it would weather being carried around well. Despite its light weight, it feels solid and durable and has lots of clever little rubber feet to keep it in place at different angles.
The battery life is excellent (it states up to 15 hours, and this seems accurate) and it starts up instantly. Charging to full is also speedy and the charging cable is long enough to be able to use while on charge.
Things load up quickly and despite having used Macs for a long time, I found it very simple to figure out where everything was and the layout of apps, icons, etc. is very clear and easy to use.
Being able to rotate the screen all the way means that there are multiple options to have the laptop propped up to use it as a tablet. This is by far my favourite functionality, as it makes the laptop so usable for a variety of purposes and on a variety of surfaces. The hinges also feel very solid and smooth, so I’m not worried about wiggling it around to find the best angle. The keys on the keyboard seem to lock when the laptop is flipped over, so that you can use the keyboard as a base without accidentally pressing anything. One of my major concerns about the flip function was that I'd forever be fighting with pressing things by accident, but they have thought of that.
The keyboard itself is very satisfying to type on for a laptop keyboard, with their “greater travel keyboard distance” - this really does make a difference when typing quickly. The trackpad is also very responsive and easy to use.
The sound is surprisingly good for such a small laptop - it’s very loud, more than enough to use to watch videos while wandering around. As with all laptops, the sound isn’t the best for listening to music. But, overall, for the size and cost of the laptop, the sound is much better than I imagined.
The Acer Chromebook Spin is a great solution for someone who wants a tablet, but also wants some traditional laptop functionality, such as being able to use a mouse and keyboard, as well as the USB input, so you can attach an external hard drive or use it to charge other devices. There’s also a proper headphone jack, which was a nice surprise.
Due to its light weight, excellent battery life and flexible positioning, this will be absolutely perfect for travelling. However, it's not going to replace a traditional computer or laptop and I'll be using it primarily as a tablet with some bonus features, rather than a paired back laptop. This is now my go to for browsing the Internet on the sofa, watching videos while I cook and playing touch screen games.
Overall, for the price and size, this is an incredible piece of kit that I've already got a lot of use from.