Acer Chromebook Spin 714 review

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 714 ($729) is a prodigious, potent, productive 2-in-1 Chromebook with subtle chrome accents that give it a hint of posh curb appeal. Featuring an Evo-certified Intel Core i5 1235U processor, Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, the Spin 714 is not your garden-variety Chromebook. It’s a super portable, productivity-focused laptop meant for doers, whether they’re a student, a teacher, or remote worker.

The Spin 714 comes with a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 touchscreen display that’s bright, colorful, and responsive. The 16:10 aspect ratio display is made of antimicrobial Gorilla Glass, add in the sturdy reinforced all-aluminum chassis, and it’s no wonder the Spin 714 passed the MIL-STD-810H durability testing with flying colors.

Chromebooks are not my favorite thing, but the Spin 714 won me over. From the moment I popped it open, I was impressed with the look, feel, layout and display. So let’s jump in and take the Spin for a ride.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 pricing and configurations

The $729 Acer Chromebook Spin 714 comes with a 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA) touchscreen, a 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U CPU with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD for storage. 

There’s only one other configuration of the Spin 714, and it features an Intel Core i7-1260P CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and the same display for $1,199.99. 

The base configuration that I used for this review should be more than sufficient for most users, as the Spin 714 is easily one of the best Chromebooks available today.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 design

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 714 slate blue, aluminum build means it’s meant to be durable, and as I mentioned previously, is MIL-SPEC 810H tested. This productivity Chromebook has some nice gentle metallic flecks within its slate blue coloring, but it’s the chrome accents that give it that subtle poshness and adds a touch of muted business casual style.

When you open the cover, the 360-degree hinges offer solid resistance, feeling sturdy and taut in all positions, whether you have it upright on your desk, in tent mode to watch videos, or are using it as a tablet.

The backlit Chiclet-style keyboard above the chrome-accented touchpad feels voluminous even for my monstrous matter-mashing hands. Beneath the left front corner, you will find the stylus garage that also recharges the stylus. Above it all stands the 14-inch, 16:10 aspect ratio touchscreen display which sits the FHD 1080p webcam.

Measuring 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches and weighing 3.2 pounds, the Spin 714 is the heaviest member of our comparison group. The Asus CX 9 (12.7 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches) tied for the lightest Chromebook at 2.5 pounds, along with the super portable HP Chromebook x2 11 (9.9 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches).

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  security

The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 doesn’t offer many security features. It does, however, it does have a physical webcam shutter to thwart peeking eyes when you’re done with video calls. 

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  ports

The Spin 714 arrives with a solid assortment of ports for a Chromebook to connect your favorite peripherals.

On the right, you have a USB Type-A port, and a Thunderbolt 4.

On the left, we find a 3.5mm combo audio port,  an HDMI port, and another Thunderbolt 4.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 display

The Acer Chromebook Spin 714’s 14-inch, 16:10 aspect ratio 1080p touch display is crystal clear, vivid, and bright. I found binge-watching quite enjoyable, especially in tent mode. 

I watched the season finale of Disney’s “She-Hulk” as our 6-foot, 7-inch green-hued hero broke the fourth wall once again and had a sit down with Kevin to hash things out. The Spin 714 did an excellent job reproducing the saturated CGI imagery with excellent crispness and clarity.

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It felt good to cuddle up in the corner of my bed and watch actor Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) alter the finale's end by debating a robot deep inside Marvel's secret inner sanctum. 

I also watched five episodes of Netflix’s “Bling Empire” with all its LA-backdropped pomp, posh, preposterous super wealthy blinged out, group of pals that entertains me so much. All the gold and glitter that is “Bling Empire” was wonderfully rendered as I passed out, dreaming of becoming a member of the fabulously wealthy group of bickering buddies. Is it weird to say the Spin is a great content-viewing cuddle buddy? I don’t care cause it is. 

During our testing, the Spin 714 covered 78.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which deals with color reproduction, narrowly edging out the Asus Chromebook CX9, which scored 78.8%, followed by the HP Chromebook x2  (71%), further proving why math matters. 

Our Spin 714 averaged 358 nits of brightness during our testing, which put it just below CX9’s 360-nit average, with both bowing out to the HP x2, which averaged 435 nits of brightness. Our comparison group all surpassed the Chromebook average of 294 nits.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  audio

The Acer Chromebook Spin 714’s audio performance is solid, as it reproduces audio cleanly, clearly with hints of depth and clear mid and high tones. It is not a boom box, but the Spin will hold its own and provides more than enough audio performance to watch your favorite shows and listen to music as you work in Google Docs.  I clearly heard Doja Cat’s “Vegas” from across my studio apartment. All the vocals were crisp during  “She-Hulk” and the special effects were nicely reproduced with fine clarity. 

There wasn’t a great deal of bass to speak of, and I would suggest using a pair of headphones for a better audio experience. 

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  keyboard and touchpad 

The backlit Chiclet-style keyboard on the 14-inch Spin 714 feels much larger than it is and is a joy to type on. The keyboard is super clicky, responsive, and bouncy. I took the 10fastfingers typing test and scored 91 words per minute with an accuracy score of 96%, which is far better than my normal 85 wpm and 88% accuracy.

The 4.1 x 2.5-inch touchpad feels very spacious, responsive, and accurate while navigating websites or documents. It performed well whenever I used multitouch gestures.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 stylus

Every time I get my hands on a laptop with a touchscreen, my first thought is it better have a stylus, which the Spin happily does. The USI stylus, which is nicely hidden on the left front of the unit, easily pops out of its garage, fully charged and ready to go.

The quick charging USI Stylus (15 minutes to full charge with 240 minutes of active use) features 4,096 different levels of pressure sensitivity that feels natural while taking notes and sketching, as I found my pen strokes to be precise and accurate.

Overall, the stylus feels great, and not only was it fun to use, but it truly came in handy. 

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  performance

With an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics running the lightweight Chrome OS, the Spin’s performance is speedy with near-instant boot times. The Spin 714 faced no issue when I had 40 Google Chrome tabs opened with four 1080p videos playing on YouTube and Disney Plus playing a movie. I busied myself with documents in Google Docs without any laggy performance.

During Geekbench 5.0, a synthetic overall performance test, the Spin 714 registered 4,415, obliterating the Chromebook average of 2,666. The Asus CX 9 (Intel Core i7-1165G7U CPU 16GB of RAM, 516GB SSD) scored 4,747, leading our comparison group. The HP x2 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c CPU) came in at 1,691, which is below the average for Chromebooks. 

The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 tested well during our Jetstream 2.0 benchmark, hitting 220.84, which is above the Chromebook average of 110.78 and led our testing group by a solid margin. The Asus Chromebook CX9 landed in second place , with 171.5, followed by the HP Chromebook x 2’s 63

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 battery life

The 714’s battery life did not disappoint during our testing, which consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. The Spin714 averaged 10 hours and 45 minutes, outlasting the Chromebook average is 9:43 by an hour and two minutes. The HP x2 came in at 11:04, followed by the Asus CX9 at 11:14, which was our comparison group leader.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  heat 

Does it even have fans? That’s what I found myself asking because I never heard them, not even once. The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 remained cool throughout my usage and our testing. During our heat test, which consists of running a fullscreen HD video for 15 minutes, the touchpad measured 78 degrees Fahrenheit, while the space between the G and H keys measured 83 degrees. The laptop’s bottom reached 86 degrees, which is below the 95-degree comfort threshold.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714  webcam

Acer got the webcam right on the Spin 714, using an FHD 1080p shooter that delivered truly solid results. The Spin’s webcam produced clear images in proper lighting conditions when using the native camera app. Images looked great on Google Meet or Zoom during the meetings I had that day.

However, if you want the very best image quality, consider buying one of the shooters on our best external webcams.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714 software and warranty

Chrome OS continues to make some serious gains in use and popularity and is moving further into the business world with enterprise support. Chrome OS, along with the Google Suite, are quite adept in our new working environments and remain a staple in the education market. However, I am not a fan of Chrome OS as it lacks a lot of the powerful tools I require as a content creator and media editor. 

Although if you’re in need of a new laptop and on a fixed budget, Chrome OS is a solid option for remote workers, students, or light productivity users. There are now more developers than ever before doing their level best to stretch the potency of Chrome by creating useful apps for both work and play that are readily available on the Google Play Store. 

The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 comes with a 1-year warranty. You can see how Acer fared on our annual special reports: Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands.

Bottom line

The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 challenges my natural distrust for any Chromebook that costs over $500, mostly thanks to its excellent display, speedy potent performance, and business casual styling. I find myself enamored with the Spin, and happily using it to quickly push documents and binge-watch video content. The stylus was handy, worked wonderfully, and allowed me to quickly take handwritten notes and sketch during my downtime. 

The Spin 714, is an excellent choice for remote workers, teachers, and students on a budget who want a Chromebook with enough oomph to easily handle consistently having over 40 tabs open while working.