The Acer Chromebook 14 is one cool customer. After the laptop streamed 15 minutes of full-screen, HD video, our heat gun registered comfortable temperatures on its touchpad (74.5 degrees Fahrenheit), keyboard (78.5 degrees) and underside (80 degrees). All were less than our 95-degree comfort threshold. According to our colorimeter, the Acer Chromebook 14's display can produce only 62 percent of the sRGB spectrum. That's lower than the HP Chromebook 14 (65 percent), Dell Chromebook 13 (96 percent), Toshiba Chromebook 2 CB35 (110 percent) and the average thin-and-light notebook (82 percent). Some Chromebook displays are touch compatible, which makes sense as the OS is basically a spin-off of Android. Unfortunately you don’t get any touch support here, so it’s just as well that the touchpad is decent. With the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 you get a well-designed convertible Chromebook with a Core i3 CPU and 8GB of RAM, giving you ample performance for everyday office work, browsing or study, not to mention Android and Linux apps. The mostly aluminium build gives it a light but premium feel and, at just 1.37kg, it won’t weigh you down.

Acer Chromebook 314 - Expert Reviews Acer Chromebook 314 - Expert Reviews

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 is now getting a little long in the tooth, but it’s still one of the best Chromebooks on the market and, in some ways, superior to its successor, the Spin 714. The 2-in-1 design and 3:2 aspect ratio, 13.5in high-resolution screen is a winning combination for browsing, entertainment, and getting homework or office work done. In fact, the squarer 2,256 x 1,504 resolution display seems oddly larger than most 14-inch screens, and it’s brighter with more vibrant colours, too. And really, this Chromebook is perfect for all types of uses thanks to the larger-than-usual screen and its portability. The 14-inch size is enough to comfortably work with two windows side-by-side, but it's not so big that you can't use it on a plane or train. The matte finish helps with keep glare to a minimum and it's an IPS panel, too, giving you good off-angle views so gathering people around for a Google Hangout call or to watch a movie is very doable. Even its down-firing stereo speakers sound pretty decent for a budget laptop.The touchpad is perfectly functional, but there’s no mistaking the plastic for glass and it’s noticeably less sensitive than the touchpads on Acer’s more expensive Chromebooks. You can, of course, use the touchscreen instead, but I find it weird prodding the touchscreen of a non-convertible Chromebook, and while Chrome OS is becoming more touch-friendly, it’s still not something that feels like a must-have. This isn’t the most stylish, the lightest or the most powerful Chromebook but it’s the one with the best overall balance of performance, features and value for money. It has an excellent 13.3in full HD screen, a lightweight, convertible form factor and superb connectivity, including 802.11ax Wi-Fi. The keyboard is fantastic, and it’s a great device for everyday use. While the keys on the keyboard don’t have much travel, it’s a very comfortable Chromebook to use, with a decent Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) screen and richer colours than you would usually find at this price point. Strapped for cash and in need of a thin, light laptop? Stop right here. The Chromebook 314’s screen isn’t exceptional, but it is good for the money. The resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 looks a lot better than 1,366 x 768 on any screen above 11in in size and it doesn’t have the gritty presentation or visibly irregular brightness levels of some budget 1080p displays. It helps that it reaches a maximum brightness level of just over 300cd/m², where many cheap Chromebook screens struggle to hit the mid-200s. However, it only covers 59.1% of the sRGB colour gamut, while colour accuracy is comparatively poor, with an average Delta E of 5.08. In practice, it’s great for browsing the web, editing documents and even watching streaming video, but I couldn’t edit photos or video and feel confident about how the colours were going to come out. If you’re taking the slim and light route, 2-in-1 convertibles are also worth a look. Chrome OS is steadily improving as an OS for touchscreen use, with more flexible on-screen keyboards and some interface improvements, and it’s particularly good if you get a model with a stylus or a pen. It’s also great to have a laptop you can use as a tablet for entertainment, or that you can pop on a table in Tent mode for streaming Netflix or playing a Stadia game. Screen time

Acer Chromebook 14 review: A 14-inch Chromebook that looks Acer Chromebook 14 review: A 14-inch Chromebook that looks

One upside of the low-power spec is that battery life is very good. In our video rundown test, the Chromebook 314 kept going for just over 13 hours: a superb result.Anyway, the upside of what for the most part is a tough, all-metal laptop should be good long term durability. The downside is weight. It’s a fairly slim device at 1.8cm. But that tough build means it weighs in at 1.6kg. It’s still very portable, with a compact 45 watt charger, but this is not a featherweight laptop. It feels significantly larger and bulkier than a typical 13-inch Ultrabook or the likes of the MacBook Air. ARM-based Chromebooks are nothing new, but the Spin 513 is the first we’ve looked at to use Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 7c chipset. This sees the leading manufacturer of smartphone and tablet CPUs trying to break into the laptop market, and a combination of respectable speeds and a ten-hour battery life make the Chromebook Spin 513 a great choice for life on the go. As some form of redemption you do get an HDMI port, but that’s it. No microSD memory card slots or anything else of note. We used the Chromebook for a range of work tasks and casual browsing and watching over a number of days and it handled everything that was thrown at it. Even the speakers are respectable enough for a machine of this composition and makeup proving adequate enough for a bit of YouTube rabbit holing and Netflix binging.