Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 review: everything you need and nothing you don’t

With all the talk of new chipsets from Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD, and their impact on the current state of laptop technology, it might be easy to forget that Windows and macOS aren’t the only games in town. The best Chromebooks running Google’s Chrome OS remain quite viable, and that platform has seen its own transition to AI features with Chromebook Plus.

Acer’s Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is the latest iteration of a lineup that specifically added “Plus” to the name to identify it as capable of running Chromebook Plus. If you like Chrome OS for its simplicity, security, and performance on low-end hardware, then you’ll like the Chromebook Plus Spin 714.

Specs and configurations

While Acer might release other configurations of the Chromebook Plus Spin 714, there’s only one available right now. It has an Intel Core 5 Ultra 115U, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch FHD+ IPS display for $699.

That’s an attractive price for a laptop that will provide very good performance given the lightweight nature of Chrome OS. It is not, though, a purely budget laptop. For that money, you’ll need to be okay with any limitations of the platform and be willing to look past some other, equally affordable Windows laptops like the Asus Zenbook 14 that’s around the same price and sports a fantastic OLED display.

Design

The Chromebook Plus Spin 714 looks a lot like a lot of 14-inch convertible 2-in-1s today. That is, it has a gray chassis with minimalist lines and some chrome edging that looks good and doesn’t come across as ostentations, making it a rather conservative but still attractive design. You’ll know it’s a Chromebook Plus thanks to the subdued logo on the lid, but otherwise, this could be a Windows machine as far as appearances go.

It’s also reasonably well-built, with an all-aluminum chassis that’s just the tiniest bit flexible in the keyboard deck and lid. Regarding the latter, it’s no worse than the Apple MacBook Air which also had a lid that will bend a little under pressure. The hinge is smooth enough to allow opening the lid with one hand, but that makes it a bit wobbly in clamshell, tent, and media modes. Tablet mode is fine, though.

The top bezel and bottom chin are a bit thick, making the depth a bit more than a clamshell with smaller bezels all around. And, it’s a bit thick at 0.78 inches whereas many 14-inch laptops are a lot thinner. As a reference, the MacBook Air 13 is insanely thin at 0.44 inches, but other 14-inch 2-in-1s like the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 (0.59 inches) are also thinner. The 3.21-pound weight is fine, although that’s a bit heavy to hold as a tablet.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is quite good, with large keycaps and plenty of key spacing. The switches are light and snappy, which I like a lot. I’d rank it close to the best keyboards, like HP’s OmniBooks and Apple’s Magic Keyboard.

The touchpad is more mundane, as a smallish mechanical version. It works fine, although its button clicks are a bit sharp and loud. The display is touch- and pen-enabled, although the pen is optional and wasn’t shipped with my review unit. Chrome OS has okay pen support, and the touch display is good for Android games.

Connectivity and webcam

Connectivity is very strong, including both fast Thunderbolt 4 ports, which are unusual on Chromebooks, and legacy ports. Wireless connectivity is also reasonably up-to-date.

The webcam is a high-res 1440p version, and it supports various Chromebook Plus features based on Google’s Gemini AI features. I mention those here because a lot of them depend on the webcam. But, there are actually a host of Chromebook Plus features that the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 has. In a way, Chromebook Plus is Google’s response to Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC AI initiative. The difference is that Chromebook Plus laptops don’t seem to require a fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which the Chromebook Plus Spin 14 doesn’t possess.

I found the various features to work well, and that includes the webcam. So far, AI seems more like a novelty to me, so I won’t spend too much time on Chromebook Plus.

Performance

My Chromebook Plus Spin 14 review unit uses an Intel Core Ultra 5 115U, a Meteor Lake chipset with eight cores (two Performance and six Efficient) and 10 threads, running at 15 watts. It’s not a fast chipset, and as mentioned doesn’t have an NPU like Intel’s Lunar Lake, Apple Silicon, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chipset. If it was running Windows 11, it wouldn’t be a very fast chipset at all.

However, Chrome OS is a lot more lightweight. Although its capabilities have expanded, including the ability to run Android apps, it remains at its core a web-based operating system. Given the Chromebook Plus Flip 14’s 8GB of RAM, which is a lot for Chrome OS, its real-life performance is very good. It only scored 1,599 in the Geekbench 6 single-core test and 5,482 in the multi-core test, and those aren’t very good. But the chipset is more than fast enough for good performance in Chrome OS. We can’t run our complete set of benchmarks on Chrome OS, but I’m comfortable that most users will like the Chromebook Plus Flip 14’s performance.

The Intel integrated graphics aren’t the best, but you can still run most Android games fairly well. And that’s about the limit of gaming on the laptop unless you go with something like Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service. In that case, you’ll get very good gaming performance up to the limits of the subscription you buy and the speed of your internet connection.

Battery life

The Chromebook Plus Flip 14 has a 53 watt-hour battery and an FHD+ IPS display. The combination should provide decent battery life.

In my testing, the laptop achieved around eight hours in our web browsing test and 14.5 hours in our video looping test. Those are good results that promise most of a day’s work running typical tasks. It’s not as good as some of the best Windows and macOS laptops today, but it’s good enough.

Display

The 14.0-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS display is just sharp enough at the size that text isn’t too pixellated. If you want the sharpest text, you’ll likely wish it was higher resolution. Brightness was very good and colors seem dynamic and reasonably accurate. It doesn’t have the colors and inky blacks of OLED panels, but it will please productivity users and media streamers.

I can’t use my colorimeter to test Chromebook displays, but I have no subjective issues with this one. The audio, provided by a pair of upward-firing speakers, was also good but not great.

A solid Chromebook for a decent price

Some users don’t need the complexity and wide compatibility of Windows 11 and macOS, but a simple tablet like an iPad or an Android tablet won’t suffice. That’s where Chromebooks come in, and the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is a solid addition.

It’s fast enough and has good enough battery life, with a display that’s not spectacular but is good enough for most uses. At its $699 price is low enough that it’s a good budget option. It’s an easy convertible 2-in-1 to recommend.