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is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.
Acer’s new Chromebook Plus Spin 514, announced at IFA 2025 in Berlin, is the company’s first laptop to use the Arm-based MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 processor. That chip was used in the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 that launched earlier this summer, and it was key to delivering excellent performance and marathon battery life in that fanless laptop. I dubbed the Lenovo “the new king of Chromebooks,” and this $699.99 Acer, launching this month, seems poised to be a solid alternative — especially if you prefer a touchscreen convertible and don’t mind hearing a fan on occasion.
Acer sent me the new Chromebook Plus Spin 514 for early testing, and after some brief hands-on time I can already tell battery life is again likely to be one of the Kompanio Ultra’s strengths. The IPS display options with 1920 x 1200 or 2880 x 1800 resolution aren’t going to hang with the punchiness of the OLED panels in the Lenovo. But the draw of the Acer is its Gorilla Glass-covered 14-inch touchscreen with support for USI 2.0 styluses (which are sold separately), allowing you to use it like a tablet, draw on it, or take handwritten notes.
The build quality and chassis materials feel similar to other Acer laptops and Chromebooks in this price range. Nothing amazing, but it’s nice enough.
The touchscreen has an anti-fingerprint coating. I saw some smudges appear quickly, but they easily wiped away.
Right-side ports are USB-A.
Left-side ports are USB-C and audio.
That, and it has more, faster ports than the Lenovo. The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 has two 10Gbps USB-C ports with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The Acer also has a 70Wh battery compared to Lenovo’s 60Wh, and like the Lenovo it comes with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage. For a webcam, it offers either 1080p or 5-megapixel options.
What the Acer doesn’t have, however, is a side-mounted power button. Which is a little odd on a 2-in-1, because if it goes to sleep in tablet mode you have to reach around to the keyboard deck for the power button. Its up-firing speakers are also on the keyboard deck, so in tent mode or tablet mode you’re moving its already meager, thin-sounding speakers away from you.
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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