Acer unveils its next ChromeOS tablet

Acer took to the virtual stage this morning for the company’s latest global press conference and in the mix, two new Chromebooks that we’re very excited about. The first of which is what appears to be the spiritual successor to the wildly popular Acer Chromebook Spin 713. The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 brings many of the same great features as the 713 but adds the power of Intel’s 12th gen CPUs and a 14-inch, 16:10 display. We had a chance to get our hands on an early build of the Spin 714 and you can check out Robby’s initial impressions here.

Equally as exciting, Acer has also unveiled a new Snapdragon-powered ChromeOS tablet. The Acer Chromebook Tab 510 is the company’s first ChromeOS tablet in over four years with its original tiny detachable being the Tab 10 that was released in early 2018. At the time, we were excited about the Tab 10 simply because ChromeOS tablets weren’t really a thing. Sadly, the underpowered Rockchip SoC didn’t age well and the tablet quickly gained a reputation as being a major slouch.

Now the good news. Acer’s latest tablet is powered by the same Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 that’s found in the popular Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5. That means a very respectable amount of horsepower and potentially all-day battery life. The Tab 510 is equipped with a 10.1-inch 16:10 touch display and is built with the classroom and workplace in mind thanks to MIL-STD-810H military-grade durability. Acer also did us all a solid by including a USI pen that can be garaged directly inside the tablet.

Acer Chromebook Tab 510 key specs

• ChromeOS/ChromeOS options Enterprise Upgrade
• Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 SoC
• 10.1″ IPS 16:10 WUXGA 1920 x 1200, multi-touch
• Up to 4GB RAM
• Up to 64GB eMMC storage
• Bluetooth 5
• Wi-Fi 5
• Dual speakers
• USB-C
• Optional LTE
• 8-megapixel MIPI world-facing camera
• 5-megapixel MIPI frontfacing webcam
• Dockable Acer USI Active Stylus (Stylus is included)
• Optional folio keyboard

I’m a bit disappointed to see that Acer isn’t offering a model with 8GB of RAM. The Snapdragon can handle a decent workload but ChromeOS really needs 8GB to be a true productivity tool. With its rugged build, this Chromebook should be a very popular tablet in the EDU sector or for cloud-centric workers that live on the go. The Acer Chromebook Tab 510 will be available in July with a starting price of $399 which puts it at a good price point compared to the pricier models from HP and Lenovo. As long as the keyboard isn’t egregiously priced, this will be a solid tablet for the money. Learn more about the Acer Chromebook Tab 510 here.