Roughly one month ago, a mysterious new Acer Chromebook Spin 13 was spotted on a handful of European websites but up unto this point, the 10th Gen Comet Lake device hasn’t been made official. Today, I received an email from a reader tipping me off to a new listing for the Chromebook on Acer’s US site and if the listing is correct, this device could be a game-changer. As with the overseas listings, this new model looks very much like the original Spin 13 with only the processor being updated.
A closer look reveals that there are, in fact, some minor differences and we’ll get to those in a minute but first, let’s talk about the insane price tag that’s attached to this Intel Core i5-10210U Chromebook. The new Spin 13 isn’t technically available for purchase but Acer is listing the premium convertible for $629! This particular model is paired with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. In comparison, the comparable 8th Gen Core i5 model lists for $899.
Now, we’ll talk about the differences I mentioned. Some are good while one may be considered a misstep on Acer’s part depending on your personal use case. The obvious upgrade is the processor. This is the same Comet Lake U-series CPU that powers the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook and ASUS Flip C436. The Kaby Lake CPU is no slouch but the newer 10th Gen chip from Intel does bring some performance boosts and it also brings the addition of faster WiFi-6 as well as the hopefully more stable Bluetooth 5. In addition to those tasty upgrades, the new Spin 13 model is equipped with DDR4 RAM instead of the DDR3 that’s in its predecessor.
The rest of the device is practically identical. The same 3:2, 13.5″ LCD display, all-aluminum chassis and port selection adorn the new Spin 13. The only omission on the new model is the removal of the garaged stylus. This was one of the features that set the Spin 13 apart from most of the other devices released around the same time. There is no mention of USI stylus support but with the removal of the Wacom EMR Pen, I hope that Acer added the USI tech to the Spin’s panel. Personally, I don’t really use a stylus but I know that many users chose the Spin 13 for this very reason. It also appears that Acer has opted to not put a fingerprint sensor on this Chromebook. That’s not to say that there won’t be a model with biometrics but until there is, this will not be a Project Athena device.
It is very possible that the price on this listing is simply a placeholder for the base model Gen 2 Spin 13 but if it isn’t and this price is accurate for this model, it will be one of the most competitively priced flagship Chromebooks of 2020. Acer’s annual hardware event is generally scheduled for May in New York but for obvious reasons, that won’t be happening this year. We have reached out to our contact for some more information on this device but I suspect that we will see a virtual event in the near future to announce the new Spin 13 and likely a handful of other devices. Stay tuned and we’ll fill you in as soon as we know more. You can check out the new Spin 13 on Acer’s site here.
Special thanks to Tristan for sharing this great finding.
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