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Acer Chromebook Spin 312 Unboxing & First Impressions
Feb 11, 2025
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A new Chromebook has quietly arrived in the past month and (when on sale as it is most times) it's making a strong case for itself in the budget-friendly segment. The Acer Chromebook Spin 312, while a bit of a surprise release, packs a decent punch for its price point. Let's dive into what makes this Chromebook a pretty interesting release early in 2025.
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0:00
so it's been a little bit since we had a
0:02
new box here in the office with the new
0:05
uh Chromebook events that go on twice a
0:07
year a lot of releases kind of get
0:09
centralized around those two uh time
0:11
periods but this new device the Acer
0:14
Chromebook spin 312 uh just kind of
0:16
showed up on the scene a few weeks ago
0:18
we reached out Acer has sent us one for
0:20
review so uh let's hop in the box and
0:22
see what it looks
0:26
like but before we hop in the Box I want
0:28
to issue a quick invitation to our
0:31
Chrome unboxed plus community and in
0:32
that Community you're going to find
0:33
hundreds of other people who are just
0:35
enthusiastic about Chromebooks about
0:37
Google products about tech in general
0:38
great discussion that happens in that
0:40
Community but on top of that you're
0:42
going to get access to Joe and myself on
0:44
a regular basis access to uh amas with
0:47
the uh Chrome OS team uh we do giveaways
0:50
in there we've got um add free access to
0:53
the website ad free access to all of our
0:55
podcasts uh it's just it's a great place
0:58
uh for two bucks a month it's a killer
1:00
deal and so uh if that sounds
1:01
interesting to you at all go to chrom
1:03
inbox.com jooin and you can learn more
1:06
and get started all right so let's hop
1:09
in the Box here before we do uh well I I
1:11
just talk as I'm doing this um so like I
1:15
said in the open this is uh this is a
1:17
surprise device honestly uh we know that
1:19
there are tons of Nissa devices which
1:22
Nissa is the code name for most of the
1:24
things that have core well it's core I3
1:26
n305 or the n100 n200 chip in them and
1:30
there's just a bunch of them there's
1:31
education models there's models overseas
1:33
so it's kind of hard to sort out which
1:35
ones which uh this is obviously one of
1:38
them so this is rocking the uh
1:40
n305 processor that was in uh most
1:44
famously for me like the the the device
1:46
I think of when I think of that
1:47
processor is uh the Lenovo Chromebook
1:50
slim Chromebook Plus Slim 3i uh I love
1:53
that Chromebook I like the fact that um
1:57
a mobile type um processor that's going
1:59
to get 12 13 hours of battery life which
2:01
is what they claim for this one as well
2:03
uh just has plenty of performance
2:04
overhead um I I like that device when it
2:07
came out I still like that device I grab
2:08
it every once in a while to use it this
2:10
one has very similar internals uh
2:12
nothing special with the charging brick
2:14
here um pretty standard
2:17
fair but yeah here it is so we're
2:19
talking 12.2 in 16 by10 uh full HD
2:23
screen um and so it's not a huge
2:26
Chromebook it's you know it's a little
2:28
thick um
2:30
uh it's not going to be the the smallest
2:32
thing in the world but because the the
2:34
screen's smaller obviously the overall
2:36
Chromebook footprint is a little smaller
2:37
so it just I don't know it feels a
2:39
little more portable than uh something
2:41
like in the 14 to 15 in range but as we
2:45
kind of look around the device I mean
2:47
this is this is pretty standard Acer
2:49
Fair here uh if you've seen an Acer
2:51
Chromebook uh you know kind of what to
2:53
expect uh but the colors uh color's
2:55
pretty nice it doesn't seem to be
2:56
picking up a ton of fingerprints uh but
3:00
pretty sure this is all plastic but at
3:02
least on the outside here pretty firm
3:04
and rigid we'll get on the inside here
3:06
in a second we got fan ports around the
3:07
bottom uh downward firing but also sidef
3:11
firing speakers at first I thought that
3:12
was an SD card slot but that's actually
3:14
uh speaker Grill uh on both sides so
3:16
even if you have the speakers muffled
3:18
here some sound should get out we'll
3:20
we'll give those a quick test here in
3:21
just a second and then we'll talk ports
3:23
real fast USB type c USB type a uh both
3:27
of these I don't know it didn't say on
3:29
the box uh what version so probably 3
3:31
3.2 something like that uh microphone
3:34
headphone jack there a fullsize HDMI
3:38
slot which is very nice on a smaller
3:39
Chromebook I'm pretty sure I saw that
3:41
this is HDMI 1.4 so uh if you're trying
3:44
to like push a 120 HZ monitor uh you'll
3:46
have issues there um another USB type a
3:49
kington lock and that's it as far as the
3:52
ports go so as we open this bad boy up I
3:56
didn't try it I just made the Assumption
3:59
yeah okay no one finger lift uh we did
4:01
get a little bit of a raise though if
4:03
you can kind of catch
4:04
that I'll uh Asus a little bit uh likes
4:08
to do that um you know when they raise
4:10
that up it's basically just giving it a
4:11
little a little bit easier uh path for
4:14
the fans to get air um it's a LoveHate
4:17
Thing for me that it always gets buil as
4:19
like ergonomic lift like it's better for
4:21
you to type on or something but that
4:23
doesn't really make any difference but
4:24
it does help uh ventilate those fans a
4:26
little bit so let's talk about this
4:27
screen here before I get logged in I'm
4:29
going to Crank It Up one of the things I
4:31
noticed with this Chromebook is they did
4:33
not specify how bright the screen was
4:35
which usually means it's not good um
4:39
yeah
4:40
this I would guess it's still 250 but
4:43
it's one of those good 250s um that
4:45
might is that blowing the camera out
4:46
there okay so yeah it's you know it's a
4:48
good 250n screen um you know and it's
4:51
got plenty of brightness you will see a
4:53
little bit of um dimness as you get off
4:57
angle it's IPS um so it's you know the
4:59
the off angle viewing doesn't go
5:01
anywhere but as you can see let me angle
5:03
it right here at the camera you can see
5:05
kind of when I turn it off to the side
5:07
I'm hoping it picks up on camera that
5:09
you know it's it's bright and then it's
5:10
kind of not quite as bright but it's not
5:12
like it's changing colors or anything
5:13
like that so overall I mean I I think
5:17
they could have put 250 nits and like
5:19
there's other there are other companies
5:20
I know I harp on 250 nit screens all the
5:22
time but for a device that's this
5:24
affordable haven't said that yet uh it's
5:27
it's $4.49 normally uh and I until I use
5:30
this thing a little bit I don't know 449
5:32
feels a little steep for what we're
5:34
talking about here but uh it's been on
5:36
sale for like 80% of the time it's been
5:38
on the market for I don't know five 6
5:40
weeks or something like that at this
5:41
point uh maybe not even that long and
5:44
it's almost always on sale for 299 that
5:46
changes the conversation quite a bit at
5:48
300 bucks you know I can I can give or
5:50
take quite a few things uh in a
5:52
Chromebook and this is by far uh uh one
5:55
of the better screens I've seen on a
5:56
$300 Chromebook for sure so uh it's
5:59
obviously touching screen um let's see
6:01
I'll just touch around a couple of these
6:02
things uh obviously touch um and it's
6:05
1080P and so um it's actually uh 1080p
6:09
um with you know 1200 pixels top to
6:12
bottom so what is that
6:14
wxga if anybody can keep up with those
6:17
little acronyms um more more power to
6:19
you um let's give me the little feel on
6:22
the keyboard uh quick test that feels
6:24
really good I will note that um when we
6:27
first talked about this Best Buy listed
6:29
this as back lit keyboard they have
6:31
since changed that and it is not in fact
6:33
back lit I was going to be kind of
6:35
shocked if it was but I'll check just to
6:37
make sure yeah um not back lit uh we
6:39
have an ocean glass trackpad which I I
6:41
just love these in Acer's more
6:43
affordable Chromebooks I mean for a
6:45
little Chromebook that's a good siiz
6:46
trackpad super duper smooth feels like
6:49
etched glass it's not
6:51
bouncing click mechanism feels really
6:53
good again that's really encouraging for
6:56
a device in this price range and I mean
6:58
you can see I can hold it from the
6:59
corner it's not bending and and twisting
7:01
all over the place and so I'm like again
7:03
it's all plastic but it's relatively
7:06
firm uh for being all plastic so I'm
7:09
going to take a break real quick uh get
7:11
logged in so we can uh test a few things
7:13
that'll give me time to check out the
7:14
keyboard and the trackpad for real we'll
7:16
take a look at the camera listen to the
7:17
speakers all that stuff all right so all
7:20
logged in and everything and I can tell
7:21
you one thing I'm impressed by the
7:23
keyboard uh cheaper Chromebooks tend to
7:26
have kind of flimsy key caps and all
7:28
that kind of stuff uh the sound of this
7:30
is really
7:31
nice it's very quiet there's a nice
7:34
click I could do with a little bit more
7:36
feedback but there's a decent amount of
7:37
travel nice amount of click on the
7:38
keyboard uh I do wish it was back lit
7:41
that would be cool but um yeah it I
7:43
think I could do a lot of writing on
7:45
this comfortably um and the trackpad for
7:47
sure is is great the The Click mechanism
7:50
is a little firm towards the middle uh
7:52
which I find to be true with smaller
7:53
trackpads a lot of times uh but you know
7:56
down down this area here
7:59
The Click is sure feels really good so
8:02
and again like all the gestures and
8:03
stuff feel really smooth uh on this
8:05
trackpad so keyboard trackpad pretty
8:08
good uh screen looks really nice uh I'll
8:12
be honest with you again until I review
8:13
it and have it in some other settings uh
8:16
it's it's kind of hard to tell but I
8:18
don't think I'll be cranking it down too
8:20
much past like 80% or something very
8:22
often um cuz it's not crazy bright but
8:24
you know ultimately it uh it does the
8:27
trick here so touch screen not nice uh
8:30
nice and responsive opening up the
8:32
webcam here so it's a 1080p webcam with
8:34
a privacy
8:35
shutter yeah not too shaby let's see
8:37
what it does we point it to Joe it's
8:40
it's real dark back over there so the
8:41
fact that it's even bringing him up at
8:43
all uh is pretty impressive uh we've got
8:45
the
8:46
shutter physical shutter there so uh you
8:49
can know for sure that you are not being
8:52
watched uh after a phone call or you
8:54
know if you need to walk away or
8:56
something you know that you have a
8:57
physical shutter button there you
8:58
obviously uh um don't get uh some of
9:01
those camera controls you would get with
9:02
Chromebook plus which is an odity with
9:04
this Chromebook because it actually
9:05
meets all the specs it has the right
9:07
processor it has 8 gigs of RAM it has
9:10
128 gigs of storage um so I'm not uh
9:14
completely sure why it's not being um
9:17
marketed as a Chromebook plus but you
9:18
can tell on the lid it is definitely not
9:20
Chromebook plus I'm not really sure why
9:23
that is um and I didn't see any of the
9:25
Chromebook plus um um stuff when I
9:30
logged into it either but let me look
9:32
and see here just to making
9:35
sure yeah it's not getting any of the
9:37
quick settings or anything like that for
9:38
Chromebook Plus either so um I might
9:40
actually reach out to Acer on this and
9:42
try to find out what the reasoning is
9:44
and why it doesn't have the Chromebook
9:45
plus upgrade I I don't know any part of
9:47
this that isn't uh Chromebook plus
9:50
worthy uh it's got a 1080p webcam it it
9:52
meets all the specs uh 1080p screen all
9:56
that stuff so not really sure what's
9:58
going on there but uh performance-wise
10:00
it's going to be on par with any other
10:02
Chromebook plus like it's going to get
10:04
along just fine you're going to be able
10:05
to do lots of stuff with it um you're
10:08
not really going to have to worry about
10:09
um you know uh performance battery life
10:12
is likely going to be really good
10:13
especially if it's anywhere close to
10:14
what they've said they said 13 hours so
10:16
I mean even though it gets 11 hours uh
10:19
with a Chromebook this size that's
10:20
impressive um so yeah I'm not sure on
10:23
the Chromebook plus side of things why
10:25
it is uh this one's not being marketed
10:27
that way but hopefully we can find that
10:28
out for you soon so last thing let's uh
10:30
let's take a look at the speakers here
10:32
so I'm going to go to one of our videos
10:34
here
10:35
Samsung explain I hope this thing is in
10:38
Best Buy um for you all to go just check
10:42
out there's just no reason that
10:44
something this this wer thin at the end
10:46
should feel this rigid uh I I just and
10:49
there's quite a bit of volume actually
10:50
coming out the sides which is nice so
10:52
what happens then in that situation a
10:54
lot of times with downward firing
10:55
speakers it sounds one way you lift it
10:57
up it sounds another way love the way
10:59
feels picking it up is so light um
11:01
closing it there's a little magnetic it
11:03
doesn't really change anything so it
11:04
tells me if it's in your lap or
11:06
something like that um those stereo
11:08
speakers are going to still sound very
11:10
stereo they're not super base heavy or
11:12
anything like that that's not a surprise
11:15
uh but you know since this is a
11:16
convertible Chromebook when you're
11:18
holding it in tablet mode um having
11:20
those side firing speakers that's where
11:22
this really helps because now the
11:23
speakers aren't being muffled by the lid
11:25
you know I'm still waiting on a device
11:28
um in this kind of form factor this like
11:30
12 in uh 12.2 in form factor that
11:33
decides to get rid of all the curves and
11:36
all that kind of stuff and just flatten
11:37
everything out so that when I close it
11:38
up it's Square even if it's thicker you
11:40
know like that's not thin when we talk
11:42
about uh Chromebook thickness that's not
11:45
thin but if those were squared off and
11:47
this thing met and sandwiched closed
11:49
again imagine it closed like that
11:52
whenever it was in tablet mode it just
11:54
would feel a little bit better and I get
11:56
you know these curves and these slopes
11:57
help the device on the table look
11:59
thinner I understand I get it but when
12:02
we talk about small handheld uh
12:05
convertible devices it would just be
12:07
really nice if the the tablet mode was a
12:09
little bit more thought through but
12:11
that's true of the software side as well
12:13
when it comes to Chrome OS but guys for
12:15
now that's it for this one uh if you
12:17
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12:33
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