The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, is about to kick off on 5th January 2023. However, like every year, it has already created hype as most of the world’s leading tech giants have already announced what they’re going to reveal at the show. Let’s take a quick look at the major announcements before the actual event hits the shore.
Samsung
Samsung is known to play a vital role in the event and grabs the maximum attention every year. In a recently released press conference, the company unveiled the Odyssey Neo G9, a 57-inch mini-LED display sporting a 7680 × 2160 resolution equivalent to two 4K monitors in one. The massive and immersive desktop is going to be a paradise for every gamer as it offers a 240Hz refresh rate and a 1000R curved screen.
Besides Odyssey Neo G9, Samsung also unveiled its first ultrawide QD-OLED monitor – the Odyssey G95SC, which features a more subtle 1800R curved display, 32:9 aspect ratio and 5120 x 2880 resolution. The newly revealed monitors by Samsung are one of the coolest yet, but what caught most of the attention was the Flex Hybrid – a device with a 4:3 aspect ratio that expands into a 16:10 device; it FOLDS as well as SLIDES.
LG
Samsung and LG have always made CES their home pitch, but in 2023, LG looks a little slow, at least in the initial phase. Till now, the company has unveiled the Z3, G3, and C3 OLED evo series TVs, all loaded with the new α9 AI Processor Gen6. The latest evo series TVs will offer brighter displays, greater colour accuracy, a more personalized webOS experience, virtual 9.1.2 surround sound and enhanced dynamic tone mapping.
Nvidia
Nvidia has started off CES 2023 with a bang. The company, who’s a giant in designing and manufacturing graphics processing units (GPUs), has revealed the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti along with laptop versions of the GeForce RTX 40-series, which will be a part of laptops from Asus, Alienware, MSI and more.
Intel
Intel has enormous plans for CES 2023, and it can be seen how the company is exciting the products before CES hits the world. The chip-making company is expanding its Raptor Lake desktop processor lineup, which is compatible with motherboards previously used for Alder Lake CPUs. Furthermore, Intel has a long lineup of processor launches, ranging from the high-end Core i9-13900 to the budget Core i3-13100F.
Laptops
Alienware – Already trending with a massive 18-inch gaming laptop.
Asus – Revealed the ROG Strix G18 and the ROG Strix Scar 18 laptops, featuring Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series graphics cards.
Acer – Revealed new 16-inch laptops with the latest chips from Intel.
TVs
Displace – We are going to witness the world’s first wireless TV, which is set to make a debut at CES 2023.
We’re living in the ‘Smart’ age. We have smartphones to experience the world behind a screen, smart watches to track our health, and even smart refrigerators to track all the details of the food stored inside them. So, it is only natural that our air circulation system also becomes smart. How long do we rely on ceiling fans which just move around in a similar fashion known for decades, why not move on to something smarter? That’s where the Acerpure Cool C2 2-in-1 Air Circulator and Purifier jumps in!
I was genuinely surprised when I saw Acer’s smart air purifier and circulator. My first ever laptop as a school student was an Acer hence I have always associated the brand with laptops and monitors. However, having a quick look at the company’s website cleared all assumptions. So how good is Acer’s 2-in-1 air purifier? I’d say it’s solid!
Design
Besides its air purification prowess, the C2 comes with a sleek and modern design. In my opinion, it is a futuristic design that can easily compare to sci-fi characters. I call it Wall-E! Or even R2-D2 at times. The design is surely aesthetic as it comes in white color and has a cylindrical form factor. The compact design places its filters at the side and bottom and the air calculator is placed on the top which looks like the head of a robot. Taking its compact design into consideration, the C2 surely has enough power to circulate air throughout a small room.
LCD display & Remote
C2’s LCD display and remote definitely deserve a segment in the review for its functionality options. The mini display showcases a number of details like PM2.5, GAS, smart mode, lock mode, Turbo, or Wi-Fi. However, the most important information over here is the dust and gas status. To the unversed, PM2.5 are tiny particles in air pollutants. The display comes equipped with a Gas Status which can indicate the level of volatile organic compounds. The status is indicated in three different colors green, yellow, and red (good, moderate, poor). All the modes on the air purifier/circulator can be accessed on the device itself but we also have a compact remote here. The small remote can be used to adjust the settings of the C2 and can be conveniently placed behind the device as it is also magnetic.
Performance
There is a difference between an electric fan and an air calculator. While the C2 comes with capabilities to circulate the air through the side and up/down movements, it is not enough to cover up a big room. Users can control the direction of the airflow with 90 degrees up and down swings and 80 degrees left to right. However, in my usage I kept the air circulator fixed at one angle as it proved to be more efficient that way. The company claims that it can circulate clean air up to 12 meters and that surely is true for its turbo mode. One thing to note here is that with turbo mode usage, the C2 becomes considerably loud, which is the opposite of its advertised quiet circulation.
Verdict
At a price of Rs 12,990, the C2 should be on your list if you’re in the market for a good air purifier. I mention an air purifier and not an air circulator or a fan cause the device is not up to the mark in that arena. Sure it has a distant airflow that can circulate around the room but it is only applicable to people living in colder places. People living in warm places cannot simply rely on the C2’s air circulation capabilities.
Good
Easy setup and cleaning
Bad
Pricing
Ugly
Limited air circulation power
Specifications
Airflow Distance up to 12m
Smart Sensors like Gast Sensor (VOC) and Laser Particle Sensor PM1.0 & PM2.5
Planning to buy a laptop with amazing features but something that fits your budget too? Acer Aspire 5 might be what you are looking for! I used this device for a month, and here’s what I liked and what I didn’t.
Design and Build Quality
Acer Aspire 5 is a 14-inch laptop which is generic but admittedly handsome. The silver and black trim with black keycaps gives this laptop a business-like outlook and makes it attractive. While the laptop lacks flair, it is excused by its solid and durable feel.
This laptop might not be the lightest, but it will easily slip into most laptop bags and is light enough to make you forget that you are even carrying it. The power adapter is also small, making it a perfect laptop to carry around without worrying too much.
Coming to the keys, the key layout is spacious yet compact. After spending hours on it, writing and editing, I have found the keys to being accurate, quick, and comfortable. The keyboard lacks a backlight, making it difficult for you to work in a dark room.
The touchpad surface measures around 4.25-inches, which is typical for small machines. However, the surface looks a little cramped due to a lack of space. An external mouse attached works best with this laptop unless you have some light work going on.
Acer Aspire 5 11th Gen Specs
The Acer Aspire 5 pairs an Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor with 8GB of RAM and packs Intel’s iRIS Xe graphics with 80 execution units. Notably, this isn’t the fastest integrated graphics option, but it still is a giant leap from Intel UHD graphics found in most 10th-generation hardware.
CPU: Intel Core i5-1135G7
Memory: 8GB
Graphics/GPU: Intel Iris Xe
Display: 14-inch 1080p LCD
Storage: 256GB PCIe solid state drive
Webcam: 720p
Connectivity: 2x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (data only), 1x Ethernet, 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x 3.5mm combo audio, 1x DC-in barrel plug
Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
Biometrics: None
Battery capacity: 53watt-hour
Dimensions: 0.71 x 8.88 x 12.9 inches
Weight: 3.75 pounds
Display and Audio
The Acer Aspire 5 packs a 14-inch, 1080p display with a matte coat. The display has a limited color gamut, and the color accuracy is pretty average, to say the least. However, what makes up for it is the strong contrast ratio of 1300:1, which is pretty good for a budget laptop. The 1080p resolution ensures crisp and sharp text.
Coming to the audio, the voice is loud at the maximum and clear and crisp at mid-range. It is suitable for listening to podcasts, YouTube or streaming movies as the dialogue tends to stand out.
Connectivity
There are three USB Type-A ports (two USB 3.2 and one USB 2.0), one USB 3.2 Type-C supporting up to 5Gbps of bandwidth, full-sized HDMI, Ethernet, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack.
The wireless connectivity includes the usual combination of Wi-Fi 6 with Bluetooth, both provided by MediaTek’s MT7921 wireless LAN card. The Wi-Fi performance was reliable, and I faced no problem connecting my mouse and headphones.
Battery Life
Acer Aspire 5 packs a 53-watt-hour battery which is quite respectable for a budget laptop. Aspire 5 has an endurance of six hours which is an average result.
Conclusion
For a laptop that costs less than 50,000 rupees, Aspire 5 delivers in value. It is small, compact, easy to carry, and performs well with average battery life. With its affordable price, decent performance, and robust build, the Acer Aspire 5 is a great budget option for most people.
The Taiwanese multinational hardware manufacturer, Acer, has recently developed a new gaming laptop named Nitro 5. The latest laptop features one of the most powerful graphic processors making it a perfect buy for hardcore gamers. Keep reading to know more about the specifications of Acer Nitro 5.
Body and Display: The Acer Nitro 5 (0222) features a 15.6-inch full HD IPS LCD panel that supports a 144Hz refresh rate, with an 80% screen-to-body ratio, 16: 9 aspect ratio, and a screen resolution of 1920×1080 pixels.
Processor:Moreover, the brand new Nitro 5 comes with 16GB of DDR4 RAM that may be increased to 32GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM. This device is powered by the 12th Gen of Intel Core i7 12700H CPUs and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPUs to deliver maximum processing power and graphics power. The Acer Nitro 5 features up to DDR4 RAM and 512GB of SSD and supports up to 1TB HDD. Furthermore, the laptop comes with a quad-exhaust cooling machine that keeps the temperatures down throughout long gaming sessions or innovative operations and allows the hardware to work at its full potential.
Battery: The Acer Nitro 5 features a four-cell 57.5 Watt-hour battery and is complimented with a 180W power adapter.
Touch and Sensitivity: Call up the NitroSense UI with a single touch of the dedicated NitroSense key to immediately visualize component temperature, loading performance, power plan, and more. Users also can optimize the laptop with distinctive modes.
I/O Parts: The Acer Nitro 5 packs a USB-A Gen 1, a USB 3.2 Gen 2, a USB-A Gen 2 port with power-off charging support, a Thunderbolt 4 port, an HDMI port, a 3.5 audio combination jack, and an RJ45 Ethernet connector. The tool helps Intel’s KiLLER wi-fi 6 AX 1650i and Bluetooth 5.1 technologies for wi-fi connections.
Price and Availability: The 2022 version of the Acer Nitro 5 has been priced starting at Rs 84,999 in India.
Intel Core i5-12500H CPU, RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD: Rs 84,999
Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD: Rs 1,09,999
The new Acer Nitro 5 2022 is currently available to shop through the company’s official online store and Amazon India. As for the offline market, the brand new Nitro 5 models is available at Acer Exclusive stores, Croma stores, and different shops throughout the country.
Acer Swift series represents the company’s line of thin, light and premium laptops. The Swift X is a powerful laptop that manages to pack a powerful AMD Ryzen 5 5600U CPU with integrated Radeon Graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU.
It is well-built, has a 14-inch matte IPS screen, good IO, and a long battery life. Swift X is compact, lightweight, compatible with everyday use, good for multitasking, and quite competent. The design is standard, with a full-aluminium construction, clean aesthetics and minimal branding. The hinges are strong and the lean-back angle goes to only 130 degrees, unlike many other Swift models that rotate to 180 degrees. Having used it for some time, I find it to be a solid choice for those who are looking for a smaller and more portable device at around Rs 85,000 – 90,000.
You could easily play high-end games, do photo and video editing, but with realistic and reasonable expectations. The best part is you get a good selection of ports for a 14-inch laptop. These include a USB 2.0 port, a USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port, a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, a full-sized HDMI port, a headphone jack, and a round-pin charging sot. However, there are no SD card slots in the Swift X. There are stereo speakers at the bottom that sounds pretty good but not the best.
There are plenty of air intake vents so your laptop doesn’t heat easily. However, within minutes of starting a game, the exhaust fan ramps up and is audible. Coming to the keys, they are well spaced and aren’t very noisy. The trackpad is also roomy and works very well.
Speaking of the battery life, I would say it is well balanced. With regular working, it can easily last up to two days. With heavy gaming and video playback, the laptop would last for a day.
Verdict
Acer Swift X looks good, performs well, and is a compact machine. If gaming and editing is a priority for you, then you might want to skip on this one. For regular usage, you would want to give this a thought.
CES is the most influential tech event globally, and just like ordinary people await a new year, tech enthusiasts wait for the CES event, which offers them a head start to begin the new year on a good note. The 2022 edition unveiled numerous out of the box products for which it has been known since its inception. Due to the ongoing Covid situation and fear of new variants like Omicron, many publications (including us) were unable to attend the CES 2022 physically.
However, the technology came in as a rescuer, as most of the publications preferred to participate in the world’s largest electronics expo remotely, making the show kind of Hybrid. The event was vast like always, but we’ve mustered up the things in categories and top picks to make things easier for you. The 52nd edition of the event spotlighted the latest innovations from leading companies such as Google, Qualcomm, Sony, Samsung, LG, BMW, and many more.
Top TVs at CES 2022
CES is known as a battleground for TV makers, and every year the show floor looks packed with several top-notch TVs, and this year was no different. Amongst the top TVs revealed at CES, the one that grabbed our attention was the Sony A95K QD-OLED, world’s first consumer QD-OLED TV which can display the full spectrum of colours even in the brightest settings.
Though, the display panel of A95K is made by none other than Samsung. We expected Samsung might come up with QD-OLED 4K TV, but the South Korean tech giant had other plans. Samsung launched its 65″ QD-Display TV with quantum dots that combines a groundbreaking new QD-OLED display. The decision went well as the TV won the Best of Innovation award at CES 2022.
Besides Sony and Samsung, LG TVs were the ones that held our attention. The company presented a number of 8K and 4K OLEDs, several new QNED mini-LED TVs, and even a MicroLED TV at CES 2022 to compete with its rivals. Along with these companies, Panasonic announces a sound-focused OLED TV to attract all the audiophiles out there.
Top Laptops at CES 2022
CES 2022 introduced several new top-notch laptops, which means the year is going to be a busy one in terms of laptop launches. The 2022 event of CES witnessed a vast number of laptops with full-HD (1080p) webcams, thanks to the work-from-home culture. The event also became a launching platform for new components like Intel (12th Gen CPUs) and Nvidia (GeForce RTX 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti laptop GPUs).
Design is the first thing we notice when looking at the techie things, and Dell XPS 13Plus is something else in terms of design. The futuristic laptop has a remarkable design, decent specs, and it directly competes with the MacBook Air lineup. The minimalist laptop comes with the OLED touchscreen option and offers snappy performance, making it more premium than ever.
The next one on the list is Acer Predator Triton 500 SE, which has a roomy 16-inch high-refresh display, and it comes with 12th Generation Intel Core i9 processors and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU. The top tier gaming laptop offers a 2,560 by 1,600 pixel resolution, a 240Hz refresh rate and a wide-colour-gamut panel with 550 nits of brightness.
TCL, a company known for its TV’s launched itself in the laptop industry with its first laptop called the TCL Book 14 Go. The Windows 11 laptop is packed with 12-hour battery life, 4G LTE connectivity, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c platform. The entry-level laptop offers a 720p video camera, 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of built-in storage and stereo speakers, along with a built-in microphone.
Top Audio Gears at CES 2022
CES is not all about big players; sometimes, a few underdogs create hype and amaze everyone. One such company is Noveto, which launched the N1 3D Audio Smart Speaker, a device with built-in Alexa intelligence and Noveto’s proprietary innovative audio beaming technology. The speciality of N1 soundbar is that it offers spatial 3D audio, and only the listener can hear the music.
HyperX Cloud Alpha is one of the most favourite headphones of gamers, and CES 2022 unveiled the wireless version of it with a massive battery said to last for a whopping 300 hours of use, which means you don’t have to worry about charging anymore. We’re not sure whether 300-hours is a marketing strategy or not, but even if it works 50% of what is promised, it would be a great move.
If you’re one of such people who own an iPhone and an Android phone but find it challenging to carry different earbuds for each of them, Belkin has something for you in-store to make your life easier. Belkin launched Belkin SOUNDFORM Immerse Noise-Cancelling Earbuds at CES 2022, which has three mics to shush the world and 8 hours of playtime for the earbuds plus 28 hours in the charging case.
Top Car-tech at CES 2022
BMW knows how to cure boredom, and that’s why they created a colour-changing car, to keep us sane from the boredom of having one coloured vehicle. The BMX iX fully electric car debuted at CES 2022, and it has body panels made from E Ink displays. The vehicle comes with luxurious features, an elegant design, and an impressive estimated 450-480 km range.
Following the footsteps of EV culture, Sony introduced their all-electric vehicle, Sony Vision-S-02. The company stated in a blog post that they will establish an operating company, ‘Sony Mobility Inc.’ in the spring of 2022, which means Sony could take on Tesla with its EV’s. The car allows you to play PlayStation games through a remote connection to a console at home; what more could you ask for in a car?
Top Wearable at CES 2022
CES 2022 was marked as a launching platform for many wearables, but only a few exciting launches stayed with us even after the event. The subtle looking Garmin Venu 2 Plus was launched at the event, an updated version of the Venu 2. The watch is compatible with Siri, Google Assistant, Bixby, and it is the first Garmin watch with a microphone, allowing you to make and take calls from the wrist.
Along with the Venu 2 Plus, Garmin launched a minimalist looking Garmin Vivomove Sport, which comes in various colours, has a five-day battery life, and offers plenty of fitness and health tracking features. Besides Garmin, Skagen launched a special limited edition version of Fossil gen 6 X Razer with three unique watch faces. It has a 1.28-inch AMOLED display, Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and 8GB of storage.
Not on my watch. A perfect line by Nestor Carbonell creates an impact to ensure that the story of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises starts on a high note. The same line can make many hinging points when you are beginning your graduation. If you need a laptop that can cater to your requirements and resolve your budgetary constraints, this article is perfect for you. Why? Because this Exhibit blog will provide a comprehensive list of affordable laptops for students. Let’s begin.
#1 Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook
A brand like Lenovo can make you LEANOver your thoughts due to the sophisticated specifications it brings through their wide range of laptops. This laptop can serve your needs properly by letting you use it during the lectures when your professor is taking the session. It is because this laptop has the capability to switch to tablet mode. Hence, you also get a stylus when you want to use it as your laptop. Apart from this, you get this laptop in two variants – ice blue and iron-grey. The RAM may bring hiccups to you as it is merely 4 GB, along with 128 GB internal memory, but care about the price too. You can order this laptop at INR 26999/-.
#2 ASUS VivoBook 14
They claim it as the world’s smallest colorful 14 inches UltraBook. You have never seen color variants for sure. Okay, if the color doesn’t matter to you, check out the processor – i5 Core. If it’s about play, track the graphics card – NVIDIA. You name it, and you will get it for sure. Even for memory ASUS VivoBook 14 can provide a dual storage system. What about ergonomics? Ahh, now you hit the bull’s eye. With this laptop, you get a better typing position due to the 2-degree keyboard tilt. But wait! considering such damn fantastic features can stop you due to its price. Order it at INR 30999/-!
#3 HP 245 G8
The Stones of Venice writer John Ruskin was right about quality. He rightly said that quality could never be an accident but a constant intelligent effort. And, with HP, you get that intelligent effort and quality as well. Why? Because the newly launched HP 245 G8 has everything that you need. A Ryzen 3 processor, 1 TB hard disk, AMD Radeon, 7 hours of standard battery life, etc., can definitely save your day when it comes to work or play. If the weight of an HP laptop is what concerns you, think again! This 1.7 kg chap is available at INR 31,490/- and is an essential contender in the list of affordable laptops for students.
#4 Acer Aspire 3 Athlon
Wimbledon 2021 has witnessed one of the finest games. The Serbian and global star Novak Djokovic showcased how to win a match in 46 seconds. 46 seconds? But how? ACES. And, Acer must be having the same ideology to deliver aces of laptops which is true for Acer Aspire 3 Athlon. This INR 25863/- laptop may feel deserted as it may not have those specifications. But that’s not the case at all. Why? The 1.9 kg laptop has an AMD Radeon graphics processor with an Athlon Dual Core processor. Security is the major top-notch slot in this slot due to the Firmware Trusted Platform Module. Think again if you feel that a hard disk drive won’t be big at such a price – 1 TB.
#5 HP Chromebook x360
Portable. Versatile. Compact and stylish design. This laptop has ChromeOS in it. The Intel Celeron processor provides a speed of 1.1 GHz. Even if you are not charging it, you can use it for at least 9 hours. This laptop allows you to go for multiple logins. If the screen size of 12 inches is worrying, consider the price again – INR 29,9990/-.
Affordable Laptops for Students
Get ready to combat your college days with the laptops that bring affordability, durability, and quality. One of these laptops will surely create wonders for you.
When was the last time you let your imagination run wild? When did you feel you were at your creative best? And when did you last get the chance to unleash your creativity to its fullest extent? If you are like me, the answer to the first two questions will be “many times” and for the last one, “rarely”. But after I spent some time with Acer’s ConceptD 7 laptop, my perception has definitely changed.
Initial impression:
To begin with, Acer has dedicated the laptop to designer and illustrators and it shows! It might give away its family lineage in some ways, such as its slim design might remind you of the Predator Triton or its foldable screen might remind you of the Spin 5, but let ME remind you, this is an entirely different deal! Now, Acer might offer a lot of features in its laptops but trust me, the ConceptD gets it all.
Display and Processor:
For starters, the laptop comes with a 15.6-inch 4K display, 32GB RAM, a hexacore Intel Core i7 processor, 2 TB SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 graphic card with 6GB memory! That packs a serious performance punch! However, that takes a slight toll on its portability as the laptop weighs north of 2 kilos. However, these specs are enough to put it miles ahead of the MacBook Pro, which is pricier than the ConceptD and offers the same, if not better features.
Post usage:
Setting itself apart from the other Acers, the ConceptD comes in a suave white colour scheme, with a warm yellow RGB backlit keyboard. This is just to bring a more comforting and professional look to it, as opposed to the wild and in-your-face design of the Predator series, or the minimalistic look of other laptops. With Acer’s claim of adding a stain-resistant coating, which protects the laptop from yellowing and getting dirty, inked or otherwise stained, there is one more reason to not be worried about the pristineness of the laptop.
Verdict:
There are hardly any laptops that can be considered as an alternative to the ConceptD 7 or even put in the same league as it. However, it is also a laptop which can never be considered a casual buy. With a price point north of ₹2 lakh, anybody purchasing this laptop must have a clear intention of its usage. Nevertheless, it will definitely be a faithful buddy at any required time and will fulfil all its duties without the slightest hesitation. If you are a creator looking to unleash your creativity, this is your chance!
I have always been a fan of convertibles. Be it cars or gadgets, anything that has a 2-in-1 quality always catches my attention. Among those is the Acer Spin 5 laptop, which I recently reviewed. Now, I wouldn’t be talking about this laptop if it was just a run-of-the-mill laptop. But, there are certain elements of this laptop that I could not miss out on. So, without further ado, here is what I think about the Acer Spin 5.
First Impressions:
The highlight of the laptop is obviously its 360-degree hinge that converts the laptop to a tablet seamlessly. This gives the user a great deal of versatility and that will definitely help graphic designers, students, and even tablet lovers! It also comes with an inbuilt stylus that further increases the usability of the laptop.
Display and screen:
Talking about the screen, it gets a 13.5-inch touchscreen display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, which can be a little discouraging for someone who likes a widespread screen, but it is not too dissuasive. Unfortunately, its wide aspect ratio meant every time I tried to watch a 16:9 video, it was accompanied by two giant black bars at the top and bottom, which were rather intrusive. This was the only dissuasion in the otherwise crystal clear video experience.
Stylus:
Its stylus too does not actually feel like a pen and feels more like a long and thick needle. That it would, considering it is not even five inches long (12.53 cm, to be exact) and is only 5.3 mm in diameter, but it does the job. It uses the Wacom AES 1.0 technology, which gives it an accurate response rate. Add to it 4,096 pressure levels and you can easily get surgical precision from the stylus. It can be easy to forget that the stylus can run out of charge too, but Acer has an easy fix for that. Just plug it back in the laptop for 15 or 20 seconds and its ultra-fast charging will juice up the battery for 90 minutes worth of charge in that duration. The only discomfort is that you have to lift the laptop to toggle it out of the charging unit, and it’s the same place where it will be resting all the time. Unlike the earlier version of Spin 5 which was loosely attached.
Keyboard:
Well, though the stylus and the touchscreen are sufficient and tempting enough to forget about the keyboard, it is required to complete the feel of a laptop. The chicklet keys, while responsive, are rather cramped and would cause hindrance to someone who is used to a bigger and wider keyboard. Nevertheless, it is more about habit and I was able to adapt to it eventually. One feature that I truly appreciated was the fingerprint sensor, which is integrated into the smooth, responsive, and intuitive trackpad. The fingerprint sensor added a much-needed security feature to the laptop, immediately encouraging me to trust it more. It is also quite responsive and hardly caused a delay while unlocking the Spin 5.
Hardware performance:
With 16GB of RAM, the Spin 5 ran smoothly and did not trouble me while using it for everyday basics. Emailing, internet surfing, and video binge-watching worked flawlessly. However, it did start to lag when playing heavy, full HD games, or using video editing software for large files. Also, the Intel i5 10th Gen processor clocks in at 1.10 GHz with a maximum speed of 1.50 GHz. That, combined with Intel’s new Iris Plus integrated GPU, means that the Spin 5 can run a decent variety of games, but is far below the requirements of AAA games (Those fancy high definition ones on Steam)
Camera:
Considering the new normal, most of my meetings and discussions happened virtually. Naturally, I had extensive use of the front camera (Webcam for all you geeks!). Now, obviously this is not a camera oriented device and neither do I intend to compare it with one, but as these are Zoom days, I can conclude that the front camera is not comparable to that of a Macbook.
Verdict:
Since the Acer Spin 5 is more of a jack of all trades, I did not wish to pinpoint its flaws as such. However, I did find the sound a little lacking in spite of its front-facing speakers. The bloatware (unwanted software included on a new computer or mobile device by the manufacturer) is definitely a bummer and the laptop would have done much better sans that. With a price tag around Rs 90,000, this one is definitely a hard-hitter on the pocket. But what you get for burning a hole in your pocket is a sleek, stylish and comfortable laptop. All in all, the Acer Spin 5 is a well-rounded, (well folded, to be cheeky) laptop and can cater to a wide audience. It’s super light to carry and you actually don’t need an iPad when you have this with you. The battery lasts you a good 6 hours of continuous usage though claimed is 11 hours and I assume this means putting the ignition on and not really driving forward.
