Those of you who read about my trip to Glasgow in November last year would have been waiting for the next part of the Swift/Spin/Switch story the three groups of new notebooks launched there. The Swift arrived swiftly and you can read that part published at the start of January, the Spin has just arrived at the start of March but it does – joy of joys - have Windows Anniversary update (1607) pre-installed.
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There are several models in each range and what you get – hard disc, processor and memory etc. - will depend on where you purchase it.
The unit I was sent has an Intel i5 quad core Processor, 8GB RAM and a 256GB Drive and as stated it comes with the Windows 10 Anniversary edition (1607) pre-installed.
It weighs 2070grams, and it is 38x24.5x2cm the last figure reduces to 1.5cm at the front.
This is both a Tablet and a Notebook hence the name ‘Spin’. It has a very fast boot to Desktop of only 8 seconds and shutdown from Desktop of only 2 seconds.
So going round the outside has a Kensington Lock port an on/off button then two USB ports and a volume rocker all on the left side. The front has two pin hole LEDs towards the right side. On the right side is a 3.5mm headphone socket then an SD Card socket next a USB3 port and then an HDMI out port and finally the DC input connection. The back is of course clear as the screen rotates through 180 degrees.
So you will notice no Ethernet port and is the current trend no optical drive.
The matt black colour goes throughout the unit apart from the screen surround which is shiny black however while it does show finger marks not to the extent of a lot of other units.
The viewable screen is 34x19.4cm which gives the notional diagonal imperial measurement of 15.6inches. The display is 1920x1080 and has 10 point touch.
For those who like a numeric keypad to the right of the main keyboard this is for you. Although the alpha keys are full size the numeric keys in the keypad are a couple of millimetres smaller than full size. The keyboard has 102 keys. The keyboard remains backlit for 25 seconds after the last key is pressed.
There is a 4cm strip behind the keyboard which has the perfectly acceptable speakers. There are 2cm strips clear down each side of the keyboard and a 9.5cm area clear in front of the keyboard so when used as a notebook no reason to suffer RSI. The 10.5x8cm trackpad is mounted 9cm from the left and 18cm from the right.
Bootup is an excellent 8 seconds to Desktop and shutdown from Desktop only 2 seconds.
Flipping the unit through 180 degrees will bring up the query from the tray ‘do you want to change to Tablet Mode’. If you do then on this unit the Microsoft choices will fill the screen, at any time you can swap back to Notebook mode. Once you ‘Spin’ the unit the keyboard becomes dead on the rear of the unit which is good as however you hold the unit a key here or there will get pressed.
As far as browsing web pages in Tablet mode I preferred portrait mode and ‘reading mode’ as the white background of most web pages transfers to a creamy colour which is far kinder to the eyes.
For those pages that think 20:20 vision belongs to the majority of the community enlargement of the text size using two fingers is seamless.
I suspect that at over two kilos you would need regular visits to the gym to use this in Tablet mode all day and the only other possible flaw is the lack of Ethernet for those in an office environment.
The Acer Spin 3 is available from Amazon for £449.98 with free delivery.
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