Acer's first Chromebooks with Snapdragon 7c offer low-cost LTE
It's also launching a Google Assistant smart speaker.
Acer is still finding ways to produce stand-out Chromebooks. The PC maker has unveiled its first Chrome OS laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 7c, the Chromebook Spin 513 and its Enterprise Spin 513 counterpart, and both promise to keep you going when you’re nowhere near a wall outlet or WiFi. The 13.3-inch convertibles offer up to 14 hours of claimed battery life as well as optional LTE data. Those might not be as useful during a pandemic when you’re likely staying at home, but they could help if you’d rather work in the backyard than your home office.
The designs are relatively portable for two-in-ones with a chassis that weighs just 2.64lbs and measures 0.61in thick. You can also expect up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and expansion is decent between two USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 ports and one USB-A 3.2 connection.
You’ll have to wait a while to get either new Chromebook. The regular Spin 513 arrives in February starting at $400, and in Europe this January for €429. We’ve asked Acer how much of a premium LTE will carry in the US. The Enterprise variant arrives in March for the US and February for Europe, with respective prices of $700 and €629. That’s not the lowest price you’ll see in either case, but it’s for a Chromebook with a cellular connection.
Acer is accompanying the laptops with smart home audio. The Halo Smart Speaker is a Google Assistant device that offers a few twists, including RGB lighting that can sync with music, DTS audio and an optional LED display that shows the weather and other info at a glance. It’ll ship to the US in the first quarter of 2021 for $109, and to Europe in December for €119. In other words, it’s chasing after that mid-tier space occupied by speakers like the Nest Audio.
