Along with Qualcomm’s announcement of its
second-gen 8cx2 5G mobile compute platform, Acer the first OEM to use the new
ARM-based chipset in a new Windows 10 2-in-1 called the Acer Spin 7. It has a
fully articulating hinge that lets you convert to tablet mode or stand mode.
The chipset will support LTE and 5G
networks (both mmWave and sub-6GHz) with theoretical download speeds of up to
7.5 Gbps down. Qualcomm Squistic noise cancellation and suppression will work
to reduce background noise in video calls.
The Spin 7 comes with of the surfaces
treated with antimicrobial silver-ion agents. These treated surfaces include
the touchpad, keyboard, and surrounding areas. The display glass is made of
Gorilla Glass, also with an antimicrobial layer. There’s also a fingerprint
scanner on the Spin 7.
It has a 14-inch IPS LCD display with 100%
sRGB color gamut, weighs 3.09 lbs and is 15.9mm thick when closed. It’s
constructed with a magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis in a blue-toned finish. An
active stylus is included and recharged in a slot within the Acer Spin 7. It
supports 4,096 levels of pressure thanks to Wacom AES 1.0.
Acer promises that the Spin 7 will yield
“multi-day” battery life but offers no battery size or even a usage metric.
Without a doubt, we can expect this device to feature far superior battery life
compared to some of Intel’s ultra-portable counterparts.
Final specs of the Acer Spin 7 have not
yet been confirmed. The new laptop is expected to be fully announced later this
year. The verdict is still out on whether ARM-based chipsets will be viable
replacements for x86-based processors that the modern computer (and Windows)
has run on for years. In the early years of ARM-based computers, there will
surely be incompatibility issues for running legacy applications.
