Skip to main content

Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook vs. Acer Spin 713: Which should you buy?

Affordable workhorse

Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5

$401 at Amazon

Pros

  • More affordable
  • Adequate power
  • Great backlit keyboard

Cons

  • Less RAM
  • Frequently sells out

The value offered on the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 has made it one of the most popular Chromebooks on the market, for good reason. You get all the features you'd want in a laptop without having to pay for all the excess Premium chromebooks shove in alongside them.

Upgrade pick

Acer Chromebook Spin 713

From $629 at Amazon $629 at Best Buy

Pros

  • Beefier specs across the board
  • Bright 2K screen with 3:2 aspect ratio
  • More ports including HDMI

Cons

  • More expensive
  • Speakers are average

If gaming, coding, STEM, or art matter to you and your laptop, Acer makes the best Chromebook for you. With powerful processors, futureproof RAM and storage, and an absolutely gorgeous touchscreen, the Acer Spin 713 is ready to work hard and play harder.

There's a lot of competition in the Chromebook market these days, especially in the $400-$600 segment where most of the Best Chromebooks live. The Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 is the best Chromebook at $400, but the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is also a good value at $630 — and an even better value when it gets its frequent discounts down to $530-$550. When debating between the Best Overall Chromebook and the Best Premium Chromebook on the market, the devil is in the details.

Do you need the extra power and prestige?

The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is the best of the premium Chromebooks on the market, but that doesn't mean it's the best Chromebook for you depending on how much or how little work you're needing to get done. As a Project Athena certified Chromebook, the Spin 713 is faster and more powerful than the Flex 5's Intel Core i3 and eMMC storage, but the Flex 5 is powerful enough for me to get all my work done with space to spare.

Yes, we all want the latest and the greatest, but the Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 has adequate power and 85% of the Spin 713 experience for only 60% of the price. Both Chromebooks have nice big touchscreens with good resolution — the Acer is brighter and higher quality, of course — with USI stylus support, backlit keyboards for typing late into the night — Lenovo's feels better to type on — and enough battery to last you the full work day with juice to spare. I've worked the majority of the last year from the Flex 5, and unless you're intending to run Linux, Windows via Parallels (which is limited to Chrome Enterprise customers right now), or Steam gaming, you probably don't need to spend the extra dough on the Spin 713.

Category Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 Chromebook Acer Chromebook Spin 713
Display 13.3-inch touchscreen
1080p • 16:9 • 250 nits
13.5-inch touchscreen
2256x1504px • 3:2 • 400 nits
Processor 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10110U 10th Gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7
Memory 4GB DDR4 8-16GB DDR4 SDRAM
Storage 32-64GB eMMC
or 128GB SSD
128-256GB SSD
Connectivity Wi-Fi 6 • BT 5.0 Wi-Fi 6 • BT 5.0
Ports 2x USB-C
1x USB-A
microSD card
3.5mm Audio jack
2x USB-C • 1x USB-A
HDMI • microSD card
3.5mm Audio jack
Peripheral features Backlit keyboard
USI stylus support
Backlit keyboard
USI stylus support
Project Athena certified
Audio 2x2W stereo speakers Stereo speakers
Battery Up to 10 hours Up to 10 hours
Dimensions 12.2"x8.4"x0.67" 11.83x9.25x0.66in
Weight 2.97lbs 3.02 lbs
MIL-STD 810G durability High/Low temps
Rain • Humidity
Vibration • Shock
4-foot drops
AUE Date June 2028 June 2028

If you're in love with the 3:2 aspect ratio on a laptop — many adore it for being able to see further down a webpage at one time — or you want that 2K resolution for when you're watching Netflix between video calls, then Acer might earn its upgrade here. I personally prefer 16:9 over 3:2 because I like the wider screen for split-screening and I dislike how far back the keyboard sits on 3:2 laptops, but to each their own.

Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook vs. Acer Chromebook Spin 713: Which should you buy?

The only real drawback to the Lenovo Flex 5 is that the standard configuration has 4GB RAM. 4GB is enough right now, but 8GB is more futureproof, and the 8GB version is harder to find in stores apart from members-only Costco. If you're the type to keep 50 tabs open all the time or just have to have all the top-end specs, then the Spin 713 is an easy choice for you, otherwise the Flex 5 is a better value and an easier buy.

If you're going to grab the Acer Spin 713 and don't need it right this second, you might want to wait and check Best Buy every couple of days. Since its initial launch last summer, there's been at least one sale a month on the Spin 713 to bring it down to either $550 or $530. List price is a good value, but sales are always better right?

Affordable workhorse

Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5

$400 at Amazon

Get great performance without breaking the bank

Lenovo knows how to deliver a great Chromebook on a budget, and the Flex 5 checks all the boxes you need in a long-lasting 2-in-1 Chromebook: a 1080p touchscreen, a backlit keyboard, a USB-A port of older peripherals, and battery to last the whole day.

Upgrade pick

Acer Chromebook Spin 713

From $629 at Amazon $629 at Best Buy

For power, glory, and bragging rights

Acer hit an absolute home run with the Spin 713, giving you a 2-in-1 Chromebook that's powerful enough to last you for eight years without running out of space, RAM, or processing power. That 3:2 touchscreen with 2K resolution is also one of the most beautiful on a Chromebook today.



Source: androidcentral

Popular posts from this blog

The hidden cost of food delivery

Noah Lichtenstein Contributor Share on Twitter Noah Lichtenstein is the founder and managing partner of Crossover , a diversified private technology fund backed by institutional investors, technology execs and professional athletes and entertainers. More posts by this contributor What Studying Students Teaches Us About Great Apps I’ll admit it: When it comes to food, I’m lazy. There are dozens of great dining options within a few blocks of my home, yet I still end up ordering food through delivery apps four or five times per week. With the growing coronavirus pandemic closing restaurants and consumers self-isolating, it is likely we will see a spike in food delivery much like the 20% jump China reported during the peak of its crisis. With the food delivery sector rocketing toward a projected $365 billion by the end of the decade, I’m clearly not the only one turning to delivery apps even before the pandemic hit. Thanks to technology (and VC funding) we can get a ri

Cyber Monday Canada: Last-minute deals for everyone on your list

Best Cyber Monday Canada deals: Smart Home Audio Phones, Tablets & Accessories Wearables Laptops & PC Components Amazon products Gaming Televisions Cameras Lifestyle & Kitchen Toys & Kids Cyber Monday Canada is here, and retailers are rolling out the red carpet for customers who want to shop for everything from tech to kitchenware to games and everything in between. Unlike years past, Cyber Monday Canada deals look a bit different than normal. Instead of retailers trying to pack their stores with as many shoppers as possible, we're seeing tons of online deals that you can take advantage of from the comfort of your home. We've rounded up our favorites below, so feel free to browse through the best of what Canada Cyber Monday has to offer! This list is being updated with new Cyber Monday deals all the time, so check back often. Spotlight deals It's a Switch Nintendo Switch Fortnite Edition bundle $399.95 at Amazon It's a Switch.

Slack’s new integration deal with AWS could also be about tweaking Microsoft

Slack and Amazon announced a big integration late yesterday afternoon. As part of the deal, Slack will use Amazon Chime for its call feature, while reiterating its commitment to use AWS as its preferred cloud provider to run its infrastructure. At the same time, AWS has agreed to use Slack for internal communications. Make no mistake, this is a big deal as the SaaS communications tool increases its ties with AWS, but this agreement could also be about slighting Microsoft and its rival Teams product by making a deal with a cloud rival. In the past Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield has had choice words for Microsoft saying the Redmond technology giant sees his company as an “existential threat.” Whether that’s true or not — Teams is but one piece of a huge technology company — it’s impossible not to look at the deal in this context. Aligning more deeply with AWS sends a message to Microsoft, whose Azure infrastructure services compete with AWS. Butterfield didn’t say that of course

iPhone 13 Pro vs. iPhone 15 Pro Buyer's Guide: 50+ Differences Compared

The iPhone 15 Pro brings over 50 new features and improvements to Apple's high-end smartphones compared to the iPhone 13 Pro, which was released two years prior. This buyer's guide breaks down every major difference you should be aware of between the two generations and helps you to decide whether it's worth upgrading. The ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro debuted in 2021, introducing a brighter display with ProMotion technology for refresh rates up to 120Hz, the A15 Bionic chip, a telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom, Macro photography and photographic styles, Cinematic mode for recording videos with shallow depth of field, ProRes video recording, a 1TB storage option, and five hours of additional battery life. The ‌iPhone 13‌ Pro was discontinued upon the announcement of the iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, but it is still possible to get hold of it second-hand. Our guide helps to answer the question of how to decide which of these two iPhone models is best for you and serves as a way to c