Launch of the "first Ryzen C-based Chromebook" Acer Spin 514

In October of last year, AMD announced its Ryzen C-series chips, allowing more companies to develop Chromebooks based on the Ryzen chips. This experimental attempt finally paid off, when Acer announced the Chromebook Spin 514, the first Chromebook to feature AMD's mobile Ryzen processor.

The Spin 514 costs $480. It's much cheaper than the existing premium Chromebooks, but it's at a more expensive mid-range price than the entry-level Chromebook. It is expected to be officially released along with the enterprise version in February.

Of course, AMD entered the Chromebook market with A-series chips from 2019, but the full-scale market penetration is from 2020 when the Ryzen C-series designed for Chromebooks were announced. The Ryzen C series is not a Ryzen Mobile 4000 chip that shook the notebook market, but a derivative of the 3000 series.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 514 is based on the Ryzen 7 3700C or Ryzen 5 3500C, and both processors include an integrated graphics core. According to Acer, it has a battery life of up to 10 hours and offers military-grade durability that won't damage if dropped from a height of 1.2m.

Perhaps because of its battery and durability, it weighs about 1.5kg, which is heavy. The thickness is 17.4mm. The body is made of anodized aluminum, and the cover and touchpad have a rhombic pattern. The 14-inch display is protected by scratch-resistant Gorilla glass, and the side bezel is 6.1mm, and the main body screen ratio is 78%.

The internal specifications are almost the same as the PC. With up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 256GB of built-in SSD, it provides free memory and storage capacity. It supports dual-band Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and provides 4 USB ports and a microSD slot.

Google hasn't put the Chromebook Spin 514 on the support list yet, but Acer says that Google's support for the new Chromebook is typically eight years.