Acer Spin 5 SP513 Laptop Review: Optimized 13-Inch Convertible with Clickpad Problems

[Redaktion]

With the new Acer Spin 5 SP513, the manufacturer optimizes the 13.5-inch model of the versatile convertible. With Intel Ice Lake, the hardware has improved considerably and there are additional improvements. So has Acer created a convincing overall package here, or are there still some old or even new weaknesses? In addition, the Intel convertible also has to compete with a new AMD heavyweight.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Spin-5-SP513-Laptop-Review-Optimized-13-Inch-Convertible-with-Clickpad-Problems.489330.0.html

[RicoViking9000]

Maybe it'll be friends with the Dell XPS 15 9500. Or rather, the Dell finally found a trackpad companion

[Mothertrucker19]

I was waiting for this review.
I didn't read about the touchpad problems in other reviews, so it might be an isolated case.
Also yes, it's deep, but it's also the only one that offers a 3:2 screen.

[Daniel Ridenhour]

The main selling point of this unit and why its been on my radar since it was announced is the 13.5" 3:2 aspect screen.   There haven't been a lot of screens with that much vertical real estate since the industry's love affair with 16:9 turning computers in to glorified mobile TVs.   For coding,  content creation and PDF consumption 4:3 and 3:2 leave 16:9 in the dust.   Dell has recognized this with their 16:10 screens but other than the high priced Surface Book I haven't seen much if any competing 3:2 screens.

That said the performance is disappointing... if they are going to throttle the CPU/GPU why not just put an i5 in it and save some $$$.    I do like the silent operation most of the time though.   

At only about 1/4 pound heavier than a surface pro + keyboard cover with a bigger screen and docked pen...  it might make a better comparison to a Surface Pro.

[Mothertrucker19]

The main selling point of this unit and why its been on my radar since it was announced is the 13.5" 3:2 aspect screen.   There haven't been a lot of screens with that much vertical real estate since the industry's love affair with 16:9 turning computers in to glorified mobile TVs.   For coding,  content creation and PDF consumption 4:3 and 3:2 leave 16:9 in the dust.   Dell has recognized this with their 16:10 screens but other than the high priced Surface Book I haven't seen much if any competing 3:2 screens.

That said the performance is disappointing... if they are going to throttle the CPU/GPU why not just put an i5 in it and save some $$$.    I do like the silent operation most of the time though.   

At only about 1/4 pound heavier than a surface pro + keyboard cover with a bigger screen and docked pen...  it might make a better comparison to a Surface Pro.

I've been a Surface Pro 3 user and I love the 3:2 screen and that's why this was on my radar.
The performance isn't the best, and there isn't a i5 16gig RAM config.
Also in the charts the speakers look great and I kinda like that Acer didn't mess with the keyboard layout as HP does on their machines.

[Daniel Ridenhour]

Is the screen laminated?  or is there a noticable offset due to the glass when using the pen? 

[AndreaZ]

Finally the review i was waiting for.
3:2, convertible (without a soft keyboard and stand), DPC issues free, large touchpad and none of the defects are showstopper for me (for example i prefer to tap instead of click on the touchpad).
But...
here in Italy Acer sell this device with two options:
i5 512GB 8GB @ 1199€ (and 100€ discout at the moment)
i7 1TB     8GB @ 1399€

So no 16GB options and price way higher than other countries.
:( :( :(

[Mothertrucker19]

Maybe take a look at german stores if you live inside the EU. I was thinking about ordering from there too as here they don't sell the 16 gig configs.

[Mothertrucker19]

What happaned to the review?

[winston]

That screen is a beauty, shame about the PWM though. For the price however, this is a very good buy in this configuration!

[Daniel Ridenhour]

Its available on Amazon US in  i7/16gb/512gb and i5/16gb/512gb variants.  No 1tb variant is offered in the US yet that I've been able to find.

Really curious if the screen is laminated or if there is significant parallax when using the pen. 

Still think the review misses the significance of the 3:2 display.   Its the only 'flip' style 2-in-1 windows machine with such a screen.  Its only competition in that regard is the surface book which costs a lot more for similar specs and still lacks thunderbolt.    What I consider the defining point of this laptop, what makes it unique and attractive seems to not even register on the reviewers radar.  I guess thats why there are lots of different laptops out there...   while I see it as the most important thing...  the reviewer ignores it, instead complaining that the case is deeper than the competition...  most of which use smaller 16:9 displays making them not even real competition in my book. 

[Phil Brock]

I tried this laptop out a couple of months ago but ended up returning it after problems with the microphone (it refused to work, no matter how many times I reinstalled Windows/drivers etc).

The display ratio takes some getting used to, the laptop just looks a little unusual when you glance at it, however it proves really useful when browsing the web/looking at docs etc. You really do fit a lot more content vertically, and it's almost always a plus. However, the display is not just glossy, it's like a mirror. Almost unusable outside and sometimes challenging indoors. I'd love to see an anti-reflective coating on it, because I sure got sick of seeing myself. I was surprised at the review saying they saw no backlight bleed as I definitely did. Once lit up the colours are rich and bright, but I'd also question the contrast ratio. (Maybe I've just been spoiled by OLED screens, but I like my blacks to be black.)

The keyboard was just okay, I found it a little mushy in places, almost like the keys were travelling horizontally as I pressed down on them. The close spacing of the arrow keys was horrible, but seems to be pretty standard on laptops these days. I didn't have problems with the function keys.

The fingerprint reader was only occasionally reliable, and obviously inaccessible when using the laptop in anything but the standard laptop mode (tent mode etc).

The speakers were not good, I can't understand reviews saying they're decent, they're underwhelming - not loud or high fidelity.

Port selection was good, and better than any comparable 2-in-1 that I know of. The power button is not recessed, so if you stand the laptop on its side in book mode you have to consciously choose not to put it down on the side with the power button or it will immediately turn off. (Then you have to pick it up, turn it on, get annoyed by the fingerprint reader not working, and then enter your PIN to unlock it.) Also questionable - the power socket is on the opposite side to the power button, so you can't charge the laptop and use it in book mode, or it'll turn off.

Looks-wise, it's a very dull looking machine. When closed it sits on your table like a boring looking folder. It's got so much anti-style that you almost can't believe it when you open it up and it comes to life.

The weight is excellent, and it feels very light in the hand. It's still too heavy to be used comfortably as a tablet, but then I think even tablets are too long to be used comfortably as tablets given a long enough time frame. The 2-in-1 aspect works well enough, though inevitably you find yourself needing a keyboard just as you've tucked it away, maybe this form factor is just doomed to suffer in that way.

WiFi performance seemed solid, better than my old Dell XPS.

Build quality seemed reasonable, with a couple of slightly worrying seams on the bottom of the screen that felt like maybe they'd catch on something some day and come apart, and slightly too much flex to the bottom middle of the screen for comfort.

Battery life was decent and it seemed to hold a charge quite well. The barrel-plug charger is very small and light, but charged it rapidly.

The inbuilt stylus was usable for playing around, but not really for serious use. It's quite thin and small. I'm pretty new to the genre but found times where it didn't seem to register light strokes on the screen, and despite all the talk of AES pressure levels, I'm not sure I could really feel it.

Unlike the reviewer, I found the fan high-pitched and distracting. It felt like it often came on inexplicably (just doing Windows stuff (TM)) but wasn't big enough for the job so had to try extra-hard. The CPU throttling when the machine warmed up was also frustrating at times.

Overall I was disappointed with the laptop. I'd had high hopes, but they weren't really realised. If you don't mind the compromises I think you'd probably be fine with it. Ultimately maybe it matches the OS - Windows 10 itself is still kind of fragmented and disappointing, with a mixed user experience, and this laptop fits in perfectly.

[vertigo]

if they are going to throttle the CPU/GPU why not just put an i5 in it and save some $$$.    I do like the silent operation most of the time though.

The performance isn't the best, and there isn't a i5 16gig RAM config.

I'm sure part of this is that they figure people who want one want the other, and vice-versa. But I also strongly suspect they do it to get more money. I've read probably 40-50 laptop reviews here over the past couple years, and there have been many that had marginally better performance, if any, with i7 vs i5, but getting them with an i5 and 16GB RAM isn't an option. That's the only reason I didn't buy a Spectre last year, and why I've passed on several, HP and otherwise, this year. Even if the i7 actually was a better performer, I just don't need it and would rather save the money, but if they're not going to give me that option while still allowing me to have 16GB RAM--which, for me, is the bare minimum, and I'd actually prefer 32GB--then they can just lose the sale.

It's insane that in 2020 the majority of laptops still default to 8GB, and many either absolutely can't go higher or they can only with the most expensive CPU. Of course, some even come with 4GB, which is absolutely crazy, even for a budget computer. I miss the days when upgradable RAM was the norm, not the exception.

[vertigo]

I actually almost bought this, and would have if MS wasn't so totally inept. I spent probably a total of 3-4 hours throughout the course of a day between trying multiple times to place an order on their "store" and talking with support first on chat (to be able to even get the website to work to place the order) and then on the phone (to try and figure out why it wasn't completing the transaction. Finally after around half an hour on the phone with them telling me they'd have to escalate it because a supervisor needed to activate my account since I hadn't bought anything from there in a while, I just gave up. Completely ridiculous, and I have no idea how they expect to do any business when placing an order requires all that effort followed by waiting several hours for them to allow you to buy from them. No thanks.

It's too bad Acer decided to partner with them for sale of their product, because Microsoft's incompetence cost them a sale, and who knows how many others. Though maybe it was for the best, because with that crappy display (PWM), I probably would have returned it anyway. It's a shame these manufacturers make computers that are so good in so many ways, then handicap them like that. If the display were better, I'd probably give it a try.

[Mothertrucker19]

I'm sure part of this is that they figure people who want one want the other, and vice-versa. But I also strongly suspect they do it to get more money. I've read probably 40-50 laptop reviews here over the past couple years, and there have been many that had marginally better performance, if any, with i7 vs i5, but getting them with an i5 and 16GB RAM isn't an option. That's the only reason I didn't buy a Spectre last year, and why I've passed on several, HP and otherwise, this year. Even if the i7 actually was a better performer, I just don't need it and would rather save the money,

Yeah i7 usually are not that much better, but having RAM on a laptop is awesome so you can have a lot of things loaded and not wait for the cpu to reload things and waste battery power.

It's too bad Acer decided to partner with them for sale of their product, because Microsoft's incompetence cost them a sale, and who knows how many others.

Yeah, based on posts on reddit and my own Ms customer "care" is painfully annoying.

It's a shame these manufacturers make computers that are so good in so many ways, then handicap them like that. If the display were better, I'd probably give it a try.

I feel you. I waited for two laptops since CES2020. This and the HP 435G7 x360. The Acer turned out to be more expensive, and also the PWM is something I'm not sure about.
The HP is heavier, thicker, has less IO, nad it's on the left. Things I can live with, but it doesn't have a side power button, so you can only turn it on and wake it up in laptop mode, and I think that's just stupid for a convertible device.