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Acer takes on Pixelbook w/ aluminum, 8th Gen Intel Chromebook 13 & Chromebook Spin 13

Back in March, Acer and Google announced the first Chromebook tablet aimed at the education market. A first for Chrome OS, Acer is now expanding into the underserved premium laptop form factor with the Chromebook 13 and Chromebook Spin 13.

Both feature a “100% metal chassis” that reflects Acer and Google going after a more premium business and consumer market. Similar to the Pixelbook or Samsung Chromebook Pro, these devices are a marked improvement from Acer’s predominant use of plastic, but rugged, designs.

Running Android apps from the Play Store, the touchscreen displays on both models receive a very welcome size upgrade to 13.5-inch with IPS for better viewing angles. With a 3:2 ratio, the 2256 x 1504 resolution should address complaints about Acer having ardently stuck to a lower 1366 x 768 on most of its laptops.

On the Spin 13, a 360-degree hinge allows for multiple viewing angles beyond a traditional tablet mode, like tent or theatre. It also features a stowable Wacom EMR stylus that’s been used in other Chromebooks from the company, like the Tab 10 and Spin 11.

Powered by 8th Gen Intel chipsets, the Spin 13 can be configured with a Core i5-8250U or Core i3-8130U with up to 16GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The regular Chromebook 13 can be outfitted with the Core i3-8130U, Pentium 4415U, or Celeron 3865U, as well as up to 16GB LPDDR3 memory and either 32GB or 64GB storage.

Ports-wise, there are two USB-C ports — one on each side — and a standard USB 3.0 and microSD card slot. Other specs include a 10 hour battery life and trackpad covered by Corning Gorilla Glass for a smoother swiping experience, as well as Bluetooth 4.2 and 2×2 MIMO 802.1ac Wi-Fi.

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com