The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 just reminded me what I love about Chromebooks. As a person who is deep in the Google ecosystem in my professional and personal life, as well as owning an Android phone (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra), it’s so much more practical for me than the MacBook Air M2 that I use.

During setup, I was asked to sign in with my Google credentials, and it didn’t leave me floundering. (No offense to Microsoft, but since I don’t often use OneDrive, Teams, or other Microsoft properties, I never remember my Microsoft credentials, which makes setting up Windows laptops a pain. )

With an attractive starting price under $500, I wondered for a split second if I’d be better off with a Chromebook — but a dealbreaker brought me back to reality. However, I would say that it is one of the the best Chromebooks you can buy.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 price and specifications

The Chromebook Plus Spin 714, as of this writing, boots $499 via Best Buy and comes with the following specifications:

If you want to improve performance, you can upgrade the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 to an Intel Core Ultra 5 115U (this review is based on this configuration) – this will require a Another $200 for a price of $699.

Design of the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714

The design language of the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 speaks to me. You really can’t go wrong with a gray and rose gold color palette.

Credit: Kimberly Gédéon

The entire aluminum chassis comes in Steel Gray – the only color option for the Acer laptop. But what gives this laptop an edge are the rose gold accents that you can find on the hinges and the reflective border that surrounds the touchpad.

Speaking of hinges, as the name “Spin” suggests, the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 would be a contortionist if personified by a human. It’s foldable and flexible, which means it can transform into many different postures: tent mode, tablet mode, etc.

Credit: Kimberly Gédéon

Tent Mode is perfect for anyone who wants the screen to take center stage, making it easy to enjoy streaming apps like Netflix and Hulu on the Chromebook Plus Spin 714.

If you want to draw and take notes, you can use tablet mode. The Chromebook Plus Spin 714 supports styluses, like this one on Amazonbut it doesn’t come with one, which is a shame. However, the downside of tablet mode – and this is found everywhere all 2 in 1 laptops – is that you will feel the keyboard under your fingers when you use it, which always made me nauseous.

One of the main selling points of the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is that it meets MIL-STD 810H standards, which means it offers military-grade durability. In other words, you can rest assured that it will hold up to everyday wear and tear. (This makes it an ideal “starter laptop” for young children who tend to have butter fingers with technology.)

It’s also worth noting that the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 has some weight to it. It’s not heavy, but it’s not a laptop that would make me say, “Whoa!” It’s so thin and light!

It weighs 3.21 pounds and has a slimness of 0.74 inches.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 Screen

I didn’t expect the Chromebook Plus Spin 714’s screen to blow me away. Remember: it costs less than $700.

Credit: Kimberly Gédéon

It sports a 14-in. Screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels with an aspect ratio of 16:10. This aspect ratio is becoming more and more popular among laptops (16:9 used to be the traditional option), and I’m happy with it. It offers more vertical screen real estate, allowing you to enjoy more display space for scrolling the web, reading documents, and more.

However, the Chromebook Plus Spin 714’s screen performed much better than I expected. I watched a few trailers, including Snow White (2025)and the screen perfectly captured Rachel Zegler’s warm ivory complexion. The textures are so vivid that I could practically feel the yellow tulle of the dress Zegler twirled in during a whimsical scene.

One thing to take into account, however, is that the brightness is quite low, sitting at around 340 nits. As such, you’ll likely have a little trouble seeing the screen in sunny environments.

But if you plan to use the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 indoors, its display is above average for a Chromebook.

Ports Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714

The Chromebook Plus Spin 714 comes with a good variety of ports.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

On the left side you will find the following:

• USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 (2)

• HDMI 2.0

On the right side:

• USB-A (3.2 generation 1)

• Headphone jack

On the left side you will find the power button, but the volume rocker is on the right side. The Chromebook Plus Spin 714 supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 Audio

The worst thing about the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is its audio quality. You can’t win them all, can you?

The upward-firing speakers flank the keyboard, but I’m not a fan of the sound quality. I fired up Sabrina Carpenter’s hit song “Espresso” through Apple Music (downloaded from the Google Play Store), and while it could get loud enough at maximum volume, the melody sounded a bit tinny, tinny, and flat.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 keyboard and trackpad

I’m a keyboard snob and I can’t figure it out enough of the Chromebook Plus Spin 714’s satisfying keyboard. As soon as the keys are pressed, they move you to the next letter, creating a smooth and rhythmic typing experience.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

The keys are clicky and snappy, but they’re also not loud enough to draw sideways glances from bored colleagues and classmates.

Bonus points for the high visibility of the keyboard with the well-contrasted white and dark gray keys. Additionally, you can adjust the keyboard’s white backlight by pressing the ALT and brightness keys (next to the mute button) in the function row.

The trackpad isn’t bad either. He was responsive as I pushed him over the edge with my erratic actions.

Benchmarks and performance of the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714

On Geekbench 6, which tests a laptop’s ability to handle real-world applications (e.g. PDF rendering, ray tracing, image editing, and file compression), the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 got a score of 5,223.

Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

This score is OK. But I’m not too concerned about this performance, because ChromeOS is designed to alleviate tasks performed through applications pushed to the cloud (rather than relying on local processing power).

Most tasks on Chromebooks (e.g., using Google Docs, streaming videos, browsing the web) are done online, meaning these laptops rely on cloud servers for heavy processing, minimizing thus the need for powerful hardware.

Even pushing Google Chrome to its limits with around 40 tabs, I didn’t notice any lag or sluggish behavior.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 Battery Life

The Chromebook Plus Spin 714, equipped with a 53 watt-hour battery, is advertised as having up to 10 hours of battery life.

According to our video recap test, which involves non-stop video looping of 1080p video, the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 lasted approximately 9 hours on a single charge: 8 hours and 57 minutes to be exact. This is a bit of a dealbreaker for me. A battery life of at least ten hours is essential.

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 Google AI

AI isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s definitely mine. I am cautiously optimistic about the sudden resurgence of artificial intelligence.

Google Gemini on Chromebook Plus Spin 714
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

While you can experience Google Gemini on any laptop or phone, this Google-based AI suite practically resides inside this ChromeOS laptop, allowing you to right-click anywhere on the screen to get summaries on web pages, a company to write and even create high quality content. res backgrounds for your video calls.

Creating summaries is quick and easy, and it worked like a charm. For example, on Mashable, I asked Gemini to give me a simple answer explaining why, exactly, iPhone 16 Pro batteries are more expensive to replace (as the title suggested) – and he “read” the article and sent me the response back. in a quick and concise response.

I asked Gemini to help me summarize a story on Mashable
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

And I didn’t even have to read a single word.

The only problem I have with Gemini is that sometimes it can be extremely slow. For example, I tried to create a background image for my Google Meet call, and the generation took so long (over 9 minutes) that I finally gave up and closed the laptop.

It took almost a lifetime to generate an AI background.
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 comes with 12 months of Google One AI Premium plan (this plan includes access to Gemini Advanced and 2TB of storage, and Gemini in Docs, Sheets, Gmail, etc.).

Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 Webcam

The Chromebook Plus Spin 714 has a 1440p webcam, and while I don’t like to use that trite phrase, there’s really not much to write home about.

Webcam image with Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714
Credit: Kimberly Gedeon / Mashable

It’s not the sharpest and clearest webcam, as you might expect from a sub-$700 webcam, but it gets the job done. It was still able to accurately capture my skin tone and burgundy top.

Is the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 worth it?

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 has a better-than-expected screen, a excellent keyboard, sophisticated design and military-tested durability. However, the screen brightness isn’t very good, the sound quality is average, and the battery life could be better.

If it weren’t for the battery life, I’d consider giving the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 a place in our list of best cheap laptops.

On the plus side, there’s a laptop for everyone. I would recommend the Chromebook Plus Spin 714 to budget-conscious users who are looking for a laptop that can sit on a desk at home. I’d also suggest this Chromebook to a teenager who doesn’t need a powerful, durable workstation – they’ll be happy with a laptop with a great screen and decent performance.