Huawei P50 series: Everything we know so far (Updated: Apr. 30) https://ift.tt/2JOStnT

Update: April 30, 2021 (7:05 AM ET): We’ve updated this hub with new alleged images of the Huawei P50. Scroll down for more details.

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Original article: December 17, 2020 (11:30 AM ET): Huawei’s growth has buckled under the various pressures it experienced in 2020. Nevertheless, the Chinese manufacturer has big designs for 2021. Although the US sanctions against the firm show no signs of abating, the company is poised for the launch of the Huawei P50 series – the latest phone family in the company’s early flagship line.

Like the Huawei P40 line and the P series’ previous iterations, we expect the P50 series to sport excellent camera performance and battery endurance. But what else could we see?

Ahead of the likely launch in 2021, we’ve rounded up the current Huawei P50 rumors, news snippets, and leaks below.

Stay up to date: Huawei P40 Pro review | Huawei P40 Pro Plus review

Name and release date

Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S21, there’s little debate on what Huawei will label this flagship. The company enjoys ticking over its monikers by ten, so we expect the P50 series to succeed the P40 line.

We’ll likely also see a three-tier model approach as has become customary for Huawei. This would include a standard model, a Pro model, and possibly a more premium Pro Plus variant, too.

The official release date is a little more of a mystery. Huawei’s P series has traditionally seen a late-March launch. The Huawei P10 series was the last of the breed to debut in February, while the P9 made its bow in April. It wouldn’t be farfetched to suggest Q1 2021 for the P50 debut.

Korean publication The Elec echoes this, stating in a November 2020 report that the Huawei P50 series will debut in the first quarter of 2021. No specific date was shared by its sources, though. Tipster @Rodent950 also claimed that the phone series will debut in March.

Once March rolled around, the same tipster then claimed we’ll actually be seeing the P50 series’ Chinese launch on April 17. Interestingly enough, they added that the P50 Pro Plus has been delayed, and hinted that only the vanilla P50 and P50 Pro would be launched then.

Credit: twitter.com/rodent950

If this launch date is accurate, then we can likely expect a global launch date around the same time-frame. But if it’s anything like the Mate 40 series, we’re only expecting the P50 Pro to be available outside China.

Huawei P50 series: Design

The first alleged and vague image of the P50 Pro spilled in January. While it gave us a good idea of its shape, it didn’t showcase much of the phone’s design features. On March 10, we finally got a good look at the Huawei P50 Pro’s design.

The latest renders, spilled by Steve Hemmerstoffer, point to a centrally-mounted selfie camera cutout with a curved display. At the rear, the phone wears a huge pill-shaped camera bump — much larger than the P40 series. This could be proof of a much larger camera sensor. On closer inspection, an IR blaster makes an appearance too, but there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack.

Renders of the standard P50 leaked a day later again via Hemmerstoffer. These renders showcase the phone in a silver colorway with a flat display and an equally large camera hump. The IR blaster makes an appearance here too, but again, the headphone jack is absent.

Weibo tipster Digital Chat Station shared alleged front and rear images of the standard Huawei P50 on April 30. Design details in the shots, including the large rear camera array, largely line up with the renders leaked by Hemmerstoffer.

Huawei P50 series: Specs and features

Residual US sanctions may still be a spanner in the works for Huawei, but we still expect the P50 series to sport stellar hardware. The company was permitted in October 2020 to purchase some key components. Those include camera sensors from the likes of Sony and Omnivision and screens from Samsung Display. Reports suggest Huawei is now allowed to resume some chip purchases, too.

Huawei’s latest P series model usually shares key internals with the previous Mate series. Expect the P50 line to borrow some of the Huawei Mate 40 line’s hardware. While some reports suggested that the 5G-capable Kirin 9000 would be the last high-end Kirin to feature in a Huawei flagship, this may not be true. The Huawei P50 series may also sport the SoC. If the Kirin 9000 is at the heart of the P50 line, the 5nm chipset will be a big step up for NPU and CPU performance over the Kirin 990-powered P40.

It’s worth noting that Huawei hasn’t been able to produce any more Kirin 9000 chipsets after the US tightened restrictions against partners like TSMC. So if Huawei is sticking with its in-house flagship processors, it won’t have many on offer. This could therefore result in precious few devices compared to the P40 and Mate 30 series.

As for storage and RAM, the base Huawei P40 arrived with 128GB of UFS 3.1 with 8GB of RAM. We don’t expect Huawei to decrease available RAM on the P50 series, but the storage amount remains unknown at present.

Frequent Huawei leaker Rodent950 claimed on Twitter that Sony is working on a one-inch smartphone sensor dubbed the IMX800. The leaker said it’ll be revealed in April, which suggests that we could see a P50 series phone with this huge sensor then.

Credit: twitter.com/rodent950

For what it’s worth, the last couple of Huawei flagships have taken the same route when it comes to the actual camera arrangement. All three phones usually get a main and ultra-wide camera, while the base model gets a telephoto lens only, the Pro variant gets a 5x periscope camera only, and the Pro Plus option gets both telephoto and periscope cameras. We’d therefore expect a similar setup on the new phones.

Staying with camera technology, a rumor late last year suggested that Huawei and Leica had ended their partnership. However, the Chinese manufacturer told Android Authority that this was “absolutely fake news.” So it sounds like Leica-branded cameras are still on the menu this year.

Will it run Android?

Huawei confirmed in September 2020 that Harmony OS will be available on smartphones come 2021. While the company currently employs Android-based EMUI 11 on its devices, that could be coming to an end with the P50 series.

According to a report by China’s Sina Tech, the Huawei P50 series will be “officially equipped” with Harmony OS. Huawei recently unveiled Harmony OS 2.0 beta, and with it a list of compatible devices. While the P50 wasn’t mentioned, the P40 was included. So yes, it’s possible Huawei’s next flagship phone could be the first to launch with its homegrown operating system.

Whether it launches with EMUI 11 or Harmony OS, there’s little chance the P50 line will sport Google Mobile Services or Google apps due to the ongoing sanctions.

The company also rubber-stamped the possibility of EMUI 11 phones upgrading to Harmony OS in the future. It’s possible the Huawei P50 series would be among the devices to support this if it doesn’t debut with the OS.

Huawei P50 series: Pricing and availability

Huawei tends to serve its home market first and foremost, especially in recent years. Those in Europe or other regions may see a delayed launch. Even then, the phone series itself may be hard to come by.

Although Huawei launched the P40 series in late March, the phone was only available in China and Western markets on June 6 and June 25, respectively. We could see something similar with the P50 series, although it’s a little too early to tell how Huawei will manage the rollout.

As for pricing, we can make a few hopeful predictions based on the P series’ track record. Huawei stuck with the same price across the P40 and P30 lines. The base P30 and P40 both retailed for €799 (~$971), while the base P30 Pro and P40 Pro models started at €999 (~$1,214). The P40 Pro also got double the storage of its predecessor, too.

Considering Huawei’s struggles to maintain its global market share, we expect to see the firm retain this pricing structure once again. It may even choose to drop these prices a touch, making the P50 series a more attractive offering compared to its competition.

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That’s all we know about the Huawei P50 series so far. Be sure to bookmark this article and check back regularly so you’re always up to speed with the latest news.

Next: Huawei P40 Pro revisited: Should you still buy it?

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You told us: You really want an Apple-like anti-app tracking feature on Android https://ift.tt/3sWJ6nx

Credit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority

Apple recently introduced its controversial App Tracking Transparency feature on iOS. If enabled, the privacy-focused feature restricts apps from tracking you across the web and other third-party apps. This would ultimately mean users gaining more control over how companies share their personal information for ad-targeting. It would also mean people seeing fewer necessary apps. But personalized ads that are sometimes useful could also take a hit.

With iOS 14.5, Apple gives iPhone users a choice to opt out of app tracking. So we asked our readers if they would also want a similar anti-app tracking feature on Android. We gave readers three options to choose from. Here’s how they voted in our poll.

Should Android implement an Apple-like App Tracking Transparency feature?

Results

We published our anti-app tracking feature poll on our website, Twitter, and YouTube and received a total of 35,848 votes across all platforms. The resounding thought amongst most Android users we surveyed is that they too want an Apple-like App Tracking Transparency feature on their phone.

86% of all the respondents favored having the feature on Android and felt that it’s a step in the right direction for privacy. Meanwhile, 8.7% said that they are okay with the way things currently stand on Android as far as app-based tracking is concerned.

A mere 5.35% of the total number of poll takers said they don’t care about apps tracking them across the web and other apps.

Your Comments

Glenn Gore: I am tracked enough by Google, et al, I am grateful for the option to stop some of that tracking when I want to. And I am grateful for the option to turn it back on should I ever feel the need. OPTIONS, something Android users have always mentioned about why that OS is so great, so it is a bit odd when they blast this particular option. Interesting.

andres_1: I wouldn’t hold my breath for Google to implement this on Android though…haha

Leif Shantz: I used to be in the “I don’t care” club, but the increasing exposure of what companies do with my data, the more cautious I am, especially Facebook.

EasyCare: Apple knows how to market their devices as privacy-friendly because they make a profit from their expensive hardware, not by targeted advertising like Google. While this feature is great for consumers, I’m sure the majority of them already have their data exposed through other means (social media from computers, emails, etc.). Personally, I consent to personalized advertising.

Lamar Taylor: I think the keyword in this discussion is “transparency” and not privacy. I don’t think anyone expects full privacy on the internet or social media, but we should at least know when data is being collected and what data is being collected.

Anthorama: They should just implement it in the phone settings and not into every app. This is nonsense and why this Apple thing is a joke: you can still track everybody using Apple Search Ads, even the ones that opted out.

TheOracle: I voted yes. However, since Android enabled DoT Private DNS, it doesn’t really bother me anymore. Ads and trackers are blocked on all my devices, apps, VPN, routers, and browsers. It may not be 100% effective, but it’s very close. For those who aren’t as obsessed as me, it should be made available. P.S. Google and Facebook are by far the worst offenders in my blocking logs. Google, I don’t mind so much as I’m deep in their ecosystem, but I’m as ruthless as possible with the insidious parasite called Facebook.

Albin: No doubt app devs will eventually respond by limiting functionality for users who fail to accept. To me, it’s the lack of transparency about what’s aggregated and where it’s sent or sold. Google itself has a pretty straightforward trade-off of data mining for some excellent services, and I can use them under a non-commercial nonsense Gmail account, knowing what I do and don’t get on those terms. Other apps, especially those requiring a real personal identity and credit card, should be so clear about it.

dembow: Stop with this privacy propaganda already. Apple users have nothing left to do with their useless devices, so now they’re desperately hooking people in their boring garden with this privacy bs. What a great way to sell you an invisible product. Just no.

BlackSh33p: Fandroids like to point out how everything can be customized on android… why not just consider this another customization feature?

Dllemm: I’m fine with paying for my OS development to be less exploited for ads and other nefarious reasons.
This was discussed years ago (digital fingerprints), but Apple is the only one moving on it. And even that took way too long.

MM_Rafez: I don’t think it’s a good idea for android. We’ve to understand that Android and iOS’s approaches are very different. Apple advertises their product as a privacy-based product, and they can get away with high hardware prices.
But that doesn’t work with android. Android smartphones are more like value-based offerings(except a few). So, doing this will raise android based devices’ prices significantly.

Raghavendra N: Android implementing such a feature would adversely affect google ads strategy too. Confused situation for Android.

Opemilekan Adesunloye: I predict other manufacturers like Samsung and OnePlus may do it first and maybe that’ll force Google to do it.

Matthew Jardine: Reading the fine print in Apple’s Privacy Policy carefully leads me to believe they are not so squeaky clean when it comes to privacy issues as they would like everyone to believe, but that being said, they have made a couple of positive strides that they use as evidence to their stance. App Tracking Transparency is one of them. I completely agree that it should be copied by Google, as well as the orange and green dot feature.

Red Dragon: Tracking isn’t an issue. It’s not like someone is tracking your location and being a creep to stalk you. They’re using the data to give you discounts and try to make you a customer for future products. There’s nothing wrong with data tracking. I don’t get what everyone’s problem is.

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Realme Watch 2 is now official with bigger battery, more sport modes https://ift.tt/3t5l0XC

Credit: Realme

• The Realme Watch 2 is now official.
• Realme’s second-generation Watch packs a larger battery, more fitness tracking modes, and a lower price.

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Realme launched its first smartwatch a little under a year ago, but it wasn’t a stellar debut. Now, the company is hoping to improve with the Realme Watch 2.

First spotted in January passing through the FCC, the Realme Watch 2 looks almost identical to the original Realme Watch. This includes the rectangular 1.4-inch 240 x 240 LCD and primary button placement.

The body’s a little heavier at 38 grams, but it now includes a 315mAh battery — a notable upgrade over the original Watch’s 160mAh cell. The new battery is reportedly good for around 12 days between magnetic charger top-ups. The Watch 2’s body also features an IP68 rating; good news for swimmers and those who enjoy jogs in downpours.

Fitness tracking — a major sore point on the previous device — seemingly gains some improvements on the Watch 2. It can now track 90 sports modes up from the original Watch’s 14.

Credit: Realme

It also arrives with sleep tracking smarts, an SpO2 monitor, and a heart-rate monitor.

The Watch 2 also packs some smartwatch functionality. Music and camera controls and notification support feature, but it’s unclear if the watch will let users reply to messages on the device.

Realme Watch 2: Price and availability

The Realme Watch 2 is launching in Malaysia soon for 229 Malaysian ringgit (~$56). That’s a little cheaper than the original Realme Watch’s 299 Malaysian ringgit (~$73) price tag in the country. This could be good news for other launch markets, too.

There’s no word on when the Realme Watch 2 will be available in other regions just yet but expect it to pick a fight with the likes of Xiaomi and Amazfit‘s budget wearables.

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Google is bringing sweeping policy changes to Play Store app titles, icons https://ift.tt/321hsc5

• Google has announced upcoming policy changes to app titles, icons, and assets on the Play Store.
• Developers will have to comply or risk their app’s removal from the Play Store.
• The new policies will be implemented later this year, but no official date has been provided.

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The Google Play Store is a dizzying mire of apps, especially for first-time users. Some of these deliberately mislead the uninitiated with their catchy titles, icons, and assets. Now, Google is giving developers time to address these issues before it enforces new policy changes later this year.

Announced in a Developer blog post (h/t XDA), Google will restrict developers from embellishing their apps with potentially misleading titles and icons. These new policies will force developers to provide Play Store users with accurate info about their app.

So what are these changes? For starters, app title length will be limited to 30 characters. Titles will also be free of any ranking descriptor or other performance indicators, promotional info, emoticons, or repeated special characters. These rules will also apply to developer titles too. You can see an example of the changes below.

Google notes that apps failing to meet these requirements will not be allowed on the Google Play Store in the future.

What this means for Google Play Store users

The policy changes are a welcome move from Google, but it is a case of better late than never. These steps should make it easier for users to find genuine apps, or at least apps with accurate descriptions and titles. However, it may not directly address other issues like the app cloning problem or the plethora of fake apps available.

The new guidelines also apply to feature graphics, screenshots, videos, and short descriptions. Failing to meet Google’s guidelines on these will render apps “ineligible for promotion and recommendation on major Google Play surfaces like Apps and Games home.”

Google is announcing these changes well before enforcement to help developers get their houses in order. An exact implementation date will be notified by Google later this year.

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Amazon confirms Prime Day 2021 is coming this June https://ift.tt/2R9zB79

Credit: Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

• Amazon has announced that Prime Day 2021 will happen in June this year.
• The sale event has been pushed up keeping in mind the July holiday season.

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Amazon has confirmed that Prime Day 2021 is moving up this year. The event usually takes place in July. However, the company has decided to shift it to the second quarter this year.

As reported by CNET, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky confirmed during a press call that Prime Day 2021 will take place in June.

The official didn’t announce a specific date for Prime Day 2021 but said, “We are going to do it on a date where we think it’ll get more attention for our customers, and also for our vendors.”

He also added that Amazon has concerns over shipping delays and transportation slowdowns in July because it’s a big vacation month. The impact of the Olympics in the third quarter could further affect the progress of Prime Day. Hence the company has landed on the month of June to conduct the event.

“We’re excited for the return of Prime Day and look forward to providing our members with incredible savings while investing in opportunities for our small business selling partners and continuing to ensure the safety of our employees,” an Amazon representative said in a statement.

Amazon suggested you can ask your Alexa-enabled devices to keep you posted on Prime Day 2021 for updates on the actual dates.

Prime Day was postponed to October last year due to the pandemic. However, it brought forth some great deals on smartphones, wearables, laptops, and many other electronics. We expect Prime Day 2021 to also offer big discounts, so if you’re planning to buy a new phone or a big home appliance, you might want to hold off till June.

You can check out some Prime Day 2021 tips to help you save big when the sale goes live. You might also want to sign-up for an Amazon Prime membership in advance of Prime Day.

Sign up for Amazon Prime

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Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review: Nailing the basics matters https://ift.tt/3u8ofPn

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is an affordable, stylish 2-in-1 machine meant to appeal to a wide range of potential buyers. Affordable, in this case, doesn’t mean cheap. The Spin 513 has appealing materials and design, enough performance to get your work done, and plenty of battery life to last the day. Find out if this is the Chromebook for you in the Android Authority Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review.

$399 .99

Acer Chromebook Spin 513

Buy it Now

Acer Chromebook Spin 513 Buy it Now

$399 .99

About this Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review: I used the Acer Chromebook Spin 513 (CP513-1H-S37H) for seven days running Chrome OS 89 and 90. The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review unit was provided to Android Authority by Acer for this review.

What you need to know about the Acer Chromebook Spin 513

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

• Acer Chromebook Spin 513 (4GB RAM/64GB storage): $399/£399/€429

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is priced right. The main version being sold in the US features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and comes in one silvery finish. Acer hasn’t said if other variants of the machine will be sold over time. The device lands in the upper echelon of Acer Chromebooks sold by Walmart. Many of Acer’s devices on Walmart.com are priced $300 or less, so a $400 machine is a step up.

Related: The best Acer Chromebook for your needs and budget

Acer hopes the Spin 513 will appeal to students, people who work from home, and tech lovers seeking a Chromebook for general computing purposes. It’s not meant to be a gaming machine or heavy productivity workhorse. Its thin and lightweight build makes it portable and its 2-in-1 convertible design means it can be used in more ways than one.

How is the design?

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 sure features a lot of chrome. The top lid is made from aluminum and has a polished, beveled, reflective edge that defines the 513’s shape. It catches the eye for sure. This is joined by a reflective chrome Acer logo. Together these give the machine some flash. Most Chromebooks blend in, so anything to help the device stand out is okay in my book.

Related: The best Chromebook accessories you can buy

Beyond that, it’s a fairly straightforward 360-degree design. Rotating hinges join the two halves of the device and allow for a full range of articulation between them. Acer says the Spin 513 offers four usage modes: laptop, tent, tablet, and presentation. Each of these works in its own way and lets people get out of the 513 what they want. The hinges feel strong, smooth, and hold the lid exactly where you want it to be.

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

It’s a slim and light Chromebook. The 13.3-inch display allowed Acer to keep the overall footprint down. The device measures 310 x 209.35 x 15.55mm (12.2 x 8.24 x 0.61 inches) and weighs in at 1.2kg (2.65lbs). This makes it highly portable. It easily fits into backpacks, sacks, and other bags without weighing you down. I carried it around NYC for a day and never felt burdened by it.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 sure features a lot of chrome.

Overall, the build quality, which mixes metals and plastics, is solid. Nothing about this $400 Chromebook feels cheap or inexpensive. There’s something here for everyone to like.

How are the display and keyboard?

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

If there’s one thing cheap Chromebooks have in common, it’s lots of unappealing bezel space. The 13.3-inch display has relatively thin bezels on three sides (top and left/right edges), but there’s a solid inch of black bezel below the display. This makes for a screen-to-body ratio of 78%, says Acer. It’s not a bad look.

The screen is a Full HD panel in a 16:9 aspect ratio. While this is a common aspect ratio, it’s not preferred by everyone. You’ll find 16:9 is great for watching movies and other online content, but productivity-minded people might prefer a device with a 16:10 display for the additional vertical space.

See also: Best Chromebooks under $300

Another common detractor to low-priced Chromebooks is low-res displays. Full HD is all anyone can ask for at this price point and it works well with the 13.3-inch dimensions. I found the screen to look crisp. On-screen elements such as icons and text had well-defined edges and were easy to read.

The display is also touch-enabled and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. I found touch to be simple and responsive whether in laptop, tablet, or tent mode.

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

Apart from the display, the keyboard is the other most essential part of any laptop. The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 has a solid keyboard that gets the job done. The backlight is one feature I can’t live without, and I was pleased to see Acer made sure the Spin 513 has backlit keys. My only complaint is that the light aggressively shuts off after a few seconds of no input. The keyboard is full-sized but lacks a number pad (something we wouldn’t expect on a 13-inch device).

The Chromebook Spin 513 has a solid keyboard and a large, responsive touchpad.

As for the keys themselves, they are a little bit soft in the travel department. They’re also fairly large and require a lot of pushing. I prefer keyboards with shorter action, but you may find it’s right up your alley.

I am a big fan of glass trackpads, and the Spin 513 has a large, responsive, Gorilla Glass-covered touchpad that gets the job done.

Does the battery hold up?

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

Acer gave the Chromebook Spin 513 a 4,670mAh, 36Wh lithium-ion battery. The two-cell power pack is rated for all-day use, and it delivers.

Acer says the rated runtime of the Spin 513 is 13.5 hours. I saw average battery life of 13.2 hours. Just shy of Acer’s rating, but close enough. I saw one instance where the battery exceeded the maximum by about 15 minutes.

With 13+ hours of power, the Chromebook 513 offers more than enough run time to get your work done, watch movies, or browse the web for info on a school project.

How’s that Qualcomm processor?

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is one of the very few Chromebooks to ship with a Qualcomm — rather than Intel or MediaTek — processor on board. Specifically, the Spin 513 is powered by the Snapdragon 7c Compute SC7180 with an Adreno 618 GPU. The configuration of the device we have includes 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, but no expandable storage slots. I would have preferred to see a bit more RAM or storage, or at least expandable storage at this price point. Acer did suggest late last year that a version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage will also be available. However, this hasn’t been further detailed at the time of publishing this review.

Though the Snapdragon 7c supports LTE connectivity, the model we tested does not. Acer told us that a commercial model with integrated LTE will be launched later, with price and specs to be announced.

Testing showed the Chromebook Spin 513 to be a solid everyday machine.

As for day-to-day use, I’ve tested the Snapdragon 7c in Windows machines and can tell you that performance of this chip has never been an issue. Whereas in Windows machines the Snapdragon 7c introduces an app limitation based on the ARM compute profile, you’ll find no such limitations here in Chrome OS. The 7c delivers all the power the Spin 513 needs to push through your tasks. It allowed the device to download and install Android apps in a blink, and it never suffered from slowdowns or lag while I tested the Chromebook.

While the Spin 513 didn’t set the world on fire with its benchmark performance in my testing, the results showed the Chromebook to be a solid everyday machine. Most importantly, the Spin 513 managed dozens of open tabs at a time without slowing down.

Anything else?

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

• Ports: The Acer Chromebook Spin 513 has two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and a 3.5mm combination headphone/microphone jack. You’ll need one of the USB-C ports to charge the Chromebook, but Acer says the USB-C ports are full-fledged USB 3.2 (Gen 1) with DisplayPort.
• Speakers: Two speakers generate stereo sound. The sound is fairly decent for a $400 Chromebook. Two mics join the speakers to help with audio during video calls.
• Video camera: The Chromebook 513 is limited to a 720p HD cam, which isn’t good enough for this day and age. I looked a bit ragged in the video calls I conducted, and low-light performance wasn’t great.
• Chrome OS: Chrome OS is, of course, Google’s Chrome-based platform for laptops. This machine can also run Android apps and has full access to the Google Play Store.

Acer Chromebook Spin 513 specs

	Acer Chromebook Spin 513
Processor	Qualcomm SnapdragonTM 7c Compute Platform Qualcomm Kyro 468 Octa-core CPU (up to 2.4GHz)
Display	13.3" IPS display Full HD 1920 x 1080 High- brightness LED-backlit TFT LCD with integrated multi-touch 16:9 aspect ratio Corning Gorilla Glass
Graphics	Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU
RAM/storage	4GB LPDDR4X SDRAM 64GB eMMC
Battery	36Wh, 4,670 mAh, 7.7 V 2-cell Li-ion battery pack
Webcam	1280 x 720 resolution 720p HD audio/video recording Super high dynamic range imaging (SHDR)
Weight	1.2 kg (2.65 lbs.)
Dimensions	310 x 209.35 x 15.55mm 12.2 x 8.24 x 0.61 inches

Value and competition

Acer Chromebook Spin 513

Acer has crafted a competitive Chromebook in the Spin 513, which slots into the middle of the market and has plenty of fight in it to take on other Chromebooks. It boasts a good display, solid keyboard, and excellent battery life.

• $399.99 at Walmart

The market for $400 Chromebooks is packed with competition. Acer did a solid job with the Chromebook Spin 513 in terms of the value equation by nailing the basics. The design is appealing and the machine is well built. The 2-in-1 design gives it lots of functionality. Moreover, Acer dialed in the right screen size/resolution, the right keyboard, and the right battery life. You’d have to spend more for a larger Full HD touch display or better performance.

Competitors to the Spin 513 include the Lenovo Flex 5, which has a 13-inch Full HD display, 4GB of RAM, and a 360-degree hinge. It bests the 513 in one category: the processor. For $40o, the Lenovo Flex 5 has an Intel Core i3 chip on board, which should outperform the Spin 513’s Snapdragon 7c.

See also: The best Chromebooks to get | The best Chromebook deals

If you have a little more room in your budget, you might consider the Asus Flip C434. It’s one of the best-reviewed Chromebooks in the last few years and though it’s a little bit older, it still holds up. It’s available online for about $470.

If you want to stick with Acer, the Chromebook 514 or 515 are in the same ballpark price-wise but give you bigger screens.

Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review: The verdict

Credit: Eric Zeman / Android Authority

Acer has crafted a competitive Chromebook in the Spin 513. It slots into the low-end of the mid-range and has plenty of fight in it to take on other Chromebooks in the market.

In the plus column, the Acer Chromebook Spin 513 features a well-built, 360-degree spin design that makes the laptop more useful than a standard clamshell. Acer did a good job with the 13.3-inch Full HD touch screen. The keyboard and touchpad combination kept pace with my input demands, and the large battery delivered long-lasting life.

Few Chromebooks offer as many features and as much value at this price point, despite the shortcomings.

In the minus column, some might chide Acer for selecting the Snapdragon 7c silicon. It’s not the most powerful processor on the market, but it managed to push through day-to-day computing tasks with no problems. I’m more disappointed by the meager 4GB of RAM on the base model I reviewed and the lack of expandable storage. Another USB-A or USB-C port might have been nice too, and the 720p webcam is definitely not up to snuff for dedicated video callers.

Despite all that, the Acer Chromebook Spin 513 is a fine machine for the money. You’ll find few Chromebooks that offer as many features and as much value at this price point.

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