My Week with a $330 Laptop

- Hey guys, this is Austin.
This is a $330 laptop and I'm going to be
using it for the next week.
So a big shoutout to Acer for not only sponsoring
this video but also hooking us up
with their brand new Spin 1.
So this is a little bit more of a budget laptop.
What's nice about it is it's actually reasonably portable.
You know what, I actually kind of like the look of this.
So it's all black and it's got
this kind of textured material.
It's still plastic but it actually doesn't feel bad.
Open this guy up and you'll see it's running a full
copy of Windows 10 Home.
Considering that this is about the same price
as a lot of tablets, it's nice to get the full Windows
experience and of course you still do have that touchscreen.
Like a lot of Acer laptops these days,
you get some flexibility in how you use the Spin 1.
So of course you can use it in the standard laptop mode
but if you want, you can actually flip it upside down
to get display mode, so if you wanna be able to watch
videos like this or one of my favorites is tent mode
where you flip it upside-down, it's nice if you wanna get
a little bit more of a compact form factor
or if you wanna use it as a tablet,
you can just close it up and use it like that.
And that display really is not bad.
So it is a rocking a full 1920 by 1080 resolution
and it's also an IPS panel.
Now that's important as a lot of other budget laptops
definitely skimp in the screen department.
So we have good color, good contrast,
and especially good viewing angles.
Hey guys, this is Austin.
Is this all the laptop that you need?
So the Spin 1 is a solid laptop for video consumption,
it's of course powerful enough to stream stuff
like 1080p video and with that nice screen
and some surprisingly solid speakers, it works well.
However, spec-wise, it's not the most
powerful laptop in the world.
Inside, the Spin 1 has a dual core Intel Celeron processor,
four gigabytes of memory, and 32 gigs of storage.
So for what I'm going to be doing with it,
mostly lighter stuff like web browsing, video watching,
and things like email, it's fine,
but don't expect it to handle demanding tasks very well.
Now that 32 gigs of storage doesn't sound like a lot
but thankfully the Spin 1 does have a micro SD card slot
so for about $40, you can expand with 128-gig card,
which should give you a lot more usability.
What's cool is the Spin 1 also comes with a free year
of Office 365, which is cool 'cause that like $100
on its own, so at first glance, the Spin 1's not bad
but the real test is going to be how does it stack up
when I take it on a very very long trip.
So I am now on the other side of the world
in Shanghai, China, and for the last week or so,
the Spin 1 has held up.
So I mostly use this as a travel laptop
and one of the first things that really jumped out to me
was how nice it is to use an 11-inch laptop again.
So I've been using a 15-inch laptop for the last few years
and while it's nice to have that extra power,
having something that's this small
and portable was a huge help.
So while I do usually use this in laptop mode,
being able to flip the screen around
and set it on an airline table was helpful.
This is a nice hinge, so I think something that I really
have to kind of give them props for is that even though
this is obviously a more budget-oriented laptop,
it doesn't really feel like it.
So the plastic is nice, I like the sort of texture,
and that hinge that feels really good to flip back and forth
so having that 1080p IPS display really does
make a big difference, it really does put a lot of laptops
that cost over double the price to shame.
Having a free year of Office 365 included is also
a nice bonus, so I wrote up all the notes for this video
inside of Word and it's a nice experience.
So the keyboard is surprisingly good on the Spin 1
so it has nice keyboard travel, the layout is solid
with the exception of the page up and down keys,
which kind of tripped me out a little bit
but there's really not a lot to complain about
and that same thing goes for the track pad.
It wasn't that long ago that if you were buying
a budget computer, you could pretty much guarantee
that it was going to have a terrible track pad
so at this point, I feel like pretty much any Windows 10
laptop I use should have a touchscreen.
It does make it a nicer experience to use
and I think that kinda goes double for the Spin 1.
For something that's so small and so portable,
having the option of not only being able to flip around
the screen but obviously be able to touch it,
use the keyboard, use the track pad, there are a lot
of options on how you actually wanna use the laptop.
So I watched a lot of video on the Spin 1 over the last
few days and for the most part,
it's been a solid experience.
So apps like Netflix work really well,
especially with the offline mode while you're flying.
However, there were a few hiccups.
So that Celeron processor is decent for more basic uses
but for unoptimized apps such as iTunes,
it does struggle just a little bit.
Considering the price, the main competitor to something
like the Spin 1 is going to be a Chromebook
and don't get me wrong, I do like Chrome OS,
however, personally for me, I do like having a full version
of Windows 10 but you are going to have
to deal with some compromises.
One area where the lower specs are helpful
is with battery life.
So even when you're doing fairly demanding tasks,
I never saw the battery life estimate drop below around
seven hours and when you're doing lighter stuff like web
browsing and email, you should expect over 10 hours.
Long story short, the Spin 1 should easily be able
to make it through a full day without needing
to hit the charger.
So is the Spin 1 my new daily driver?
No.
I have to do stuff like 4k video editing on a regular basis
and put simply, this just is not up to it.
However, if you're going to class all day, taking notes,
web browsing and that kind of stuff,
then this is pretty solid.
Sure, it would be nice if it was a little bit more powerful
but there's really not a lot to complain about besides that.
Anyway, what do you guys think about the Spin 1?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you in the next one.

My Week with a $330 Laptop

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