The Acer Chromebook Spin 513, one of the best 2-in-1 Chromebooks around, is about to get a major upgrade in the form of MediaTek's new Kompanio 1380 SoC at CES 2022.
The new Kompanio 1380 is MediaTek's shot at the high-end SoC market, making it something we definitely want to get our hands on and test for ourselves. MediaTek chips for Chromebooks are generally in the 500- or 800-series, which means that the new SoC should offer some seriously competitive performance against rival Qualcomm and maybe even Intel.
Generally, MediaTek chips are known more for their power efficiency than their performance, so MediaTek-powered Chromebooks tend to be underperformers even though their battery life is quite good.
Acer's Chromebook Spin 513, announced today at CES 2022, is arguably the company's most popular Chromebook, so Acer is putting a lot of faith in the new chip. The new Chromebook will also feature a larger display, which – when paired with the more powerful processor – does indicate that its battery life is going to take a hit.
Last year's Chromebook Spin 513 was powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c and had a claimed battery life of about 13 and a half hours. We found the Chromebook Spin 513 lasted 12 hours 26 minutes in our review, which isn't quite as long but still not bad.
The new Chromebook Spin 513 will get up to 10 hours of battery life, according to Acer, which is quite a hit. We'll definitely be interested to see if the performance trade-off is worth it in the end.
Other Acer Chromebooks also announced for students and families
In addition to the Acer Chromebook Spin 513, Acer also announced the Acer Chromebook 315, which will feature a 15.6-inch, full HD (1080p) anti-glare display and a full sized tenkey keyboard.
There is also the Acer Chromebook 314, which has a smaller 14-inch full HD, multitouch display, though the keyboard is tenkey-less.
Both have various additional features that make hybrid work or schooling more accessible thanks to flare-reducing webcams and technology for better audio performance like DTS Audio.
- Check out all of TechRadar's CES 2022 coverage. We're bringing you all the breaking tech news and launches, everything from 8K TVs and foldable displays to new phones, laptops and smart home gadgets.
