Next @ Acer unveiled a whole slew of PCs and desktops, but alongside those announcements came two brand-new Chromebooks — and the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (3H) that we previewed two weeks ago. The Acer Chromebook Tab 510 is another 10-inch Snapdragon-powered Chrome OS tablet with a mind towards durability. However, with only "Up to 4GB RAM", you'll likely want to skip it in lieu of 8GB models like the HP Chromebook X2 (which is still $300 off right now) or the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5, which are two of the best Chromebooks on the market today.

The single best Chromebook you can buy right now, the Acer Chromebook Spin 713, might be getting dethroned this August by Acer's latest and greatest model. Meet the Acer Chromebook 714, a 14-inch 16:10 aspect ratio Chromebook packing the 12th-gen Intel Core i5 (or i7, if you want to splurge) and a fingerprint sensor for $750.

Laptop aspect ratios seem to come in waves, and the darling for premium Chromebooks this year is 16:10, not quite as long as the standard 16:9 but not as overly tall as 3:2. This aspect ratio makes for excellent split screening and multi-tasking, and it comes in both 1080p and 2K (2560 x 1600 px) resolutions depending on your configuration — and like the Spin 713 before it, the 2K option is bright enough to use outside, packing 425 nits of brightness. The option for a garaged USI stylus for that outstanding touchscreen is appreciated, but since it's standard USI, you could opt for a more comfortable stylus like the Logitech Pen if a particular model doesn't come with it.

The Spin 514 also looks to correct one of the Spin 713's biggest annoyances: the speakers are finally up-facing instead of down, so the sound goes to your ears and not into your lap. Unlike most 13 and 14-inch Chromebooks to feature up-firing speakers, the stereo speakers here sit at the top of the keyboard near the hinge rather than sandwiched on the sides of the keyboard, hopefully keeping them cleaner and not dampening the sound as much when you're listening whilst typing.

Acer Chromebook Spin 714

Acer Chromebook Tab 510

Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (3H)

Display

14-inch IPS multi-touch, 2560 x 1600 px, 16:10, 425 nits, 14-inch IPS multi-touch, 1920 x 1080 px, 16:9, 250 nits

10.1-inch IPS multi-touch, 1920 x 1200 px, 16:10, Corning Gorilla Glass

14-inch IPS multi-touch, 1920 x 1080 px, 250 nits

USI stylus support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Processors

12th Gen Intel Core i5, i7

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 compute platform

AMD Ryzen 3, 5, 7, 5000-Series Mobile processors

Memory

Up to 16GB

Up to 4 GB

8-16GB

Storage

Up to 512GB SSD

Up to 64GB eMMC

128GB-256GB SSD

Battery

Up to 10 hours

Up to 10 hours

Up to 10 hours

Webcam

1080p MIPI webcam

5MP front, 8MP back MIPI webcams

1080p with privacy shutter

Connectivity

Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2

Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, LTE Category 13

Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2

Audio

Up-facing DTS Audio-tuned stereo speakers

Two speakers

Up-facing DTS Audio-tuned stereo speakers

Dimensions

312.6 x 224 x 18.05 mm, 1.4kg

257 x 161.6 x 9.74 mm, 0.47kg (Tablet), 269 x 174.8 x 21.94 mm, 1.03kg (Tablet and Keyboard Folio Case)

322.6 x 224 x 17.35 mm, 1.5kg

Starting price

$750

$400

$580

Release date

August 2022

July 2022

Q3 2022

Coming back to the Acer Chromebook Tab 510, the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 will be fine for casual browsing and content consumption. However, for a device aimed at the Enterprise market and the "working on the go" set, only offering 4GB of RAM will limit the experience. Only offering one USB-C port where models from Lenovo and HP have two is also a small letdown for a tablet that will start at $400, the same starting price as the Lenovo Duet 5.

The bulkier slot-in dock for the keyboard cover might also be a bit of a turn-off for many when compared to other Chrome OS tablets around today. The keyboard does not separate from the kickstand, so if you want to just prop up the tablet for some YouTube bingeing without the cramped keyboard in the way, you'll have to grab a third-party kickstand. The texturing across the back of the tablet itself matches what you'd expect on Acer's education Chromebooks, with gray corner bumpers breaking up the black plastic frame.

The Acer Chromebook Tab 510 will arrive in July for $400, while the $750 Acer Chromebook Spin 714 won't release until August, with the $580 Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (3H) coming later in Q3. The Spin 714 could very well pull me away from my beloved Acer Chromebook Spin 713, but we'll need to get it in for review first.