Acer Chromebook R13 review
As I mentioned in my last article, my laptop uses have changed over the past year. I built a gaming computer, so my laptop doesn’t need to be a power house. For a laptop, I just need something that will let me browse the web, get some writing done, watch Netflix and Plex, and get fantastic battery life while doing so. This led me to Chrome OS and a new Chromebook, the R13 from Acer.
The Acer Chromebook R13 was released in fall 2016, and represents one of the first Chromebooks designed around running Android applications. It’s powered by a Mediatek processor, features 4 gigabytes of RAM, up to 128 gigabytes of storage — plus a micro SD card slot — and has a fantastic 1080P display flips around 360 degrees to be a tablet, but it’s too large to be comfortably use as a tablet for long. I’ll touch on more uses of this further down. The right side of the laptop features a USB-C port for charging, data transfer and video out, an HDMI port, a USB-A port and the micro SD card slot. The right side includes a Kensington security slot, the power button, 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and volume rocker. Both the USB-C and USB-A ports can transfer data at USB 3.1 gen 1 speeds — 5 gigabytes per second maximum. The port selection is a good mix between old and new. The USB-C port opens up the possibility of using one connector for all of your needs, but by keeping the HDMI and USB-A ports, Acer eases the transition for users that don’t want to buy new accessories just yet. I used the R13 with a power, video and USB hub and it worked with zero tweaking.
The R13 is made entirely of a silver aluminum, and feels really great. It’s not the lightest 13 inch laptop out there, but it’s sturdy and will hold up the test of time. The keyboard is great too: I adjusted to the layout very quickly. There’s just the right amount of travel and resistance, and I was able to type almost as fast on the R13 keyboard as I am on my home mechanical keyboard. I do wish the keyboard was backlit, one of the fault points I have with the laptop. The trackpad is really great too, but I’ll always prefer a wireless mouse over even the best trackpad. Overall, the keyboard and trackpad are miles better than you’d typically expect at this price point. The speakers are on the bottom of the device, and there are rubber feet to allow the audio to flow out whether the bottom is flat on a table or flipped around to be used as a tablet. The speakers get sufficiently loud without getting too distorted at higher volumes. The webcam and microphone work fine for a quick video call as well, but I’d recommend a separate mic for recording podcasts or longer calls.
Even though the laptop is too unwieldy to be used as a tablet, the touchscreen and 360 degree hinge are still welcome additions. If you’ve never used a laptop with either of these, they’re easy to dismiss. But once you have, you never want to go back. When I’m docked at home, I bend the keyboard back to have the screen closer to me, and use my mechanical keyboard and mouse. Even when using it as a traditional laptop, I had a few moments when the touchscreen was better than using the trackpad, such as quickly pausing a video or music. It’s also nice to bend the keyboard back, rest it on my knees and do some reading in bed. One downside with touchscreens is the screen needs to be glossy, and it picks up fingerprints very easily. When I took it for a day trip, I made sure to pack a microfiber cloth to clean off any smudges that came up.
Battery life is outstanding on the R13. On New Year’s Eve, I packed the laptop and my wireless mouse inside my backpack and headed up to Austin. While some friends were hitting golf balls at a driving range, I spent about two hours doing homework and writing. Once that party was over, I moved to a nearby Starbucks and worked another five hours before moving to a different bar. At that bar, I worked another two hours before heading home. All in all, I was browsing and doing homework for about 9 hours, with the laptop at 75% brightness. This was a mix of reading material in Chrome browser and writing my assignments in the Android version of Microsoft Word and Powerpoint. By the time I left for home, I had only drained the battery to 50%. This wasn’t even in the stable version of Chrome OS.
Right now if you want to run Android applications on the R13, you have to use the beta version of Chrome OS. The stable version should have the applications by the end of January, but even if you jump the gun things are mostly solid. I had two applications crash on me while using the beta, but the other 95% of the time there were no issues. Another oddity I had — even in the stable build — was that the Chromebook didn’t want to recognize my micro SD cards, no matter what file format the cards were in.
Mediatek has a bad (though deserved) reputation in the Android space because the processors they make aren’t very good, but the processor in the R13 worked perfectly fine as a laptop. I could browse, write and get homework done for hours at a time without any issue. Things got dicey when I would plug it into my second display at home, though. I’m not sure if it’s due to the processor or the low amount of RAM, but everything slowed down when I had it connected to my second display with more than a few tabs open. This is something most people won’t need to worry about, but it was a deal breaker for me. When I do homework, I have the rubric, digital book and references in different tabs on my second display, while I do my actual writing on the laptop screen. This is something the Acer R13 struggles with, and for me this means I can’t use it.
The Acer Chromebook R13 retails for $399, but I picked it up from Best Buy on sale for $349. Even at full price, this is a fantastic price for a fantastic machine. Before moving to Chrome OS, the last Windows laptop I used was the new HP Spectre X360. That laptop costs a full $1000 more than R13, and there’s way it’s $1000 better. It gets even more ridiculous when you look at higher end Surfaces or Macbooks. For most people, the $400 for the Acer R13 will be all they need to spend on a machine that can do everything they need it to. I need a little bit more power than it provides, so it’s not quite a good fit for me. I’ve been using a refurbished HP Chromebook 13 G1 which has plenty of power, but I miss the touch screen more than I thought I would. I have the new Asus Chromebook Flip on its way, and that should be perfect for me.
