Acer Chromebook Spin 11: Tough Enough For Kids

Acer Chromebook Spin 11

$399.99

- Eric Grevstad

 Read our reviews of Lenovo ThinkPads and HP EliteBooks, and you’ll see boasts of MILSPEC 810G compliance—meeting military standards for resisting shock, vibration, extreme temperatures, and other portable PC perils, to reassure buyers concerned about the bumps and bruises of business travel. But who really needs MIL-SPEC 810G hardware? Little kids, who’d as soon drop a chromebook as look at one. The Acer Chromebook Spin 11 carries the certification into the hostile environment of the grade-school classroom. It’s a 2-in-1 convertible built to shrug off 132 pounds (a child standing on the lid) or 11 ounces (of water spilled on the keyboard) or 48 inches (the distance it fell from being knocked off a desk), and is our new Editors’ Choice for student chromebooks. GOOD-LOOKING IN A TOYISH WAY The Spin 11 is made of white polycarbonate plastic with a rubberized beige bumper around its bottom half, giving it a rugged look clearly meant for kids’ clumsy hands. Black keys match the large black bezel around the glossy screen. The touch panel that covers the display is antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass, designed to resist not only knocks and scratches but also passing germs from small fingers to classmates and teachers. At 0.82 by 11.7 by 8.1 inches, it’s the same size as the Lenovo Flex 11 Chromebook and a fraction smaller than the Dell Chromebook 3189 Education 2-in-1 (0.82 by 12 by 8.2 inches) and falls between them in weight, with a couple of ounces on each side, at 3.09 pounds. 

This tough device flips and folds through the four modes familiar to users of Lenovo Yogas and workalikes like the Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA: regular Laptop mode; an easel-style Stand mode, with the keyboard face down and screen tilted back; Tent mode, with the system propped up like an A-frame for poking at touch apps; and Tablet mode, with the display and keyboard back to back.