46 PCWorld SEPTEMBER 2020REVIEWS ACER SPIN^3
360-degree
hinges. When you
flip around the
display, Windows
automatically
configures the
Spin 3 into tablet
mode. Another
benefit: The
broader chassis
offers a hearty
mixture of ports
that you won’t find
on thinner laptops.
Acer did cut a
few corners in the
display. Though
the IPS panel was
pleasingly vibrant,
our light meter
registered just 274
nits—barely
enough for
day-to-day use.
Although the side screen bezels measure just
7.82mm, the bezel at the bottom of the
screen is a about an inch deep and definitely
noticeable.
The Spin 3 seems to have adequate
cooling, with venting beneath the laptop
and a larger grille near the hinge. My home
office environment is quite quiet, allowing
me to hear a faint hiss from the fans as they
spun up, as well as a faint bit of coil whine.When my home’s central air kicked on,
however, the noise disappeared. Even when
running CPU-intensive tasks, the Swift 3’s fan
remained quiet—that seems to be fairly
typical of the Intel 10th-gen Ice Lake laptops
I’ve tested.
Personally, I consider the port selection
to be close to ideal. There’s a pair of
SuperSpeed USB (go.pcworld.com/spsp;
5Gbps) Type A connections—perfect for aOn the right side, the Spin 3’s stylus nestles in its cradle to the left of the power
and battery indicators. Some 360-degree convertibles, like the Spin 3, slightly
incline the keyboard the further back the display is pushed.On the left side of the chassis, the small battery icon next to the Type A port
indicates that it can charge external devices like phones when the laptop is shut.