SEPTEMBER 2020 PCWorld 47keyboard or mouse, and they can also be
used to connect to an external drive, if you
don’t mind a slower transfer rate. A
traditional HDMI port will connect a single
4K display at 60Hz.
The Thunderbolt port on the Spin 3 is a
rare and treasured find on budget laptops.
Thunderbolt’s particularly versatile I/O
capabilities can connect to a dedicated
Thunderbolt dock, a USB-C hub, or an
external display.
Thunderbolt is most noteworthy for its
ability to connect a pair of 4K displays at an
eye-pleasing 60Hz, while a non-Thunderbolt
USB-C port can connect to just one 4K
display at 30Hz via a hub. Thunderbolt
docks, however, range in price from $100
to $250 or so.
There’s another, hidden advantage to
the Thunderbolt port. The
Spin 3 ships with Acer’s
narrow-tipped proprietary
charger. The Thunderbolt
port accepts a third-party
65W USB-C charger, giving
you a secondary power
option in a pinch.
Because this is an Intel
10th-gen device, wireless
connectivity is supplied by
Intel’s Wi-Fi 6 radio and
Bluetooth 5.0. (If you don’t
understand what Wi-Fi 6 can
do for you, Michael Simon’s
love letter to the technology [go.pcworld.
com/lvlt] should convince you. You’ll need a
compatible laptop like the Spin 3 and a Wi-Fi
6E router, to take advantage, though.)
Our review unit shipped with Windows 10
version 1909, which we used for testing.
Midway through, it was offered the May 2020
Update (go.pcworld.com/m2up), also
known as version 2004.KEYBOARD AND AUDIO
I’d characterize Acer’s keyboards as middling.
That’s not necessarily a criticism. Acer’s
keyboards tend to be shallow and a bit
mushy, bottoming out rather than cushioning
your fingers. While the Swift 3 provides a
full-size keyboard, the keys themselves tend
to be a bit smaller on average, and Acer left
itself with close to an inch of additional spaceThe Spin 3’s keyboard lean in to functions used by business travelers,
such as shortcuts to project to another display.