Ben is now a cast member on ‘Saturday Night Live’ for its 51st season. Get to know the comedian and member of Please Don’t Destroy here.
Ben is now a cast member on ‘Saturday Night Live’ for its 51st season. Get to know the comedian and member of Please Don’t Destroy here.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter can resume her work as a commissioner for the FTC, a federal appeals court has ruled. Slaughter, who was one of the two Democratic commissioners for the FTC that President Trump fired back in March, filed a lawsuit for her reinstatement. “Your continued service on the FTC is inconsistent with my administration’s priorities,” a letter to the commissioners said. In July, US District Judge Loren AliKhan ruled that her removal from the agency was “unlawful and without legal effect,” and Slaughter was able to go back to work. A few days later, however, an appeals court paused the order for her reinstatement.
Now, the appeals court judges voted 2-to-1 in favor of restoring AliKhan’s order. Obama appointees Patricia Millett and Cornelia Pillard voted to reinstate Slaughter, while Trump appointee Neomi Rao dissented. Millett and Pillard wrote in their decision that the government “has no likelihood of success on appeal given controlling and directly on point Supreme Court precedent.” They explained that a Supreme Court precedent known as Humphrey’s Executor prevents presidents from removing FTC commissioners at will and without cause. Based on federal law, commissioners can only be removed due to “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Rao, however, has dissented. By “ordering the remaining FTC commissioners and the subordinates to treat Slaughter as though she is still in office, the district court expressly orders them to disregard the President’s directive,” she said in a statement. It “directly interferes with the President’s supervision of the Executive Branch and therefore goes beyond the power of the federal courts.” The FTC typically has five commissioners: Three from the same party as the president and two from the opposition. After Trump fired the FTC’s Democratic commissioners, only the three Republican commissioners remained.
Slaughter is now listed again on FTC’s website as a commissioner. According to The New York Times, she’s planning to report back to work today, September 3. “Amid the efforts by the Trump administration to illegally abolish independent agencies, including the Federal Reserve, I’m heartened the court has recognized that he is not above the law,” Slaughter said in an interview. Her fellow Democratic commissioner who was fired back in March, Alvaro Bedoya, resigned from the agency completely and took on a private-sector job.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/appeals-court-reinstates-fired-democratic-ftc-commissioner-124549494.html?src=rss
Autumn is Apple season, and the tech company will once again host its annual unveiling of the season’s new smartphone generation. The fall event has been dubbed “Awe dropping,” and so we’re hoping for some surprising announcements that will earn the name. “Awe dropping” all begins on September 9 at 1PM ET/ 10 AM PT.
If you want to tune in to hear what Tim Cook and crew have to say about the iPhone 17, you can stream the whole show on Apple’s website or on its YouTube channel. We’ve also got the livestream embedded below so you can follow along with our liveblog while you watch.
With just a week to go until the “Awe dropping” event, it seems like we’ve already gotten a lot of advanced insights about what the new iPhone 17 lineup has in store. Apple introduced the software side of the equation with the iOS 26 unveil at WWDC this summer, and since then we’ve gotten some pretty reliable insights on the hardware.
The big reveal is expected to be an ultralight smartphone, potentially called the iPhone 17 Air. This would be Apple’s first application of its Air nomenclature for mobile, and when we had Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman on the Engadget Podcast at the end of August, he suggested that the first iteration of the smartphone might come with some growing pains. We also anticipate seeing a base iPhone 17, an iPhone 17 Pro, and an iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Beyond the smartphones, “Awe dropping” will likely showcase some refreshes for the Apple Watch and possibly for some new smart home tech. Tune in on September 9 to hear all the new product launches.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/how-to-watch-apples-awe-dropping-event-on-september-9-130040484.html?src=rss
Google is set to reveal more information about its “Gemini for Home” plans, including new Nest devices designed for the AI assistant, the company announced on X. “Gemini is coming to Google Home,” the teaser states, while showing what could be a new Nest camera. That follows the company’s Made By Google announcement last month revealing Gemini for Home and its capabilities.
Gemini for Home will replace Google Assistant and enable natural language commands plus easier-to use controls. For instance, you could ask it to come up with recipes based on ingredients in your fridge, provide information on general topics like buying a car and help you troubleshoot home appliance issues. It will be available both in free and subscription versions — much like Amazon is doing with Alexa and Alexa+.
Is that you, Gemini? Come in and make yourself at Home 🏠
Sign up for updates: https://t.co/V85WgPJvQN pic.twitter.com/JJaVRW385A
— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) September 2, 2025
Back at CES, Google said that Nest Aware subscribers who pay $10 per month would get early access to Gemini in Google Home, but it hasn’t confirmed that recently. In any case, the teaser implies we will likely see a new Nest camera (the image strongly resembles the company’s wired Nest security camera) and hopefully the unknown Nest speaker that caught everyone’s eye during Google’s recent live stream. If you’re interested, you can sign up for updates.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/google-will-reveal-more-gemini-smart-home-plans-and-devices-on-october-1-133601777.html?src=rss
John shifted his focus from ‘SNL’ to acting after leaving Please Don’t Destroy in September 2025. Learn more about the comedian here.
John shifted his focus from ‘SNL’ to acting after leaving Please Don’t Destroy in September 2025. Learn more about the comedian here.
reMarkable knows you’d like to use its e-paper tablet on the go, but the size of its current products don’t make that easy. To address this, it’s launching a smaller, pocket-sized version of its flagship slate for folks who can’t luxuriate at a desk or armchair to do their thinking. The reMarkable Paper Pro Move is a slate with a 7.3-inch display that’s the same size as a reporter’s notepad. It’s a device that Chief Product Officer Mats Herding Solberg says is perfect for getting “real work done while standing up and holding it in one hand.” Now, I’m on record saying that I love reMarkable’s products, and its ethos, but the bit about being able to do good work while standing up? That’s a harder sell.
reMarkable makes devices for serious, intentional work shorn of the myriad distractions inherent in modern computing. You can read, annotate and edit documents on its e-paper display, as well as write with either a stylus or a compatible keyboard. Its first device launched in 2016 and its second in 2020 with the third, the Paper Pro, arriving last year. The Paper Pro heralded a number of changes, including a bigger display (11.8-inch, up from 10.3-inch), a backlight, faster internals and, for the first time, the ability to reproduce color.
Nico Cormier, the company’s CTO, said the previous three models were really designed “for people who have a desk, people in a controlled environment.” The focus here was to build a reMarkable slate that could easily fit in a pocket or purse for work on the go. After a lot of prototyping, product manager Jon Dalvang said the team used the reporter’s notepad as the template for how the hardware should feel.
At first blush, the Paper Pro Move just looks like a slimmed down version of the Paper Pro from last year. If the company said it just threw some of its bigger tablets into a boil wash and they came out looking like this, you’d be tempted to believe them (I’m joking). But while they look and feel very similar, reMarkable made it clear that a lot of work had to go into reengineering the hardware and software to reach this smaller size.
The reMarkable Paper Pro Move measures 7.6 inches tall and 4.3 inches wide, with a 7.3-inch version of the same Canvas Color display found in its larger sibling. Inside, you’ll find a 1.7GHz dual-core Cortex A55 processor (compared to the Paper Pro’s 1.8GHz, quad-core Cortex A53 one). It has the same 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage as found on the bigger model, and while the battery has shrunk from 5,030mAh to 2,344mAh, the promise of two weeks of battery life remains the same. Similarly, you’ll find the same ridged edge banding (to evoke the feeling of a sheaf of paper) as on the Paper Pro. And the power button and USB-C ports are in the same place (bottom edge and top left corner, respectively), too.
Dalvang explained that the changes are far more subtle, and designed to improve the user experience. For instance, the back cover has the same “high-friction surface” as found on the company’s styluses to improve friction. reMarkable believes users should always use their device with a folio for protection. After all, no matter how hardy a device like this is, it might not do too well if it’s dropped onto a curb from chest height. Such are the perils of using any device on the go.
The smaller chassis and smaller display pushed the company to make a lot of changes to the software. The Paper Pro’s 11.8-inch screen is positively luxurious compared to what’s here and, in usual reMarkable fashion, the details have been sweated. For instance, you can now drag and drop the toolbar, letting you pick a position in both portrait and landscape modes. The company also focused on ensuring gesture navigation is more efficient since you’ll need to use it a lot more frequently here.
I’ve maintained that reMarkable’s products work fine with a stylus, but only really become truly useful when paired with a keyboard. After all, it’s at that point that you have a pure, distraction free writing machine that enables you to get focused work done. But with the Move, the only way to write and edit text is with the on-screen keyboard, and the company has already ruled out making a smaller version of the Type Folio. On one hand, it’s logical since a keyboard for a 7.3-inch tablet would be fairly small, and using the equivalent of a Nokia 9210 to get work done would be a pain. But I’d have preferred the ability to pair up any old Bluetooth keyboard if I needed to write something out and this was my device of choice. For the bigger models, I grudgingly accept the company omitting Bluetooth to help encourage sales of the type folio, but here, its absence is churlish.
Now, I often use old-school reporters notebooks, especially when I’m on the go at a big tech trade show. I like their small size, the big volume of paper at hand and the fact that they fit in the back pocket of my pants. The spiral binding makes it easy to flip pages and is a neat place to hold my pen, making it practical and effective, if not particularly good-looking. Since the Paper Pro has the same footprint as one, I could easily see this as a useful tool when I’m on the go.
The notebooks I use measure five by eight inches, giving me plenty of space to write. It’s here, however, that I started to see the issue with the Move, given its usable writing area is closer to 3.6 by 6.4 inches. That puts your writing area in the same territory as the not-quite-A6 you’d find if you used Field Notes or one of its many imitators. reMarkable knows this, and believes users will more likely hold the slate in landscape orientation. So you get a longer writing line, at the expense of having to scroll up more frequently — and you can move the toolbar around to ensure you’re as comfortable as you can be.
reMarkable believes landscape orientation is easier to write with, but it’s not as easy to hold with your non-dominant hand. It now has to carry the weight of both the slate and the pressure of your writing from the palm to the tips of your fingers.
It’s here, I think, that the whole pitch for the Paper Pro Move is slightly undermined by its goals. After all, you can use the full-size reMarkables when sitting down in pretty much any location you can imagine. I’ve read, written and annotated documents on train journeys and long haul flights on a fairly regular basis. But in trying to capture the feeling of writing while standing up or moving around, I’ve found that the experience is compromised. My handwriting is quick and efficient, but it’s barely legible to anyone else but me, and that’s a problem for OCR (Optical Character Recognition).
Take this snippet that I scribbled on the Paper Pro Move:
Naturally, reMarkable thinks its ability to convert written text to type will be more useful with the smaller slate. This is true, since its algorithms are quite effective at discerning what’s being written. But you will always be cursed with more than a few “Eat up Martha” moments.
“Naturally, ReMarble thinks its ability to count untten text type will be more betel with the small Slate. This is the, since its algorithms are Quite effete at discerning that’s being within. But, you will always be cased with me than a few “EAT Up MARTHA” Moment.”
As the above shows, your mileage is likely to vary depending on how many stickers you got from your teacher complimenting your handwriting.
But for people with more legible handwriting, the company is offering a new feature: Search. Behind the scenes, the system is indexing your scrawl, and so if you need to find a reference across all of your notebooks, you can type the word in search. So long as your text is clear enough to be indexed, you’ll be able to jump straight to where you need to go.
The arrival of the Move allows reMarkable to talk up its plans for reducing friction when using its devices. As much as you want a deliberate experience while using it, getting content to and from the Paper tablets can be arduous. Text documents need to be sent to the slate and when edited, may only be returned as an emailable PDF. It’s a fussy process, and one reMarkable knows needs to be improved.
Over the year, it’s been looking at building one-click methods to send files to platforms like Slack. But the company has also developed Quick Share, which will let you push a file online to share and collaborate with others. Press the button, and you’ll be given a QR code that will take you there in the browser and allow others to view at the same time.
In my limited time with the Paper Pro Move, I’ve found it to be a little more compelling to use than its bigger siblings. The smaller size means I’ve had it alongside my Bullet Journal for the whole of the week, helping me keep track of things. But I’ve discovered that I’d much rather sit down to use it rather than embracing its new-found portability. I suspect the biggest cause of this is my unique handwriting, and that better graphologists than I won’t have that issue.
The reMarkable Paper Pro Move is available to order today, priced at $449 with the standard Marker. As before, you’ll be able to upgrade to the Marker Plus, which has a built-in eraser tip on its other end, for an additional fee. The company has said users should be buying a folio to help protect their Move on the go, and there are six options to choose from, ranging from gray polymer weave to black leather. The former will set you back $69, while the latter is $139, although if bought at the same time as the slate, you’ll get a small discount. As usual, the Paper Pro and reMarkable 2 will remain available at their existing prices.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/remarkables-paper-pro-move-is-a-pocketable-version-of-its-e-paper-tablet-120011894.html?src=rss
One of the first guides I ever worked on for Engadget was about power banks. In the years since, I’ve tested more than 50 portable batteries to keep our top picks as up-to-date as possible. Now that the iPhone 17 is on the horizon — and rumored to be the thinnest ever — we wanted to devote some space to MagSafe battery packs in particular.
I gathered up a new crop of batteries to test and compared the results with our existing data to pick the best MagSafe-compatible battery out there. As we learn more about the new iPhone’s battery specs and get our hands on banks enabled with the new Qi2 25W charging standard, I’ll continue to update this guide. For now, our top pick is Anker’s Qi2-enabled MagGo 10K power bank. It has a big capacity, fast charging times and handy extra features like a stand and display. But there are also options here for minimalists and the budget-conscious, too.
Choose the right capacity. Most portable MagSafe chargers have either a 5,000 milliamp hour (mAh) or 10,000mAh capacity. Obviously, the larger capacity batteries are physically bigger, but thanks to an iPhone’s magnetic attachment points, you can still use the phone comfortably as it charges. If you’re worried about overall bulk, you may prefer the slimness of a 5,000mAh battery.
Just note that a 5K battery pack won’t deliver its entire capacity to your phone due to energy loss from voltage conversion and heat dissipation. Over the years, I’ve measured around a 60-percent delivery rate for wireless banks. For example, that means an iPhone 16 with its 3,561mAh battery will get about 85 to 90 percentage points from a 5K battery. A 10K bank will charge that same phone fully once, with enough for a 50- to 60-percent boost next time.
Understand MagSafe versus Qi2. All iPhones model 12 and later have MagSafe technology, which rely on embedded magnets to align the phone with a wireless charger and can support charging speeds of up to 15 watts. The MagSafe name is owned by Apple — third-party chargers can’t freely use the term and instead call their accessories “magnetic,” or apply a branded name like Anker’s MagGo or UGreen’s MagFlow. Be sure to check the product details before buying: anything that works with Apple’s technology will be listed as MagSafe-compatible.
Qi2 is a standard from the Wireless Power Consortium (of which Apple is a member) and has the same stipulations as MagSafe (15W charging and magnetic alignment). Any company can submit their tech for this certification. iPhones 13 and later are Qi2 compatible.
A new standard is coming this fall; it’s called Qi2 25W and bumps wireless charging speeds up to 25W. The WPC says a certified smartphone using a certified charger can wirelessly go from dead to half full in about 30 minutes. These devices will start hitting shelves in the fall of 2025 and it’s highly likely that the new iPhone 17 will support it. Plus, it’s likely that iPhone 16 models will retroactively gain the certification since those phones already support 25W speeds when using Apple’s official MagSafe Charger puck.
Remember travel restrictions. You may have seen news reports of flights being grounded because a power bank caught fire in the cabin. Currently, the TSA allows them in your carry-on luggage as long as they’re rated at 100 watt-hours or lower (about 27,000mAh for lithium ion batteries).
But some airlines have enacted further restrictions. Southwest, for example, requires you to keep power banks out of the bag and visible while charging. Even if your airline doesn’t make such demands, keeping a power brick out in the open while it’s in use is a good idea — it’ll keep it cooler and you’ll be more likely to notice if it starts to overheat. Most, if not all, MagSafe battery packs come in at under the 100-watt-hour limit, so traveling should be easy with one.
Consider the extra features. You may not need them, but the little extra perks of a MagSafe power bank can come in handy. Some have stands so you can watch your phone while it refills. Some have LED displays that tell you how much charge is left, which can be a little more precise than the lighted pips other banks use. Some also have straps to make the bank easier to carry around or fish out of your bag.
MagSafe is Apple’s own technology that supports 15W wireless charging speeds and incorporates embedded magnets to align the phone with chargers and other accessories.
iPhones 12 and later support MagSafe technology, though only iPhones 13 and later can reach the 15W charging speed with third party Qi2 chargers. The iPhone 12 maxes out at 7.5W with non-Apple accessories.
In most cases (heh), yes. The wireless charge can travel across a distance of a few millimeters. If the case is more than 5mm thick or contains metal components, the wireless charge can be blocked. Many iPhone cases are marketed as MagSafe-compatible, which means the case itself has complimentary magnets inside and should not interfere with charging accessories. We tested a MagSafe power bank on an iPhone 15 with and without a MagSafe case and got the same charging speeds and amounts in both tests.
That depends on the power bank. If it is Qi2-certified, it can provide up to 15 watts of wireless power. Non-Qi2 batteries typically deliver around 7.5 watts. The amount of charge delivered depends on the capacity. Most MagSafe portable chargers are rated at 5,000mAh or 10,000mAh. The former can get a standard iPhone 15 from five percent to around 90 percent. The latter can fill the phone completely with enough left over for another half charge.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/accessories/best-magsafe-power-banks-120015338.html?src=rss
In the latest case of AI being shoehorned into everything, say hello to Ooni’s Volt 2 pizza oven. It uses an adaptive heating system called “Pizza Intelligence” that’s designed to cook your pizza more consistently to deliver the ideal slice, while also giving the company a hot new marketing angle.
The Volt 2 is an all-electric indoor oven that can cook pizzas up to 13 inches in size, the same as the Volt 12. Like that model it operates at up to 450 degrees Celcius (850 degrees) Fahrenheit, allowing you to cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in around 90 seconds. However, the design has changed with a more rounded profile, considerably larger window, touch controls and a dial. Ooni notes that it’s compact enough to fit on a kitchen counter.
The Volt 2 uses real-time sensor data to dynamically balance heat between the top and base heating elements in order to minimize temperature fluctuations and cold spots for “consistently perfect pizza.” Ooni dubbed that system “Pizza Intelligence,” though others may call it a “thermostat.” It also automatically adjusts for different types of pizzas ranging from New York slices to Chicago-style deep-pan pies. Each preset is programmable so you can bookmark favorite settings for consistent results.
It offers cooking modes including Dough Proof, Oven and Grills, making it useful for prepping, baking, roasting and recipe experimentation. Ooni’s Volt 2 electric pizza goes on sale October 1 for $699 — if you’re interested, you can join the waitlist here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/kitchen-tech/oonis-volt-v2-oven-uses-pizza-intelligence-to-cook-your-pie-more-evenly-123055762.html?src=rss
Acer maintains two different gaming product lines and it’s updating both of them at IFA 2025. Among the new gear is a gigantic new 18-inch Predator laptop, an ultra high-refresh rate monitor and multiple entry-level Nitro laptops and monitors.
The updated Predator Helios 18P AI is an even more powerful version of the Predator Helio 18 the company showed off at CES 2024, offering “desktop-level AI” in what’s still technically a portable body. Inside, you can get up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 laptop GPU and 6TB of SSD storage. For the display of the panel, you’ll get a Mini LED 4K panel, which should work well for creative workflows and gaming. Acer also says the new Helios uses its “proprietary thermal solution” to keep cool, which is a combination of thin metal fans, “liquid metal thermal grease” and vector heat pipes.
Acer has new gaming desktop PCs, the Predator Orion 7000 and Orion 5000, which can use GeForce RTX 5090 or 5080 GPUs, respectively. The more exciting announcement, though, is the new Predator monitor. The Predator X27U F8 Monitor is a 26.5-inch OLED, with a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution and a ridiculous 720Hz refresh rate. Acer says the monitor can move between resolutions and refresh rates to maximize performance. The X27U F8 monitor also supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro to eliminate screen tearing and stuttering.
On the Nitro side of the house, Acer has two new gaming laptops on offer. The Acer Nitro V 16 can be built with up to an Intel Core 9 processor and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU. With NVIDIA inside, the laptop supports NVIDIA DLSS 4 for improved graphics performance. The laptop also comes with a 2,560 x 1,600 display that has up to an 180Hz refresh rate for fluid motion during fast-paced games. The Acer Nitro V 16S, while similar, is more focused on portability. The laptop has up to an Intel Core 9 processor, but only a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 laptop GPU, the same 180Hz display, in a metal body that’s 19.9mm thin. That’s not quite MacBook Air dimensions, but it’s better than nothing.
Acer is pairing those new laptops with a collection of new Nitro monitors. The largest option is the 39.7-inch curved Nitro XZ403CKR monitor, which uses a 5K panel, has built-in 5W speakers and supports AMD FreeSync Premium for fluid gameplay. If you like 5K but don’t want a curved screen, there’s the 27-inch Nitro XV270X, which includes two built-in 2W speakers. You can get similar speakers on the 27-inch Nitro XV273U W1 monitor, which has a 27-inch 1440p display that reaches 500 nits of peak brightness. Finally, there’s also the Nitro XV275K V6, which features a 27-inch 4K display, AMD FreeSync Premium and dual HDMI 2.1 ports.
Acer hasn’t announced a final price or release for the Predator Helios 18P AI laptop, but did confirm it will be available in North America at launch. The Predator X27U F8 monitor, meanwhile, will go on sale in Q1 2026 for $1,300.
For the Nitro laptops, Acer says the Nitro V 16 will be available in the US in October starting at $1,000, with the Acer Nitro V 16S arriving a month later in November for $1,100. For the Nitro monitors, all three will be available in Q1 2026. The Acer Nitro XV25K V6 starts at $700, the Acer Nitro XV273U W1 starts at $300, the Acer Nitro XV270X starts at $900 and the Acer Nitro XZ403CKR starts at $1,000.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/acers-new-gaming-lineup-includes-an-18-inch-ai-laptop-and-a-720hz-monitor-090009032.html?src=rss
In the last few years, I’ve felt like Chromebooks have hit a plateau. ChromeOS is a quirky but mature platform at this point, and Google has continued to add smart and useful features on a regular basis. But the hardware has felt pretty stagnant, with a few exceptions. Most Chromebooks at this point are utilitarian devices that get the job done but inspire little excitement, and I’ve found most Intel-based Chromebooks don’t get me through a day of work before the battery dies.
But earlier this summer, Lenovo released a new Chromebook with the ARM-based MediaTek’s Kompanio Ultra 910 chip, rather than the usual Intel fare. And now Acer is doing the same with the latest Chromebook Plus Spin 514, a laptop that Acer says should get up to 17 hours of battery life — a figure that only this model and the aforementioned Lenovo can hit. Previously, the MediaTek-powered Chromebooks available ran on weaker mobile chips that didn’t have nearly enough power, but the Kompanio Ultra 910 is a completely different beast. The combo of performance and efficiency the Spin 514 offers makes it one of the best Chromebooks I’ve used in a while.
The Chromebook Spin 514 feels like many Acer laptops I’ve tried over the years (CP514-5HN is the identifier for this particular model, but we’re just going to call it the Spin 514 from here on out). It’s solid and well-built while still also feeling fairly utilitarian. It doesn’t quite hit “premium” laptop standards, but it’s on the nicer end of the Chromebook spectrum. I’m a fan of the silver color scheme as opposed to the rather dull grey most Chromebooks come in, and the laptop’s lid has a nicely chamfered and polished edge, giving it some visual flair.
It’s also a relatively slim (0.61 inches) and light (3 pounds) laptop. It’s not pushing the envelope, but it’s also more svelte and portable than a lot of cheaper Chromebooks. “Almost premium” isn’t a bad place to be. The same goes for the keyboard and trackpad — they’re both spacious and comfortable, and the keys have plenty of clicky travel. It’s not the best keyboard I’ve ever used, but one that I’m happy to tap away on for hours at a time. The 1,920 x 1,200 touchscreen is bright, sharp and colorful, quite pleasant to look at for long sessions. However, it also has pretty large bezels above and below the display. Again, almost premium.
The Spin 514 has solid connectivity options, as well. On one side you’ll find two USB-C 3.2 ports and a headphone jack, while the other side goes old-school with two USB-A 3.2 ports. I wish that there was one of each on each side so that you could plug in a charger on the left or the right, but alas. My only real quibble is that if you’re using a monitor with the laptop plugged into power, both USB-C jacks are taken up. An HDMI connection would have been helpful for that common scenario.
As the name implies, the Spin 514 has a 360-degree hinge that lets you use it in a tablet mode, with the touchscreen as the main input. I’ve long believed these convertible laptops aren’t really offering any useful solution for the vast majority of people, and I still feel the same way. But the hinge feels great; Acer has a ton of experience in this department. And the USI 2.0 stylus I had on hand worked without any need for pairing or setup, which was convenient. If you’re the kind of person who would take advantage of that, the Spin 514 does the trick.
Overall, the Spin 514 lands just about where I’d expect for a $700 laptop in terms of hardware quality. It’s utilitarian in a good way — there were no major letdowns in my testing aside from the speakers, which have very little bass and sound rather harsh when listening to music.
Before diving into how the Spin 514 worked for me, a quick word about configurations. The version I tested retails for $700 and will be sold through Best Buy. This setup has the aforementioned MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 alongside 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space. Acer itself will sell a $750 model with a 2,880 x 1,800 display and 16GB of RAM, but it should be otherwise identical to the model I’m testing.
ChromeOS runs well enough on the various Intel chips that are commonly used. One of my longstanding favorite Chromebooks, the Lenovo Ideapad 5i, still uses a Core i3 from early 2023, and it gets the job done. But the move to MediaTek’s ARM-based Kompanio Ultra 910 has raised the performance bar, as the Spin 514 is probably the most responsive Chromebook I’ve tried. There’s nary a hint of slowdown or hiccups that still happen on Intel-based models if you have too many windows or apps open. Tabs rarely need to be reloaded and pop back up quickly on the rare occasion that they do. Music or video playback never skipped regardless of what else I was doing, and Android apps like Lightroom worked swiftly and smoothly as well.
Perhaps more importantly than how it performs today is the fact that the Kompanio Ultra 910 should keep the Flip 514 feeling snappy and powerful for years to come. There’s just more room for this chip to handle increasing performance demands over the years. Benchmarks from the Android version of Geekbench 6 help illustrate this: the Spin 514 scored 2,526 on the single-core CPU test, 7,687 on multi-core and 18,020 on the GPU test. For comparison, Acer’s recently-released Chromebook Plus 514 with an Intel Core 3 chip scored 1,150, 4,407 and 5,932 respectively. I don’t think that benchmarks like Geekbench are a be-all end-all of anything, but it’s at least one metric to illustrate the benefits of moving away from Intel.
I’ve long groused about the relatively mediocre battery life on Intel-powered Chromebooks, and this is another place where the MediaTek chip helps out tremendously. The Spin 514 looped video playback in my test for just over 14 hours before running out of battery. My daily workflow of tons of Chrome tabs, various chat apps, YouTube Music, Todoist and a handful of Android apps definitely used more resources, but I could still get through a full work day with battery to spare. That’s not something I’ve said about many Chromebooks recently. The only caveat is that battery life will almost surely take a hit if you opt for the model with the higher-resolution display.
I wrote a lot about the ChromeOS and Gemini experience last year when I reviewed Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook Plus, and basically everything I said then applies here. But to recap: ChromeOS is quite mature and stable at this point, and Google has built in a lot of smart features over the years to make it more than “just a web browser” as it was referred to previously. Of course, ChromeOS is still a primarily web-based system, with Android applications giving you access to things you might not find in the browser. There are also plenty of web apps that are well optimized for ChromeOS, and Google Docs has a comprehensive offline mode at this point. ChromeOS also pairs nicely with Android phones and adds features like shared notifications and streaming of some apps directly to your laptop.
Of course, Gemini is also a big part of the equation — but if you’re not a big fan of AI tools, it’s also quite easy to ignore. There are little prompts around the OS, but nothing that really drags your attention away from what you’re working on. And if you do want to dive into what Gemini is all about, a Chromebook like the Spin 514 is a good option because you get 12 months of Google’s AI Pro plan for free. That usually costs $20/month and provides 2TB of Drive storage along with Gemini 2.5 Pro in search and the Gemini app, Gemini in Gmail and Google Docs, access to the Veo image- and video-generation tool and more. Given that 2TB of Google Drive storage costs $10/month on its own, this is a solid perk. But it’s also worth remembering that once that year ends, you’re on the hook to pay for that plan yourself.
My only real quibble with the Spin 514 is its price. At $700, we’re pushing the top of what anyone should spend on a Chromebook. While the more powerful chip and long battery life will be worth it for some people, Acer itself is providing some strong competition with its standard Chromebook Plus 514 which came out this summer. It has an Intel chip, so battery life and performance aren’t at the same level as the Spin 514, but it’s also literally half the price at $350. If you’re only going to be away from a charger for a few hours at a time, it’s hard not to recommend that device instead. I’ll be publishing more details about that laptop in our guide to the best Chromebooks very soon if you want to know more.
So while this might not be the Chromebook I’d recommend to everyone, it is a strong contender for the best premium Chromebook you can buy. If you’re looking to use this laptop all day, every day, it may be worth shelling out the extra cash for the improved performance, battery life and longevity you’ll get from the Spin 514.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/acer-chromebook-plus-spin-514-review-the-new-chromeos-sweet-spot-090014823.html?src=rss
