Bytes of Spam 004 – Acer Spin 1 Review
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Not quite a year ago, I acquired an Acer Spin 1 (SP111-32N-P5MH) convertible laptop. To look at, it’s a crisp, cool unit; it’s just over 1.4 cm thick, and its outer body is all metal (brushed metal for the most part, with some polished metal at the hinges). It weighs in at 1.25 kg, and it is one of those laptop models that can fold past 180 degrees — into “tent” mode, or all the way over into “tablet” mode.
On paper, the system specs aren’t particularly impressive: the processor is an Intel Pentium N4200 (quad core, 1.10 GHz), which sports Intel HD Graphics 505. It has 4 GB of DDR3L RAM, and 64 GB of eMMC storage. The display is rather noteworthy, however, being a full HD (1920×1080) panel measuring 11.6” diagonally…and which can reproduce over 100% of the sRGB colour space. The screen is a pen-enabled touchscreen, and the Spin 1 ships with the Acer Active Stylus.
And yet, this little unit has become my go-to laptop — my “daily driver” — for just about everything but hardcore gaming. It fits handily into backpacks that I use for work and for Scouting, and its long battery life (9+ hours as I typically use it) gives me the ability to complete even extended tasks. I use it to draft articles for the Codex (and to publish them, as well), and I use it to record and edit podcast episodes; it travels alongside my microphones and mixer much more easily than my larger ASUS laptop does, and it’s much easier to bring along with me on bus rides — or to crack open on lunch breaks — to get some audio processing done. It’s a much better choice for use on airplanes, too.
And as a gaming platform, it’s…not bad. It runs any of the Ultima games flawlessly, as well as various Sierra and LucasArts games from my GOG library. Even Torchlight 2 runs smoothly at 1920×1080.
This model of Spin 1 will normally retail for around $550 CAD, or about $400 USD, but you can sometimes find them on sale for a much more modest price.
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Music
The Pirate and the Dancer by Rolemusic
The White Frame by Rolemusic
A bit of praise for the tiny little laptop that drives so much content for the Codex and this podcast.