As soon as I received the device from CDW-G, I was eager to get started. It took me a few minutes to find the stylus – under the keyboard. I popped it out, and immediately went to Cursive (cursive.apps.chrome) to try it out. I think I type faster than I write, but sometimes, I love just jotting notes down for referencing later. I see how this could be useful when at a meeting – when the clicking of keys can be distracting, for example.

I next went to docs.new and started typing. I love the keyboard on the Acer 714 Spin – the keys are soft and effortless to press, and it took no time at all to get used to. The 14″ wide screen is beautifully clear, but it will take a while for me to get used to having a touchscreen display. When I use my Surface laptop, I always forget it has a touchscreen – and I rarely use that feature.

The Acer 714 Spin comes with one HDMI port, a headphone jack, a USB-A slot, and two USB-C slots. I think the HDMI port is going to help when I am in a classroom setting, if the TV isn’t outfitted with a Chromecast. Most of our schools have TVs with both: Apple TV and Chromecast for teachers and students to share screens. I typically teach in the Makerspace classrooms (since I choose to teach two classes at a time), and I will have to see if our TVs and projectors in those rooms are programmed to work together on the Chromecast side.

The Acer 714 Spin allows me to use my home’s Wi-Fi 6E, which is supposedly faster to connect to. I will have to check if the district APs have 6E enabled. Weighing in at 3.06 pounds, the Acer 714 Spin is about the same weight as my 13″ MacBook Pro. It also has the same amount of storage as my MacBook Pro (256gb). Since I try to save everything to Google Drive, I am not sure what I will do with that extra storage.

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