Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) review – does Chrome OS stand up to the challenge

A couple of years back, Chromebooks were an interesting new prospect. They were meant for students, children, and most people, who are not in need of a powerful machine that requires an expensive Windows certification (if you’re going legal way). However, the first notebooks that came with the Chrome OS were not perceived very well in the community. They were clunky, had limited usability, compared with the well-known architecture. Moreover, probably the biggest issue of all was the lack of choice.

Nowadays, this has changed, as almost every laptop manufacturer has a Chromebook offering. Not only that, but there are even some premium models, like the Pixelbook Go from Google, itself. We’ll leave the Pixelbook for now and we’re going to focus on the laptop that we have on our test bench – the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H). We’ll let you catch your breath after pronouncing such a bizarre name.

So, the Chromebook Spin 311, as the name suggests, is a convertible notebook that is completely silent. This is not only because of the eMMC storage inside but also thanks of the passive cooling, Acer implemented. Its display is 11-inches in diagonal and has an IPS panel – a true gift given the modest price tag. Although its resolution isn’t very high – 1366 x 768p, it should be sharp enough, thanks to the small screen size.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-chromebook-spin-311-cp311-2h/

Also, you can check the current price of Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Contents


Specs Sheet

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) - Specs

  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 64GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 8GB
  • OS
  • Chrome OS
  • Battery
  • 38Wh, 3-cell
  • Dimensions
  • 297.1 x 205.7 x 20 mm (11.70" x 8.10" x 0.79")
  • Weight
  • 1.20 kg (2.6 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), DisplayPort
  • Card reader
  • MicroSD
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 mm combo
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2 Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • optional
  • Security Lock slot

All Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Our unit came with a 45W USB Type-C power adapter, as well as a dedicated stylus inside the box. Not bad.


Design and construction

From what we can tell, the lid and bottom panel on this notebook are made out of plastic, while the base is aluminum (or a very well built plastic). Design-wise this laptop is definitely larger than it could have been. Whether it is because of a comfortability standpoint, or to save some money, both the footprint and the thickness are quite massive. On the bright side, sitting at 1.20kg, the Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) is a rather lightweight notebook. By the way, if you couldn’t tell that this is a Chrome OS-based device, Acer has embossed the Google Chrome logo and name on the lid. Honestly, the glossy colorful logo looks a bit cheap on the matte silver finish.

Now, after you open the lid, using both of your hands, you will see something interesting. The bezels on this guy are huge. And no – not pre-2018 huge – they are even bigger than what we were used to seeing. Why? We don’t know. What we can tell you for sure, however, is that it has Corning Gorilla Glass on top, which gives a great deal of protection to the display, while also boosting the flex-resistance of the lid. And for all of the hypochondriacs out there – the material is “antimicrobial”.

Interestingly, there is one camera housed in the upper hinge, and one residing on the top portion of the base. Basically, this means you can use the laptop as a tablet, and you can take photos with it, again – as a tablet.

However, tablets don’t have dedicated keyboards, do they? This one looks a little different from what we usually see from Acer. It has a rather long key travel and relatively clicky feedback. However, it is inconsistent. Some keys feel flimsy, while others are stiff. Additionally, there are the “Control” and “Alt” keys which are being elongated on the left side, because of the lack of “Fn” and “Windows” keys. Other than that, the arrow keys have decent spacing between each other, and you can find the dedicated search button, in the place of “Caps Lock”.

It is important to note that the base is actually pretty sturdy and pressing hard against the keyboard results in very little amount of bending.

Further down, there is the touchpad. Now, using it was not the best experience, as you can clearly understand that the Chrome OS is built on top of Android, meaning – it is more comfortable in touchscreen mode. Not that the touchpad is terrible, but some gestures are not working, and you have to deal with the “two fingers” tap equals right-click scenario, especially if you are coming from Windows.

Lastly, the speakers are shooting towards the desk, as they are located on the bottom side of the device.

Ports

On the left side, you will find the Power button, a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port that can be used for charging, DisplayPort output and data, then a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, a MicroSD card reader, and a headphone jack. Moving to the right, we see a similar set up with the same USB configuration. You can also charge the laptop from this side. Finally, next to the Type-A port on the right, there is the volume rocker, that is slightly protruding from the case and has a dot-style designation. While it is easy to find it without looking, the feedback it gives is soft but it gives a nice click in the end.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

Despite its relatively small size, there are 12 Phillips-head screws holding the bottom panel in place. After you undo them, carefully pry the plate with a plastic tool, preferably starting at the back – around the hinges, where it would be easier to stick your… tool in.

Now that we are inside, we can see something expectable – the motherboard is placed upside-down. This prevents us from seeing how the cooling solution is assembled, but by the lack of fan spinning around, we place our bet on a passive single plate. Additionally, upgrading the memory is impossible as the 4GB of LPDDR4 modules are soldered to the motherboard.

While 64GB of eMMC storage is not something to write home about, it is still good to see that you can upgrade it via the MicroSD card slot.

Last but not least – a 39Wh battery. When you consider the tiny display, efficient chipset and the naturally unpretentious Chrome OS, it should deliver a great battery life.


Display quality

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) is equipped with a touchscreen IPS panel, AUO B116XAK01.4 (AUO145C). Its diagonal is 11.6-inch (29.5 cm), and the resolution – 1366 х 768p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 135 ppi, their pitch – 0.19 х 0.19 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 64 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 210 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and also 213 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of just 4%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6250K – warmer than the 6500K temperature for sRGB. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 7140K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 78% Brightness (White level = 138 cd/m2, Black level = 0.11 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is excellent – 1300:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 58% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 25 ms.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H)’s backlight lacks PWM in all brightness levels. This makes it comfortable for long periods of use, without being harmful to your eyes in this aspect.

Conclusion

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) comes with a touchscreen panel with an IPS panel, giving it comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio. Moreover, its default settings are pretty adequate, while the backlight is comfortable for long periods of use, thanks to the lack of PWM. Its main disadvantage is the modest color coverage of just 58% of sRGB.

Sound

The sound coming from Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H)’s speakers is relatively clear. Sadly, it sounds shallow with almost unrecognizable lows.


Drivers

Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) comes with everything preinstalled and will download updates automatically, when available. Our unit’s version of Chrome OS is 82.0.4085.6 and it is based on Android 9.0.

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This device has a 39Wh battery pack.

This was enough for 12 hours and 20 minutes of Web browsing, but only 6 hours and a half of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

For every test like this, we use the same video in HD.


CPU options

The processor of choice here is the quad-core Intel Celeron N4100. It works at a base frequency of 1.10 GHz and Turbos up to 2.40 GHz. Additionally, it is paired with 4MB of cache, while the power efficiency is rated at 6W of TDP.

CPU Benchmarkssingle/multi Geekbench 5PCMark Computer VisionOctane V2Mozilla Kraken 1.1
Acer Chromebook Spin 11 (CP311-2H)378/12817122155052457.7 ms

GPU options

Respectively, the graphics card here is the integrated Intel UHD Graphics 600. Yes, it is not a marvel of engineering by any means, but it should do the work within the unpretentious Chromebook we have today.

GPU Benchmarks3DMark SlingshotGFXBench Manhattan 3.0 (1080p offscreen)GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 (1080p offscreen)GFXBench Aztec Ruins OpenGL (1080p offscreen)
Acer Chromebook Spin 11 (CP311-2H)261322 fps16 fps11 fps

Temperatures and comfort

In order to stress out the machine we used a neat free app on the Play Store called CPU Throttling Test. Ultimately, it simulates a 100% load on the CPU, thus heating it as much as possible. As the laptop is virtually silent, apart from some coil whines here and there, the noise comfort is unbeaten. In terms of temperatures, though, we think that the laptop’s keyboard could have been cooler, given the energy-efficient processor.


Verdict

As power users, we are not the biggest fans of Chromebooks. However, it is an incredibly usable device, especially in 2020, when Android applications are super accessible and also very well thought of. For example, you don’t need Microsoft Office for your daily work anymore, there are Spreadsheets, Docs and many, many more that offer a lot of options at practically no cost.

Additionally, the file system of Chrome OS makes connecting external memory easier than ever, while also providing you with the option to organize your storage. Now, despite the options of expanding the memory both via USB and the MicroSD card slot, the integrated 64GB of eMMC is quite a low volume for a laptop. Also, unlike the NVMe drives, which are indeed more expensive, the eMMC is basically flash memory – more than 10 times slower on occasions. Despite that, we didn’t notice any hiccups and all of the apps opened in an instant. Let’s not forget the USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) pair, which both can charge the notebook and also output a DisplayPort signal.

As of the display – Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) comes with a touchscreen panel with an IPS panel, giving it comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio. Moreover, its default settings are pretty adequate, while the backlight is comfortable for long periods of use, thanks to the lack of PWM. Its main disadvantage is the modest color coverage of just 58% of sRGB.

Now, not everything about this laptop is fun and games. In addition to the soldered storage, it also has its RAM soldered to the motherboard. While Chrome OS is definitely not as memory-hungry as Windows, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to put at least 8 gigs inside. Come on, it’s 2020, right?

Lastly, there is the design. While it is a very robust assembly, and it would definitely take a beating before it breaks, it looks dated. It is too thick for an 11-inch notebook and the bezels… They are humongous. Honestly, you can put some sticky notes on them, and they are still not going to interfere with your content on the screen.

By the way, battery life is an interesting topic on this machine. It is equipped with a 39Wh battery, which is rather decent for the size of the display. This statement was further enhanced by the 12 hours and 20 minutes screen on time during Web browsing – basically the main thing you do on a Chromebook. However, as soon as you start playing a video, stored on the onboard storage – this figure drops down to only 6 hours and a half. It is probably due to an optimization issue, but there is nothing you can do about it. At least for now.

So, what do you think about Chromebooks, guys? Tell us in the comments if are thinking of making the transition from Windows to Chrome OS, or if you already did it!

Pros

  • Snappy experience
  • The OS loads in an instant
  • Two USB Type-C ports that charge the laptop and can output DisplayPort
  • Its display has comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio (AUO145C)
  • Doesn’t use PWM to adjust screen brightness (AUO145C)
  • MicroSD card storage expansion


Cons

  • A bit on the large side for an 11-inch notebook
  • Covers only 58% of sRGB (AUO145C)
  • Memory and storage are soldered to the motherboard
  • Feels clunky and dated because of its fat bezels

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-chromebook-spin-311-cp311-2h/

Also, you can check the current price of Acer Chromebook Spin 311 (CP311-2H) here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

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Lucas
Lucas
3 years ago

The compact design of the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 gives it a good sophisticated look to it. While the battery life ensures uninterrupted user experience and the MediaTek chipset helps a great deal in ensuring the same.

jerry
jerry
1 year ago

folks, this is meant for grade school students and designed to take a beating and a spill.
and yes, the sticky pad margin is a plus.