When I wrote my Acer Chromebook Plus 514 review, I said that it was “the Chromebook I've spent the last 5 years waiting for”. During this time, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Chromebooks. In fact, a few months ago I posed the question: Are 2-in-1 laptops dead, or is there still time for a comeback?
I love that Chromebooks are so affordable and convenient, but when working on serious creative projects, they often come up short. What creative, honestly, is investing in a Chromebook when there are so many more powerful options out there?
It was therefore with limited enthusiasm that I initially unboxed the Acer Plus 514. Okay, I do love my job, but you can’t be excited about every device that comes your way. That apathy quickly flipped to joy when I started using the device. A 14-inch Chromebook laptop excites no one, but a 14-inch laptop that doubles up as a 14-inch tablet starts to really get the juices flowing.
I quickly found myself using it to sort through media, edit photos with Snapseed, and produce videos with InShot. Being able to quickly transfer and load up media from a shoot was another big plus. The fact that I could then effortlessly get data transferred into the cloud helped deliver an enjoyable and seamless creative workflow.
All of this could have been achieved in laptop mode, but it was actually having the flexibility to transform it into a tablet with touch controls that began to win me over. Simple editing tasks are far easier with your finger or a stylus than they are using a standard mouse.
If you own a tablet, the likelihood is that it’s no more than 11 inches in size or maybe 13 inches if you own an iPad Pro or iPad Air. Heck, it might even be as small as 7 inches. But who owns a 14-inch tablet? Hardly anyone.
The display is big, has a whopping 2.8K resolution, and features a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is perfect for consuming long-form content. It also looks super professional and premium when used in a client meeting or sharing ideas with team members.
The Acer Chromebook Plus 514 is never going to make it into our best laptops for graphic design or best laptops for 3D modelling guides, but it might just have a chance of making it as one of the best 2-in-1 laptop tablets. And if you’re looking for a simple companion for your creative workflows while holding onto your main workstation, the Chromebook Plus 514 might just be it.
