Acer Spin review

[toltec]

I thought I would include my thoughts on my new laptop/tablet thing. I've been using it for a while now.

It is an Acer Spin 5. Has an i5 8th generation processor, 8 GB RAM and a 256 GM SSD drive. It also came with a Acer Stylus Pencil, a bit like the Apple pencil I guess. It is comparable to the Microsoft Surface but a lot faster than the basic Surface and is not restricted to buying software from the MS store. All I have loaded so far is AV software, Photo and Designer using my existing license (thanks Serif ).

I bought it because compared to an iPad, Pro with Apple Pencil and a Smart Keyboard, it is half the price (£600 UK sterling) and IMHO twice as good. However, that does depend on what you want it for. 

If you are into sketching, I suspect the iPad pencil is a better fit for you. I only have an Air 2 without a pencil but I think the pen's tilt function may be a decider although pressure with the Acer Stylus works fine with Affinity apps. Much better at editing photos in Photo. Much better ! You could add a graphic tablet I suppose.

It is also going to be a bit heavier and thicker, although the screen size is similar. The screen resolution is HD so less than the iPad although it can be connected to a calibration device like the Spyder. What's more, connect it to any external monitor with the HDMI port and that makes a desktop PC (sort of). Really good on my 27" Acer monitor although the 13" screen is pretty good. Still, size matters sometimes.

Where it really scores is usability and function.

Pros

Runs the full version of Affinity Software (and it's pretty fast), the 7th gen i5 quite reasonable compared to my 7th gen i7.

No more black unreadable Affinity iPad interface.

The full version of Affinity, no cut down iPad version.

Has a decent keyboard (less numbers pad) or connect a full external keyboard.

Easy to connect a proper mouse (or use the stylus or even a finger).

A normal sensible filing system (not the stupid iPad restricted, cloud dominated thing). 

Plus can connect any USB external storage and access any part of the OS filing system. 

Very long battery life.

Because it is a pretty powerful machine, it can be converted into a desktop type solution, attached to a big monitor, a keyboard and a mouse (maybe a graphics tablet too) or flip the screen and use it like an iPad. It works in both portrait or landscape, like the iPad. You can't rotate the canvas though.

Cons

Sketching is not as good as the Apple pencil.

Heavier

One noticeable drawback

Modifiers. Because it is not supported, there are no Shift, Alt or Control modifiers when using in tablet mode with the on-screen keyboard. You can use it in tablet mode with the mouse though, so I might investigate a multi function mouse, although there are also mini keyboards.

A cool feature.

Keyboard. In tablet mode, you can have a normal on screen keyboard, a split keyboard (half on the left, half on the right) or a handwriting recognition panel. It even recognised my handwriting.

What a hero, even I have trouble recognising my handwriting sometimes 

 

 

[Wosven]

This sound nice, but I don't find it easy to work on the full apps on small screen, that's where the iPad interface would be better.

[toltec]

17 minutes ago, Wosven said:

This sound nice, but I don't find it easy to work on the full apps on small screen, that's where the iPad interface would be better.

Fair point, if you use it as a laptop it does require a certain amount or 'peering' but actually, I much prefer the normal Windows interface to the iPad when in tablet mode but then my Air 2 is only 9.7", I think ?

You can get very close to the Acer's screen (although it is not really necessary) and it is so much better than the Affinity dark interface. I have to press the ? every time to find the Studios . Plus it is much faster to use, no tap, tap touch, tap, swipe etc. Proper menus, one click fits all 

Have you ever tried choosing a Pantone colour on a iPad ?

I do like the iPad for browsing though. Fits in the hand nicely and it is pretty quick.

[firstdefence]

You mentioned it runs full version of affinity twice in the pro's but its probably worth repeating lol!

[toltec]

26 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

 its probably worth repeating lol!

Did I mention that it runs the full version of Affinity ?

[dutchshader]

Sounds nice, but does it run the full verdion of affinity?

[firstdefence]

16 minutes ago, dutchshader said:

Sounds nice, but does it run the full verdion of affinity?

I want the verdion version

[dutchshader]

5 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

I want the verdion version

You could try here

http://www.verdionproperties.nl

[R C-R]

18 hours ago, toltec said:

A normal sensible filing system (not the stupid iPad restricted, cloud dominated thing). 

FWIW, that is just about the only thing I do not like about my non-pro 2018 model iPad. It is lightweight, nicely sized for handheld use, has excellent battery life, supports the (old) Apple Pencil, is relatively inexpensive, & even works well with iCloud Drive, but the iOS Files.app is in no way even close to a reasonable substitute for the macOS Finder. 

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

the iOS Files.app is in no way even close to a reasonable substitute for the macOS Finder

The native Files app is rather limited, sadly. Take a look at FileBrowser by Stratospherix.

[v_kyr]

See: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/file-manager-apps-iphone-ipad/

[toltec]

37 minutes ago, R C-R said:

FWIW, that is just about the only thing I do not like about my non-pro 2018 model iPad. It is lightweight, nicely sized for handheld use, has excellent battery life, supports the (old) Apple Pencil, is relatively inexpensive, & even works well with iCloud Drive, but the iOS Files.app is in no way even close to a reasonable substitute for the macOS Finder. 

No mouse or proper keyboard either. That is what I miss the most.

Also, how do you find a file by it's name in Photos ?

I often end up with more than one version and a thumbnail does not help.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

The native Files app is rather limited, sadly. Take a look at FileBrowser by Stratospherix.

I did take a look at it but since I don't use any cloud based storage besides iCloud Drive, no Windows or Linux computers or NAS servers, no Office apps, etc., it does not seem to offer anything I care about that I can't already do with Files.app on my iPad or via Finder on my Mac.

I also looked at the apps on the link @v_kyr mentioned. I had already tried Documents once before & tried it again just now, but despite the "best third-party document and file manager app" hype, as before for whatever reasons it can't maintain a stable Wi-Fi connection with my Mac, becomes unresponsive on my iPad & eventually crashes. Overall just seems like a collection of kludgy workarounds for the built-in limitations of iOS file management. 

All I really want is something similar to Finder on the iPad that lets me see file sizes, file types, creation & modification dates, & such in a hierarchical scrolling view, with a Finder-like "Open with..." contextual menu. I don't care about access to anything other than whatever files have been saved on the iPad & in iCloud Drive -- if Files.app could do that in a Finder-like way, it would be enough for my needs.

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, toltec said:

No mouse or proper keyboard either. That is what I miss the most.

I don't really do anything on my iPad that requires a mouse, so that isn't an issue for me. I have an inexpensive Anker BT keyboard that I occasionally use when I want to enter a lot of text. The only thing I miss much in that respect is better support for modifier keys in the Affinity apps.

3 hours ago, toltec said:

Also, how do you find a file by it's name in Photos ?

Do you mean by file name or something else? Since the photos on my iPad are not named (& I am not even sure it is possible to name them on an iPad), I just search by date or place in the iPad Photos app. But I really don't use the iPad camera much, so for me there isn't much to search for anyway.

[toltec]

20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

 

Do you mean by file name or something else? Since the photos on my iPad are not named (& I am not even sure it is possible to name them on an iPad), I just search by date or place in the iPad Photos app. But I really don't use the iPad camera much, so for me there isn't much to search for anyway.

By file name. I often save screen grabs or images to Photos from er, Photo so I can get them off onto a PC. It is even a big problem if I just want to load them into Photo again or upload to the internet. Normally takes two or three attempts to get the right file.

The silly iOS file system is a big issue for me. What were Apple thinking? 

No problems on my Acer Spin 

[v_kyr]

See https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8091559 it all has it‘s limitations.

File System tools, well personally I‘m more used to things like TotalCommander or CommanderOne than the OS supplied ones, since these offer more features and Individual customizations. However old habbits.