Acer TravelMate Spin P4 review: A sturdy and affordable 2-in-1 business convertible

We just lately reviewed Acer’s creator-focused Swift X laptop, which combined sturdy functionality and an appealing, light-weight design at a aggressive selling price. The firm’s updated TravelMate Spin P4 (TMP414RN), examined in this article, is a lot more of an everyday workhorse, whose light-weight and strong convertible design will make it a excellent choice for a wide variety of cellular use instances.

Structure & features 

Relatively than the common clamshell kind aspect of the Swift X, the TravelMate Spin P4 has a a lot more flexible convertible design that makes it possible for the 14-inch contact screen to be reversed for displays, or merely folded correct back again to functionality in pill mode when you really don’t need to have — or have home for — the keyboard. 

The 14-inch IPS display may only give FHD (1920 x 1080 pixels, 157.3ppi), but it can be sharp and vibrant, with excellent viewing angles. The shiny screen coating is really reflective, which can be a little irritating at times — when you are performing outdoors, for case in point. 

It’s unclear from Acer’s printed specs what color requirements are supported by the display, but the TravelMate is obviously made for common business enterprise use, rather than higher-high-quality graphics or design perform, so that’s not likely to fret potential customers way too considerably. 

SEE: Microsoft’s Home windows eleven: How to get it now (or later on)

Far more important is the point that the TravelMate is aptly named, with an attractively svelte design for a 14-inch laptop computer. It actions just 17.9mm thick, 325mm wide and 236mm deep, and weighs one.5kg. That is, admittedly, a little major for a laptop computer with ‘ultraportable’ aspirations, but that’s thanks to the convertible design and the point that the slimline chassis also fulfills the armed service-grade MIL-STD 810H standard for impression resistance (while ‘sand and dust testing’ is based on the older 810F regular). 

The backlit keyboard feels agency and responsive, and is also spill-resistant, earning the TravelMate a excellent option for those who need to have a strong laptop computer that can cope with a wide variety of locations and problems. If there is a weak location in this article it can be the power connector, which — as with the Swift X — juts out from the facet of the laptop computer at a correct-angle and appears a whole lot fewer strong than the laptop computer itself.  

Connectivity is a further sturdy place, with HDMI for an exterior display, as well as a Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port that also supports DisplayPort for video output. There are two extra USB-A (three.2) ports, a MicroSD card reader and a three.5mm headphone jack. The TravelMate supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), and also features an RJ-forty five Ethernet port for wired office networks. The only serious disappointment is the fewer than flattering graphic high-quality shipped by the 720p webcam. 

Rate & options 

Not for the 1st time, we found the information and facts on Acer’s site to be imprecise to the place of remaining downright deceptive. Acer’s British isles and US internet websites point out rather obviously that the TravelMate gives “impressive graphical functionality from the Nvidia MX350”, nevertheless the datasheet supplied by Acer and the many configurations mentioned on the internet websites all demonstrate that the only GPU option is the Iris Xe Graphics module that’s integrated with the TravelMate Spin P4’s 11th-technology Intel Core processor. Optional LTE broadband is outlined way too, but equally absent from any at present obtainable designs. 

Our Acer-supplied review unit costs £842.ninety seven (inc. VAT) from Currys Business and other third-bash retailers in the British isles. That selling price features Home windows 10 Professional with a quad-core Core i5-1135G7 processor functioning at 2.4GHz (up to 4.2GHz with TurboBoost), alongside with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of sound-point out storage. In the US, this configuration costs $999.99. 

Acer’s UK website offers a Core i5 design with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD for £999.99 (inc. VAT), though US buyers can opt for a $one,199.99 Core i7-1165G7 model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.  

Effectiveness & battery Life 

The Core i5 processor in our review unit naturally isn’t aimed at power users, but it however turned in Geekbench 5 CPU scores of one,345 (one-main) and three,940 (multi-main). Those people scores are only a little bit reduce than ultraportables these as HP’s (considerably a lot more high-priced) Elite Dragonfly G2, which scores one,565 and 4,330 respectively with a a little bit a lot more high-priced Core i7 processor. The TravelMate Spin P4 will be properly sufficient for dealing with day-to-day business enterprise computer software, e mail and world wide web searching. 

Graphics functionality isn’t heading to gain any awards possibly as — with no that claimed Nvidia GPU — the TravelMate’s integrated graphics could only take care of a modest 63fps when functioning the Cinebench R15 OpenGL tests, and just 5.2fps for the demanding 3D graphics of Unigine Valley. Even so, that’ll however be sufficient for some simple image- or video-enhancing workloads. 

Battery lifestyle is rather fair way too, the 56Wh Li-ion unit long lasting for 7.5 several hours when streaming full-screen video through Wi-Fi. This usually means you shouldn’t have any issues receiving a full day’s perform out of the TravelMate when you are away from the office. And, with its convertible design, you are going to be in a position to kick back again and chill out with some new music or videos at the finish of the day way too. 

Conclusions 

The accuracy of the information and facts on Acer’s site is disappointing, and the confined assortment of TravelMate Spin P4 designs may deter business enterprise users who desire to configure their laptops in detail. Nevertheless, the Spin P4 is an appealing and inexpensive workhorse laptop computer, with a sturdy convertible design that equips it effectively for lifestyle on the road.

Recent AND Related Content

Acer Swift X review: A slimline AMD-powered workhorse with discrete Nvidia graphics

Acer Enduro N3 review: Slender and light-weight, for a rugged laptop computer

Acer Swift 3X review: Strong specs, together with Intel’s dGPU, but establish high-quality disappoints

Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel review: A multi-mode creator laptop computer with spectacular GPU functionality

Most effective 2-in-one laptop computer 2021: Prime hybrid notebooks

Most effective Home windows laptop computer 2021: Prime notebooks in comparison

Most effective laptop computer 2021: Mac, Personal computer, and Chromebook in comparison

Read through a lot more testimonials