Last fall, we were fortunate enough to offer you an exclusive first look at the Acer Predator Orion 7000 gaming desktop. Ahead of this morning’s next@acer event, the company sent us over a pre-production unit of one of its latest laptops for another exclusive look. We won’t be scoring it but hopefully, this first look will give you an idea of what we can expect from the final unit.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Our EXCLUSIVE Acer TravelMate Spin P4 convertible laptop looks at the latest 2-in-1 laptop from Acer designed for mobile professionals. As this is an early pre-production unit, there are a few things I can’t go into detail including the exact processor, performance benchmarks, or battery life. There is plenty else to look at, however, so read on for our thoughts on the overall design, feature set, and specs!
Specifications
The Acer TravelMate Spin P4 2-in-1 convertible laptop we previewed has the following features and specifications (configurable when ordering):
| Model | TMP414RN |
| Processors | AMD Ryzen Pro & Intel Core options |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Xe Graphics |
| Memory | 32GB DDR5 |
| Storage | 1TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD |
| Display | 14″ IPS 16:10 WUXGA 1920×1200 anti-glare touchscreen |
| Wireless | MU-MIMO 2×2 Wi-Fi 6/E Technology |
| Audio | • 4 upward speakers with DTS Audio • Dual microphones with AI-powered noise-reduction |
| Security | • Discrete TPM2.0 • IR camera with privacy shutter • Fingerprint reader • Windows Hello secure login |
| Durability | US MIL-STD 810H |
| Sustainability | EPEAT Gold Compliant |
| Accessory | Acer Wacom AES 1.0 Stylus |
| Dimensions | 12.59 x 9.05 x 0.70 inches |
| Weight | 3.48 lbs |
What’s in the box
- Acer TravelMate Spin P4
- Acer Wacom AES 1.0 Stylus
- Power adapter
- Product information sheet
Design
At a glance, the Acer TravelMate Spin P4 looks pretty similar to most other business-oriented 2-in-1 convertible laptops. That’s not a bad thing as it’s a design that works well, and there’s not a lot you can do differently with the form factor itself. Again, this is a pre-production unit so the final version may have small variations from our preview unit.
The lid of the TravelMate Spin P4 is a nice gunmetal gray machined aluminum with nicely rounded corners. The Acer logo is recessed slightly in a nameplate on the upper right (when looking at the laptop). The lid is attached to the body of the 2-in-1 convertible via two hinges roughly an inch in width. Being a convertible laptop, the hinges allow you to use it in laptop mode, flat, stand mode, tent mode, and even fold it over fully to use in tablet mode.
The backlit keyboard features five rows of full-height keys and a function row of half-height keys, as is pretty normal for laptops this size. The arrow keys are in the bottom right corner with half-height up/down keys. The power button is on the upper right and doubles as a fingerprint scanner. The keyboard itself has pretty quiet keystrokes with 1.55mm travel and it’s quite nice to type on. I had no issues getting my typical 100+ wpm and, in fact, constant hit over 110 wpm during typing tests.
On either side of the keyboard are two speaker grilles for the upfiring speakers. Centered below the keyboard is a rather large touchpad. Measuring roughly 5-inches by 3-inches, it is 40% larger than the last gen P4 model. Made with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, the touchpad was as responsive as one would expect and I had no issues with using it.
The display itself has fairly small bezels, 5/8-inch on the bottom, 1/2-inch on the top, and 3/8-inch on either side. This offers up an 82% screen-to-body ratio. The top bezel houses the dual-array microphones and the IR webcam with Windows Hello support and a physical privacy shutter. The Acer logo is printed in silver within the bottom bezel.
On the left side of the laptop, you’ll find two USB Type-C ports, a full-sized HDMI port, a full-sized Ethernet port, and a small plug power port. Interestingly enough, our preview unit came with a 65W USB-C power adapter, and not the plug type adapter. Of course, USB-C charging is more than acceptable but it did seem a bit redundant to have both options on the laptop. On the right side, you’ll find the Wacom stylus storage/charging port, a 3.5mm audio/mic jack, two USB-A ports, and a Kensington lock slot. Finally, the front of the laptop has a microSD card slot on the far left with a hard drive and power activity lights. On the far right is a smart card reader.
The back edge of the laptop has two speaker grilles just inside the hinges. Flipping the laptop over, there are two more on the bottom close to the two back ones. There are also ample ventilation slots as well as two long strips which act as feet to raise the laptop up when placed on a desk or table.
Being a 2-in-1 convertible laptop, the TravelMate Spin P4 has a touchscreen and even includes a Wacom AES 1.0 stylus. The stylus is thin, about 5-inches in length, and has a small button on one side about where your thumb would rest. It offers 4,096 pressure levels and was responsive and accurate when used. When inserted into its storage/charging slot, Acer claims a mere 15-second charge will allow for 90 minutes of use. On that note, I never had an issue with it dying while using it during my preview period.
As far as looks go, while there is nothing special or standout about the Acer TravelMate Spin P4, it does have a solid build quality to it and definitely looks business-like. It’s also relatively compact, coming in at just over 12 1/2-inches in width, 9-inches in-depth and just under three-quarters of an inch thick. It’s not too bad in the weight department either at 3.48 lbs.
Display
The Acer TravelMate Spin P4 boasts a 14″ WUXGA (1920×1200) IPS anti-glare Corning Gorilla Glass touchscreen display. The matte finish on the screen is nice and does prevent a lot of glare on the screen, even when outside in direct sunlight. The display is also responsive and responded well to both finger and stylus touches.
The display is decently bright as well, and for the most part, I used it at around 65% brightness inside during the day. Outside, I had to max it at 100% and while bright enough, I do feel like it could be a bit brighter. We don’t have information on colour profiles for the display, but it wasn’t too bad in that department. Considering it’s meant for mobile professionals, the colours were decent enough, if perhaps a bit on the flat side. Still, in this case, I didn’t mind it for some reason as all around the screen was nice to work on for extended periods without being too bright or vivid with colours.
Software
Our preview shipped with Windows 11 and a few preinstalled apps. These included Acer Jumpstart, Acer Office Manager Agent Weblink, Acer Office Manager Console Weblink, Acer ProShield Plus, Control Center, and Norton Security Ultra. While it may seem like a few additional apps, depending on your business use, most of them will likely be useful.
As far as Windows 11 is concerned, it worked well given our preview configuration in both laptop and touch/tablet modes.
Performance
As mentioned above, we can’t provide performance benchmarks as this is a pre-production unit. However, the TravelMate Spin P4 with our preview configuration ran everything as I would expect based on the components and specifications. Web tasks and Office-related tasks ran just fine and even a quick test of Photoshop and Lightroom proved to be acceptable here as well. Of course, performance does hinge on the processor, RAM, and SSD that you choose when configuring the system so your mileage will definitely vary depending on what final configurations Acer offers. On that note, the company did mention that the system will be available with up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7 and up to AMD Ryzen 7 PRO processors, so there should be a few options to choose from.
Sound Quality
Laptop sound is still somewhat lacking, although it has been getting better over the years. Again, you’re going to lack any signification bass levels for listening to music or watching movies but when it comes to video conferencing, the TravelMate Spin P4 should be more than suitable. With 4 upward-firing DTS Audio speakers, the audio is nice and crisp, even at higher volume levels. Even when used in tablet mode, I found the sound quality to be acceptable.
Camera
Yay! The front-facing webcam on our Acer TravelMate Spin P4 preview unit has a 1080p resolution — something we’ve been mentioning for a while now here at Techaeris. While 720p HD webcams are still suitable, the extra resolution provided by 1080p makes a night and day difference when it comes to looking professional. The camera also worked rather well when used with Windows Hello facial recognition login. The inclusion of a physical privacy shutter is also a welcome feature, allowing you to easily cover the camera at your leisure for when it’s not in use.
Microphone/Call Quality
The Acer TravelMate Spin P4 has two microphones with AI-powered noise-reduction technology. When I used the laptop on a test video call, the other party indicated that I sound just fine. I even had the TV on in the background and when I asked, was told they couldn’t hear it. Granted, it wasn’t on very loud but loud enough that I could make out the dialogue with no issues. As such, the noise reduction used on this model seemed to work pretty well.
Battery Life
Again, we can’t provide specifics here but I wasn’t disappointed with the battery life on the pre-production unit we were testing. Acer does indicate that the final units should be able to achieve up to 11-hours of battery life, depending on the type of work you are doing on it while unplugged or on the go.
Price/Value
The starting price for the TravelMate Spin P414-41 will be US$1199 for Ryzen 5 Pro 6650U version with 16GB or RAM, 512GB SSD, and the 14” touchscreen complete with Stylus, Wi-Fi 6, and Windows 11 Pro. Other configurations will be available and this convertible 2-in-1 laptop for mobile professionals will be available in late Q3.
Photo Gallery
Wrap-up
If you’re a small/medium business, hybrid worker, or are on the go a lot, the TravelMate Spin P4 is shaping up to be a 2-in-1 convertible laptop you’ll want to look into once it’s released later this year. Of course, this was a preview of a pre-production unit, so there may be some minor variations with the final product.
Last Updated on May 19, 2022.
