Acer has announced Spin 7, the world’s first laptop with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 platform. The announcement was made at the ongoing IFA 2020 tech show. The Spin 7 is Acer’s first laptop with 5G, the next generation of mobile internet connection that offers much faster data download and upload speeds.
The company claims the Spin 7 will be the first Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 laptop. Simply put, the Spin 7 runs on an ARM-based processor. Laptops running on ARM chips promise long battery life and LTE/5G connectivity. Acer claims the convertible notebook supports both 5G mmWave and sub-6 frequencies.
The new Spin 7 boasts of a 14-inch 1080p IPS touchscreen panel with Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass, a 360-degree hinge, two USB-C ports as well as a USB-A port. The notebook also supports a Wacom AES 1.0 pen with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity for note-taking and drawing.
How Acer is transforming into a lifestyle brand
Qualcomm has been pushing always-connected Windows laptops powered by Snapdragon 835 and 850 chips for quite some time. But the previous-generation Windows-based connected laptops have got a mixed response. One of the major complaints with always-connected PCs is the lack of native apps support for the Qualcomm silicon.
Acer hasn’t revealed a price or retail availability of the Spin 7 just yet. Since it is a 5G notebook, Spin 7 should cost over $1000.
The launch of the Spin 7 comes at a time when Apple is rumoured to launch a 12-inch MacBook powered by an ARM processor later this year. At WWDC 2020, Apple announced its plans to ditch Intel in favour of its own Apple silicon based on ARM designs. Apple promises to ship the first Mac with “Apple Silicon” by the end of this year.
