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Just from seeing that name, some readers can probably predict exactly what this device is going to be: a lightweight, mediocre performer with excellent battery life. If you’re looking for an affordable Netflix machine, the Spin is a great candidate — especially given its movie-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s portable at 2.65
The compromises exist, but the gist is that, for Google Docs work, Zoom calls, streaming, emailing, and other tasks that many students spend the day doing, the Swift 3 does the trick. The screen is fine, the performance is fine, the battery life is fine, and the price ($899.99 Almost everything about the new Swift 5 is fine.
They were almost entirely in agreement on their top priorities: battery life and portability. The compromises exist — I’ll get into them later — but the gist is that, for Google Docs work, Zoom calls, streaming, emailing, and other tasks that many students spend the day doing, the Swift 3 does the trick. percent screen-to-body ratio.
Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook, Asus’ Chromebook Flip C436, and many of last year’s top contenders like the Pixelbook Go all used a 16:9 aspect ratio — a more square 3:2 screen is taller and gives you significantly more vertical space. If you’ve been using a 16:9 display your whole life and you try a 3:2, you’ll probably never want to go back.
The display does have a 16:10 aspect ratio, which I appreciate — and if you’re used to using 16:9 panels, you’ll notice the extra vertical space. Another area where the Duet is punching above its weight class: battery life. Docs and Spotify each crashed once or twice, but it wasn’t a rampant problem. Again, corners.
It has a whopping 25:9 aspect ratio, meaning it is very, very narrow. It can ratchet all the way down to 11Hz to save battery life or all the way up to 120Hz to ensure scrolling and animations look smooth. It’s plenty fast and has decent battery life. inch display. I suspect it’s both.)
inch screen is cramped for a desktop OS like Chrome OS (though it is bright enough to use outdoors, and I appreciate that it has a 16:10 aspect ratio — 16:9 would be unbearable for me at this size). The battery life is, in fact, excellent. That battery life doesn’t come free, though, and the CM3’s performance was a mixed bag.
The panel has a 2560 x 1600 resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio — so not only is it wide, but you get an extra bit of vertical space compared to many popular laptops. When I worked in a full-screen Google Doc, there was so much emptiness on each side that I felt like I was wasting space. Battery life is exceptional.
It does have the cramped 16:9 aspect ratio, something I’ve been glad to see other ThinkPads shifting away from this year. One disappointment underscores all of this, and that’s battery life. I’d be more willing to let this battery life slide on a budget device (though plenty of budget Chromebooks last much longer than this).
Amazon claims up to 12 hours of battery life between charges, and though I didn’t do a formal rundown test, my experience leads me to believe that’s accurate. The Fire HD 10 can easily handle a few consecutive movies, and it doesn’t lose much battery life when it’s sitting idle, unlike Apple’s latest iPads.
And I am now thoroughly spoiled I have been a technology cheapskate most of my life. In general, while I did occasionally miss my two vertically oriented monitors for scrolling long webpages, Google Docs, and Tweetdeck, I found the G9’s gigantic horizontal expanse of real estate nearly as effective for most tasks.
Chrome OS has come a long way: Chromebooks today have a good combination of build quality, battery life and power while also supporting years of software updates that will take you years into the future. As you might expect, they also work well with Google services like Photos, Docs, Gmail, Drive, Keep and so on. Pro model) and more.
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