Batteries & Chargers

Intel’s long-awaited Tiger Lake CPUs will power Acer’s newly updated laptops: the Swift 3 and the Swift 5. We’re eager to find out whether the processors’ performance will match the name of the product lineup.

The Tiger Lake chips, Intel’s upcoming 11th Gen processors, are four-core mobile CPUs that incorporate the new Willow Cove architecture that is built on a new “SuperFin” transistor, which promises better frequency speeds while maintaining high-power efficiency. 

Tiger Lake, packed with Intel’s new Xe graphics, will reportedly provide a “generational leap” in CPU performance — and a new fleet of Acer Swift laptops will house this buzzworthy processor.

The Acer Swift 3 with Tiger Lake CPUs
Acer will launch two iterations of the Swift 3 with Tiger Lake CPUs — the Swift 3 SF313-53 and the Swift 3 SF514-59. The former will sport a 13.5-inch, 400-nit, 2256 x 1504-pixel display and the latter will feature a 14-inch, 1080p display with ultra-narrow 0.2-inch bezels. 

The 13.5-inch Swift 3 will sport a durable magnesium-aluminum chassis. At just 2.6 pounds and 0.6 inches thin, the Swift 3 is svelte and slim. The 14-inch Swift 3 is also 2.6 pounds and is 0.7 inches thin.

Both Swift 3 models offer Thunderbolt 4, Intel Iris Xe graphics, up to 16GB of RAM and a fingerprint reader for quick-and-secure biometric authentication.

While Acer is keeping mum about the battery runtime of 14-inch Swift 3 for now, the company claims that the 13.5-inch Swift 3 will offer up to 18 hours of battery life. If we’ve learned anything from our piece on the egregious differences between vendor battery life estimates and real-world runtimes, we’re going to wait until we test the unit ourselves to get a more true-to-life figure on the 13.5-inch Swift 3’s battery-life endurance.

The Acer Swift 5 with Tiger Lake CPUs 
The Swift 5 is an ultra-thin, “performance-minded” laptop that features an antimicrobial, Corning Gorilla Glass touchscreen display. The screen is framed with ultra-narrow bezels on all four sides, providing a 90% screen-to-body ratio for an immersive viewing experience. Acer claims that the display covers 100% of the sRGB gamut and radiates 340-nits of brightness.

The Swift 5 is powered by 11th Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. Thanks to Intel’s new Iris Xe chip, the Swift 3 can impressively manage video and graphics, according to Acer.

The Swift 5’s chassis, which is made of magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminum, is super lightweight and weighs 2.3 pounds. Its specially-designed hinge angles the laptop for better thermal performance and improved ergonomics while typing. 

The Swift 5 will adhere to Intel’s EVO (formerly Project Athena) high standards. EVO ensures that devices meet Intel’s strict criteria, including consistent responsiveness, instant wake, fast charging and long-lasting battery life. Acer claims that the Swift 5 can last 17 hours on a charge.

“Acer took meticulous care to ensure that all aspects of the design were elevated to match the best-in-class experience the Intel Evo platform provides to help our customers achieve more,” Acer Notebooks General Manager Justin Lin said.

Highly praised laptops such as the Dell XPS 13, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and the HP Spectre x360 13 are all Project Athena-verified laptops, so the new Swift 5 will likely blow us away with its Intel EVO-verified performance. The Swift 3 laptops’ Intel EVO-verification certificates are pending.

The Swift 5 has a price tag of $999.99. The 14-inch Swift 3 will cost $699.99 while the 13.5-inch Swift 3 will set you back $799.99. The new Swift 3 and 5 will be available in November.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Acer Laptop Battery

A recently completed scientific study will revolutionize the makeup of lithium ion batteries. It seems that what scientists have assumed is the slowest part of the chemical reaction in the battery is wrong, and it has been wrong for years. Batteries have been designed with the intention of increasing the speed of this reaction, thus speeding up the battery process, hopefully leading to increased voltage output. The mystery is as the chemical reaction time was decreased by new designs, the reaction times were not improved; this was especially true at high and low voltage use of the battery.

How a Battery Works
In a process long used, but perhaps not fully understood, current has been used to assist electroplating and the operation of batteries. The system involves an electrolyte base fluid, usually an acid that has a specially coated plate, usually with carbon, dipped into it. When voltage is applied, a current is developed by the ions from the fluid being attracted to the compound on the plate. When the current is stopped, the reaction reverses, with the acid attracting the ions back into solution. Eventually, the battery will wear out due to fluid loss or rusting of the plates in the battery. The electrodes are porous, meaning they have open areas in their structure that allow for the collecting of electrons in the material that makes up the electrode. The carbon does not change during this process. Lithium ion batteries make use of this process.

The Limiting Factor
In general, if you want to improve the reaction time of a chemical compound, you need to speed up the processes that show everything down. It was long thought the event that controlled the speed of these reactions in lithium ion batteries, the limiting factor, was the speed by which the ions travel from the solution to solid compound on the plate. There are a series of equations, Butler-Volmer equations, developed in the 1930s that can predict the time loss involved in this process. This allows a battery to be designed for optimal ion flow. Or, until recently, so it was thought.

The New Limiting Factor
It turns out this theory fails to predict the correct speed flows at parts of the lithium ion battery operation, and these are critical areas such as low and high voltage of the batteries. As lithium ion batteries have become more capable of generating higher voltages, the more the Butler-Volmer equations were out of line. Now, two professors at MIT, Peng Bai and Martin Bazant, have found out why. They have developed a method to measure the speeds of the transfers that occur during the reactions in the battery. It turns out that the ion transfer is not really the limiting factor in this reaction, although it can appear that way at some voltages. The real limiting factor is actually the electronic transfer between the solid layers of the plates. This is the transfer between the plate compound and the its coating. The transfer of ions in solution is almost instantaneous under all circumstances, so does not actually limit the battery in any way.

To truly design lithium ion batteries to reflect the actions at the atomic level, a new set of equations is needed. These reactions are described by the Marcus-Hush-Chidsey equations of electron transfer. This new information will be considered in all future lithium ion batteries and should lead to more efficient batteries that can produce higher currents. It could make battery charged cars much more of a reality than is possible at the current time.

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As consumers sheltered in place during the second quarter, they bought PCs by the ton. Both Gartner and IDC research firms reported big positive swings in PC and Chromebook sales for the second quarter. Gartner reported a 2.8 percent year-over-year increase, while IDC reported a whopping 11.2-percent boost for the same period.

The two firms have long differed in methodology: IDC includes Chromebook sales, and Gartner does not. That’s significant, as U.S. consumers bought PCs and Chromebooks as students and workers alike weathered the coronavirus. IDC reported unit sales of 21 million in United States, calling it a “double-digit” increase (the firm did not release the exact figure).

Gartner said that worldwide PC sales (excluding Chromebooks or iPads) totaled 64.8 million units, up 2.8 percent from a year ago. Acer and Asus benefited most, reporting 23.6 percent and 21.4 percent worldwide growth, respectively, though they remained in fifth and sixth position in the overall table. But Lenovo is still the world’s leading vendor of PCs, Gartner said.

Gartner put the numbers in a cautionary context, as supply disruptions in Asia warped the market. “The second quarter of 2020 represented a short-term recovery for the worldwide PC market, led by exceptionally strong growth in EMEA,” said Mikako Kitagawa, research director at Gartner, in a statement. “After the PC supply chain was severely disrupted in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the growth this quarter was due to distributors and retail channels restocking their supplies back to near-normal levels.”

Gartner warned that laptop sales would slow once everyone had bought what they needed. “Mobile PC growth was particularly strong, driven by several factors including business continuity for remote working, online education and consumers’ entertainment needs,” Kitagawa added. “However, this uptick in mobile PC demand will not continue beyond 2020, as shipments were mainly boosted by short-term business needs due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

In the United States, HP benefited most from the surge in demand, with Microsoft right behind. Gartner reported that HP’s sales jumped by over 20 percent. Microsoft demonstrated 15.2-percent unit growth for the period. That’s the fifth consecutive quarter of growth in PC sales for the United States.

“Strong mobile PC demand in the U.S. was driven by shelter in place rules enforced as a response to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Gartner’s Kitagawa said. “While some states eased restrictions during the second quarter of 2020, many businesses continued to prepare for a potential resurgence of the virus, resulting in strong demand for mobile PCs as a precautionary measure.”

IDC was even more enthusiastic about the present, but concerned about a future downturn. “Early indicators suggest strong PC shipments for education, enterprise, and consumer, muted somewhat by frozen SMBs,” said Linn Huang, research vice president, Devices and Displays at IDC, in a statement. “With inventory still back ordered, this goodwill will continue into July. However, as we head deeper into a global recession, the goodwill sentiment will increasingly sour.”

IDC gave the nod to Apple. which the firm said sold 36 percent more PCs than it had during the second quarter of 2019. HP, the current market leader, also performed well, with 17.7-percent sales growth.

“The strong demand driven by work-from-home as well as e-learning needs has surpassed previous expectations and has once again put the PC at the center of consumers’ tech portfolio,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC’s Mobile Device Trackers, in a statement. “What remains to be seen is if this demand and high level of usage continues during a recession and into the post-COVID world since budgets are shrinking while schools and workplaces reopen.”

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The Acer Chromebook Spin 713 takes the company in a new direction. Acer has sold vast quantities of inexpensive, basic Chromebooks for school and home use—and it announced a new one on Tuesday, at the company’s next@acer virtual event: the $260 Chromebook Spin 311. In contrast the Chromebook Spin 713, also announced Tuesday, is a far fancier product that will have a starting price of $630 when it ships in the United States in July. An enterprise version will start at $1,100. 

If you stopped reading there, you embody the big question about high-end Chromebooks: Who’s going to buy these things? Chromebooks gobbled up a fair chunk of the PC market by being simpler and super-cheap alternatives to Windows-based models. Some people are clearly ready for something a little better—the HP Chromebook x360 12b is selling well, for instance, at $360 on Adorama.

At higher prices, it’s harder to say that a Chromebook is a better deal than a like-priced Windows laptop. But vendors are trying: Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook, starting at $1,000, is another recent example. 

We don’t know how the Chromebook Spin 713 will fare. Based on the specs and the design information we have, however, it sounds like a nice laptop. Here’s everything we know. 

Intel Project Athena pedigree
The most notable aspect of the Chromebook Spin 713’s design is that it has a design. Most Chromebooks are anonymous plastic slabs. The Chromebook Spin 713 is the result of a partnership between Acer and Intel’s Project Athena, an initiative to encourage innovation in the design and performance of Intel-based laptops. Project Athena laptops have to meet standards for being thin, light, and long-lasting on battery, among other criteria. This is Acer’s first Chromebook to go through the program. The all-aluminum chassis has also passed the MIL-STD 810G spec, meaning it can withstand more bumps, shocks, and drops than the typical laptop shell.

Many Project Athena qualities bear out only in testing, which we haven’t had a chance to do yet with the Chromebook Spin 713. If and until we do, we can at least share the specs and a few photos provided by Acer, so you can think about how much you’d be willing to pay for a nicer Chromebook.

Chromebook Spin 713 features and specs
The Chromebook Spin 713’s spec list could hold up well against that of any midpriced Windows laptop. The 360-degree hinge means it’s versatile, too, functioning as a tablet, presentation display, or traditional clamshell laptop. Note that we have only the starting price of $630, and models with the higher-end options will cost more. 

CPU
The CPU options, all from Intel, are unusually broad for a Chromebook. At the lowest end, there’s a Pentium Gold 6405U, which we assume is the CPU for the lowest-cost version. Manage your expectations accordingly: This CPU can handle everyday tasks, but it will struggle with intensive web applications or games. 

All the other CPU options come from Intel’s 10th-gen Comet Lake Core CPU family, using Intel’s aged 14nm architecture but exercising higher clock speeds to boost performance. The specific CPUs available with the Chromebook Spin 713 are the Core i3-10110U, Core i5-10210U, Core i5-10310U, and Core i7-10510U. 

Memory
Again, you have some choices in memory, which is unusual and welcome. It looks like some lower-end models will offer 4GB of single-channel DDR4 SDRAM. Higher-end models will offer 8GB or 16GB of dual-channel DDR4 SDRAM. 

Storage
Lower-end Chromebook use inexpensive (and slow) eMMC, which is available for the Chromebook Spin 713 in 64GB and 128GB capacities. But take heart, Acer also offers SSD options, 128GB or 256GB PCIe NVMe.

Display
The Chromebook Spin 713’s touch display has a diagonal size of 13.5 inches, neatly splitting the difference between the portability that a smaller screen offers, and the greater productivity a 14-inch or larger one provides. The bezels are slender, another difference from lower-cost Chromebooks. The display is coated with Corning Gorilla Glass, and there’s even an antimicrobial option that’s suddenly interesting in a pandemic world.

The resolution is good at 2K (2256×1504), especially considering how many HD (1366×768) displays show up on cheaper Chromebooks. Even better is the 3:2 aspect ratio, which makes scrolling work documents far less tedious than it is on the more common 16:9 aspect ratio. 

The Intel UHD integrated graphics will suffice for mainstream productivity.

Connectivity
Acer didn’t specify connectivity, but a close look at the photographs suggests there will be HDMI, two USB-C, one USB-A, an SD card slot, and a SIM slot. There’s no dedicated AC charger port shown, so the laptop likely charges via USB-C.

Networking: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX201, Bluetooth 5.0 
Battery life: Up to 10 hours from a 3-cell pack
Weight: 3.02 pounds
Dimensions: 11.83 x 9.25 x 0.66 inches

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Laptop Battery for Asus

The HP Chromebook x360 12b is an affordable Chromebook made for grown-ups. It takes you a cut above the rock-bottom basic Chromebooks that hover around $250 (and continue to sell well). Get one of those for your kids—who cares if they destroy it? But you, the adult in the room, deserve the Chromebook x360 12b, with its surprisingly good design and great battery life.

This is still a budget-grade Chromebook, so there are some compromises: Performance is mediocre, and the 3:2 display, while nice and tall, isn’t very bright. Still, we think HP made reasonable choices to provide a productive and enjoyable experience without breaking the bank.

HP Chromebook x360 12b specs and features
The Chromebook x360 12b we tested currently goes for $360 at Adorama. As you’ll see from the somewhat modest specs and features below (and the performance charts later on), HP spent less on the CPU, memory, and storage, and more on the design.

HP Chromebook x360 12b design
The specs tell just part of the story for the Chromebook x360 12b. HP put a lot of thought into key details, starting with the sturdy chassis. The body is mostly plastic, but the aluminum keyboard deck helps it feel very solid, even when held by one corner. The overall weight is light enough for easy toting.

The base is colored silver, while the plastic display lid is painted white. I’m always afraid I will ruin anything white, but the lid, perhaps because of its matte finish (or my habitually frequent handwashing), just picks up a little shine sometimes where I touch it. 

HP makes a strategic trade-off with the display. With a measured luminance of 229 nits, it’s just barely bright enough to work in a well-lit office, and don’t even try to take it outside. The bezels are average, not super-slim. Instead, HP prioritized giving it a 3:2 aspect ratio. We’re used to seeing 16:9 in many laptops, but that wider screen makes it hard to be productive if you have to navigate long documents or big spreadsheets. The Chromebook x360 12b’s taller screen makes it easier to get real work done, and I’ll gladly take that over a few extra nits. 

The USB port selection is worth noting. HP keeps one toe in the past with the single USB-A port, but having two USB-C ports keeps users in step with the present trend. The charger connects via one of those USB-C ports, so if you plan to have it plugged in most of the time you might want to buy a USB-C hub to give yourself plenty of options.

HP builds a wide speaker across the top of the keyboard tray. Its audio quality is what you’d expect from a laptop of this size—a bit tinny, with meager bass—but at least the sound is coming right at you, rather than from the sides as in some designs. When the Chromebook x360 12b is configured in tent mode, the speaker faces away from you, diminishing the sound slightly. I turned up the volume a bit to compensate. 

Input devices: Keyboard, trackpad, webcam, pen
I tend to approach low-cost Chromebooks with dread, as the keyboards can be awful—with harsh travel akin to typing on rocks. The Chromebook x360 12b’s keyboard rises several steps above, providing firm and gentle feedback that kept me comfortable through hours of intensive typing. 

The trackpad is huge and centered on the spacebar. It clicks almost all the way to the top. We’ve had uneven experiences with HP trackpads—they occasionally seemed to lose palm rejection or run amuck selecting text—but this one exhibited smooth, predictable responsiveness. 

The webcam is your standard 720p resolution, with an 88-degree field of view. It delivers good image quality for typical videoconferencing use. 

Note that the Chromebook x360 12b supports pen input, and I tried it successfully with an HP stylus I had available. It supports any USI-compatible pen—HP offers one for about $70 through HP.com. A magnetic area along the left side of the keyboard deck allows the pen to stay rooted in place. 

HP Chromebook x360 12b performance
Given the Celeron N4000 CPU, you should expect adequate, rather than blazing, performance from the Chromebook x360 12b. Within the Chrome ecosystem, that’s usually enough. In my typical workday I move among multiple web applications, with 15 or 20 tabs open in my browser. I worked many days on the Chromebook x360 12b with no noticeable lag. If you’re streaming video or playing online games, you’ll probably notice more of a strain. 

Note that because Google updates Chrome OS every six weeks, the results aren’t perfectly comparable. However, we’ve also spot-checked older Chromebooks on newer OS versions and usually notice just small upticks in performance over time. 

The results fall into line based on the CPU, and the Celeron N4000 in the Chromebook x360 12b therefore tends to dwell near the bottom. Because of the consistency of the results across all tests, I’ll show just a few here.

First up is CrXPRT’s Performance test, which alternates productivity workloads with periods of low activity, to simulate an on-again, off-again rhythm of laptop use. 

In CrXPRT Performance and every other test we ran, the HP Chromebook x360 12b basically stayed in line with the older Acer Chromebook 15 (which has an earlier generation of Celeron processor), and lagged behind models with more powerful Core-level processors. At least it can hold its head high against the Lenovo Chromebook Duet, which uses an even slower Mediatek processor.

Here’s the same story all over again in Jetstream 2, a Javascript and WebAssembly benchmark aimed at more advanced web applications. 

HP Chromebook x360 12b battery life
The HP Chromebook x360 12b moves up a notch in battery life, posting a solid 11-plus hours in the CrXPRT 2 rundown test.

Note, however, that the laptops it beats are older models. The Chromebooks that exceed it, by two or more hours, are contemporary and mostly more expensive. The Chromebook that beats everyone on battery is the significantly cheaper Lenovo IdeaPad Chromebook Duet (but remember, its performance is the slowest of the lot).

Conclusion
The HP Chromebook x360 12b is a good fit for people who want something affordable, but also noticeably nicer than what kids might use in school. It’s small, light, and versatile, and even comfortable to work on for long periods. I also know I’m going to miss the display’s 3:2 aspect ratio when I go back to a wider-screen laptop. 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>HP Laptop Battery