The Honda CBR650R is a sport bike, but it’s not a supersport bike, and that’s an important distinction. For the uninitiated, it can be tough to tell the difference between sport bikes and supersport bikes. They look alike, and in many cases, they even share a naming convention — as is the case with the Honda CBR nameplate and its variants. As with cars, though, the ‘super’ prefix means there’s a difference in performance.
Honda’s supersport bike is the CBR600RR, a high-revving machine meant as a lightweight track missile. I rode a 600RR for years, and boy do I miss that bike. I took it all over the United States and modified it to fit my needs just right. Unfortunately, after years of ownership and hundreds of rides, I’d moved on to other bikes. I needed the garage space, and I wanted someone else to enjoy the bike I’d idolized, then purchased, and enjoyed for years, so I made the choice to sell the aging Honda. Enter my test of the 650R.
Victory Jon
A few months after I sold my CBR, Honda offered me the latest CBR650R as a test bike for a few weeks, and I immediately thought of it as an opportunity: one to see if the sub-super CBR could fill the Honda performance motorcycle void in my life. Could the less-expensive, albeit slower, but still somewhat-performance-oriented bike make up for the gap in my garage, and in my heart? Though more affordable than the current 600RR, it still has hearty performance on paper, and no massive sacrifice in the looks department. I rode the newest 650R for nearly a month to find out if it delivers.
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Plenty of power for entertainment
Travis Langness/SlashGear
From my first freeway ride with the 650R, I could tell it had more than enough grunt to put a smile on my face. I’d picked up the bike from Honda HQ and immediately laid into the throttle on the nearest highway onramp.
While it isn’t a high-revving supersport, the CBR650R does have a substantial amount of power and torque. It uses a 649cc inline four-cylinder engine that revs to 12,000 rpm. That’s a relatively low redline by inline-four standards, but it still produces a healthy 93.8 horsepower and 46.4 lb-ft of torque — much more than its parallel-twin class rivals.
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Snap the throttle back, and as RPMs climb through the rev range, the 650R’s power feels satisfying, even if it isn’t as thrilling as something like my old 600RR. The 650R doesn’t quite manage to get the front wheel off the ground without some over-aggressive riding behavior, but it’s eager to entertain right out of the box. The exhaust note has a nice pitch, and the volume goes up reasonably as the revs rise, giving you a nice bit of four-cylinder sound. An aftermarket exhaust could add some serious spice to this bike and that would probably be my first modification if I owned one.
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Light on its feet
Travis Langness/SlashGear
More than just adequately powered, the 650R is also relatively light. At 466 lbs (wet weight), the 650R felt easy to maneuver through traffic, and I imagine even novice riders would feel confident in the saddle (though they’d probably have an easier time getting used to Honda’s smaller CBR500R).
The front brakes are 310mm rotors being clamped down on by four-piston calipers, with a single-piston caliper and a 240mm rotor in the rear. Both the front lever and rear brake pedal have strong feedback, and it was easy to bring the 650R to a halt in traffic, or as I approached corners in the twisties.
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I got used to riding the 650R quickly, and I was able to lean into the performance easily once I was out of the city, which I did quite a bit of. More than just satisfying for the price or for the class, the 650R was properly fun and responsive without any qualifiers or necessary context. So far, so good, for the bike I’d arbitrarily assigned to fill my 600RR’s place.
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The E-Clutch is a pretty special trick up the CBR650’s sleeve
Travis Langness/SlashGear
On last year’s model, the CBR650R got the addition of Honda’s E-Clutch system, a feature that carries over for 2026. Employed on a few other Honda bikes (like the small, entry-level Rebel 300, and the CB750 Hornet), the system essentially eliminates the need for the hand-operated clutch lever most of the time. Honda says it eliminates stalling and makes gear changes effortless. For the most part, that characterization of the system is spot on.
If you’re shifting the bike as you accelerate or decelerate, you still need to tap the foot lever in the appropriate direction, but there’s no need to pull in the hand clutch. You can even come to a complete stop without ever engaging the clutch lever, and the bike won’t stall. In some scenarios, you’ll need to use the clutch lever to get going, or to give the clutch a bit of slip on steep uphills, but that’s about it.
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In operation, the E-Clutch also essentially acts as an ultra-slick quick shifter. You can adjust the E-Clutch’s shift sensitivity (there are three levels — I stuck with the lightest and easiest one) or you can shut off the E-Clutch entirely if you want to go full manual mode. Just a tiny tap of your left foot and the gears change with minimal pressure. The shifts are delivered quickly as you climb through the gears, and there’s no jolting forward as you engage the next gear. What’s more, unlike some DCT or fully-automatic motorcycle transmissions, the Honda still requires a bit of engagement from the rider, adding a bit to the riding experience.
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One bit of missing hardware
Travis Langness/SlashGear
Being relatively speedy and having the excellent E-Clutch, the CBR650R was easy to ride on a daily basis, but it was missing something. It doesn’t have much in the way of adjustable suspension, and that did make the ride a bit stiff at times. The 650R’s rear suspension has adjustable spring preload, but that’s it. It’s a pretty typical omission for this class, but some rivals — like the R7 — do offer rebound and damping adjustment.
Up front, the 650R has a Show 41mm SFF-BP fork with 4.7 inches of travel, and in the rear, there’s a single-tube monoshock with 5.1 inches of travel. The shocks absorbed most of the small-to-medium bumps, but bigger road imperfections caused some jostling and fairly-sized movements from the handlebars.
Luckily, when I had the 650R leaned over on a few of my local corners, the small bumps I encountered didn’t upset the bike’s handling enough to take me off my line. The Dunlop Roadsport 2 tires that came on the 650R were predictable and relatively quick to warm up. While I wouldn’t make the CBR650R, especially on the budget-friendly Dunlops, my first choice for a weekend track day, neither the bike nor the tires felt overwhelmed on spirited weekend rides.
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In it for the long haul
Travis Langness/SlashGear
Suspension adjustments notwithstanding, I felt pretty comfortable on the CBR650R. Riding on the freeway, eventually in the canyons, and commuting through LA at some of the worst parts of the day, it was easy to get comfy. At 5-foot-9, the foot pegs are low enough that my knees didn’t feel pressured to bend too much, and the handlebars are high enough that I didn’t have to fully rely on my wrists and forearms for stability.
All the long rides I took on the 650R were pain free. The 650R also felt particularly narrow, making lane-splitting especially easy. Getting just about anywhere on the svelte Honda was a quick errand.
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Travis Langness/SlashGear
The rider seat was pretty pain-free too. It’s forgiving enough that my rear end didn’t go numb after a few hours in the saddle (that can happen if a seat is too stiff, like the one on my old 600RR was), and it’s tapered properly towards the front so that riders with larger legs like me can still touch both feet on the ground. A seat height of just 31.9 inches means most riders should have no problem stabilizing the bike at a stand-still.
Form and function
Travis Langness/SlashGear
After a few weeks on the CBR650R, I was able to start seeing the details more clearly. Styling cues like the thin headlights and the narrow taillight help elevate the 650R to a premium status amongst sport bikes in its class. A bit of flake in the Matte Black metallic paint gives you the sensation that Honda spent a bit of money on this one — it’s not some sort of afterthought to an already-robust motorcycle lineup. They’re hidden, but the exhaust headers leaving the front of the engine, before they’re collected into the single exhaust, are an impressive sight to behold. Even the ladder-style license-plate mounting bracket looks the part of an aggressive sport bike.
Travis Langness/SlashGear
Unlike most sport bikes these days, especially the ‘super’ ones, the 650R had some surprising storage space, too. Pop the rear seat off, and there’s an area large enough for some tools, maybe a rag or two, and some window cleaner for when your visor is splattered with most of the local insect population. There are two little straps attached to the rear seat as well, where I could attach my helmet at stops and not worry about it falling off the handlebars or the mirror.
Travis Langness/SlashGear
Also combining form and function in a seamless manner is the CBR’s rider screen. The 5-inch TFT display is high contrast and easy to read, even in bright, overhead sunlight. It’s also easy to interact with, given Honda’s simple handlebar controls and the logical menu layout. Like most of the rest of the bike, the screen just plain works.
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Finding the pricing sweet spot
Travis Langness/SlashGear
The 2026 CBR650R, with its satisfying power, sleek looks, and slippery E-Clutch, has an MSRP of $9,799 (including a $600 destination fee). That represents a $100 price drop over last year’s model, and big savings over the 600RR, which currently starts at $13,099.
The CBR650R is pretty reasonably priced when you compare it to class rivals from Yamaha and Suzuki, too. For instance, the Honda is a few hundred dollars less than the newest R7 ($10,074), and a bit cheaper than the GSX-8R ($10,399). The Kawasaki Ninja 650 undercuts them all at $8,884 (with ABS — it’s $500 less without it), but that Honda still has pretty good value.
Travis Langness/SlashGear
The 650R is missing a few features that rivals have — like cruise control, which you get standard on the new R7 – but the Honda is still expertly assembled, and there are lots of details that give it a strong sense of quality. The E-Clutch is a great asset for the Honda, while tight tolerances on body panels, nicely constructed trim pieces, and stitching on the seat that doesn’t waver is all part of the package. It feels like any Honda motorcycle should: well built.
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2026 Honda CBR650R verdict
Travis Langness/SlashGear
The CBR650R doesn’t provide the same kind of fizz that my old 600RR did, but pretty quickly after hopping on, I realized that wasn’t the point — I’d been looking at this bike through the wrong set of lenses. While it might not be a track-day weapon, capable of revving to the moon, the 2026 Honda CBR650R is swift, sharp, easy-to-ride two-wheeled transportation that will definitely fit the bill for lots of riders. It’s much cheaper and more approachable than the 600RR; it’s still properly powerful; and it’s a more versatile tool. It makes sport bike riding more accessible, and that’s never a bad thing.
The E-Clutch is an excellent bonus for new riders who are intimidated by manual clutch-lever operation, and it also provides an easy riding experience for veteran riders like myself. If you know yourself and your riding style well enough to know you won’t be doing triple-digit-speed freeway pulls or local track days on a regular basis, you don’t have to shell out for the more-expensive CBR600RR. If you want something that’ll be proper fun on its own, don’t sleep on the easier-to-ride CBR650R.
More than once, Leonardo threw up a generic error pop-up with no explanation of how to fix the problem. You’re forced to dismiss the message before doing anything else, which feels like hitting a dead end before trying to troubleshoot yourself or looking up the error code in Leonardo.
Connectivity, luckily, is super simple and seamless. The Romeo connects to your computer over Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth, which sounds like a minor detail until you’ve wrestled with the quirks that Bluetooth can sometimes pose (looking at you, Design Space). During my testing of the Explore 5, I’d occasionally lose my Bluetooth connection, requiring me to disconnect the machine from my computer, reconnect, and try again. I’m not sure if that’s a Design Space issue or my laptop juggling too many Bluetooth devices, but it can be a headache. Through my testing, I never once had the Romeo machine unexpectedly disconnect.
Making Space
There’s no getting around it: The Romeo is big—it’s got twice the cutting width of the Explore 5. It’s not the type of machine that sits easily on a closet shelf when you’re not using it. Most people will want to dedicate a table to it. That’s not necessarily a downside, but it’s intended to exist like a permanent fixture in your workspace. (And remember to account for clearance behind the machine, since materials feed through the rear!). But it is sturdy and built well; it never shifted on the table while cutting, there was very little vibration, the carriage moved seamlessly with no rattles, and nothing flexed or creaked.
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Its open design is another trade-off. Unlike the Explore 5, which folds up, everything stays exposed on the Romeo. I haven’t noticed any buildup yet, but I do worry about pet hair and dust getting into the internals, and it’s something that I’ll keep an eye on over time.
When it cuts, the Romeo bleeps and chirps like a dial-up internet, while the Cricut hums and whirs more like an old inkjet printer. Neither is particularly loud, but worth noting if you share a workspace.
Time to Graduate?
Photograph: Nicole Kinning
After spending time with both machines, my biggest takeaway is that the Cricut is designed to remove as many decisions and points of friction as possible. The Romeo hands you the controls and expects you to learn how to use them.
A power line went down outside of Washington, DC, this week. Normally, the grid would only need a few seconds to recover from such an event. But this one took more than 10 minutes because more than 3 gigawatts of data centers stopped drawing power nearly simultaneously.
The event caused voltage across the PJM grid to spike from Northern Virginia to Chicago, according to data collected by Ting Labs, a startup that runs an IoT sensor network out of people’s electrical sockets.
The event didn’t cause a blackout, but it did cause lights across the region to flicker. The incident demonstrated the effect that data centers can have on the grid — an outcome that experts believe will become more frequent.
Northern Virginia, which is in PJM’s territory, is home to the highest concentration of data centers in the world.
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“It’s the canary in the coal mine,” Ricardo de Azevedo, CTO at ON.Energy, told TechCrunch. These sorts of events involving large loads like data centers are “happening more and more,” he added.
The event echoes one that happened two years ago, also on PJM’s grid, and it could foreshadow larger events if data centers aren’t built to more elegantly handle disruptions to power supplies. The PJM Interconnection manages grids from New Jersey to Illinois and serves 67 million customers, making it the largest grid operator in the United States.
When the power line went down this week, it triggered data centers to switch to backup power, and about 3.1 gigawatts of load vanished in about 30 seconds, according to PJM data. The grid appeared to recover somewhat, but a short time later additional loads dropped off. At its peak, PJM’s grid had an extra 3.49 gigawatts of electricity on it. It took another 11 minutes before it stabilized. The disconnected data centers represented around 3% of total demand on PJM at the time, according to Reuters.
A few percent may not sound like much, but the electrical grid needs to operate in a state of near-perfect balance, with supply and demand closely matched. If they don’t, voltages can sag or spike. The grid and devices connected to it can tolerate small fluctuations, but if those fluctuations grow too large, they’ll trigger failsafes within the grid or within individual facilities, causing them to disconnect.
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When data centers in Northern Virginia sensed the fluctuation caused by the failed power line, they switched to backup power, which removed their load from the grid. As more data centers made the switch, they removed greater amounts of load from the grid. What started as a relatively small drop in supply became an even larger drop in demand, sending supply surging and causing light bulbs to flicker.
Most data centers make decisions in a split second, and those that disconnected this week appear to be no different. When the voltage dip reached them, they all decided to disconnect within a few seconds of each other, Ali Zain Banatwala, senior market models specialist at the Independent Electricity System Operator, told TechCrunch.
“We need to figure a way for these loads that are located next to each other to sequentially either disconnect or reconnect,” he said. A more orderly process would allow grid operators to develop more robust procedures in advance.
Alternatively, data centers could be built to absorb disruptions and not turn their backs to them. One startup, ON.Energy, has been working on a product to help data centers — and the grid — ride through events like the one that occurred this week.
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The company has developed an uninterruptible power supply for an entire data center campus, covering not just servers but also chillers and other equipment. The company essentially hides the data center behind a bank of batteries connected to sophisticated power conversion equipment. All the grid “sees” is one consistent, well-behaved load rather than the peaks and valleys from each individual part of the data center. ON.Energy’s system allows data centers to ramp computing workloads up and down, including AI training, without bothering the grid.
Perhaps more important, it also means that data centers can absorb power fluctuations from the grid. Rather than disconnecting from the grid, ON.Energy’s system can use any extra power to charge its batteries, and if the flow dips, the system can dispatch power to servers. Plus, it can follow the grid’s lead within milliseconds, preventing sags or surges like the ones that caused this week’s problem for PJM.
ON.Energy is currently installing a total of 3 gigawatts worth of its systems at four different data center campuses, de Azevedo said.
Grid managers have also woken up to the problem.
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ERCOT, for example, is going to require large loads like data centers to “ride through” disruptions, de Azevedo said.
The clock is ticking, though. The mass disconnection this week was twice as large as a similar event in 2024, when 60 data centers simultaneously disconnected, pulling 1.5 gigawatts of load from the grid. Back then, data centers accounted for about 6% of PJM’s load, according to Synapse Energy Economics. By 2040, they are expected to make up 24%. If the problem isn’t addressed soon, things could get a lot worse.
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The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is a capable convertible Chromebook with solid performance from its MediaTek Kompanio Ultra chip, plus a detailed IPS screen and good battery life. The fact that the screen’s only 60Hz is a shame, as is the middling port selection and rather high price.
The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is one of the first Chromebooks to feature a flagship Arm-based MediaTek chip inside for potent performance.
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14-inch 3K 60Hz IPS touchscreen:
It also has a detailed resolution IPS touchscreen panel, although it is only 60Hz
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70Whr battery:
Acer has also put a large battery inside this convertible Chromebook to allow for some solid endurance.
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Introduction
The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is part of a new breed of premium Chromebooks.
It’s one of the first to be powered by the new MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 chip to provide a powerful Arm-based alternative to the usual Intel and AMD power stations we see in these devices. It comes backed up with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS storage, plus a 14-inch 2880×1800 60Hz IPS touchscreen and a hefty 70Whr battery.
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In this configuration, though, this Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is far from cheap, clocking in at £799.99/$799. This puts it up there with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus and Windows-powered alternatives such as the Asus Zenbook A14, and means that Acer is going to have to do a lot to stand out.
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I’ve been putting this laptop through its paces for the last couple of weeks to see if it’s one of the best Chromebooks we’ve tested.
Design and Keyboard
More generic looks
Middling port selection
Tactile keyboard but smaller trackpad
The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) has quite a generic finish, admittedly, with a silver metal chassis that’s pleasantly non-descript. It’s solid enough and has minimal branding or flair, apart from an iridescent Acer logo and Chromebook Plus branding on the lid.
It tips the scales at 1.36kg, which is on the heavier side for a laptop this size, but should be fine for those on the go. Then again, it needs some extra mass for the 360-degree hinges that turn this laptop into a tablet.
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Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
As for ports, on the left we’ve got a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-Cs alongside a 3.5mm headphone jack and battery status LED. The right side houses two USB-A ports and a Kensington Nano lock. That isn’t a bad port selection, but it feels a little one-dimensional, especially lacking any form of HDMI or similar and faster Thunderbolt-capable USB-C ports.
The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026)’s keyboard is a smaller 65% layout and has keys that offer some solid tactility, and I’ve got no real qualms about it. On that note, while I’m grateful there is some white backlighting for after-dark working, it isn’t the most even.
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The trackpad offers some reasonable real estate for your fingers, although it feels a little skittish, being a Gorilla Glass trackpad and all, and is a little on the smaller side against other recent laptops I’ve tested.
Display and Sound
High-res 14-inch IPS screen
Oddly only 60Hz
Reasonable brightness and colours
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The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is available with a choice of screens, with lower-end models coming with a 14-inch 1920×1200 screen, and the higher-spec versions upping the resolution to 2880×1800 for much stronger detail. In any case, both are IPS, rather than OLED, although the 120Hz refresh rate option is only available on the lower-res screen.
My sample shipped with the higher resolution screen, which is especially sharp and detailed for a smaller 14-inch screen. The fact that this higher-res screen is only 60Hz is a surprise, especially given we’ve got higher refresh rate panels available on Windows laptops that don’t have the same trade-off with resolution. It is only 60Hz, so lacks the silky smoothness that some ultrabooks are offering with 120Hz refresh rates, but it gets the job done, I suppose.
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It is also touch-enabled with a 360-degree hinge able to turn the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) into a tablet of sorts. This laptop also supports USI 2.0 styluses, although one isn’t included in the box – they are a cost-effective addition, though, if you wanted one.
Acer quotes the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026)’s screen to have 340 nits of peak brightness, which seems about right to my eyes. It should meet our typical 300 nits target and mean this laptop is fine for indoor and outdoor use, while a quoted 100% SRGB coverage means mainstream colours are well-represented.
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The speakers here are fine for casual listening, although I wouldn’t push them too hard as they can sound quite thin at higher volumes. They are upwards-firing, though, so won’t necessarily get muffled if you use the laptop on a softer surface such as a bed or sofa.
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Performance
Interesting MediaTek SoC inside
Solid benchmark scores against key rivals
Stingier RAM and storage for the price
The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) ships with a new MediaTek chip that falls under its flagship Kompanio Ultra branding – to be specific, it’s the MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910.
The Kompanio Ultra 910 features an eight-core CPU, with a single Cortex-X925 core, three Cortex-X4 cores and a further four Cortex-A720 cores. It’s an Arm-based chip, so looks to come with similar revelations as their Windows-based Qualcomm-powered rivals with solid grunt and surprising efficiency for such a potent laptop.
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The scores it achieved in the Geekbench 6 test are similar to other higher-end Chromebooks, such as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus with its Intel Core 5 120U inside, and first-gen Qualcomm Snapdragon X-powered laptops such as the Asus Zenbook A14. That being said, the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) falls slightly behind in multi-threaded tasks against comparably premium Windows ultrabooks.
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This particular model comes with 12GB of RAM, which feels like splitting the difference between a lowly 8GB and the standard 12GB, but it should be okay for a degree of more intensive multitasking. A 256GB drive inside admittedly is okay for a Chromebook though, as most of your work is likely going on Google Docs, Sheets or other components of the G-Suite of productivity applications.
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It isn’t the standard-issue NVMe storage you might expect, though, as Acer has opted to use slower UFS storage here. In my experience, I didn’t have any issues using Chrome, Spotify and benchmarking software during my time with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus feeling slow, but your mileage may vary.
Software
ChromeOS remains lightweight and speedy
Chromebook Plus adds useful extras including Gemini AI
Magic Eraser and Google Meet conferencing tools most useful
The first thing to note about the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is that it runs ChromeOS, meaning it’s got a clean, lightweight UI with no real bloatware pre-installed, which makes it easy to get around and jump into apps such as Google’s G Suite of productivity apps.
Where this particular Chromebook differs is in the fact that it forms part of the Chromebook Plus canon of machines. This was a classification that Google introduced a couple of years ago that could be capable of certain tasks by having above a certain specification.
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Being a Chromebook Plus model also means the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) benefits from some additional quality-of-life features, in the same way that Microsoft’s designated Copilot+ PCs do. For instance, they have access to Google Gemini right from the taskbar, where you can ask it all manner of things, including any questions, or even to help you understand or rewrite a document.
Image Credit (Trusted Reviews)
In addition, you also get handy AI features such as Magic Eraser, Google’s clever Photo editing trickery that could previously be found on Pixel and later other Android phones. This automatically erases unwanted things from photos, working the same way on both devices. You select an image, and it recognises potentially unwanted items to remove by placing a white and grey outline around it. To remove it, you press done.
It’s very clever and works well, even on images where you need nothing removed. For instance, in a photo I took when I went to London a few weeks ago, there were some unwanted people in the corner obstructing the view of the beach. I selected those people to be removed, and sure enough, the AI did a solid job of getting rid of them.
Other features that the Chromebook Plus software update has brought with it are more focused on a Chromebook being a useful device for productivity workloads, including working with G-Suite apps and Google Meet. For instance, it offers Offline File Sync, which backs up files usually saved in the cloud to be saved on the device’s internal drive. This is hidden away in the settings menu a little, but is nonetheless useful for saving documents offline if you don’t have constant internet access.
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In addition, the Chromebook Plus devices also benefit from some handy features for video conferencing, such as Live Translate, which uses AI to translate any captions into a different language. It also works for YouTube videos, too. Google Meet also comes with similar convenient features as the Windows Studio effects on Copilot+ PCs, such as auto framing and rebalancing uneven lighting.
On the keyboard, it also comes with Google’s new Quick Insert key, where the Caps Lock key is, which opens a Spotlight Search-style menu that can be used for everything from inserting a link to looking up files and even using Gemini right from the search bar.
Battery Life
Lasted for 13 hours 32 minutes in the battery test
Capable of lasting for two working days
With their lightweight operating system and more modest power, Chromebooks have often been excellent for endurance and extended battery life, with the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) being no different. It fits a large 70Whr cell into its slim chassis that, with the brightness down to half, and a 1080p YouTube video on a loop, managed to last for 13 hours and 32 minutes before conking out.
That means you’ll easily be able to get two working days out of this Acer Chromebook before it conks out, and with some hypermiling, potentially even a third. It’s strong battery life, although not as strong as some more premium Windows laptops and other Chromebook Plus variants, such as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus.
Acer doesn’t provide a charging brick with the Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026), perhaps owing to recent EU regulations changes, although a 65W USB-C charger was average in getting charge back into the laptop. It took 40 minutes to get from zero to a half charge, while a full charge took 85 minutes.
The Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) has a good amount of grunt with its MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor that makes it one of the more potent choices around.
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You want a better port selection
The lack of any form of HDMI or anything besides USB-C or USB-A in any guise feels quite restrictive against rival devices, though.
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Final Thoughts
The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) is a capable convertible Chromebook with solid performance from its MediaTek Kompanio Ultra chip, plus a detailed IPS screen and good battery life. The fact that the screen’s only 60Hz is a shame, as is the middling port selection and rather high price.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus isn’t a convertible laptop, and is roughly the same price wth similar power. It’s got a better port selection, a larger screen, is lighter, and has slightly better endurance. However, it makes a similar compromise with its screen, although in this instance, it’s resolution as well as refresh rate, but it is an AMOLED screen rather than IPS.
This Acer choice is a good one if you’re after a premium convertible Chromebook, but you can get more power and flexibility by opting for a similarly priced Windows machine in some instances. For more choices, check out our list of the best Chromebooks we’ve tested.
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How We Test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how well it runs popular apps.
We used as our main laptop for at least a week.
Tested the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.
FAQs
How much does the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) weigh?
The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 (2026) weighs 1.36kg, putting it on the heavier side for a smaller laptop.
Rob Scallon stands in a room that refuses to answer him. No bounce. No soft wash of air against walls. Just the immediate disappearance of every note, clap, and spoken word. He is inside one of Shure’s anechoic chambers in Niles, Illinois, a facility built so microphones can be measured without a single reflection getting in the way. Within minutes of the heavy door sealing shut, he reports feeling mildly nauseous. The sensation never fully leaves him for the rest of the visit.
The chamber lies on top of a bed of springs tuned to 3 hertz. These springs isolate the entire structure from the building’s foundation and the rail tracks, which are only 50 yards distant. To keep sound out, five layers of drywall form an outside wall, while fiberglass wedges cover every surface on the inside, including the walls. Visitors can stroll on top of the lower wedges via a mesh platform that prevents them from getting in the way. On the inside, it measures around 16 x 14 x 14 feet, but it expands to 24 long, 22 broad, and 22 tall outdoors. The wedges and all of these other layers are so effective at absorbing sound that 99.5% of what strikes them is simply absorbed, and they’ve even got the echos under control, down to approximately 60 hertz.
NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONES: Effortlessly combines noise cancellation technology with passive features so you can shut off the outside world, quiet…
COMFORTABLE HEADPHONES: Plush over-ear cushions softly hug your ears, while a secure and comfortable padded band gently keeps your studio headphones…
2 LISTENING MODES: These wireless Bluetooth headphones feature Quiet and Aware Modes that let you toggle between full noise cancelling or full…
According to Shure’s engineers, the ambient noise level inside is nearly imperceptible. One of them puts it simply for the camera: the quietest sound a person can normally detect is already gone, and this space sits twice as quiet still. Average readings inside hover around 5.4 dB across the standard audio band, with quieter moments near zero. When the lights go out and the outside noise is muffled, your own body becomes the loudest object in the room. You can hear your blood pumping and your joints creaking. Breathing begins to feel like a performance.
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Clapping is an excellent way to demonstrate the effect since, in a regular room, sound bounces around and fades away after a while, but in this room, it simply stops dead, as if nothing happens for a split second when your hands contact. Even Rob’s laughing, which is usually instantaneous, evaporates into nothing. Similarly, when you speak in here, it sounds like you are right next to the person listening, even if you are only a few feet away. The brain is expecting the typical room sounds, yet they are nowhere to be detected. That absence of feedback is what disrupts your sense of balance. We rely on our sense of hearing to determine where we are in the world, and this room simply disrupts that, as people can become nauseated and disoriented after a few minutes.
Shure uses this space to research microphones and how they behave. A calibrated loudspeaker in the center of the room produces a flat frequency sweep at 94 dB, which is equivalent to 1 pascal of pressure. Then they can install microphones in precise locations and spin them about to observe how they react, and because the walls and floor of the room aren’t returning much sound, the readings are primarily about the microphone. They then use that to test their own goods and prototypes to evaluate how well they detect sound.
Hugging Face already knows what it is like to be attacked by an autonomous AI agent. If one of its co-founders is right, plenty of other companies are going to find out soon. Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief science officer of Hugging Face, has called the recent cyberattack carried out by OpenAI models a “wake-up call” for the technology industry.
Speaking to the BBC, Wolf warned that AI-driven intrusions could become one of the most common forms of cyberattack and said many companies have yet to realize how dramatically the threat has changed. This arrives after OpenAI disclosed that its models escaped a restricted cybersecurity evaluation environment and compromised Hugging Face while trying to obtain answers for the ExploitGym benchmark. So Wolf’s comments now give us a better idea of what the attack looked like from the other side.
OpenAIUnsplash
17,000 attacks arrived in a very short time
Hugging Face initially had no idea where the activity was coming from when it detected the breach in mid-July. Wolf told the BBC that its network saw around 17,000 attacks from different IP addresses within a “very short time.” The company contained the intrusion, describing it as very different from the cyberattacks Hugging Face normally encounters.
Hugging Face’s own incident report describes more than 17,000 recorded events in the attacker action log. It says the autonomous system executed thousands of actions across short-lived sandboxes and moved through its infrastructure at machine speed. The UK’s AI Security Institute is now studying how the system behaved during the incident, while the government has urged companies to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses.
OpenAI
Autonomous hacking is becoming very real
OpenAI says the models were intensely focused on completing that task. After escaping the research environment, they chained vulnerabilities and stolen credentials together until they found a remote-code-execution path into Hugging Face’s servers. Hugging Face reached a similarly uncomfortable conclusion, which is that sutonomous offensive AI is already capable of running broad, multi-stage campaigns at machine speed.
Hugging Face’s incident is a tale for the entire industry. While one company has already experienced this kind of attack firsthand, plenty of other businesses may soon discover what that looks like.
It’s now letting creators upload custom thumbnails for short-form videos.
Adamkaz/Getty Images
YouTube has launched new tools that make it easier for creators to add thumbnails to their videos. Creators part of YouTube Partner Program, those who can already earn from their content in other words, can now upload custom thumbnail images for Shorts. That gives them a way to ensure their short-form videos have eye-catching thumbnails true to their topic. They can even retroactively add new thumbnails to their existing Shorts by going to the Content tab on YouTube Studio desktop and then uploading images under the videos they want to edit. YouTube says it will expand the capability to more users in the future.
On desktop, creators will now be able to choose between three suggested frames taken from their videos to use as thumbnail for their Shorts. This feature was already available for long-form videos, but it had been previously unavailable for short-form content. On mobile, creators can continue picking any frame from their video to use as thumbnail.
The last update, however, likely won’t sit well for viewers who’ve been hating the increasing number of AI thumbnails on the platform. Ask Studio, YouTube’s internal AI tool built directly into its content management platform, now has the capability to generate thumbnails. Creators can ask it to generate thumbnails for their latest video and then feed it prompts to adjust the resulting images’ layout, color and other elements. “Thumbnails created will be tailored to your video’s specific themes and to your specific style,” YouTube says.
Vodafone gives mobile masts autonomous antenna adjustment using artificial intelligence
AI now rotates mobile antennas without waiting for engineering teams
Robotic mast completes network optimisation in under thirty minutes
Vodafone has begun trialing a mobile mast fitted with an AI system and a robotic arm capable of adjusting radio antennas automatically.
The technology combines AI analysis with automated hardware movement to reduce manual intervention across 4G and 5G networks.
An algorithm developed internally by Vodafone first evaluates network demand and local conditions before directing the robotic arm’s movements.
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Robotic arm handles physical adjustments
The robotic component itself comes from Humax Networks, a South Korean equipment supplier working alongside Vodafone on this trial.
Once the AI algorithm identifies where coverage or capacity needs shift, it instructs the arm to rotate or tilt the antenna accordingly.
This process reportedly takes between 20 and 30 minutes to complete while optimising for energy efficiency across the network.
Manual antenna reconfigurations, by comparison, often take days or weeks once planning approvals, site access, and road closures are factored in.
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Physical engineering works are typically required as well, adding further delay to any conventional antenna adjustment process.
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The system adapts coverage based on environmental patterns, pushing more signal outdoors during clear weather and boosting indoor coverage when conditions turn poor.
Self-organising algorithms also respond to shifts in local traffic congestion, allowing antennas across several sites to reposition ahead of anticipated demand peaks.
Vodafone is currently testing this setup at a site overlooking a shopping centre in Tirana, Albania.
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There, coverage automatically shifts between retail and residential zones as usage patterns change throughout the day, tracking real consumer movement.
Francisco Pignatelli, director of mobile access engineering at Vodafone, described the trial as an early example of physical AI within telecoms infrastructure.
“By analysing network demand and making autonomous decisions, the AI algorithm can adjust radio antennas to optimise coverage and capacity without human intervention,” Pignatelli said.
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Internal antenna components signal the next shift
Despite the current trial’s reliance on physically moving robotic hardware, Vodafone already anticipates a different approach becoming standard soon.
The company expects autonomous antenna technologies capable of adjusting internal components, rather than repositioning entire units, to reach the market within the coming months.
This shift toward internal adjustment is expected to reduce energy consumption further compared with moving an entire antenna assembly outdoors.
Vodafone stated that combining antenna digitalisation with AI-powered automation is a major step toward fully self-adapting wireless networks.
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Whether internal antenna adjustment can match the physical precision achieved through robotic arm movement remains an open technical question for now.
Vodafone has not yet detailed how internal components alone will replicate the directional control that robotic rotation currently provides across varying environmental and traffic conditions.
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Intel Q2 revenue topped $16B with 25% growth, its fastest since 2011, but shares fell despite doubling earnings estimates
Intel posted second-quarter 2026 revenue of more than $16 billion, a 25 percent jump from a year earlier and the company’s fastest growth since late 2011. Adjusted earnings per share came in at 42 cents, double the 21-cent consensus estimate on Wall Street. Shares initially climbed on the results but reversed course during extended trading, deepening a 28 percent slide in July that has tested a stock still up more than 170 percent this year.
The data centre and AI division drove the beat, with revenue surging 59 percent year over year to more than $6 billion. Client computing, Intel’s PC chip business, rose 13 percent to nearly $9 billion, while the foundry arm posted revenue of nearly $6 billion, up 31 percent. Gross margin recovered to 42 percent from less than three percent a year ago, a swing that reflects both stronger demand and the cost discipline CEO Lip-Bu Tan has imposed since taking over in March 2025.
Intel guided third-quarter revenue between nearly $16 billion and nearly $17 billion, well above the consensus of just over $15 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents against a 27-cent estimate. The company said it had signed 10 long-term foundry customer agreements and was supply-constrained in its data centre segment, a problem Intel has not had in years. Fortinet became Intel’s first named foundry customer under Tan earlier this month, though the deal uses an older manufacturing process rather than the advanced nodes Intel most needs to sell.
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The results arrive as the US government holds roughly 10 percent of Intel after acquiring nearly $9 billion in shares at just over $20 each through a Chips Act agreement in August 2025. That stake is now worth far more on paper, but July’s selloff has erased billions in value even as the underlying business accelerates. Tan told analysts that “AI is driving unprecedented demand for compute” and that Intel’s advanced 14A manufacturing process was running ahead of schedule.
Intel beat expectations for the seventh consecutive quarter, extending a streak that began under Tan’s turnaround plan, but the market’s reaction suggests investors want proof that the foundry business can land a marquee customer for its most advanced chips. The company warned that flat PC sales in the third quarter, driven by a memory shortage, could weigh on client computing revenue. Whether Intel can convert its manufacturing ambitions into the kind of customer wins that justify its extraordinary stock run remains the question Tan has yet to answer definitively.
Federal judges in the Western District of Washington had unanimously appointed Roger Rogoff to be the Justice Department’s top official there, filling a vacancy that the president has never addressed. But the Trump administration has largely defied attempts by federal judges to fill vacancies, leading to Mr. Rogoff’s swift dismissal, via email, after 54 minutes.
If this sounds familiar (and it should), it’s because Trump loves promoting people to US Attorney positions, but absolutely refuses to engage with the nomination process that’s required by law.
This has happened more than once, as the New York Times article notes. The last time we covered it here at Techdirt, it took nearly five hours for Trump to fire a US attorney appointed by the courts.
The firing of court-appointed US attorneys is going to be a thing going forward. The legally approved process for appointment of US attorneys is pretty simple and every president before Trump has somehow managed to respect it. If an administration wants to appoint a US attorney, it needs to run this pick past the Senate for a thumbs up/down. If it doesn’t, the person can only hold that office for 120 days. If that doesn’t happen, the courts get to put someone in that position.
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Trump has blown off the confirmation process multiple times and courts have responded by engaging with their legal duty to elevate someone to that position. When that happens, the Trump administration lurches into semi-consciousness and “fires” the actually legally appointed US attorney.
The thing is that it doesn’t matter how fast the administration fires prosecutors appointed by federal judges. Until Trump actually shepherds some prosecutor picks through the confirmation process, this is just going to keep happening every four months or so.
The US attorney dumped by Trump in less than an hour is utilizing the court system the administration chooses to ignore 90% of the time. If Trump wants to ignore the legal process for prosecutor appointments, the administration should be on the hook for wrongful termination.
In his lawsuit filed Tuesday, Rogoff argued that his termination was unlawful because the president lacks the authority to remove judicially appointed judges.
“By purporting to fire Mr. Rogoff — and apparently committing to firing anyone else a district court appoints without ‘the support of POTUS’ — the President has attempted to negate Congress’s exercise of its constitutionally enumerated power,” the suit alleges.
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Rogoff argued his firing was an unconstitutional separation of powers, noting Congress set up a mechanism to appoint U.S. attorneys until the president nominates — and the Senate confirms — a U.S. attorney. He also alleged that he was denied due process.
While it’s impossible to tell how this will all play out — especially when our Supreme Court is at least 50% MAGA-cooked — it seems like everything involved here has been established for years and never ignored so completely as it has been since Trump began his second term.
While the administration appears to believe that every firing resets the clock, I don’t think courts should feel obligated to humor this pretense. Instead, courts should simply reinstate their picks if the administration doesn’t have anyone lined up for confirmation. Instead of allowing Trump to pick whoever he wants and fire whoever he doesn’t the moment a court appoints them, courts dealing with this bullshit should appoint the same person over and over again or, at the very least, refuse to recognize the position of US Attorney until one has been properly and legally confirmed.
We’ll see where this lawsuit goes. But even if it ends up the victim of executive privilege, courts still retain the power to enforce the laws this administration willfully ignored.
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