Acer TravelMate Spin B1 Convertible Embraces Windows 10 S For A Lot Less

Remember when convertible notebooks were considered a luxury? That's especially true for convertibles that have four different modes: laptop, stand, tent, and tablet. It was also considered a luxury to have a notebook that could last more than 10 hours on a single battery charge.

Acer's TravelMate Spin B1 has all of those features, so it must fetch quite the premium, right? Nope - this laptop starts out at a meager $299 USD.

Acer unveiled this laptop at a Microsoft education event, so its target audience is going to be obvious from the get-go. That also inherently means that there are going to be a couple of caveats, with two rather big ones surrounding this device. First, it's not a powerhouse - but its $299 USD price tag gave no assumption that it would be. Second, it bundles in Windows 10 S, a specialized Windows 10 that can only download its apps from the Windows Store. Think Windows 10 with a Chrome OS-type spin.

Still, despite its downsides, the TravelMate Spin B1 packs in an awful lot of features for its affordable price. That includes a tough build (as easily evidenced in the shots above) to withstand knocks, drops, and spills, and it also supports for Cortana, Ink, and Continuum. Surprisingly, that $299 price tag also includes full 802.11ac wireless connectivity (the notebook supports 2x2 MIMO).

Also under the hood is an Intel Celeron processor, 64GB of storage, and 4GB of memory. On the outside, it offers a single USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, an audio jack, and card reader. It even includes a stylus, so the value proposition with this convertible is readily apparent.

If you're either an education or commercial customer, you'll be able to pick up a TravelMate Spin B1 later this month. Unfortunately, it seems there are no plans to make this notebook available to regular consumers.