When comparing MacBook vs Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-58WW, the Slant community recommends Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-58WW for most people. In the question“What are the best ultra-portable laptops for an engineering student?” Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-58WW is ranked 11th while MacBook is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose Acer Spin 5 SP513-52N-58WW is:
The extremely compact size (12.9 by 9 by 0.8 inches) and light weight (3.5 pounds) make this laptop very easy to carry around in a backpack everywhere you go. Making it a good choice who for people who have to take their laptop everywhere.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Extremely portable
The laptop weighs just 2 pounds and is 13.1 mm thin. It's one of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market and it's extremely portable and easy to carry around.
Pro macOS is developer-friendly
macOS is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's a certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on macOS.
There's a large selection of great development tools available for macOS. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing macOS and iOS software, for free.
You can also install Homebrew, an extremely useful package manager.
Pro Amazing display
Everything about the display is very good - from its high resolution (2304x1440) to the brightness (325 nitts), uniform brightness distribution (90%), and high contrast ratio (1000:1) with over 95% of the sRGB spectrum. Overall, a great display which will come in handy for people who work with visual arts.
Pro Excellent trackpad
The MacBook has a large 4.4 x 2.7-inch Force Touch trackpad with a Taptic Engine that delivers haptic feedback whenever the user taps on it to give them the impression that they are actually clicking on it. It also supports gestures and multi-finger swiping.
The accuracy is almost perfect and there's virtually no lag or stutter when using the trackpad.
Pro Decent battery life
The battery lasts around 7h30m of continuous web browsing which is about average for this class of laptops. Where this laptop's battery truly shines though is under heavy stress where it manages to last an impressive 2h35m under a total stress test (maxed out brightness and processor usage - circumstances that you are likely never going to encounter in the real world).
Pro Completely silent operation
Thanks to the Core M processor (which doesn't require a fan) and the SSD storage, there are no moving parts the in MacBook. It will operate in complete silence.
Pro Very good speakers
The speakers, found above the keyboard produce loud and clear sound with minimal to no distortion whatsoever. They can be used for both listening to music and watching movies with no problem at all.
Pro Decent keyboard
Pro Available in 4 colors
The laptop is available in space gray, gold, silver and rose gold (pink) finishes.
Pro Extremely easy to carry everywhere
The extremely compact size (12.9 by 9 by 0.8 inches) and light weight (3.5 pounds) make this laptop very easy to carry around in a backpack everywhere you go. Making it a good choice who for people who have to take their laptop everywhere.
Pro The fans are usually very quiet
The fans on the Acer Spin 5 are very quiet even when you have multiple browsers open with several tabs on each. They do get rather loud when playing games or installing new apps though, but gaming is not what this laptop will usually be used for.
Pro The screen can be viewed comfortably from multiple angles
The 1080p IPS display can be viewed from multiple angles without making it seem washed up. The display also covers 59% of the sRGB color gamut, which makes it one of the most color-accurate displays for this price range.
Cons
Con Connecting more than one thing requires a hub
The laptop comes with a single USB-C port that's used for charging as well as any other peripherals or external storage devices. Connecting more than one thing at a time requires using a USB hub.
Con Not very powerful
With an Intel Core M processor, the Macbook isn't a serious development laptop. While it will get the job done for lighter tasks, it will struggle with heavier jobs.
Con Non-free software
Apple doesn't release the source code for most of their software & firmware. This makes it significantly more difficult to customize, automate tasks, and verify security.
Con It's a bit hard to get used to the keyboard
The keys are pretty shallow, with a travel length of just 0.5mm. They still provide good feedback and the writing experience itself is not bad, but it's just a bit hard getting used to, especially if you are coming from a laptop that's not a MacBook.
Con Premium price for not-so-premium hardware
Macbooks are one of the most expensive computers for the hardware they have. Mac is the most expensive UX to buy, as the price has low relationship to how good the hardware is and, instead, is related to how the whole experience from opening the box, to the physical shop, to the cloud and sync services they have.
Con Too fragile, compared to the competitors
Can barely handle liquid, breaks easily with bumping and, at a premium price, has the largest probability of something just breaking without apparent reason.
Con Very expensive (official) repairs
Fixing any problem with a Macbook through the official means is a very expensive investment. Usually, any problem that happens means replacing most of the laptop for 80% of the price, even if the problem can be solved by replacing a 5$ transistor or a 15$ chip or even bypassing with a 1$ wire.
Con The battery does not last a full day's work
Averaging at around 4 hours of independent battery life while doing easy day-to-day activities like web browsing, the battery life for the Acer Spin 5 is not enough for a full day's work.
Con Too large and heavy to be used as a tablet
Even though it's got a touchscreen display and the screen can be flipped 360 degrees, it's unfortunately too large and heavy to be used as a tablet comfortably. The tent mode though is quite comfortable.
Con The typing experience is not very pleasant
The keyboard is too shallow and the keys are too mushy, which makes the typing experience less than optimal.
Con Too much software bloat
Comes with 10+ pre-installed applications which most people will never use and that are borderline spyware. The Acer Collection software for example pops up constantly asking for permission to access the location.