Acer’s latest line-up of products goes beyond just computers, into a lifestyle tech ecosystem
By Tan Jee Yee October 28, 2020
- Includes the AcerPure Cool, a 2-in-1 air purifier and circulator
- New ConceptD devices, a new Swift, and Acer’s first Snapdragon 7c Chromebooks
New ConceptD PCs. More Travelmates. An expansion of their gaming monitor portfolio. An AI-powered in-game translator. An… air purifier?
This may seem like an out-of-the-left-field announcement at the next@acer global press conference, but it actually feels par for the course for Acer. The Taiwanese company has been edging beyond just PCs and into the realm of lifestyle products. You can see it in the Predator X OSIM gaming chair, or the curious Predator Shot energy drink (pic, below) targeted at gamers, which were announced earlier this year.
If anything, the next@acer reveals feel like a reinforcement of Acer’s near-future direction – that of a tech lifestyle ecosystem of products. It feels like the company is not just content with a work-from-home setup featuring an Acer laptop and the Nitro gaming monitor. They want the chair to be a Predator-branded one, with a can of Predator Shot on the table and the newly-announced AcerPure circulating the air in the corner.
It’s a fascinating approach, and one that is – at the moment at least – more focused than the likes of Xiaomi, which goes so broadly into the lifestyle segment to the point of having their own rice cookers and electric scooters. As the other announcements show, Acer isn’t losing focus on their PC segment. The lifestyle products are meant to supplement and support its anchor segment.
The branding of AcerPure points towards that direction. The company wants you to know that it’s the right product at the right time. "Due to the pandemic, more people are staying indoors for longer periods of time,” says Andrew Hou, the chairman of AcerPure Inc.
“Consumers are becoming more aware of their indoor air quality and require better purification solutions. We created the 2-in-1 AcerPure Cool to address this. Moreover, by tapping into the consumer air quality market, AcerPure Inc. aims to embody the lifestyle brand strategy and build essential brand value."
What’s next for Acer? It’s hard to tell, but judging by the recent announcements, they’re keeping us on our toes.
For the creators and businesses
Acer’s PC segment, however, isn’t slowing down. The global press conference is rife with new inclusions and upgrades to their existing line-up, including new and updated offerings under the ConceptD PC portfolio.
These are creator-centric PCs – the new ConceptD 300, for instance, is a mid-tower desktop designed for BIM and CAD projects and intensive 3D modelling, rendering and animation. It comes powered with up a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics (fresh off the press!) and 64GB of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM.
Acer has also updated the ConceptD 7 and ConceptD 7 Pro notebooks, now available with 10th Gen Intel Core processors, Wi-Fi 6, Thunderbolt 3 and 4K IPS display. They come with NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, while the Pro version can be equipped with NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000.
The ConceptD 300’s pricing has been listed at €1,299, while the ConceptD 7 and 7 Pro prices from US$3,299 (RM13,750) and US$3,499 (RM14,600) respectively. More region-specific pricing will be announced soon.
Acer also announced three new inclusions to its TravelMate series of business-centric notebooks. These include the TravelMate Spin P4, a convertible with a touchscreen; the TravelMate P4, its standard clamshell brethren; and the TravelMate P2, which boasts durability and more battery life.
These notebooks feature 11th Gen Intel Core processors that can be coupled with discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX350 GPUs and up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, 4 Lane PCIe SSDs, and 1TB of SSD storage. The TravelMate P4 and Spin P4 in particular claims battery lives of up to 15 hours, while the P2 has 13 hours in it.
The TravelMate Spin P4 is the most versatile of the bunch, coming with a scratch-resistant 14-inch FHD Corning Gorilla Glass touch display that can be roated 360-degrees. It prices from US$999.99, while the standard P4 goes for US$899.99. The TravelMate P2, on the other hand, prices at US$799.99.
[RM1 = US$0.24]
Of Swifts, Spins and Aspires
There will also be new Swift, Spin and Aspire laptops, all featuring 11th-Gen Intel Core processors (with Intel Iris X graphics).
The Swift 3X, which weighs 1.37kg, boasts 17.5 hours of battery life fast-charging capabilities (four hours of use in 30 minutes charge) and a 14-inch FHD IPS display with 72% NTSC colour gamut at an 84% screen-to-body ratio. Price is listed at US$899.99.
Slimmer and more versatile is the Acer Spin 5, a touchscreen convertible notebook at just 1.2kg in weight and 14.9mm thin. Like the TravelMate Spin P4, this machine features a 360-degree hinge. The touchscreen and touchpad can be fitted with a layer of Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla glass, if you want. This prices from US$999.99, though there’s also the more accessible Acer Spin 3, which goes from US$849.99.
The less demanding offering would be the Acer Aspire 5, which – on top of the 11th Gen Intel Core processors, can be coupled to NVIDIA GeForce MX450 GPUs. This clamshell notebook has an HD IPS touchscreen display and can be packed with up to 24GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB of SSD and 2TB of HDD storage.
It comes in various screen sizes, with the 14-inch version pricing from US$499.99.
Acer also launched its first Chromebook that is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c compute platform: the Chromebook Spin 513 and Acer Chromebook Enterprise Spin 513. Both feature optional 4G LTE connectivity and a rotatable display. The Enterprise Spin 513 in particular provides security and enterprise capabilities, which allows IT admins to more easily control updates and configure apps.
The Chromebook Spin 513 and Chromebook Enterprise Spin 513 prices from US$399.99 and US$699.99 respectively.
Interesting additions
Gamers can be on the lookout for the new line-up of Predator and Nitro-series monitors, which include three new Predator XB3 Series monitors, the Predator X34 GS (with its 34-inch curved IPS panel) and two new Nitro-series monitors for those seeking more casual options.
What’s more interesting, however, is the introduction of the SigridWave In-Game Live AI Translator for Planet9 (Acer’s e-sports social platform). Acer says that SigridWave leverages deep-learning technologies to facilitate communication among gamers around the world, using Automatic Speech Recognition tech to recognise speech and convert them into text.
The text is then run through a Neural Machine Translation tech that has so far been trained with over 10 million bilingual sentence pairs, enabling it to understand terminology associated with specific games (such as “ADS” or “camping”). It helps add context and meaning to newcomers, who often have to learn new terms from scratch at each multiplayer hit.
SigridWave is integrated into Planet9’s desktop client.
And then there’s, of course, the AcerPure Cool. This is a 2-in-1 air circulator and purifier that leverages a 3-in-1 HEPA Filter to purify air, and then a fan to project it around the room. The HEPA Filter, AcerPure claims, removes 99.97% of suspended particles.
The unit is equipped with a PM1.0 Air Quality Sensor, enabling it to automatically measure indoor air quality in real-time. It also releases negative ions that help remove harmful gases in the air, such as formaldehyde, and captures solid particles such as dust (PM2.5). For SEA countries, device will be launched in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia, though launch time will vary.
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