Acer has revealed a bunch of new products at its next@acer event, including a powerful laptop with a glasses-free 3D display, a new range of Predator gaming PCs, and fresh additions to the green-friendly Vero series.
Let’s start with Acer’s ConceptD 7 SpatialLabs Edition laptop which is a new workstation notebook aimed at creatives and devs, with the central attraction being a stereoscopic 3D display that doesn’t require any glasses to get that 3D effect.
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This is facilitated by SpatialLabs which is a suite of display and sensory tech allowing for real-time rendering of glasses-free 3D, complete with support for all common 3D file formats.
The basic idea here is a dream laptop for 3D modeling, with the user able to view 3D creations in their full three-dimensional glory while they’re being worked on (2D content, like photos or videos, or even video calls, can also be turned into stereoscopic 3D using nifty AI tech).
As you might imagine, to facilitate this, the ConceptD 7 packs some considerably powerful hardware.
This workstation can be equipped with up to an RTX 3080 mobile GPU, and that’s paired with 11th-gen Intel H-Series CPUs (up to a Core i7). Memory tops out at 64GB with up to 2TB of NVMe PCIe SSD storage.
The 3D display is a 4K panel which is Pantone-validated and boasts support for 100% of the Adobe RGB color gamut (plus it benefits from a Delta E<2 color accuracy rating, to boot).
How is the 3D effect realized, you might be wondering? There’s a pair of cameras above the display that track the user’s eye positions and movement of the eyes and head, projecting two slightly different images based on that tracking, via an optical lens bonded to the screen.
The end result is a convincing 3D effect rendered in real-time and allowing the user to look around the object in its full three-dimensions, with no need to don any cumbersome specs.
As well as the launch of the ConceptD 7, Acer also announced a new 15.6-inch model of the (convertible) ConceptD 3 Ezel, and a version of the 16-inch (clamshell) ConceptD 3 with a 16:10 display.
The ConceptD 7 (model number CN715-73G) comes out in Europe in December starting at €3,599 (about £3,050), with the ConceptD 3 Ezel (CC315-73G) out later this month starting at €2,099 (about £1,780). The ConceptD 3 (CN316-73G) will also arrive in October starting at €1,799 (about £1,530).
Over in the US, the ConceptD 3 will arrive in January 2022 starting at $1,699.99.
Predator Orion 7000
Acer also unveiled new Predator Orion 7000 desktop gaming PCs which feature Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs, and of course these won’t be out yet – 12th-gen processors haven’t even been launched – but the machines will be arriving at the start of next year.
Along with Alder Lake chips, unlocked for overclocking, the Orion 7000 models will offer up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics cards, and up to 64GB of DDR5-4000 system RAM.
So, those are some pretty killer components on board – there’s also Intel Killer 2.5G LAN, incidentally – but there are some stranger choices here, too. Storage options may include a pair of M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs (up to 1TB each), but the inclusion of not one – but two – 3.5-inch SATA3 hard drives (up to 3TB apiece) seems pretty odd in such a very cutting-edge PC. All we can give is a shrug of the shoulders on that one (there’s also a 2.5-inch hot-swap drive bay, by the way).
The PC case looks good, yet keeps things minimalistic, with glass side panels, ARGB lighting, and a nifty cooling system featuring three Predator FrostBlade 2.0 fans (two at the front, one at the rear), plus an all-in-one liquid cooler for the processor.
These Predator Orion 7000 (P07-640) PCs will be out in Europe come Q1 of 2022, starting at €2,199 (about £1,870, $2,540), with availability following in the US in Q2.
Vero’s green heroes
Finally, Acer revealed new Vero products which are designed to be eco-friendly, including the Acer Aspire Vero (AV15-51). This laptop has a chassis which is 30% PCR (Post-Consumer Recycled) plastic, and keycaps which are 50% PCR.
The notebook also comes in 100% recyclable packaging, and in fact the box can actually be used as a makeshift laptop stand (not a long-term solution, we’d add). The design of the machine is also focused on making it very repairable and easy to upgrade, helping to boost the longevity of the laptop, which is also great for the environment. (That’s something which other companies are trying to do as well, such as Microsoft, as we’ve seen in recent times).
As for the hardware on board, the Acer Aspire Vero sports Intel’s 11th-gen mobile processors, integrated Iris Xe Graphics, Wi-Fi 6, and a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display (and that screen is 99% recyclable, incidentally). VeroSense software on-board helps users select a mode of operation for better battery life and energy-efficiency in general.
The Acer Aspire Vero will be on sale in Europe later in October starting at €799 (about £680), with the laptop hitting shelves over in the US in November starting at $699.99.
It’ll be joined by a number of other eco-friendly Vero products including the Acer TravelMate Vero business laptop with similar green credentials and 11th-gen Intel CPUs (up to Core i7), as well as a Vero mini-PC for the enterprise. There’s also the Acer Vero BR277, a Full HD monitor with a chassis made from over 50% PCR plastic.
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