Next@Acer 2021 Announces New Devices, Technology, and Sustainability Mission

Acer held its 2021 next@Acer event today, where the company shows off a variety of new devices and technologies arriving in the future. The presentation was streamed on YouTube and the archive is embedded at the end, for those interested in watching it, though be aware there were some technical difficulties at the start.

Following the order of the video, Acer began by announcing it has joined the RE100 initiative, which is to use 100% renewable energy by 2035. The company’s name for its sustainability mission is Earthion, which it derives from combining Earth and Mission. In addition to its RE100 goal, it will also be trying to improve its design and materials use, such as by using recycled materials where possible. In 2020 all of its laptop packaging was made from recycled paper, but the more interesting announcement may be its Aspire Vero laptop constructed partially from recycled plastic.

The Aspire Vero uses recycled plastic for its chassis (30% recycled plastic) and keyboard caps (50% recycled plastic) and no paint is used on the chassis to achieve its yellow and volcano grey aesthetic. Speaking of the keyboard, the R and E keys have their legends reversed in a reference to REduce, REuse, and REcycle.

Inside the Aspire Vero is an 11^th Gen Intel Core CPU with its Iris X^e graphics. This is paired with up to 1 TB of m.2 storage and for connectivity there is Intel Wi-Fi 6, one USB Type-C port, two USB 3.2 ports, and an HDMI 2.0 port. Accessing the internals will be easier than on some laptops, as standardized screws are used and part of Acer’s mission is repairability and upgradability to extend product lifespans.

 

 

Source: Acer [1] (Sustainability ‘Earthion’ Mission and Aspire Vero)

Acer next moved to its new Thin and Light offerings, starting with the business focused TravelMate P6 series. Both the TravelMate P6 and Spin P6 models will feature Intel’s 11^th Gen Core vPro CPUs paired with up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 1 TB of NVMe storage. The display is 14 inches with 100% sRGB gamut coverage, and sports a resolution of 1920×1200, which is 16: 10, rather than the more common 16:9. This extra height can reduce the need to scroll as much, but it can also just be handy to hold a full 1920×1080 window on screen and still have access to things behind it, like the task bar.

Both models are just 16.8 mm thick, with the Spin P6 and its 360º rotating screen starting at a weight of 1.0 Kg (2.2 lbs.) while the normal TravelMate P6 starts at 1.1 Kg (2.4 lbs.). Their chassis are made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy to give them strength while remaining light and the battery can offer up to 20 hours the TravelMate P6. If that is not enough, fast charging can get you to 80% within an hour. For connectivity they support Wi-Fi 6 and offer eSim/USim-enabled 5G along with USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C Thunderbolt 4, a microSD slot, and NFC for sharing content and making payments. For those concerned about others looking at your screen, Acer PrivacyPanel can be enabled to reduce the viewing angle to just 90º.

Both the TravelMate P6 and TravelMate Spin P6 are to be available in North America in December with the former starting at $1299.99 and the latter at $1399.99.

 

 

Source: [2] (TravelMate P6 Series)

Another addition to the Thin and Light category is the Swift X that will offer AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. Inside the 17.9 mm (0.7 in), 1.39 Kg (3.06 lbs.) chassis you can have up to a Ryzen 7 5800U CPU and 16 GB of RAM paired with the RTX 3050 Ti but the battery can still last for 17 hours. The 14 inch display is 1920×1080 with 100% sRGB coverage and a brightness of up to 300 nits. Connectivity includes USB Type-C, two USB Type-A ports, and an HDMI port.

The Swift X is to be available in North America in June with a starting price of $899.99.

 

 

Source: [3] (Swift X)

For content creators, Acer covered announced some new ConceptD offerings, and the new SpatialLabs technology. SpatialLabs offers stereoscopic 3D by combining a lenticular display with gaze tracking. This allows the display to adapt the two images it sends to your eyes based on your position, so what you are viewing can actually react to your movement. This is achieved with additional external hardware, such as special glasses. Add-ons for SpatialLabs Model Viewer have been developed for Blender, Autodesk Fusion 360, ZBrush, and more. With PiStage for Maya an external monitor can also be used so you can edit on the 2D display and then look at the 3D result on the SpatialLabs display. The SpatialLags Developer Program for Unreal Engine was announced as well, and those who enroll in the program will receive a ConceptD SpatialLabs prototype notebook. Application for this program closes on June 30.

Source: [4] (SpatialLabs)

Besides the futuristic SpatialLabs announcement, Acer also revealed updated ConceptD 5 and ConceptD 5 Pro models. Both of these new versions will offer 11^th Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs paired with either NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30-series (ConceptD 5) or an RTX A3000 or RTX A5000 laptop GPUs (ConeptD 5 Pro). Both are backed by the NVIDIA Studio ecosystem. Like the TravelMate P6 laptops covered above, the displays are 16: 10 so you have more space to work in, with a resolution of 3072×1920. They also cover 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut and have a color accuracy of Delt E<2. For storage you can have up to 2 TB of SSD storage in RAID 0 for optimal speed and connectivity includes dual USB Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, HDMI 2.1, and an SD 7.0 card slot.

Though not featured in the stream, the ConceptD 7 Ezel, ConceptD 3, and ConceptD 3 Ezel convertible laptops have been updated. All three of these laptops now offer 11^th Gen Intel Core CPUs, though the ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro can have up to an Intel Xeon W-11955M CPU. The Concept D 7 Ezel can have up to an RTX 3080 while the 7 Ezel Pro offers the RTX A3000 or RTX A5000 GPU while the ConceptD 3 and ConceptD 3 Ezel only offer the NVIDIA T1200 laptop GPU. You can find more of these laptop’s specs in the source link below.

For availability, the ConceptD 5 is to be available in August with a starting price of $1999.99. The ConceptD 7 Ezel will start at $2499.99. The ConceptD 3 Ezel is coming to North America in December, starting at $1599.99.

Source: [5] (ConceptD)

The last products covered in the stream were those under the gaming-focused Predator brand, starting with the Predator CG437K S display. This is a 42.5 inch 4K display that has been revealed before, but has been updated with HDMI 2.1 support. With this new standard a single cable can provide 4K 144 Hz with Variable Refresh Rate support. It features VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification with a peak brightness of 1000 nites, 90% coverage of DCI-P3, and a Delta E<1 rating. The display also has a USB hub with both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, and a USB Type-C port. With a built-in KVM switch, you can swap between multiple PCs without needing to juggle input devices. The monitor includes RGB lighting strips too, for those that want to illuminate their environment based on what they are watching.

Though not shown in the stream, the Predator X38 S and Predator X28 displays have also been announced. The former is a curved display with a 2300R curve and 3840×1600 resolution that covers 98% of DCI-P3 and has DisplayHDR 600 certification. When overclocked it can reach 175 Hz and has a 0.3 ms grey-to-grey response time. The Predator X28 is a 28 inch flat display with a resolution of 3840×2160 and DisplayHDR 400 certification. It can reach a refresh rate of 155 Hz when overclocked and offers 1 ms grey-to-grey response time.

The Predator CG437K S is to be available in November, starting at $1799.99. The Predator X38 S is arriving in September and starts at $1999.99, while the Predator X28 launches in August with a starting price of $1299.99.

Source: [6] (Predator Displays)

Now for the new Predator Triton and Helios series laptops, both of which feature 11^th Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs paired with GeForce RTX 30-series laptop GPUs. The Triton 500 SE will offer up to a Core i9 CPU with RTX 3080, 64 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM, and 4 TB of PCIe 4 SSD storage all packed into a 19.9 mm thick chassis. With NVIDIA Advanced Optimus you can get up to 12 hours of battery life too. Connectivity includes Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650, USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports that support DisplayPort and an SD 7.0 card reader. For the display a 16: 10 aspect ratio will be used, but you have multiple options covering not only resolution and speed, but also type. There is a 165 Hz WQXFA LCD panel, 165 HZ WQXGA Mini LED panel with 1250 nit peak brightness and 100% sRGB coverage, and a 240 HZ WQXGA IPS PolarBlack panel with 100% DCI-P3 coverage.

The Helios 500 similarly offers up to a Core i9 and RTX 3080 paired with as much as 64 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. For storage there can be a pair of NVMe SSDs in RAID 0 and a SATA HDD for extra storage. It too offers multiple panel types with a 4K Mini LED 120 display using AUO AmLED technology, supporting 512 backlighting zones across the 1.3 inch display. If speed is more desirable, you can instead opt for a 1920×1080 display with 360 Hz refresh rate. The Helios 500 also offers a lot if you really enjoy RGB as it features per-key RGB backlighting and RGB strips on the bottom edge of the chassis, allowing you to illuminate the surface the laptop is on. The WASD keys can be changed out with Racing or MagForce keys, allowing for the analog-like inputs available with controller joysticks.

For ports the Helios 500 has an HDMI 2.1, mini-DP 1.4, two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, with one supporting offline charging, and an RJ45 port. Intel Killer E3100 Ethernet controller and Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650 are used for network connectivity, and there is the option for Intel Killer DoubleShot Pro 5G, enabling you to connect via 5G so you can game in more places. It will also route over 5G or Wi-Fi, depending on which connection will be faster.

Two 5G dongles were announced as well, with the Predator Connect D5 5G providing its Intel Killer Network Solution over a USB 3.1 Type-C port. It can also be used to make your computer a 5G Wi-Fi hotspot and can be configured to use Killer DoubleShot Pro 5G for dual connectivity. The Predator Connect X5 5G CPE Router goes further as it enables up to 256 devices to connect to it over Wi-Fi 6 and has two LAN ports and one WAN port. Powering it is a quad-core 2 GHz ARM Cortex processor with 1 GB of DDR4 memory and 1 GB of flash storage.

The Predator Triton 500 SE will be available in North America in June and start at $1749.99 while the Helios 500 is arriving in August and starts at $2499.99.

Source: [7] (Predator Laptops)