What’s next for Acer: durable laptops, a premium Chromebook, and ConceptD expansions

• New Enduro line of rugged, durable notebook for fieldwork and extreme conditions
• New Chromebook Spin 713, Swift 5 ultrathin devices can be fitted with antimicrobial glass

The recent Next@Acer global press conference may be a livestreamed event this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it seems like Acer isn’t slowing down with their upcoming offerings.

The online event showcased a wide variety of Acer’s upcoming devices – some of them new, some of them refreshes or upgrades of their existing products.

The most prominent, as it appears, is Acer’s announcement of their brand new line of rugged and durable laptops, Enduro. These are devices specifically designed for extreme conditions, especially professionals working in the field.

Leading the pack is the Acer Enduro N7, a bulkier, rugged machine which is constructed with shock-absorbent materials for use on the field, especially for first responders and industrial manufacturing workers. The device is MIL-810G and IP65 certified, which means it can withstand drops onto hard flooring and resist dust and water.

This 14-inch FHD device comes with dual batteries: one that can be hot-swapped with a 10-hour life, while the other is a built-in bridge battery. Specs wise, it offers a quad-core 8^th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU, alongside security features like a fingerprint sensor. The hardware-level Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 help checks for any signs of intrusion during startup.

The Acer Enduro N3, on the other hand, eschews the more rugged look for something more portable and, well, stylish. It has MIL-STD 810G and IP53 certifications on a device that is just 24.85mm thick, weighing 1.985kg. The corners are reinforced to ensure that data is retained when the device is dropped; it has a unique water-resistant Aquafan to keep water from entering the laptop.

As for its innards, it features a 10^th Gen Intel Core i7 processor with 32GB of RAM and an optional NVIDIA GeForce MX230 discrete GPU. Battery life is listed at 13-hours.

Acer also announced the Enduro T5 and T1 rugged Windows tablets. However, only the Enduro N3 was given a price – it starts from US$899 (RM3,850). It will be available in North America in August 2020.

Paper thin offerings

As for its thin and light offerings, Acer announced the Chromebook Spin 713, a premium take on the Chromebook. It comes with aluminium chassis with military-grade durability (U.S. MIL-STD 810G compliant, making it resistant to dents, dings and corrosion).

More unique to the device is its screen, which can be opened to a full 350-degrees, turning the laptop into a tablet.  The display is also what Acer terms as a VertiView display – the aspect ratio of the 2,256 x 1,504 resolution IPS display here is at 3:2, which gives it a more vertical screen space (it’s best for text and powerpoint).

Worth noting is that the Spin 713’s touch panel and touchpad are covered with an optional layer of Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass, which Acer says is specially formulated to reduce the growth of odour and stain-causing microorganisms on touch displays and touchpads. Considering growing hygiene concerns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this is a welcome addition.

The device is priced from US$629.99 (RM2,700).

Also announced is a refreshed Acer Swift 5, their ultrathin notebook. This time, the laptop features ultra-narrow bezels that Acer claims allows for a 90% screen-to-body ratio. This sits on top of a 14.95mm-thin chassis made from magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminium.

As for its specs, the laptop can be fitted with next gen Intel Core processors and optional NVIDIA GeForce MX350 GPUs without overshooting its 1kg weight. 1TB SSD storage and up to 16GB RAM means this can be configured to a powerhouse without sacrificing its size.

The new Swift 5’s touchscreen display is similarly covered with a layer of Antimicrobial glass – users have the option to include the coating on the touchpad, keyboard and all covers of the device. The device will be available in North America in October, at a price starting from US$999.99.

[RM1 = US$0.23]

New concepts for ConceptD

Acer’s ConceptD series is a line of notebooks, desktop and monitors specifically designed for creators. The line-up has been bolstered with new inclusions now, the most exciting of which is the ConceptD 3 Ezel, a convertible notebook. 

Holding up the Ezel’s touchscreen display is Acer’s unique hinge, that allows a certain degree of versatility. Acer says it has six usage modes, either as a standard laptop or turning it into a drawing tablet. Its screen comes in 14-inch and 15.6-inch variations, and is FHD PANTONE-Validated to cover 100% of the sRGB colour gamut with delta E<2 colour accuracy.

The device comes with Acer’s Active Stylus, which boasts 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. The ConceptD 3 Ezel features up to 10^th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H processors, which is paired with either an NVIDIA Quadro T1000 GPU or GeForce GTX 1650Ti GPUs depending on your configuration. It has 1TB of SSD storage, with battery life listed at 18 hours.

The ConceptD 3 Ezel’s price starts from US$1,499.99, and is slated for an August release.

New additions to the ConceptD line also includes the ConceptD 3 laptop, a high-performance device in clamshell form factor offering NVIDIA Quadro T1000 (ConceptD 3 Pro) or GeForce GTX 1650Ti GPUs on top of 10^th Gen Intel Core H-series processors.

Those that prefer to work in place can opt for the ConceptD 100 desktop, which can be fitted with powerful 9^th Gen Intel Core processors alongside NVIDIA GeForce or Quadro GPUs. Rounding up the specs are 256GB of SSD storage and 32GB of DDR4 RAM.

This desktop can be paired with the new ConceptD CP5 and CP3 monitors, which are colour-accurate displays designed for professional computer graphics creators, animators and video editors.

There’s no announcement yet on when the new Acer devices will be coming to Malaysia, nor do we know of their localised pricing. Hopefully it won’t be long.