Moscow-New York-Moscow, twenty hours on an airplane, thirty kilometers on foot in two and a half days, and all this for the sake of one goal-the presentation of Next@acer. Whether the event was worth such efforts? Definitely. For Acer, it has become a kind of plan for a whole year, and for you and me is another confirmation that something strange is happening on the market. What exactly, we will tell at the end of the article, but for now – about the presentation itself.
From all the guns
► XPLOVA X5.
Surprisingly, they opened it not at all with new laptops, but an unusual cycle computer Xplova X5. Outwardly it resembles a protected smartphone. A large bright case, a large display and a hefty eye of the camera at the upper end.
The functionality is rich, but strange. In addition to standard speed indicators, pulse, energy spent and the kilometer passed, X5 retains routes in the cloud, builds beautiful charts of success (or failures), and also removes what is happening around. The camera is launched in manual and automatic modes.
For example, you scored a speed of 40 km/h – the recording started, jumped the pulse under 150 – again saved for descendants. Who and for what reason will look at such “imperisales”, find it difficult to say, but the cyclists like this thing, last year Acer sold 20,000 such computers.
► Acer GrandPad.
The next surprise from Acer was … "Grandfather Planste" (the real name of the series is Acer GrandPad). And this undertaking is much more interesting and more serious than a bicycle complex.
At first glance, everything is simple. They took a seven -inch tablet, simplified the Android interface to the limit so that older people would not get confused, and send on sale. Something like this about this undertaking today everyone writes and jokes.
In fact, Acer did much more. Firstly, she threw out wired charging and will supply GrandPad only with magnetic dock stations, which is much more convenient for the elderly. Secondly, when delivering to the tablet, they will upload all the necessary contacts in advance immediately with photos. Thirdly, “tablets” are not going to sell directly, but will be handed out by subscription. For $ 60 per month, they will provide not only a tablet, but also a fully paid LTE sign with a connected special tariff. In general, the idea is excellent and useful, it is a pity that it is unlikely to get to Russia.
For work
► Acer Chromebook 14 for work.
There will not be a great many "chrombuk" to our country and a great. However, they are not offended for them. The operating system is limited, and from a great set of models presented on NEXT@acer, only Chromebook 14 for Work is of interest, which was the first in this segment to receive the I7 of the sixth generation, and also acquired a funny option: when ordering on the lid (from a wildly impractical for Gorilla Glass 3 laptop) You can place your company logo.
► Acer Switch Alpha 12.
Simple laptops turned out to be much more interesting. Acer showed a fresh Switch Alpha 12 hybrid. According to the characteristics-a standard workhorse with a clicking 12-inch display. We do not really like such hybrid schemes, but the essence is different. There are no fans in Alpha 12, the real one is responsible for cooling! How effective it is – we do not know, but it definitely does not make noise.
► Acer Aspire S 13.
Another gift for business people is an updated S-series of ultrabooks. Aspire S 13 model was presented with pomp. They called the "thinnest system with Dolby Audio" and said that with similar characteristics it is half the cheaper MacBook Air (not true, by the way, the difference is only 200 bucks).
In fact, however, everything is much more prosaic. In thickness, the laptop did not go far from the very first model in the series (S 3) and boast of only a pleasant design and a productive filling. From experience we can say – a good choice for the Internet, films and travel.
For us
Well, now let's move on to the most extensive and interesting part for us – game. Like most technology manufacturers, Acer has gone with the head in this subject, and the news of more than enough.
To begin with, Acer now has game mice, keyboards and even a headset. And they acted with them competently-they did not come up with a bicycle and sculpt it on Chinese "Noname" posvs, and ordered all the models from the Danish SteelSeries. It turned out both beautiful and reliable.
In addition to Acer with all hands for VR. The presentation was brought by all the more or less well-known helmets and announced that all computers and gaming laptops of the company are optimized for virtual reality. In life, this means that in all systems there are simply video cards from NVIDIA, in whose drivers the VR is registered, but this does not change the essence. Helms in Acer love and believe that they have a future. And this is a good sign, because we, too, for VR in all its manifestations.
► Predator G1.
We saw one more pleasant novelty for us-mini-p. Acer Predator G1 only 11 cm wide and about 42 cm high got into this category. They supply it in a suitcase on wheels, where, in addition to the PC itself, a mouse with a keyboard also fit. In our country, the chip is relatively useless, but in the West it is popular in Lan VEDERS.
By the way, the configuration of the mini-PK is worthy-and a lot of RAM, and Core i7, and a full-size video card of any level (up to GTX Titan X). In the advantages of the system, we will write down and an unusual appearance with a bunch of leaning panels and stands for headphones. Everything is made of flimsy plastic, but it looks great.
For those who do not like small computers, Acer also showed standard system options. Predator G3 and G6 are collected in the body similar in design and materials, but already in the Middle Tower form factor. Standard components, ordinary capabilities … from similar devices differ only in design, name and normal guarantee.
We were much more interested in another direction – projectors. This time, the classic Predator Z650 was modestly silent, but they showed a much more promising model – Predator Z850. According to the parameters, this is a standard DLP projector with a bunch of characteristic minuses and pluses. Resolution – Full HD, there is 3D STEREO support, a “rainbow” is visible in dynamic scenes, the lamp lives from 20,000 hours, and the brightness (general, not color) is 3000 lumens.
► Predator Z850.
Attracts another. Z850 is the first game projector in our memory, so to speak, near field. It does not need to be hung on the wall opposite from the screen. It is placed on a Tropicanza sister sites place familiar to a regular TV (where all consoles and TV residents stand) and with the help of a lens unfolds an image of up to 90 inches on the wall on the wall. Cons? There is one … price. Acer for some reason refused a regular lamp and put a laser. The price tag immediately took off to $ 5,000. For a laser, this is inexpensive (on average they cost $ 10,000), but for a game projector, in our opinion, frighteningly.
► Predator 17 x.
However, Z850 is not the only expensive product from Acer. At the presentation, we also found the Predator 17 x laptop, for which 300,000 rubles will be asked in our country. For what? For a new trend-full-fledged, desktop, GTX 980 (yes, without prefix M). In the performance of Acer, the video card should take a very decent frequency of 1338 MHz according to the processor.
Purely for reference, under his ASUS GX700, the same chip takes only 1227 MHz, and in home design the standard for it is considered 1216 MHz. Took such frequencies thanks to an unusual cooling system. In addition to the standard two turbines on the CPU and GPU in the laptop there is another fan, in the center of the front line, directly between the two frontal speakers.
* * *
Next@Acer turned out to be unusually rich in events and very interesting. But, oddly enough, such a variety is more frightened. There is a feeling that the industry is at a crossroads and manufacturers simply do not know what to come up with good sales. Hence the bicycle computers, and tablets for the elderly, and computers in suitcases, and even laptops based on home video cards. If you translate into a regular language: "We are looking for an idea that will shoot and provide good sales". It's good or not – it's hard to say. But we, amateurs of iron, are clearly won.