Acer announced an absolute ton of new laptops today. The lineup includes a host of productivity-focused machines, with some specifically tuned for mobile creators, and there are also some new Acer Chromebooks, including the Chromebook Spin 713 with the latest Intel processors.
Then there’s the industry’s first-ever 17-inch Chromebook. The Acer Chromebook 317 is a 17.3-inch laptop. It starts at $US380 ($487) and includes a 1920 x 1080 IPS display and WiFi 6. It’s available with an Intel Pentium Silver N6000, Intel Celeron N5100, or Intel Celeron N4500 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. It’s decidedly mid-range. The Chromebook 317 is available with up to 128GB of storage and weighs a little over five pounds. Acer says the Chromebook 317 offers up to 10 hours of battery life.
The Acer Chromebook 317 is the biggest screen offering you can get if you want Chrome OS. It’s a widescreen aspect ratio, so this is clearly a one-size-fits-all kind of laptop for students and folks who want internet access and video on a giant screen. It’s available with an optional touchscreen and it boasts a built-in number pad, common on many of Acer’s productivity and budget laptop models.
Acer announced an update to its flagship Chromebook model, too. The beefed-up Chromebook Spin 713 is Acer’s first Chrome OS laptop running on Intel’s Evo processor lineup. The 13.5-inch device starts at $US700 ($898) and features a multi-touch display. It’s available with an Intel Core i3, i5, or i7 processor, with up to 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. There’s also built-in Intel Iris X graphics, plus WiFi 6 and surround sound speakers. Acer claims up to 10 hours of battery life.
For those in the market for a Chrome OS device that’s plenty capable but a little more affordable, the 14-inch Chromebook 514 will come with an optional touchscreen and Intel’s latest processors. There’s also a budget model running an Intel Pentium Gold 7505. The Chromebook 514 starts at $US600 ($770) and can be configured with up to 8GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage.
Last in Acer’s Chromebook lineup is the 14-inch Chromebook 314. At a starting price of $US270 ($346), it’s Acer’s least expensive Chromebook. It comes with a MediaTek processor and up to 8GB of RAM. Acer promises up to 15 hours of battery.
Acer’s Chromebooks will all be available soon, beginning this summer. The Chromebook 317 and Chromebook Spin 713 will arrive in June, with the Chromebook 314 and 514 arriving in July and August, respectively.
Windows users, if you’re making plans to splice up video or record on the road anytime soon, you might be interested in Acer’s updated ConceptD notebooks. Most of the machines in this lineup offer a dockable stylus and a hinged screen you can pivot toward you for a better angle. Acer announced the ConceptD 5 and ConceptD 5 Pro with an Intel Core i7 processor and the Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU starting at $US2,000 ($2,565), the ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro with an Intel Xeon W11955M processor and an NVidia RTX A5000 GPU starting at $US2,500 ($3,207), and the 14-inch ConceptD 3 Pro and Ezel Pro, both of which sport a Core i7 processor and an Nvidia T1200 graphics card and start at $US1,600 ($2,052).
Creators can check out the ConceptD 5 Pro beginning in August. There are no details yet for the ConceptD 7 Ezel’s availability. The ConceptD 3 will arrive in December.
If you’re more interested in an AMD-based machine, Acer also announced the colourful Swift X line of laptops with the Ryzen 5000 chip. These notebooks run on the AMD Ryzen 7 5800U or Ryzen 5 5600U mobile processor. They have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU for light gaming and photo processing and are available with up to 16GB of RAM. The Swift X machines start at $US900 ($1,154) and will be on sale in June.