Along with other OEMs like Asus, HP, and Lenovo announcing support for Amazon Alexa, Acer too shared that Alexa will be coming to select Aspire, Spin, Switch, and Swift notebooks as well as Aspire all-in-one PCs starting from Q1 2018.
Supported models include the latest Aspire 5, Aspire 7, Spin 3, Spin 5, Switch 7 Black Edition, Swift 3, Swift 5, Swift 7, Aspire Z24, Aspire U27, and Aspire S24.
We’re delighted that Acer will bring Alexa to PC customers. Hands-free access to Alexa on PCs can be helpful to customers in many ways, like making it simple to interact with your smart home, get news or weather, set timers, and more. This is a big step toward making Alexa available wherever customers might need her.
– Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa
Enabled by Intel Smart Sound Technology, an integrated audio DSP (Digital Signal Processor) built to handle audio, voice, and speech interactions, many of Acer’s latest notebooks and desktops will support Amazon Alexa and respond to voice commands while offering high fidelity audio without impacting system performance.
In a press release, Acer shared that notebooks such as the Switch 7 Black Edition and Spin 5 with Acer Purified.Voice and four digital microphones support far-field voice recognition from up to nine feet away, while others with dual microphones will be able to activate Alexa within three feet.
While Alexa will initially be available in the US via an update through Acer Care Center, wider support is expected to be rolled out mid-2018.
