Acer has announced a new series of laptops, the Aspire V Nitro Series. This is not another Ultrabook series, and the focus does not seem to be portability and battery life, but power and entertainment. There are graphics with enough power for gaming, however, it is not clear if it will be marketed as a gaming machine.
That aside, the height of the laptop is under 2.5cm, compared to the MacBook Pro with Retina’s 1.8 cm and the MacBook Pro’s 2.41 cm. So, nothing impressive, but, it does not seem to be a brick. There is a backlit keyboard, which is necessary for high end laptops, and red lighting for low-light use.
The design seems to be pretty nice, Acer says its crafted with “soft touch NIL Technology” – whatever that means. The buzz words are there, but it’s hard to tell how well it looks until we see better pictures, or in person. Regardless, everyone has their own opinions of looks, and you can make yours individually.
Specs
This is the series moment to shine. The series comes with the latest (4th or 5th Gen) Intel Core, or Intel Standard Voltage, processors. Accompanying the silicon is NVIDIA GeForce graphics, up to 860M. There is an option for a 256 SSD, with a hard disk options up to 1TB.
Acer is including a new fan technology, called Acer DustDefender, to remove the dust inside the laptop. The potential of this technology is pretty great. No need to use compressed air cans or to open up your laptop, but we will have to wait to pass judgment.
With the Black Edition laptop, there is a Turbo Mode that increases the fan speed by 19% and lowers CPU and GPU temperatures by 11%. This does not seem to indicate an especially quite computing experience, but we will have to wait on the details of that.
Entertainment
The full-HD IPS displays come in either 15-inch or 17-inch variants. The series comes with Acer ComfyView to reduce glare. The viewing angles and glare will need testing to follow through on.
There are 4 speakers with Dolby Digital Plus Home Theatre Dialog Enhancements technology to reduce background interference. Optionally, you can include a Blu-Ray drive.
Release
The Aspire V Nitro series will launch in (select countries in) Europe and Asia in Q3 of this year, and in the United States later this year. The starting prices are €699 for the 15-inch and €799 for the 17-inch.
Conclusion
In a world where laptops are being pressured into 13inch Ultrabooks with touchscreens and long battery life, this series stands strong as a power and entertainment focused machine. And on paper it looks good. However, things like design, screen performance, fan noise, touchpad use, keyboard comfort/click-y-ness are hard to determine off a paper.
If this is the type of laptop you are interested in, it is one to keep track of.
