Acer reveals cooling device, social network, and massage chair for gamers

The Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer opened the show with a slew of announcements wooing young creatives.

Chan announced the latest upgrades to its lightweight Swift laptops; notably, the new Swift 5 will feature a 10th generation Intel i7 core processor, the option of a Nvidia GeForce MX250 GPU, and support for the Wi-Fi 6 standard. It is less than 15mm thick, and its weight has been reduced to just 990g, while offering “all-day battery life”. It will be sold in the EMEA region this month at prices starting from €899, and in North America from November at prices beginning at $899.99.

According to Steve Long, Intel’s vice president for sales and marketing: “Better CPU performance is not enough for users anymore, they want to know what they can do with [their laptop].” He commented that Intel’s 10th generation i7 processor was focused on “human first innovation”, such as cloud computing, AI, mobile working, long battery life, and reliable connectivity. The 10th generation processor will also be featured in the updated Swift 3 laptop.

Chan also presented additions to Acer’s line-up of Chromebooks: the 311, 314 and 315, which all include Google Assistant and promise all-day battery life, and revealed a portable projector (the C250i), which accommodates the growing proportion of video captured on smartphones by switching seamlessly between horizontal and vertical video.

Acer will also be updating its ConceptD range, with ‘Pro’ versions of the creator-focused PCs featuring Intel’s 9th generation core processors and Nvidia’s Quadro RTX 5000 GPUs. The ConceptD Pro range is targeted towards creators at all levels of professionalism – from aspiring influencers to professional animation studios – with prices starting at $1,700/€1,499. At the top of the range is the ConceptD 9 Pro, which has a unique ‘hinged’ display for sketching and notetaking.

A considerable number of Acer’s announcements related to its gaming portfolio (marketed under the ‘Predator’ brand). Chan announced two new Triton gaming laptops – the Predator Triton 300 and Triton 500 – and four new Nitro monitors. The company also revealed the PowerGem; a very small, thin device created from an unknown material specifically developed to cool computers. Acer claims that this can boost CPU by 12.5 per cent while allowing for 77.7 per cent higher wattage.

“This is a true breakthrough for materials science,” Chan said, holding up the PowerGem while addressing IFA delegates. The PowerGem will be incorporated into future gaming desktop and laptop computers, including the Predator Orion 9000 and the Predator Helios 700.

The company will also be launching a social platform based around e-sports: Planet9 “where gamers can come together”. The platform is intended as a place where gamers can meet, build teams, play together, show off their game stats, and receive coaching to refine their skills for a potential career in e-sports. In order to offer trainees most opportunity for improvement, Planet9 will provide extremely detailed data on game performance to coaches.

So far, Planet9 supports three games – 'PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds', 'League of Legends' and 'DOTA2' – with more games to come. It is currently in closed beta, with open beta arriving in January 2020.

“Planet9 is a next-generation e-sports platform that encompasses what competitive and casual gamers need to level up and participate in e-sports below the professional tier,” said Andrew Chuang, who heads Acer’s e-sports products business.

Following last year’s announcement of its $20,000 ‘Thronos’ luxury gaming chair – which has reportedly sold hundreds of units – Acer announced the ‘Thronos Air’, which functions as a massage chair as well as a gaming chair. The Thronos Air will begin at ¥79,000 in China, with RRP in Western markets yet to be confirmed.