During its press conference in New York, Acer announced its new product lineup for the school and gaming segments. The conference included a presentation by Acer’s CEO Jason Chen and some guests from Microsoft, Intel and the representative of a Georgia, USA school district.
The presentation introduced a few new products; however the first part was focused on Acer’s philosophy. While we know Acer as one of the top ten PC manufacturers, their focus on specific aspects of computers is a little surprising at first. From the presentation two aspects stood out from the onslaught of new products; Acer’s focus on design and their success in the Chromebook and educational market.
Acer being at the forefront of PC design would have most certainly not have been my first impression. As it became clear from the press conference, this is exactly where Acer wants to go in the future. While it is one thing to look at the visually loud design of a gaming desktop with blinking lights and spinning fans in a transparent desktop case, the more subtle approach to a better product design was clearly visible in other products announced at the event. Most cases come in a variety of colors, the range of colors going from dark subdued colors to white with gold inlays. There is something for everyone, indeed.
Taking a second look, there is a new convertible laptop with an aluminum case, providing a very sturdy feel. While the enclosure feels great, the same cannot be said for some of the display enclosures. Some are very flexible and bend the underlying display panel by quite a bit. It takes time to change the design approach in a company like Acer, especially when we consider the cost constraint that Acer faces. Nevertheless, the design focus has been announced and we’ll have to see how this works out going forward.
Acer Working on VR
While Acer mentioned VR and their joint venture Star VR first in their presentation, there was no VR headset on display. Instead they focused on the largest VR park Star VR just opened in Dubai and the listing of Star VR on the Taipei stock exchange. Other than that they talked about the use of VR in engineering, training, simulation, architecture and interior design. This is going along with many of the other VR companies, there is potential but no immediate consumer market penetration.
Strength in Chromebooks
While Acer has had a more or less stable market share in PC shipments over the last few years (with a little downward trend even) there are market segments where they feel very strong. One of these segments is the Chromebook. It seems Acer is the leader in the Chromebook market and had even a representative of a USA school district in Georgia, USA giving a short presentation. This school district has over 100,000 students and over 14,000 employees. They provide 74,000 student laptops and over 85,000 total devices to students, most of them Chromebook devices from Acer. If there ever was an important customer, they fit the bill.
Since 2012, Acer has sold 10 million Chromebooks and they introduced some new devices to their lineup. The new Chromebooks include the Spin 15, Chrome book 15, Spin 13 and the Chromebook 13. The number refers to the display screen size with the “15” having a 15” FHD display, while the “13” refers to a 13.5” 3:2 display. This follows the lead of other makers like Microsoft, Samsung, etc. As Microsoft has said, this new format provides a compromise between the video friendly 16:9 and the old fashioned 4:3. I do not know if anyone still has any 4:3 display experience, but the more square the display, the larger the screen area for a given screen diagonal.
The Spin 13 and the Spin 15 feature a 360º hinge that allows the device to be used as a tablet as well. It is also the first model with a metal chassis. Overall the Spin 13 is more than just a cheap Chromebook for the educational market. It feels solid and may attract other customers outside of the educational market as well. In addition to the design, Spin 13 is available with Intel Core i5 8250U or Intel Core i3 8130U processor and comes with 32GB to 128GB of eMMC storage.
The other Chromebooks feature more moderate processors like Intel Celeron and Pentium. With the 3:2 display format and the larger display area as well as the higher performance processors comes a hit on the battery life that reaches up to 10h compared to up to 13/14h on the 15″ version. While the prices will vary by region and the US site doesn’t list the new devices yet, the best guess is a starting price of $500 for the Spin 13 (which was mentioned by the Acer staff).
The other Chrome device is the Chromebook Tab 10, 9.7″ Chrome OS based tablet that comes with 32GB of eMMC storage and up to 9 hours of battery life.
Besides the Chrome devices, Acer also introduced the Swift 3, a 15.6″ Windows 10 notebook with up to 512 GB SSD or a 3TB HDD. The processor choices range from an Intel Core i3 7020U to an Intel Core i7 8550U processor for more processing power.
The other focus of the presentation and product release were devices and accessories for the gaming sector.
Desktops Also Shown
In addition, Acer showed a variety of desktops ranging from the Nitro 50 as a low end gaming machine to the Predator line of high end gaming machines with Intel Core processors that are ready for overclocking. All gaming desktops are VR ready, even though this was only a side note during the presentation and was not mentioned in the product show. Of course, there is also the Predator Helios 500 gaming notebook that is available in black or the before mentioned white with gold inlay design. During the presentation, the Intel representative noted that the gaming industry is a $30 billion industry and growing at a pace of $2 billion per year. Acer is one of the larger manufacturers in this industry segment.
While the new gaming desktops are basically upgraded versions of the existing Predator desktops, Acer also presented some new monitors as well s accessories. The curved 27″ (2560×1440) curved display is already on the website and not really new. However, there are two completely new monitors, the Nitro VGO (21.5″, 23.8″, and 27″) and the Nitro RGO (23.8″ and 27″). While the Nitro VGO has a 4K resolution and a refresh rate of up to 144Hz, the RGO has FHD resolution and a refresh rate of 75Hz. Both monitors state a contrast ratio of 100,000,000 to 1 as a maximum with dynamic backlight control. As a gaming monitor, the most important feature is the response time and both monitors achieve 1ms according to Acer. While the price varies by region, in the US you should be able to get the smallest VGO display for $130 and the RGO for $170 when they become available later this year.
Considering the pricing, these are not the most high end gaming monitors you can find, nevertheless the response time is right at where you need it to be for a good gaming monitor. The high refresh rate for the VGO seems very enticing for an entry level monitor. The inputs are kind of a mystery as they both still list VGA as a viable input format. Of course they also offer HDMI and Displayport together with audio in and out.
The accessories for the Predator line includes a new mouse as well as a hardcore box and a chair. Acer spends quite some time on the gamer’s needs, even though the chair look more comfortable than it actually was. (NH)
Analyst Comment
The presentation was the expected spectacle of new products presented in rapid succession to keep the total presentation time within the set one hour time frame. Overall, Acer seems to be varying a bit form their old path by focusing on areas where they have had some commercial success in recent years. While the overall PC market is still weak and Acer even lost some market share, the gaming and educational market has been good for them and it seems like a good strategy to give these market segments some more focus in their new product line.
The focus on better design was somewhat of a surprise and given the Spin 13, they actually showed a product to back up their claims of a better design philosophy at Acer. Not that Apple has to be afraid any time soon, Acer is trying to differentiate themselves in the PC market a little from their competitors and gain a little more market share. The question is whether they can achieve the higher price points for higher end products that Apple is able to get. (NH)
