Acer announced a number of new devices at its NextAtAcer event in Berlin today, including several AI laptops powered by Intel Lunar Lake, AMD Strix Point, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors, but I want to focus on the gaming department. There's a prototype gaming laptop with an integrated controller, the Predator Project DualPlayan AMD-powered gaming laptop, the Nitro Blaze 7and a 600Hz gaming monitor, the Nitro XV240 F6.
Let’s start with the most fun. The Predator Project DualPlay looks like a pretty standard gaming laptop, but you can press two buttons below the screen to pop out the trackpad, which reveals a full-size controller inside. This controller can be used as is, or split up further with Switch-style nunchucks for each hand. It’s not clear if there’s a fallback option for controlling the PC with the gamepad physically removed (maybe it’ll connect wirelessly, maybe you’ll just need to have a mouse plugged in), but it’s a novel concept that would definitely turn some heads at a LAN party.
Acer also showed off its fair share of gaming monitors at the event, including one of the first Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar monitors: a 27-inch Fast IPS model with a 1440p 360Hz spec called the Predator XB273U F5. I was most excited about the company’s new 600Hz esports model, though. The Nitro XV240 F6 uses a 1080p TN panel, so image quality isn’t the greatest, but competitive shooter players with high-end PCs aren’t likely to care if they get a slight edge over their rivals at 240Hz, 360Hz, or 480Hz. The difference between 480Hz and 600Hz is minuscule in real terms (we're talking about a new frame every 2.08ms versus 1.66ms), but it brings us one step closer to the dream of 1000Hz, the threshold at which sample-and-hold displays become easier to use. lose many of their limitations.
The announcement of the Nitro Blaze 7 means that virtually every major PC maker has a handheld now, but despite being late, there are some nice touches here. The overall design mirrors the relatively bland shapes of the Ayaneo 2S with some added gaming “flair” in the form of a black and red colour scheme. There’s a 7-inch 1080p 144Hz FreeSync IPS display, and an AMD Ryzen 8840HS chip – virtually the same as the commonly used Ryzen 7840HS, but with AI capabilities that Acer is using to “optimise performance and responsiveness”. Performance is likely to be similar to existing gaming handhelds given the use of the same chipset, but Acer has paired it with a fast 7500 MT/s LPDDR5x and up to 2TB of NVMe storage. If the price is right and their software solution is better than their competitors (and their software tends to be a bit more thought-out than other PC makers'), then this could be a good niche option.
He Full list of Acer announcements at IFA It's worth checking out if you're in the market for a gaming laptop, monitor, or notebook, and we want to get our hands on at least a few items to see how they perform – especially those surprisingly powerful Lunar Lake laptops we were told about yesterday. Is there anything from Acer's announcements that you think we should prioritize trying out? Let us know in the comments below.