Acer wants to tap into a whole new market with its new ConceptD line of creative-targeted displays. With some 15 percent of its gaming systems not used for gaming at all, it wants to give artists around the world hardware designed with them in mind. The new laptops, desktops, and compatible displays combine high-powered components typically found in gaming systems, with tuning and redesigned cooling to keep them quiet while in use. They even have specially designed displays with industry-leading color accuracy.
The new laptops in Acer’s ConceptD line, the D 9, D 7, and D 5, might look familiar to Acer fans of a few years past. They take the “Ezel Aero” hinge design from the 2014 Acer Aspire R13 and packs all of today and tomorrow’s most powerful components into it, with a display with near-perfect color accuracy. The ConceptD 9 has the latest ninth-generation Intel CPUs, and up to an Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics. All of that powers a 17-inch, 4K display with 100 percent Adobe RGB color support.
A metric that Acer came back to time and again though, was the color accuracy of this laptop. Acer claims that while laptops like the MacBook Pro (which we found to have a fantastic display for color accuracy) have a Delta E rating of 1.2, the ConceptD 9’s Delta E rating is just 0.7 (lower is better). The smaller D 7 and D 5 models are thinner and lighter, but they have weaker color accuracy at 1.1 and 1.2 Delta E, respectively. All three of them have been Pantone Validated.
The D 7 and D 5 have slightly different hardware options, with the latter of the two also offering a choice of AMD RX Vega M GL graphics.
All of this is combined with the same Aeroblade cooling found in Acer’s new Helios
All of the ConceptD laptop models feature come in white or matte-black finishes, with amber-colored keyboard backlighting and are designed to look clean and professional. They also come with a Wacom EMR stylus with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity.
The ConceptD 9 will go on sale in June starting at $5,000. The ConceptD 7 will be available in April starting at $2,300. The ConceptD 5 will start at $1,700 and will go on sale in April as well.
Quadro RTX-powered workstations
Acer also launched a number of new Concept D desktops that feature the same design ethos as their laptop counterparts. The Concept D 500 features up to a ninth-generation Intel Core i9 CPU, up to an Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000, and up to 64GB of memory. Its chassis is classy and white, with a unique wood-inlay in the top panel that also houses a wireless charge point for compatible smartphones and tablets. It even has a pop-out headset cradle in the front panel. Like the ConceptD laptops, it too has a quiet and powerful cooling system that is designed to never exceed 40 decibels.
But that’s not all, the ConceptD 900 offers an even more powerful hardware configuration. Resting inside a jet-black chassis, the 900 offers up to dual Xeon Gold 6148 CPUs with up to 40 cores and 80 threads. They’re combined with up to an Nvidia Quadro RTX 6000 graphics card and up to 192GB of memory across its 12 RAM slots. Aimed at filmmakers, animators, and architects, this system even has enough bays and slots to handle up to 60TB of storage space.
Despite all that hardware, it too stays cool and quiet, with six cooling fans drawing air in through the front, triangular intake.
The CondeptD 500 will go on sale this June starting at $1,700. The ConceptD 900 will go on sale in May starting at $20,000.
Displays for creatives
To complement its new ConceptD laptops and desktops, Acer also unveiled two new color-accurate professional ConceptD monitors designed for creative professionals. The ConceptD CM7271K is available with a 27-inch 4K UHD, Pantone-validated panel, while the ConceptD CM7321K comes with a 32-inch display with a fast refresh rate. Though both displays cover 99 percent of the AdobeRGB color space and a Delta E of less than one, there are some notable differences, aside from panel size, between these two models.
Acer claims that the CM7231K is ideal for 2D creators, such as those working with print and graphic design, and comes with a 4K UHD resolution panel that delivers 1,152 zones of local dimming thanks to Mini LED technology. The panel is certified for DisplayHDR 10000 and comes with 89.5 percent Rec.2020 “so creators and filmmakers can bring their ideas to life.”
The larger ConceptD CP7271K, on the other hand, was made for 3D creators. Company executives promised that this panel will deliver cinematic colors and brilliant contrasts. The panel supports 93 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and features G-Sync Ultimate and DisplayHDR 1000 support, making it suitable for gaming as well. Creators and gamers will also appreciate the high 144Hz refresh rates promised by these ConceptD monitors, as it will reduce ghosting and stuttering, Acer claimed in a press presentation.
Given the performance of these displays, pricing won’t be cheap. The 27-inch panel will be available in July for $1,999 in North America, while the larger 32-inch will come with a $1,000 premium, taking the price to $2,999 when it launches in September.
