Report from the Acer stand at IFA 2024: a laptop with a built-in gamepad, a portable console, AI laptops, the fastest monitor and more

Acer presented a variety of new products at the recent IFA 2024 exhibition in Berlin. The company showed the most modern laptops with the latest processors tailored for AI, its first portable gaming console, the world’s fastest monitor and other devices. Here we will tell you in more detail about everything that caught our attention at the Acer stand.

Acer has introduced a variety of thin and light Swift AI laptops. The new products will be available in versions with the latest Intel Lunar Lake, AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus and Elite processors. All of these processors not only have high overall performance, but also powerful built-in neural engines that are responsible for accelerating machine learning and artificial intelligence tasks. Thanks to the new chips, Swift AI laptops meet the requirements of Copilot+ PC, that is, they are able to run AI applications locally.

One of the key features of Swift AI, regardless of the processor, is its very high battery life – for the Swift 14 AI and Swift 14 Go AI models, Acer claims up to 27-29 hours of battery life in video playback mode. The new products offer OLED or IPS screens with a diagonal of 14.5 inches, up to 32 GB of RAM and SSD with a capacity of up to 2 TB, modern USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 interfaces, as well as Wi-Fi 7. In addition, Acer announced a 16-inch Swift 16 AI laptop on Intel Lunar Lake processors.

Another important new product at IFA 2024 was Acer’s first portable console, the Nitro Blaze 7. The developers equipped the device with a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS processor with eight cores, 16 threads, an operating frequency of up to 5.1 GHz and integrated AMD Radeon 780M graphics. The configuration is complemented by 16 GB of LPDDR5x-7500 RAM and a PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive with a capacity of up to 2 TB. Autonomous operation is ensured by a 50 Wh rechargeable battery. A USB Type-C interface is provided to replenish energy.

The display deserves special attention: it uses a 7-inch diagonal IPS matrix with a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. A panel with a peak brightness of 500 cd/m² is used, which will allow you to enjoy games even in bright light, and 100% coverage of the sRGB color space will ensure a high-quality picture. Support for AMD FreeSync Premium technology has been implemented, which will remove frame tearing and other artifacts.

Acer also noted a very unusual laptop – the DualPlay conceptual model, which stands out for the presence of a built-in wireless gamepad. The game controller is located in a recess in the bottom half of the laptop, with the back side facing up, acting as a trackpad. To remove the controller, you only need to press one button, which unlocks the electromagnetic lock. At the same time, a pair of 5-watt speakers extend from the laptop body, providing rich sound for better immersion in the gaming world.

The game controller offers a pair of joysticks, a D-pad, a set of ABXY control buttons and several additional buttons – a standard set for a modern gaming controller. The controller has a useful feature – it can be divided into two joysticks for playing in pairs, for example, in fighting games. The presence of a built-in game controller will give gamers the opportunity to switch from playing on a keyboard to playing with a gamepad at any time, depending on the game genre and style. For now, DualPlay is just a concept, and it is unknown whether this or a similar laptop will hit the market. Acer is not yet ready to share its plans.

Acer also showed at IFA 2024 the fastest gaming monitor in the world – Nitro XV240 F6 with a refresh rate of 600 Hz. This is the world’s first display with such a high refresh rate. The new product is aimed at fans of competitive games, including eSports players – such games often provide very high frame rates, and every Hertz can be decisive.

Nitro XV240 F6 is built on a 24-inch diagonal TN panel, which supports Full HD resolution (1920 × 1080 pixels) and 400 cd/m2 brightness. The maximum refresh rate of 600 Hz is only available through the DisplayPort connector. When using the HDMI port, the maximum refresh rate will be 240 Hz.

Acer also introduced a pair of larger monitors with high refresh rates. The Nitro XV270 F5 model is made on a 27-inch IPS matrix with Full HD resolution, a refresh rate of 520 Hz and a brightness of 400 cd/m2.

In turn, the 27-inch model Nitro XV270U F5 is equipped with an IPS matrix, supports WQHD resolution (2560 × 1440 pixels), a refresh rate of 500 Hz and a brightness of 250 cd/m2. All three presented Nitro series monitors support AMD FreeSync Premium image synchronization technology.

Acer also introduced two new models of Predator series monitors – Predator XB273U F5 and Predator XB273K V5. The first is equipped with a 27-inch IPS matrix with WQHD resolution and a refresh rate of 360 Hz. The monitor is equipped with Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar image synchronization technology, which combines Overdrive and Pulse Modulation technologies to improve image quality and reduce motion blur.

The Predator XB273K V5 model is also equipped with an IPS matrix, but with a 4K resolution (3840 × 2160 pixels) and a refresh rate of 160 Hz. There is support for AMD FreeSync Premium, peak brightness is 400 cd/m2.

Finally, Acer showed off the world’s first desktop gaming computer powered by the next generation Intel processor – Arrow Lake-S. These chips should debut later in the fall, but Intel hasn’t officially unveiled them yet. The new product contains a Predator CycloneX 360 LSS, up to 128 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM, a hard drive of up to 4 TB, an NVMe SSD of up to 6 TB and a GeForce RTX 4090 video card. There is no information yet on the release date of the Predator Orion 7000, nor on the cost of the game systems.