The bell has rung for the triple threat main event bout between the three major Taiwanese Computer manufacturers, Acer, ASUS and MSI, in a battle to attract the creative professional, or as Acer describes them, the Digital Nomad.
Last night Acer finally rolled out their ConceptD range in Australia with it’s deciding factor being the inclusion of high-performance desktop work stations to support its new range of content creation notebooks, whereas ASUS and MSI seem to be banking entirely on these professionals using only a laptop.
Acer is also indirectly taking on Apple who is yet to make the Mac Pro and XDR Display available to consumers not named Calvin Harris but has just recently unveiled their 16-inch MacBook Pro.
With origins in the successful Predator range of gaming hardware, Acer has now expanded its product portfolio with the launch of its ConceptD range of laptops, desktops and content creation focus monitors taking the gaming hardware grunt and adding a bit of class and sophistication, while also turning down the volume on those space shuttle fans.
Acer’s launch saw the unveiling of two notebooks – the ConceptD 7 ($6,999) and ConcetD 9 ($8,999), two monitors – the ConceptD CP3 ($1,899) and Concept CP7 ($2,999), and two workstation desktops – the ConceptD 500 ($5,499) and ConceptD 900 (pricing not availble).
The entire ConceptD range is available now for preorder from the Acer online store and will be coming to a Harvey Norman store near you.
Born from the gaming branch of Acer, ConceptD represents ‘a new journey’ for the company as they tackle the rise of the “Digital Nomad” the content creator and freelancers that require the level of power afforded to them by the Predator series but without the aggressive aesthetic.
Identifying an increase in commercial demand for these types of machines, Acer set out to create systems designed to tackle the now $111.7 billion creative industry, according to the Bureau of Communications and Arts Research (BCAR).
Each of the ConceptD laptops and monitors sport 4K UHD displays backed by several colour technologies from the PANTONE Matching System Colours, 100% Adobe RGB Colour Gamut and calibrated to achieve a low Delta E average of <1 to <2.
Unlike MSI and ASUS, Acer has also unveiled a range of creative focused desktop workstations to complement its range of content creation laptops.
Moving beyond the simplicity of the Dell office workstation, and stripping back the aggressive aesthetics of gaming hardware, Acer has revealed a clean, timeless design that is practical and ergonomic.
Acer is calling the ConceptD 500 ‘the ideal desktop for creatives’, with an attractive and stylish design, featuring an Intel Core i9 Processor and a Quadro RTX4000 workstation GPU.
Amazingly fan noise is less than 40dB, and it even has a wireless charging pad built into the top of the machine.
If you need to take your work a little more serious and require, ‘power beyond imagination’ then the ConceptD 900 is the workstation for you.
This behemoth is geared towards large scale productions, designed to tackle professional workflows at all levels with dual Intel Xeon Gold 6148 CPUs and NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000, plus with up to 60TB of storage, you’ll hardly ever run out of space.
Not to mention the design of both workstations allow for expandability to ‘grow with ever-changing workloads’.
Supporting this new class of Acer content workstations are two 4K UHD monitors that go beyond the mainstream.
The 27-inch IPS display ConceptD CP3 targets the professional user with G-Sync and HDR400 compatibility, and 90% DCI-P3 wide colour gamut.
Stepping it up a notch is the CP7, also supporting a 90% DCI-P3 wide colour gamut and G-Sync, but with HDR 1000 for ‘unparalleled colour and image detail’.
While not specifically aimed at competing with Apple’s XDR Display, the CP7 represents a considerably more affordable monitor for those that need high colour accuracy and 4K quality.
When compared to the US$4,999 6K Apple Pro Display XDR, you definitely get what you pay for.
Someone who Acer is definitely taking on is Asus with Acer unveiling its flagship creative notebook the ConceptD9.
Acer is looking to compete with the innovative design of the ASUS ZenBook Duo with the ConceptD9, which sports a unique Ezel Aero Hinge design that allows the 17-inch 4K UHD touch display to rotate into four different modes.
Supported by a Wacom Stylus Pen, the ConceptD9 display is a Wacom Touch Display bringing with it 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity for that paper-like feeling when drawing.
Powered by an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card and an Intel Core i9 processor, the D9 comes with a hell of a lot of power, and yet, fan noise has also been limited to <40dB.
Though for those thinking of taking this bad boy on the go with them might want to think twice when hauling around nearly 4.3Kg.
Also, with all that processing power and graphical requirements, you’re better off plugging the D9 into the power brick, as it’s only got 2.5-hour battery life.
Tackling MSI’s range of professional content creation laptops are two mobile workstations the ConceptD 5 and 7, sporting Core i7 processors and the same PANTONE validated 4K UHD 15-inch display.
The ConceptD 5 powers a Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics card, while the 7 can handle a bit more with its NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q Design.
