Acer Aspire 7735Z
(Credit: Acer)Editor's note: the Acer Aspire AS5739G does not have a Blu-ray drive. The spec has been updated accordingly.)
Prices keep dropping on laptops, and Acer, as always, is right in the middle adding fuel to the budget fires. Monday, Acer announced updates to its Blue Gemstone line of multimedia laptops, with 16x9 LED-backlit displays, Dolby Home Theater surround sound systems, 802.11 b/g/n, multitouch pads, and one-touch Acer Backup Manager included in all models. The most impressive part of the announcement is the price.
The Acer Aspire AS5536 Notebook has a base model starting with a 15.6-inch 16x9 LED-backlit display, a 2.1GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 Dual-Core, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, ATI Radeon 3200 graphics, a 320GB hard drive, and DVD burner for $479.99.
Acer's Aspire AS7735Z starts with a 17.1-inch display, a 2.0GHz Pentium T4200, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 250GB hard drive, DVD burner, and an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD for $599.99.
Next up, the AS5739G starts at $749.99, but has a 15.6-inch display, a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T6500, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Nvidia GeForce GT130M graphics with 1GB memory, a DVD burner, 250GB hard drive, and even a fingerprint reader.
Picking up pricewise right where Netbooks leave off, you could get yourself a nice-sounding and big-screened (but in some cases under-CPU-powered) laptop for just a couple hundred more.
All models are available in the U.S. this month.
The Aspire 8920 features Acer's new Gemstone Blue design and an 18-inch screen.
(Credit: Acer)Your desktop replacement options expanded today, with Acer announcing its 16- and 18-inch Aspire Gemstone Blue notebooks are now available. The 16-inch Aspire 6920 starts at $849, and the 18.4-inch Aspire 8920 starts at $1,299. Both models have an Intel Core 2 Duo chip, Nvidia GeForce graphics, and a display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 1920x1080-pixel screen resolution for full HD goodness. The 18-inch model finds room for 5.1 speakers; the 16-inch model serves up 2.1 sound. Blu-ray is an option on higher-end configurations.
The Gemstone Blue design is a new look, which Acer unveiled earlier this year at a media event in New York. Though it may be overstating it a bit, according to Acer, "the unique style of the Gemstone Blue is expressed through a distinctive color, one that reflects the power, performance and control the Aspire 8920 gives to everyone who uses it." Aside from new color scheme, the Gemstone models introduce a touch-sensitive media control called CineDash.
The touch-sensitive CineDash Media Console
(Credit: Acer)Dan Ackerman has been tracking these two models and is currently at work on the Aspire 8920 review. Check back next week for his full review. In the meantime, you can get more information from Acer's news release here, and visit the product pages on Acer's site for the 6920 and the 8920.
Who says print is dead?
Earlier this week, we dropped by an Acer news conference in New York where the company made a pitch for getting into the U.S. market in a big way. We've heard big talk from Acer before, and they're a huge player globally (made even bigger by merging with Gateway), but not the first name you think of when shopping for a laptop domestically.
So while were we all fairly impressed with Acer's plans to introduce new form factors with its upcoming 16-inch Acer Aspire 6920 and the 18.4-inch Acer Aspire 8920, we didn't expect much of a mainstream consumer push. After all--if U.S. buyers know Acer for anything, it's probably the company's overpriced Ferrari-branded laptops.
So imagine our surprise to pick up the New York Times the next day, and see a full-page advertisement for the new Gemstone Blue laptops, right in the middle of the "A" section and specifically touting the new CineDash media console (basically some touch-sensitive media buttons arranged somewhat like a traditional remote control). Even better, Friday's New York Times also had a full-page Acer ad (different image and copy, but for the same laptops).
That seems like a pretty hefty investment (although with Acer touting the "Blue" branding so heavily, they might have sprung for a color ad), so expect top hear more about these two laptops as we get closer to the April release date.
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