Acer ConceptD

Last year at Computex, Acer launched a brand new family of high-end computers and peripherals, aimed at creatives and professionals.

The laptop case is made of aluminum, which is completed by a plasma-electric oxidation process, which is similar to the anodizing used as standard to protect the metal surface, but results in an even harder and more resistant crystal oxide layer. In any case, the material is very pleasant to the touch and leaves an impression of quality.

The offer of ports on the sides of the laptop is solid, but we expected a little more. On the left are the Kensington lock slot, the foldable RJ-45 network connector of Realtek’s gigabit NIC, HDMI, USB-C 3.2 Gen1 and two USB 3.2 Gen1. On the right are a combo headphone connector, one USB 2.0, a pair of LEDs and a power connector. On the same side is one of the exhausts of the cooling system. On a computer like this, we also expected Thunderbolt 3, but at least that USB-C is 3.2 Gen2 and that it supports power. Another problem is the position of the power connector and cooling output – most users on that side will have a hand with the mouse. Fortunately, the power connector is angled, so the cable doesn’t really matter in practice.

The computer comes with Windows 10 installed, and there’s also Acer-dedicated software. In addition to the usual Care Center, which is used for driver upgrades and technical support, ConceptD laptops are also equipped with the ConceptD Palette application, which offers stylized monitoring of CPU, graphics card and memory load.