Acer Book RS, dissected
Acer’s new notebook has a few things going for it. As is usual with collaborations like this, it looks more streamlined than usual and, also typically, sports high-end materials. The cover is carbon fibre over metal, while the whole chassis is an all-metal affair. It looks, to us at least, a little like Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 3 — at least in terms of build.
Inside, there’s a lot going on. There are several specs available but it’s the biggest and best configuration we’re concerned with — an 11th-gen Intel Core i7 processor and GeForce MX350 are the headline features, along with 16GB of RAM. It doesn’t look like your typical gaming notebook but it should at least keep up with them.
There’s a 14in IPS LCD display, suitably high-res and also touch-enabled, Acer’s claiming a monstrous 17-hour battery life that we’d love to see in person and there’s also a fast charge function that’ll get you four hours of uptime from just a 30-minute top-up. Again, we’re seriously keen to see that in action.
There are also branded accessories (a mousepad, mouse, carrying pouch and notebook sleeve) available as a pack (the Porsche Design Acer Travelpack RS) or with the mouse on its own, if you feel the need to have matching gear. Just… don’t expect the notebook to be cheap. It starts in the States at $1,400 and in the EMEA at EUR 1,800 — or about R22,800/R35,000 (it’s a tax thing) — but if you want to buy the notebook and all of its bits, it’ll cost you around R45,000 for the base model notebook.