With kick-off for IFA 2025 days away, Acer got in ahead of the crowd to show off its latest products, innovations and company achievements. We’re only really interested in the first two, but what the company is doing with AI in the medical field is worth a mention. It also banged on about its achievements in sustainability, and how it was still on track to reach its goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. Round of applause, everyone.
Just before we fell asleep, Acer CEO and CHM (Chief Hype Man), Jason Chen, started wheeling the products out. There were a dizzying number of them showcased and on display afterwards, some of which will even be heading to South Africa.
Shiny new things
Right at the top of our list, mostly based on wow-factor, would’ve been the new Acer Predator X27U F8. It’s a 27in OLED gaming monitor that claims to boast a 720Hz refresh rate. While that’s technically correct (the best kind of correct), the catch is that it only has the bandwidth to do that at a resolution of 720p. If you run it at its native resolution of 2,560 x 1,440, then it will only manage 540Hz. We say ‘only’ as if that wasn’t impressive. It is, but it’s not fast enough to claim the title of ‘world’s fastest’. Not that it matters since we don’t think we’ll see this one turn up in SA. Pity.
The Veriton GN100 AI mini workstation won’t be for everyone, especially considering its $4,000 (~R70,550) price tag. Unless your work includes designing or training AI models. Then maybe. This tiny workhorse is based around Nvidia’s GB 10 Superchip, which fuses a Blackwell generation GPU and Grace 20-core ARM CPU with 128GB of unified system memory for up to 1 petaflop of FP4 performance. That will probably mean something to the people who care. And if you don’t, this is essentially a mini supercomputer that can fit behind your monitor. Impressed yet?
Fits on your lap
Looking for a smart bit of tech that weighs less than 1kg? Acer’s newest member of the Swift family, the Swift Air 16, might be it. It’s made of a magnesium-aluminium alloy, which has allowed Acer to keep it light, even though it sports a 16in 120Hz AMOLED display. It has all the other regular laptop bits with a few bells and whistles, and even manages to fit a decent spread of ports down its side. Sadly, while this was the more impressive of Acer’s laptop-sized devices, we don’t think it will make its way to our side of the world.
What probably will hit SA shelves at some point in the future is the new Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI. This Copilot+ PC is packing Intel’s latest silicon, weighs just a hair under 1.3kg, and is backed by MIL-STD810H standards, so it won’t crumble under pressure. It’s got a 14in display that can be made to be OLED if you cough up enough dough, supports up to 32GB of RAM, and features a total of six (6) ports. Keep your eyes peeled, Acer couldn’t say when this will turn up or how much it’ll cost when it does.
Joining the TravelMate X4 on the ‘probably heading our way’ list is the new Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514. When we reviewed the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 (no spin involved) two years ago, we said it might be the first Chromebook that made us sad to see a Chromebook go. Well, if its specs are anything to go by, this will be the second. It’s got a 14in 2,880 x 1,800 IPS screen on display duties and the new MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 under the hood, which apparently “delivers a new standard in on‑device intelligence”. It might be a little overpowered for Timmy going into Big School, but who says Chromebooks are just for schoolkids?
The last of the laptop-sized tech on display today that should make the journey over the pond is the Acer Nitro V 16. A refresh of the Nitro range, the V16 is designed to appeal to gamers who prioritise a good price-to-performance ratio. Its 16in panel is available in two resolution options, 1,920 x 1,080 or 2,560 x 1,600, although we’re only likely to get the former. It can also be outfitted with various hardware bits and supports up to an Intel Core 9 270H CPU and Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, with a maximum of 32GB RAM and 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. With this machine targeting the lower end of the cash spectrum, we’re eager to see where it lands when it arrives in SA. No telling when that’ll be just yet, however.
