Few years ago, laptop manufacturers put their design teams to work to showcase their talents to create powerful machines in thin form factors. These new machines had the same desktop-class processors from Intel, came with the latest SSD memory technology, did not come with the extra weight that other standard laptops had and still included the necessary ports for transferring media. Thus, the Ultrabook was created.
Fast forward to present day, most ultrabooks are rebranded again as laptops and all the essential connectivity ports like the SD card readers (and the beloved headphone jacks) are being removed to facilitate a slimmer design. Even gaming laptops are shedding the extra body and weigh to give gamers more portability without sacrificing performance.
Streamers and content creators are ever on the lookout for devices that make their life easier to work in the studio and also while on the move. Most have come to love the new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro tablet for their hardware capabilities of rendering videos quickly and using the best mobile apps on the market (applicable for the latter).
With the sole purpose of enticing content creators, Acer has launched a new line of computing products under the ConceptD branding. This new range includes desktop computers, hybrid-convertible and standard laptops.
We take a closer look at the ConceptD 7 laptop to determine if this is the next portable computer creators will fall in love with.
Table of Contents
Milky White Design
Encased in a white Aluminum chassis, the ConceptD 7 from Acer has an enticing and premium look. The top edges of the laptop have a blade-cut edge design that adds a gaming theme to the machine which is further mirrored on the lower section of the laptop. The gaming theme is also evident in the cross-sectional air vent designs at the back of the ConceptD 7.
The ConceptD 7 laptop weighs in at 2.1 kilos and feels light to carry around. The internal hardware of the laptop fits perfectly within the chassis that is just 17.9 mm thin. The form factor of the ConceptD 7 was perfect when we used it while travelling and the weight distribution feels well balanced on the lap. The hinges on the laptop were sturdy while we even sat down on the couch to work.
With the ConceptD 7, Acer has done a tremendous job at maintaining build quality standards while also keeping the eye-catchy.
Silent as any silent can be
The first time we came across Acer’s new 4th generation Aeroblade fans within the ConceptD 7, we were astonished by the fact the company is claiming under 40db of noise levels (equivalent to that of a library, according to the company). We were eager to get our hands on the laptop just to test this claim. Now, we come with mixed results.
The ConceptD 7 is really silent when under low stress. Adobe Premiere and After Effects did not stress the system much and we barely the fans within the chassis. Bringing more resource intensive applications did raise the fans speeds, but the sound levels were just the same as any other laptop when under stress. So, it feels that the new Aeroblades are neither a groundbreaking industry development nor is it a fancy feature for the company to boast about.
The beauty of 4K
Covering the beauty of the design of the ConceptD 7 is just one side of a coin. The internal hardware and features of the device complete the laptop to make it an ideal content creator’s machine.
The first and most gorgeous feature of the ConceptD 7 is the 15.6-inch 4K Ultra HD display panel with a resolution of 3840×2160 with a screen-to-body ratio of 81%. It is also color tuned by Pantone, the world’s leading color pallet manufacturer who lends its expertise to adding vibrant colors to fabric as well as paints.
The company has also ensured that the display is 100% accurate with Adobe’s RGB gamut and Delta E<2. To simplify all that information, it means that video and photo editors can work on their projects on the ConceptD 7 without compromising on the quality of the final product.
During our usage, our video editors have observed that when color correcting the video for final rendering, they could easily add vibrancy without straining their eyes. Also, when compared to other competing displays, we did observe that ConceptD7 had a more true-to-life color tone as compared to the other over saturated displays.
Creator-worthy internal hardware
At the heart of the Acer ConceptD 7 is the 9th Generation Intel Core i7 chipset which has a max clock speed of 4.9 GHz. The new i7 chipset has 8 cores and 8 threads making it ideal for multitasking, but unfortunately it does not support Hyperthreading.
That being said, the ConceptD 7 still hits the ball out of the park when it comes to performance. When spent hours working on Adobe Premiere and After Effects and observed no lag. The ConceptD 7 gives you enough power to work while on the move and at the desk without any overkill. The laptop was even able to render 6K footage and complex 3D designs without a hiccup.
The ConceptD 7 from Acer is not purely for photographers and videographers. Packed within the compact chassis is NVIDIA’s latest RTX 2080 with Max-Q design. We spent hours gaming on the device and came out surprised by the performance. Coupled with a 1TB NVME SSD, you can load games and files instantly after boot.
Other internal hardware specifications include a variety of modern connectivity options like ThunderBolt 3 port, Mini Display Port 1.4, HDMI, USB 3.1 and a dedicated Ethernet port.
The speakers on the ConceptD 7 is loud and clear and we enjoyed watching movies on the laptop. We do believe that users will be plugging in their headphones to play games too, and were happy to see the same quality performance when we tested it.
Just below the speakers are the backlit keyboard which was well built and the response from the keys were accurate and we did not feel any inconvenience when working for long durations. The keypad too is large and has an accurate touch response along with support for Windows 10 gestures.
Also included is a dedicated fingerprint reader which users can use to lock out the system from outsiders. Setting up the fingerprint ID is simplified due to the integration of Windows Hello on Windows 10 running on the ConceptD 7.
Conclusion
Acer may be putting a lot of efforts to make the ConceptD line of products a real success this year. This is in part due to the explosive rise of content creators around the globe.
At a starting price of $2,299 for the base ConceptD 5 laptop, the ConceptD 7 is definitely worth a buy for a higher price tag. The ConceptD 5 comes with an older 8th Gen i7 processor and a less powerful RX Vega M GL graphics.
