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Acer's Concept D 7 laptops flaunt a nifty new convertible design at CES 2020

Ezel come, Ezel go.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
Lori Grunin
2 min read
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Multiple points of articulation for the Concept D 7 Ezel's display let you position the screen variety of positions, like you can with the Concept D 9, but without the bulky side arms that probably wouldn't work in the D 7's smaller 15-inch footprint.

Acer

I love the convertible design of Acer's Predator Triton 900, the 17-inch gaming laptop on which its Concept D 9 for creatives is based; it flips into all the positions of a typical two-in-one, but with the added attractions of being able to position the screen above the keyboard, and that the keyboard is always face up, never face down, on the desk. Acer has adapted that architecture to its new 15-inch Concept D 7 Ezel and Ezel Pro additions in its line of products intended for creatives, announced at CES 2020

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The D 7 Ezel models are based on the D 7 clamshell laptops, which are basically the Predator Triton 500 gaming laptop.  But the new Ezel design is the first of the models to debut in Concept territory rather than Predator. 

It also looks like Acer has begun to adapt it more to suit creatives, at least in small ways, over the clamshell. It swapped the mini DisplayPort connection (which you want as a gamer, because hardware G-Sync requires the monitor be on the discrete GPU bus, not the iGPU) for an additional USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 connection, which is more important to people who regularly need to move large files around, and to whom it doesn't matter that they get their DisplayPort connection via USB-C. And now there's an SD card slot as well.

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More flippy goodness.

Acer

As is Acer's convention, the Pro models use workstation-level components -- in this case, Intel Xeon processors with ECC memory support and Quadro RTX graphics -- while the not-Pro versions use Core processors and GeForce RTX GPUs. One configuration option for the standard model will be an as-yet unnamed (and unannounced) Intel 10th-gen H-series processor. 

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Probably an i7, since the current models incorporate the i7-9750H. The stylus uses Wacom EMR technology, and naturally it has a touchscreen, but otherwise it's the same excellent Adobe RGB-calibrated, 400-nit display as I've tested in the Concept D 5.

You do pay a price premium over the Ezel-free versions, which seems to be about $200 -- without detailed specs it's impossible to be sure, though. Availability dates are still up in the air, but the Concept D 7 Ezel Pro will start at $3,100 while the Concept D 7 Ezel will start at $2,700.