Acer's high-end 18-inch Aspire AS8950G packs in Blu-ray, quad-core CPU
The 18.4-inch Aspire AS8950G has Intel's new Core i7-2630QM processor, ATI's new Mobility Radeon 6850 graphics processor, 8GB of DDR RAM, and a 750GB hard drive.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
LAS VEGAS--There's one high-end laptop hiding in Acer's CES 2011 lineup, and that's the 18.4-inch Aspire AS8950G. The system packs in Intel's new upper-tier Core i7-2630QM processor, ATI's new Mobility Radeon 6850 graphics processor, 8GB of DDR RAM, and a 750GB hard drive. A Blu-ray drive is also standard, as we'd expect in a high-end multimedia laptop these days.
The company says, "The new Acer Aspire AS8950G is the ultimate portable entertainment center," and it certainly seems well-outfitted for media consumption. The 18.4-inch display has a 1,920x1080 native resolution (exactly what we'd look for in a laptop like this), and the screen's edge-to-edge glass gives it a polished home theater look and feel. Audio isn't left out, either, and the Acer CineSurround sound system includes five built-in speakers and a dedicated subwoofer.
Interestingly, the Aspire AS8950G includes a FireWire port, something of a rarity on laptops these days. Also unusual is the dual-mode touch pad, which can act as a normal multitouch touch pad, but also switch into a media console mode, with dedicated finger gestures for media playback, including volume control.
The massive Aspire AS8950G is coming to retailers on January 9, and will start at $1,599.
