Future Tech: Acer’s first 3D laptop

3D phones, 3D TV – what’s next, 3D laptops? Glad you asked, as are Acer – they’ve just announced their first entry in this ever-growing market.

By Emmet Purcell

Seeing as we’ve already showcased Sky 3D and 3D mobile phones in this very section, we at JOE decided it was time to broaden our scope to laptops and notebooks, or more accurately, Acer’s first effort, the snappily-titled S5745DG-A54E/L.

So what’s under the hood and more pertinently, can I pop bubbles in a pointless gimmicky screensaver? The answer is ‘lots’ and ‘hopefully, I mean if not, then what is the bloody point?!” Described as a high cost performance model from the Taiwanese giants, the latest Acer is a hopeful entry into the burgeoning world of 3D laptops.

We’re afraid there’s no way around it – you’ll look like a complete tool with those glasses

Acer’s latest features a 640GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce GT 425M (with NVIDIA’s 3D VISION at 120Hz), an Intel Core i5-460M processor at 2.53GHz, 4GB of RAM and 3D VISION glasses. No, we didn’t add the capital letters to ‘vision’ – it’s just that exciting. Released on December 3 in Japan, the model is bundled with Windows 7 and retails for Â¥100,000, or €918.

Speaking with All Things Digital, Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci stated that the company is looking to make 3D an even bigger part of its future plans. Referring to their investment in 3D technology, he said “If you think about gaming, 3D gaming is becoming quite popular. If you think about a 3D tablet, you can play games. We are working on 3D on a lot of things.”

Referring to Acer’s recently unveiled and slightly bizarre dual-screen Iconia laptop, Lanci stated “When I look at notebooks or hardware, the number of companies doing innovation are not too many. I think we are one of the few companies left focused on innovation. This is maybe the reason why you don’t see it.”

So is 3D going to become the driver for PC gaming, or does it have further usage in terms of entertainment and office-related functions? For now, it’s too early to see whether or not Acer’s massive investment is showing signs of paying off yet the ever-expanding 3D market for all home entertainment among the world’s computing and entertainment giants suggests that Acer are making positive steps towards what could be the norm in just a few short years.

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