Acer takes aim at Razer and Alienware with Nitro

Gamers need specific styles of computers. They generally need good screens, great specs, and top system performance to make games fly, and Acer thinks it has what it takes to compete in this sector.

Heading to stores and hopefully the laps of gamers shortly will be Acer’s Aspire V Nitro series of laptops, machines that the company says are designed for an “immersive sensory experience and powerful computing.”

“Ideal for watching movies, playing games or listening to music, the new Aspire V Nitro notebook is designed to amaze, accelerate and immerse users with its riveting gaming grade visuals, surround-sound and performance,” said Alex San, Product Manager for Consumer Client Products at Acer.

The new breed of Aspire laptops will arrive in both a 15 inch and 17 inch version, with Full HD 1920×1080 screens available for both, fourth-generation Intel Core i7 processors, between 8 and 16GB of RAM, options for 1TB of conventional hard drive based storage or as much 256GB solid-state, Windows 8.1, and Nvidia graphics with 2GB RAM, with the intention of using this combination of technology to make games and graphics-heavy apps shine.

For the multimedia side of things, there’s Dolby Digital Plus technology support in the four speakers for the machine, while the screen looks to be usable from multiple angles, providing an In-Plane Switching (IPS) display, a slight change in trends for gaming machines which predominantly are high-speed Twisted Nematic (TN) panels designed to viewed from dead on.

Some other features look to impress, however, such as a lithographic process applied to the body to make it look and feel different with patterns made at the nano level (NIL technology, or “nanoimprint lithography”), a metal finish along other aspects, a backlit keyboard with red lighting, and Acer’s “DustDefender” technology designed to remove dust from the inside of the computer and stop the build-up that laptops with so many moving parts (like fans) tend to have.

Pricing for the machines starts at $1999, with availability in stores now.