Acer Products To Focus On Adapting To The New Norm -- Jerry Kao

Acer recently launched a range of laptops and desktops at their next@Acer event. These devices come with the latest technology and a modern design with features like 11th Gen Intel processors, anti-microbial technology, and more.

Just after the presentation, I had an opportunity to interact with Acer Co-Chief Operating Officer and President, IT Products Business Jerry Kao, and James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business. So, here is a summary of our interaction regarding the Acer products.

When I asked about AMD CPU based gaming laptops from Acer, James Lin said that the company works closely with AMD and the company also confirmed if the user demands a gaming laptop with an AMD CPU, the company will definitely launch a laptop with an AMD CPU. He did confirm that Acer does have a series of non-gaming laptops that uses an AMD CPU/APU.

My next question was regarding the low-resolution (720p) web cameras and why most laptops even in 2020 have it instead of a high-resolution sensor, probably capable of supporting 1080p streaming. James said that a camera on a laptop is mainly used for communication purposes and including a larger resolution camera also means one needs to have higher bandwidth to transfer the data.

He further stated that the upcoming Acer products will have a better web camera, and the company is already working on the same, given the current work-from-home scenario.

When I asked about measures that Acer has taken to make a laptop or a desktop a work-from-home device, James said that Acer is improved the security on the BIOS level on Windows machines. Most of the modern Acer laptops also come with a fingerprint sensor, which helps to further secure the device.

He also claimed that ChromeOS is much secure than macOS, making the Acer Chromebooks much securer than the laptops based on other software platforms.

My next question was regarding the form factor of the laptops, and how a laptop from 2020 looks similar to a laptop from 2010. For this question, James said that Acer has a lot of gaming laptops and laptops for creators from the Acer ConceptDlineup that looks a lot different from a regular laptop, and Acer will also launch laptops of various form factors in the future.

When asked about the Acer laptops with the 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors, James confirmed that the laptops with the latest Intel processors should be available by September 2020 in India. He also said that some of the Acer laptops come with anti-microbial technology, which makes a lot of sense on laptops that are used in schools and colleges.

My last question was about the launch of the RTX 3000 series GPU based laptops from Acer, and James confirmed that he isn't allowed to talk about these products due to an embargo.