Acer Aspire 6920 and 8920: Gemstone Blue media laptops

By Dan Ackerman on 13 March 2008, 4:58pm

Acer has unveiled two new multimedia- oriented laptops with unconventional screen sizes, the 16-inch Acer Aspire 6920 and the 18.4-inch Acer Aspire 8920. Both are part of what Acer is calling the Gemstone Blue series.

Crave US just got a peek at these two new systems in person at a press event in New York, and while the laptops aren't going to be game-changers, there are a few highlights worth noting.

The new screen sizes allow for true 16:9 aspect-ratio displays, which means Blu-ray or other HD content will fit the screen better -- look for similar displays from other vendors in the coming months.

Acer has also made a big investment in sound, offering 5.1 speakers in the 18-inch version and 2.1 speakers, with Dolby virtual surround sound, in the 16-inch. Both also offer virtual headphone surround.

Intel Penryn-class CPUs and Nvidia's GeForce 9500 or 9650 GPUs are standard, and Acer claims its new displays are brighter, with better colour range, than the previous Aspire models.

The most interesting part was the unique capacitive touch media controls. Instead of running a simple line of media buttons along the top of the keyboard (even budget laptops such as the Dell 1525 have capacitive touch-sensitive controls these days), the media controls are boxed off to the left of the keyboard in a panel called the CineDash Media Console.

It's the same general concept, but the high-tech layout makes it stand out -- you get a volume circle, basic play/pause/transport controls, and a few other media player keys.

These two new systems should hit US retailers some time in April, starting at $900 (£450) and going up to around $1,700 (£850). No UK prices or availability yet, but we'll update when we hear. -Dan Ackerman

Update: Read our full Acer Aspire 8920G preview.