Early Verdict
Acer's ConceptD 7 Ezel is a super stylish 2-in-1 workstation with beefy specs that we're dying to test.
Pros
- +
Great specs
- +
Elegant design
- +
Included stylus
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Awkward pen slot
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CES 2020 is starting strong with Acer unveiling its ConceptD 7 Ezel series, which are a pair of convertible notebooks boasting either Nvidia GeForce GPUs or Nvidia Quadro GPUs, depending on your needs. We got hands-on with this device, and it could potentially be one of the best workstations around thanks to its elegant, 2-in-1 design and beefy specs.
The ConceptD 7 Ezel and ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro will be starting at $2,699 and $3,099, respectively, while the release date is still to be determined.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel design
An elegant white color covers the lid, which is separated into two parts thanks to a hinge that flips the panel. What's interesting is that the system doesn't rotate 360 degrees, but rather the panel folds 180 degrees and lays flat on the deck, so you don't have to fiddle too much with your machine to get it to where it needs to be.
The interior boasts a similarly elegant design, with an all white deck and white keyboard illuminated by orange backlighting. Above the keyboard is a huge vent for the heating solution. Meanwhile, the side bezels on the display are pleasantly narrow, while the top bezel is slightly thicker.
There are no size and weight specs as of yet, so stay tuned.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel ports
The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel has an impressive amount of ports, which include two Thunderbolt 3 ports, two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, a full DisplayPort 1.4 (yay -- this one is rare to see on a laptop), a headphone jack, an RJ45 Ethernet Port and an SD card slot.
However, if you need more ports, take a look at our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages to properly expand.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel display
Acer included a 15.6-inch, 3840 x 2160 display that's rated to cover 100% of the Adobe RGB color gamut and emit 400 nits of brightness, which is pretty impressive.
Obviously, the panel is touchscreen, but it's also made of Gorilla Glass 6, so it'll be relatively durable. And as far as the colors go, it has a Delta E below 2, so they'll be pretty accurate as well.
The display was incredibly vibrant and vivid in person. The orange and blue colors on shoe design of the wallpaper popped on the screen, and even though we were in a relatively bright environment, the screen shined against the outdoor lighting.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel keyboard, touchpad and stylus
The ConceptD 7 Ezel's was relatively clicky and smooth to type with, but the key travel could have been a little deeper. However, I do like how the keys are spaced, and how the orange backlighting looks against them. I am confused about why it doesn't have a numpad, though, considering that the Pro version is basically a workstation.
As far as the touchpad goes, Acer has stated that it is glass, and it felt pretty smooth when I used it, but the clicks were a little too shallow for my taste. We'll see how I feel when I get some more in-depth testing in.
The included stylus is a Wacom EMR pen, and it accurately captured my movements when I drew on the screen. The only issue I have with the stylus is that it's actually slotted underneath the panel in a way that you could fit it in backwards. Someone did this on the show floor and one of the representatives had to use a knife to pull it out, so I'm a little concerned about accidentally slotting the pen in the wrong way.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel specs
The basic Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel can be outfitted with up to a 10th Gen intel Core H-series processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, 32GB of RAM and 2TB NVMe PCIe SSDs.
Meanwhile, the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro can come with up to an Intel Xeon processor, an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 GPU, 32GB of RAM, 2TB NVMe PCIe SSDs, ECC memory support and Windows 10 Pro.
In terms of security, there is a Windows Hello fingerprint reader on the power button. Acer also claims that the ConceptD 7 Ezel is designed to stay quiet, producing less than 40dB of noise, which is apparently equivalent to the sound level in a library.
Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel battery life
Acer hasn't rated the battery life on the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel, but you should suspect that it'll likely be under 8 hours, considering that it has a 4K display and a discrete GPU. However, nothing is set in stone, as we've seen laptops under the same restrictions reach above 8 hours, like the Dell XPS 15.
Bottom line
We were impressed by the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel and the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Pro in person, but we're to actually get it in the office to see if their specs can live up to their in-person impression. Stay tuned for our full review and benchmarks of these products later in the year.
For more news on laptops, tablets and more, check out our CES 2020 hub page.
