Acer unveiled several new laptops at a press event at IFA in Berlin this week, but the most interesting piece of hardware it unveiled is conceptual. The company released a brief teaser for the Acer Project DualPlay: a gaming laptop with its own detachable controller.
Similar to how the Joy-Cons detach from the Switch console, the controller can easily pop out of the laptop (as shown in the video below) and detach from the stand when you want to play cooperatively. The controller forms part of the underside of the trackpad when plugged back into place, and the laptop also features pop-up speakers on the sides.
The obvious benefit of this idea is that it gives users less hardware to carry around, as most controllers take up quite a bit of space due to their design. Acer says the controller on its DualPlay concept can be quickly detached from its electromagnetic lock by placing two fingers on the release button located on top of the keyboard, so it should be a secure fit for when you’re doing non-gaming tasks on the laptop.
It also has quite a bit of RGB lighting, because nothing says gaming hardware like a rainbow of lights flowing around the device’s chassis. For now, DualPlay remains just an idea with a snazzy trailer. It’s unclear whether Acer, which currently has several other gaming laptops in its Predator and Orion series coming soon, will put it into full production. In addition to this, the company also launched several new gaming monitors and entered the handheld gaming PC space for the first time.
The Acer Nitro Blaze 7 looks to be an interesting alternative to the bulky Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally models on the market, as it measures 25.6 cm in width, 11.3 cm in depth, and 2.25 cm in height. Under the hood, it comes with a Ryzen 7 8840HS chipset, 16GB of RAM, and a 1080p 144hz display.