Acer today debuted four new Chromebooks that meet a range of customer needs, ranging from home and business users to hybrid workers and students. Equipped with the latest processors and sought-after features such as reliable Wi-Fi 6, video conferencing technology and durable designs, the new Acer Chromebooks keep customers connected, productive and entertained.

"Acer's expansive line of Chromebooks means that we're well-equipped to meet any sort of customer need—from display size, processors, durability, connectivity and more," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer Inc. "Whether a customer needs a device for work, school or entertainment, we've got a Chromebook with exactly the features they're looking for."

Today, Acer America announced the Aspire Vero notebook, its first sustainability-focused product, is available tomorrow in North America and is one of Acer's first products powered by Windows 11. Made from recycled materials, the Aspire Vero delivers on Acer's Earthion mission to offer products that support a sustainable future. The new notebook pairs perfectly with Windows 11, which is designed to bring people closer to what they love by empowering their productivity and inspiring their creativity.

Designed to align with the core values of eco-minded consumers and EPEAT Silver-certified, the Aspire Vero meets a significant list of environmental and socially responsible criteria, including substance management, materials selection, product longevity, energy consumption, packaging, carbon footprint and corporate environmental performance and social responsibility. It's made from 30 percent PCR plastic in the chassis, which saves approximately 21 percent in C02 emissions and 50 percent PCR on the keyboard caps to reduce pollution from the production of virgin plastic and landfill trash. In addition, no paint is used on the surface of the chassis. Acer's new VeroSense software gives users the option of selecting a usage mode that has been optimized for energy efficiency and battery life.

As growing vaccination rates worldwide starting in July lead to a gradual easing of lockdowns, the overall demand for notebook computers has also experienced a corresponding slowdown, with Chromebook demand dropping by as much as 50%, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. However, factors such as a wave of replacement demand for commercial notebooks in Europe and North America due to the return to physical workplaces, as well as brands' aggressive efforts to rush out their 4Q21 shipments ahead of time due to global port congestions, became the primary drivers of notebook demand in 3Q21. Hence, annual notebook shipment for 2021 will likely reach 240 million units, a 16.4% YoY increase.

TrendForce further indicates that 4Q21 will welcome both the gradual release of new models equipped with Intel's next-gen CPUs and a wave of replacement demand for notebooks featuring Windows 11. Even so, overall notebook shipment in 4Q21 will depend on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the demand for commercial notebooks. As vaccinations become even more widespread in 2022, pandemic-related spending is expected to decline as a result. TrendForce therefore expects global notebook shipment to decline by 7-8% YoY next year and reach approximately 220 million units, although this still represents a growth of 60 million units over the shipment volume for 2019, prior to the emergence of the pandemic.

The Ultrabook name seems to have faded away, but the concept has clearly not gone anywhere and Gigabyte has announced its new U4-series of what they simply call ultralight notebooks. This is also the first 14-inch notebook series from Gigabyte in a while, since the company has focused on 15.6 and 17.3-inch models over the past couple of years' with the last 14-inch model from the company being the AERO 14.

The U4-series is quite a different beast, as the AERO 14 was still weighing in at 1.89 kg, whereas the U4 is almost half that at 990 grams. If you're a sucker for sturdy products, then this might be what you've been waiting for, as Gigabyte claims it meets the MIL-STD 810G specification, which means that the product has gone through "simulation-testing has been conducted in eight harsh working environments, including extreme altitude, temperature and humidity, mechanical vibration, sand and dust, salt fog, etc."

NAND Flash suppliers' Clients in the data center segment were gradually stepping up enterprise SSD procurement after finishing inventory adjustments, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. Moreover, the adoption rate of 4/8 TB products in the enterprise SSD market increased substantially on account of the releases and adoption of the new server processor platforms from Intel and AMD. Although the recent wave of COVID-19 outbreaks that struck Southeast Asia weakened smartphone sales in 2Q21, the quarterly total NAND Flash bit shipments rose by nearly 9% QoQ, as PC OEMs still had plenty of component orders in 2Q21 due to the fairly robust notebook demand during the period. On the other hand, the shortage of controller ICs became more severe during the period, and the winter storm that battered Texas this February affected the operation of Samsung's foundry fab Line S2 in Austin. As demand for NAND Flash products rose, the overall ASP also rose by nearly 7% QoQ, and the quarterly total NAND Flash revenue rose by 10.8% QoQ to US$16.4 billion in 2Q21.

According to a new forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker, worldwide shipments of PCs are expected to grow 14.2% to 347 million units in 2021. This is down from IDC's May forecast of 18% growth with continued supply chain and logistical challenges cited as the main reasons. The Tablet market is also expected to grow in 2021 but at a much slower pace of 3.4%.

"We continue to believe the PC and tablet markets are supply constrained and that demand is still there," said Ryan Reith, program vice president with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers. "The lengthening of the supply shortages combined with on-going logistical issues are presenting the industry with some big challenges. However, we believe the vast majority of PC demand is non-perishable, especially from the business and education sectors."

The massive rise in market demand for notebook computers in response to distance learning needs and WFH applications from 2020 to 2021 has generated not only a double-digit growth in notebook panel shipment, but also a price hike of more than 40% for notebook panels, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. As various suppliers subsequently scramble to manufacture OLED, LTPS, and oxide panels, TrendForce forecasts these high-end notebook panels to reach a 17.8% market share in 2021 and 21.4% in 2022.

Panels based on OLED technology are primarily supplied by SDC, whose OLED notebook panel shipment for 2020 reached 800,000 pcs. SDC is expected to ship more than four million pcs of OLED notebook panels in 2021, with room for further growth in 2022. In addition to SDC, EDO is also expected to begin mass producing OLED notebook panels in 2H21-1H22. As such, TrendForce expects OLED panels to reach a 1.3% penetration rate in the overall notebook panel market this year. Although BOE and CSOT are currently fully engaged in Hybrid OLED development, Hybrid OLED panels will not enter mass production until 2023 due to technological and cost-related bottlenecks that are yet to be resolved.

While the stay-at-home economy generated high demand for notebook computers from distance learning and WFH applications last year, global notebook shipment for 2020 underwent a nearly 26% YoY increase, which represented a significant departure from the cyclical 3% YoY increase/decrease that had historically taken place each year, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. The uptrend in notebook demand is expected to persist in 2021, during which notebook shipment will likely reach 236 million units, a 15% YoY increase. In particular, thanks to the surging demand for education notebooks, Chromebooks will become the primary growth driver in the notebook market. Regarding the shipment performance of various brands, Samsung and Apple will register the highest growths, with the former having Chromebooks account for nearly 50% of its total notebook shipment this year and the latter continuing to release MacBooks equipped with the M1 chip.

Acer today announced several additions to its gaming portfolio with Predator notebooks, a mouse and a new 5G CPE router. The all-new Predator Triton 500 SE and the Predator Helios 500 notebooks have been updated to include up to the new 11th Gen Intel Core i9 processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs, plus a hoard of premium features like Acer's 5th Generation AeroBlade 3D Fan Technology for better cooling, DTS:X Ultra audio, Intel Killer E3100 Ethernet Controller, Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1650, and the PredatorSense device management software.

Predator Triton 500 SE Gaming Notebook
The Predator Triton 500 SE (PT516-51s) is a "special edition" notebook designed for gamers who want a machine capable of getting through both the latest AAA games and the work day. Powered by up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 Processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU and up to 64 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 memory, the notebook offers more than enough gaming power—but at just 19.9 mm (0.78 in) thin with up to 12 hours of battery life[1] and NVIDIA Advanced Optimus technology, gamers can easily slip it into a backpack or squeeze in a bit of work between matches. The notebook's sleek, clean appearance means that it could even double as a work laptop for professionals that enjoy gaming, and with up to 4 TB of high speed PCIe Gen4 storage, it has plenty of space for games, footage and the odd spreadsheet or two.

MAINGEAR—an award-winning PC system integrator of custom gaming desktops, notebooks, and workstations—today launched the MAINGEAR ELEMENT Lite, a 15" ultra-premium notebook designed in collaboration with Intel. Featuring Intel Iris Xe Graphics and up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, the MAINGEAR ELEMENT Lite pairs next-generation hardware with a sleek and minimal machined aluminium alloy chassis for maximum power, speed, and portability. The new MAINGEAR ELEMENT Lite is the perfect Windows laptop for work and play on the go.

Custom designed and engineered in collaboration with Intel, this uncompromising notebook PC comes equipped with up to an Intel Core i7-1165G7 Processor running at 2.8 GHz with a Max Turbo Frequency of 4.7 GHz on 4 cores / 8 threads. Integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics make multimedia viewing, content creation, and even light gaming a breeze. ELEMENT Lite systems can be equipped with 16 GB of DDR4 memory and up to 2 TB of user-replaceable PCI-E Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD storage. MAINGEAR optimized the ELEMENT Lite to pack exceptional performance and cooling into its frame without sacrificing on battery life or upgradeability. It weighs in at just 3.64 lbs (1.65 kg) and is 14.9 mm thin—making it the thinnest notebook that MAINGEAR has ever offered.

Total NAND Flash revenue for 1Q21 increased by 5.1% QoQ to US$14.82 billion, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. In particular, bit shipments rose by 11% QoQ, while the overall ASP dropped by 5% QoQ; hence, bit shipment growth offset the decline in the overall ASP. Although NAND Flash demand from notebook computer and smartphone manufacturers remained high, clients from the data center segment exhibited relatively weak demand, since this segment had yet to leave the state of NAND Flash oversupply. Contract prices for this quarter therefore still mostly showed a considerable QoQ drop. On the other hand, OEMs/ODMs of end products began to increase procurement of NAND Flash products from the second half of January onward because they noticed that the shortage of NAND Flash controller ICs was affecting the production of medium- and low-density storage products. Besides avoiding a possible supply crunch in the future, OEMs/ODMs were placing additional orders because they were preparing for a push to expand market share. On account of these developments, the overall NAND Flash demand surpassed expectations in 1Q21.

SPC Gear, the gaming label of the European manufacturer SilentiumPC, announces a fresh, bright colour variant of the popular SM950 streaming microphone kit. The new edition is inspired by the rare mineral white onyx, known for its exceptional durability and unique appearance. SPC Gear designed the Onyx White variants with this qualities in mind while offering directional (cardioid) characteristics, ensuring good dampening of unwanted ambient noise. High-quality components on the other hand, allow for a warm, radio-like sound. Being a Plug&Play microphone, the SM950 does not require installing any additional software and is ready to be used straight out of the box. The physical mute button is conveniently located on top of the microphone and provides visual cues when mutes. With the SM950 series, SPC Gear offers a prefect kit for every streamer, YouTuber and musician, seeking an affordable full-fledged recording setup for streaming of games on Twitch or YouTube or recording of podcasts and voiceovers.

Samsung Display has announced that the world's leading certification company SGS certified its laptop OLED for gaming performance, which is featured in Samsung Electronics' latest laptop Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360. According to SGS's test results, the new Samsung Display OLED showed the blur length below 1.4 mm and the moving picture response time below 15.4 ms, both of which are crucial to enjoying dynamic and fast-paced action games. An LCD laptop with identical specs showed the maximum 2.1 mm blur length and the 26.4 ms moving picture response time. Its HDR contrast ratio, which quantifies the sharpness and the depth of an image, resulted in over 1,000,000:1.

According to Samsung Display, fast-paced video games that require higher performance often suffer degradations in image quality when played on a display with a long blur length, which could harm user experience. OLED has a very wide range of contrast thus offers more immersive gaming experience for consumers who favor dynamic, flamboyant games, Samsung Display says.

Samsung is readying a powerful Arm-based SoC rivaling Apple's groundbreaking M1 silicon, under its Exynos brand. This chip is being designed for thin-and-light notebooks, as well as premium tablets, essentially letting Samsung target Apple's MacBook (M1) and iPad Pro form-factors. Unlike Apple, Samsung won't be burdened with having to rally its ISV partners to develop specifically for its hardware; the company is preparing to launch notebooks in the second half of 2021 that are powered by a Windows 10 on Arm derivative. This would give the notebook access to all of the applications already developed for the OS, including Office and certain Adobe Creativity Suite apps. The M1-rivaling Exynos chip will pack the latest-generation 64-bit Arm CPU cores, as well as an integrated GPU designed by AMD.

Ahead of its launch later this month, notebook OEMs are beginning to tease their upcoming gaming notebooks powered by 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake-H" mobile processors that come in core counts of up to 8. ASUS will be hosting a media event tomorrow (May 11) launching its first "Tiger Lake-H" notebooks, which probably follows Intel's own public unveiling of the new processors. The teaser video to the ASUS event reveals at least two notebooks under the company's ROG Zephyrus brand, the Zephyrus S17, and the Zephyrus M16.

The M16 looks to be the more compact of the two, with styling characteristic of past generations of ROG Zephyrus notebooks. The lid-mounted LEDs now come in color. while the S17 is a whole different beast. The teasers reveal an elevated keyboard+touchscreen on the lower half of the clamshell. The gap between this elevation and the base probably opens up additional vents to cool the processor and GPU underneath. This could be the notebook from ASUS's lineup that uses the 65-Watt Core i9-11980HK, the 8-core/16-thread beast that can tick at speeds of 5.00 GHz.

MSI first Summit laptops have been well-acclaimed by business users. Now the new members are introduced! Surrounded by the captivating golden ratio spiral special effect, MSI grandly unveiled the "MSIology: Determined to Succeed 2021" virtual event. Exemplifying the perfection of the golden ratio, MSI launched the Summit series, including the honorees of "CES Innovation Awards" MSI Summit E16 Flip and MSI Pen, "Best of the CES 2021" winner Summit E13 Flip Evo, and the MSI USB-C Docking Station Gen 2. During the virtual event, MSI showcased the versatile work styles and displayed how the MSI Summit series can unleash users' potential to boost business and productivity.

"As the famous author Arthur C. Clarke once said, any sufficiently advanced technology is equivalent to magic. Today, we are here to witness the magic of the new MSI Summit.", Iris Chuang, Product Management Director of MSI Notebook, proudly announced in the opening of the new product launch. A symbol of aesthetics, a giant golden ratio spiral outlined the spirit of MSIology, which is to design impeccable laptops for perfectionists who are determined to succeed.

Demand for notebook computers is expected to remain strong throughout 2Q21 due to the persisting stay-at-home economy that arose in the wake of the pandemic, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. In response to the high demand for notebooks, PC OEMs are actively raising a consistent inventory of components, including client SSDs. Nonetheless, client SSDs are now in increasingly tight supply because the preexisting shortage of NAND Flash controllers is now exacerbated by the power outage at Samsung's Austin-based semiconductor plant. SSD manufacturers are therefore preparing to raise the prices of SSDs. Accordingly, TrendForce has also revised up its forecast of client SSD prices for 2Q21 from "mostly flat" to a 3-8% increase QoQ instead.

LG Electronics USA announced pricing and availability of the full line of 2021 LG gram laptops at LG-authorized dealers nationwide. Led by the CES 2021 Innovation Award-winning 17-inch LG gram 17, the 2021 line features stylish new designs and productivity-boosting 16:10 aspect ratio screens ideal for both productivity and entertainment.

The diverse lineup includes five exciting new models: LG gram 17 (model 17Z90P), LG gram 16 (model 16Z90P), LG gram 14 (model 14Z90P), LG gram 2-in-1 16 (model 16T90P) and LG gram 2-in-1 14 (model 14T90P) all with 16:10 aspect ratio screens designed around maximizing work efficiency. Offering more screen real estate than the 16:9 displays found on most laptops, the latest LG grams are able to show more information at any one time. The keyboard and touchpad have also been enlarged for extended comfort and efficiency without compromising the portability of these compact devices. The 2021 LG gram lineup also features an expanded range of color options including white, black, silver and green outer shells.

NVIDIA has recently introduced its 3000 series of Ampere graphics cards designed for mobile/laptop devices. And usually, these GPUs in the past few years have been divided into two configurations: Max-P and Max-Q. The Max-P variant was a maximum performance configuration meant for more power usage and higher temperatures, representing a standard GPU configuration. The Max-Q design was, according to NVIDIA, "a system-wide approach to deliver high performance in thin and light gaming laptops. Every aspect of the laptop, chip, software, PCB design, power delivery, and thermals, are optimized for power and performance." Meaning that the Max-Q variants are more TGP limited compared to the Max-P configuration.


Update 23rd of January 11:35 UTC: NVIDIA spokesperson told Tom's Hardware that: "No, Max-Q branding is not going away. When we originally introduced Max-Q back in 2017, the brand was initially used in GPU naming since Max-Q referred to the GPU TGP only. Today, 3rd Generation Max-Q is broader, and is a holistic set of platform technologies and design approach to building powerful and thin laptops. In addition, to be more transparent about a laptop's exact capabilities, RTX 30 Series laptops now show more information than ever, listing exact TGP, clocks and features supported. You will find this in the control panel which now reports maximum power (TGP+Boost), and support for key features including Dynamic Boost 2, WhisperMode 2, Advanced Optimus, and others, all of which fall under the Max-Q umbrella. We strongly encourage OEMs to list clocks and other technologies a laptop supports, including Advanced Optimus, Dynamic Boost 2, and more. Ultimately, like all laptop features and specs, it is up to the OEM to market what their particular laptop configuration supports.)"

Acer today announced new Nitro 5 gaming notebooks, plus new Aspire 5 and 7 notebooks, powered by AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors. The powerful new AMD Ryzen Mobile Processors deliver fast and efficient performance for laptops. With up to 8 cores of processing power, they combine low-power high-bandwidth memory with low power consumption and up to double the data rates achieved by the previous generation of RAM, making them ideal for the new Nitro and Aspire notebooks.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs, powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, increase energy efficiency by up to 2x, accelerate performance dramatically and introduce third-generation Max-Q technologies for thin and lightweight designs. GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs deliver stunning ray-traced gaming experiences in Cyberpunk 2077 and other top titles, and enable creators to produce incredible content using hundreds of GPU-accelerated apps.

GIGABYTE today introduced a new lineup of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPU notebooks for 2021 at the Performance Above All virtual launch event, which includes the AORUS pro gaming series, namely AORUS 17G, AORUS 15G, and AORUS 15P, and the AERO creator series, which are the AERO 17, AERO 17 HDR, AERO 15, and AERO 15 OLED.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs, powered by NVIDIA Ampere architecture, increase energy efficiency by up to 2x, accelerate performance dramatically and introduce third-generation Max-Q technologies for thin and lightweight designs. GeForce RTX 30 Series Laptop GPUs deliver stunning ray-traced gaming experiences in Cyberpunk 2077 and other AAA titles and enable creators to produce incredible content using hundreds of GPU-accelerated apps.

Apparently, specifications for NVIDIA's upcoming RTX 30-series mobile solutions have been made public. According to Videocardz via Notebookcheck, NVIDIA will introduce three mobile versions of their RTX 30-series graphics cards in the form of the RTX 3080, RTX 3070 and RTX 3060. Like past NVIDIA mobile solutions, these won't directly correspond, hardware-wise, to their desktop counterparts; NVIDIA has the habit of downgrading their mobile solutions' chips compared to their desktop counterparts. According to the leaked specifications, this means the mobile RTX 3080 will maker use of the company's GA-104 chip, instead of the GA-102 silicon found on desktop versions of the card.

The mobile RTX 3080 should thus feature a total of 6,144 CUDA cores, as present in the fully-enabled GA-104 chip (compare that to the 5,888 CUDA cores available on the desktop RTX 3070, and the 8,704 CUDA cores available on the RTX 3080). These CUDA cores would be clocked at up to 1.7 GHz. The memory bus should also see a cut down to 256-bit, which would allow NVIDIA to distribute as many as 4 versions of the RTX 3080 mobile: Max-Q (TGP 80-90 W), Max-P (TGP 115-150 W), with either 8 GB or 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. The RTX 3070 mobile keeps the GA-104 chip, 256-bit bus and GDDR6 memory subsystem (apparently with only 8 GB memory pool available), but further cuts down CUDA cores to 5,120 (Max-Q TGP 80-90 W, Max-P TGP 115-150 W). Finally, the RTX 3060 mobile should make use of the GA106 chip, set up with 3,072 available CUDA cores and a 192-bit memory bus across its 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM pool (Max-Q TGP 60-70 W), Max-P (TGP 80-115 W). Expect these specs to be confirmed (or not) come January 12th.

With the launch of AMD's next-generation mobile processors just around the corner, with an expected launch date in the beginning of 2021 at the CES virtual event. The Cezanne lineup, as it is called, is based on AMD's latest Zen 3 core, which brings many IPC improvements, along with better frequency scaling thanks to the refined architecture design. Today, we get to see just how much the new Cezanne generation brings to the table thanks to the GeekBench 5 submission. In the test system, a Ryzen 5 5600H mobile processor was used, found inside of a Xiaomi Mi Notebook, paired with 16 GB of RAM.

As a reminder, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H is a six-core, twelve threaded processor. So you are wondering how the performance looks like. Well, in the single-core test, the Zen 3 enabled core has scored 1372 points, while the multi-threaded performance result equaled 5713 points. If we compare that to the last generation Zen 2 based "Renoir" design, the equivalent Ryzen 5 4600H processor, the new design is about 37% faster in single-threaded, and about 14% faster in multi-threaded workloads. We are waiting for the announcement to see the complete AMD Cezanne lineup and see the designs it will bring.

Eluktronics today announced the first world laptops equipped with high quality IPS, 1440p, high refresh rate laptops. The new laptops feature displays built by BOE, and current estimates place panel costs for these 1440p panels at just $50 higher than comparable 1080p panels. The panels offer a maximum brightness of 318 nits (so no HDR capability at least for now), but also offer 100% sRGB coverage and 87% Adobe RGB coverage.

Eluktronics is offering three distinct laptops with the new panels: the Mech-15 G3 QHD, Max-15 HQD, and Max7-17 QHD. All of these are based on Intel platforms powered by a Core i7-10870H processor. Currently, the only graphics card option is the NVIDIA RTX 2070 SUPER (there is no RTX 2080 SUPER option). Prices range from $2,199 to $2,299, and Eluktronics is currently running a promo which shaves $300 off the price with code BFQHD. Eluktronics says these will ship before Christmas. It remains to be seen whether AMD-based options will be introduced as well as when will the graphics card options be updated.

The SCHENKER VISION 15 is about to set new standards in the premium laptop segment. Featuring the recently introduced Core i7-1165G7 processor, the 15.6-inch laptop offers top-notch specifications and the highest quality workmanship, as its 15 mm slim unibody aluminium chassis is bursting with modern technology. This includes a touch display with maximum brightness of 450 nits, Thunderbolt 4, an M.2 SSD connected via PCI Express 4.0, charging options on both sides via USB-C and many additional, smart features. The reference character of this laptop does not come by chance: The development is based on a cooperation with Intel, which is responsible for the design of an optimal motherboard layout and cooling system. For this reason, the laptop also meets all standards of the Intel Evo platform.