Computex 2016: Acer arrives with 5,000mAh handset, laptops, and 'Internet of Beings' products

Computex 2016: Acer arrives with 5,000mAh handset, laptops, and 'Internet of Beings' products

Prior to the start of Computex 2016, Acer has launched its new product range, including a number of IoT devices, laptops, notebooks, monitors, and a new cheap phone with a massive battery.

Taiwanese hardware manufacturer Acer has taken the wraps off a number of products that it will be showcasing at Computex 2016.

Image: Acer)

Leading the way is the Liquid Zest Plus, a 5.5-inch smartphone running Android Marshmallow packing a 5,000mAh battery that the company says is worth up to three days' usage without recharging. The handset also has fast-charging ability to regain 50 percent of its charge in less than an hour.

The Liquid Zest Plus will be available in North America and EMEA in July, with prices starting at $199 and €199, respectively.

On the small business front, the company announced two TravelMate P2 notebooks aimed at the sector.

Available in 14-inch and 15.6-inch sizes, the notebooks pack a Skylake-based Intel processor, can have up to 32GB of memory, and use Nvidia GeForce 940M discrete graphics. New for the P2 series, the notebook will ship with Windows 10, and while storage was not mentioned, the P2s traditionally use spinning rust drives.

The TravelMate P2 series will hit Europe and China in August, with pricing from €429 and ¥3,999, respectively, while North America is slated for the fourth quarter from $599.



At the lower end, the company also has a pair of 10-inch multi-touch 2-in-1 notebooks powered by Intel's Atom processors. The USB-C using Switch V 10 will launch in China in August from ¥2,599, and arrive in North America in the third quarter from $249. While the cheaper Switch One 10 will be available from July in North America with prices beginning at $199, €249 will be starting price in Europe from July, and it will arrive in China in September from ¥2,299.

For its Internet of Things push, Acer has decided to run with the moniker BeingWare, after deciding IoT needed to become human-centric and hence an "Internet of Beings".

The abMax01 is a cellular car module which the company said will help with fleet management and the collection of big data.

"The module accommodates an integrated SIM card to give IT managers flexibility in bringing existing hardware systems to the cloud, and allows them to deploy over-the-air software and firmware updates in both commercial and consumer-use scenarios: Automobile navigation map updates, gaming machine updates, new songs on karaoke machines, and music player systems," Acer said in a statement.

Acer has also decided to show off its IoT credentials in some eyebrow-raising ways.

"A bread maker is in this year's lineup to demonstrate how consumers can use the cloud to start their favourite recipe so it is ready and fresh by the time they wake up, and also fine-tune the taste to their liking with recipes from the cloud," the company said.

"A smart tracker can help users keep tabs on their loved ones, be it elders, children, or even pets, with geo-fencing alerts to know when they wander off-limits, and an emergency button to call for help when needed."

Earlier this month, Acer revealed it had suffered a 73.4 percent profit drop for its first quarter.

The company reported profit after tax of NT$46 million from NT$173 million the year prior, while it posted revenue of NT$56.3 billion representing a drop of 17 percent.

During CES earlier this year, the company released a slew of PC products, as it continued to deepen its commitment to Google Chrome's operating system.

Computex 2016 officially kicks off on Tuesday.

source: zdnet