Acer Announces Blu ray-Equipped Gemstones
By Geoff Duncan
March 13, 2008
Acer has added Blu-ray drives to its media-centric Gemstone notebook computers - and they also sport 18.4-inch screens and up to two 320 hard disk drives.
Acer has launched its Aspire Gemstone 8920G and 6920G notebooks, the first of what the company is dubbing its "Blue" line of notebook computers featuring a blue-and-black color scheme with blue lighting effects…as well as Blu-ray optical drives and screens capable of displaying 1080p high-definition content.
The Aspire 8920G features either an 18.4-inch LCD display offering full HD resolution (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), a 2× Blu-ray burner, one or two 320 GB hard drives, an Nvidia GeForce 9650M GS graphics controller with 512 MB of dedicated video memory, and an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. To support the notebook's entertainment options, the system sports an integrated TV tuner, Dolby home theater audio enhancement with five built-in speakers and an Acer Tuba Cinebass booster for enhanced bass response. The system also features a Webcam, 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking, gigabit Ethernet, annd ExpressCard/54 slot, four USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-with-HDCP output, VGA out, along with a compliment of headphone and audio input jacks.
The less-expensive Aspire 6930G sports a 16-inch display, available at either a full HD 1,920 by 1,080 pixel resolution or a 1,366 by 768 resolution, a 1× Blu-ray burner, and Nvidia 9500M GS graphics controller with 512 MB of dedicated video memory. The 6920G also offers two built-in speakers (with Acer's Tuba Cinebass low-end reinforcement), an integrated Webcam, Bluetooth and 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi wireless networking, gigabit Ethernet, and the same ExpressCard/54 slot, USB, HDMI, and port configuration as its bigger sibling..
Acer says it plans to ship the Gemstone Blue units this month at prices starting at just $900, although price tags quickly escalate to the $1,700 range.