Acer doubles down on liquid cooling with new line of Switch 2-in-1 laptops
No fans and full Core i power
At its annual media event in New York City, Acer unveiled a new line of Switch 2-in-1 laptops – all with new methods of cooling for more power, less noise and longer battery life.
The company took much of its time on stage to tout its new cooling solution, LiquidLoop, designed to cool its latest 2-in-1 computing devices.
Acer's idea with this cooling solution is to allow its thin and light general-use laptops more power within the same form factor, i.e. Intel Core i7 series processors, inside fanless designs.
Switch goes even swifter
Specifically, Acer has updated its line of Switch 2-in-1 laptops with the new LiquidLoop cooling technology. A follow-up to the Switch Alpha 12 of last year, the new Switch 5 is the first Acer 2-in-1 product to allow for an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor in a fanless design.
Acer claims these advances allow for the Switch 5 to last up to 10.5 hours on a charge, even with that increased power profile. Even more to the point, Acer's battery life claim sits on a QHD (2,160 x 1,440) display.
Furthermore, the device comes packing a revised U-hinge, as well as a Windows Hello fingerprint reader directly within the power button.
The Switch 3 won't benefit from this huge boost in power, utilizing the latest Intel Pentium and Celeron chips, but will enjoy the new LiquidLoop solution. The result for this 12.2-inch, budget-priced 2-in-1 is up to eight hours of battery life with an FHD (1,920 x 1,200) display.
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Both versions of the new Switch come with a keyboard cover included in the price, with the Switch 5's being backlit. As for storage and memory, expect up to 512GB of SSD storage and 8GB of RAM from the Switch 5, and up to 128GB of storage and up to 4GB of RAM from the Switch 3.
Finally, both systems are compatible with Acer's Active Pen. The Switch 5 will go on sale in June priced at $799 (€1,099), while the Acer Switch 3 will start at $399 (€499) at the same time. UK and Australian pricing and availability is forthcoming.
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Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business Insider Shopping team, facilitating expert reviews, comprehensive buying guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech.