Acer Launches Refreshed Aspire Ethos Multimedia Machines

More new notebooks? More new notebooks from Acer? Yes to both! Aside from the new TimelineX machines that hit this morning, the company is also introducing the new Aspire Ethos series. If you aren't familiar with Acer's families, this one is an entertainment beast that relies on high-profile styling, high-res displays and high-end internals to deliver outstanding multimedia playback. You'll get a CineCrystal Full HD or HD display, full DirectX 11 support, Dolby Home Theater v4 audio solutions and plenty of leading-edge silicon.


The Aspire Ethos 8951G comes with Acer CineSurround with five Dolby-tuned built-in speakers and Acer Tuba CineBass subwoofer, and with a detachable touchpad that doubles as a MediaRemote for convenient multimedia and content enjoyment at a distance, this thing's capable of being controlled in all new ways; there's even an orientation sensor in there that allows the touchpad to be used either horizontally or vertically. These new Ethos laptops also support media sharing wirelessly through Acer's own Clear.fi service.


There's even an InstantOn Arcade key, which allows the rig to boot up quickly and go straight into a movie, photos or music libraries. You can choose between a massive 18.4" or 15.6" display form factor, with both of 'em having a black motif, glossy displays, matte surfaces, a brushed aluminium-magnesium alloy cover, a backlit chiclet keyboard and second-gen Core i processors from Intel. Finally, there's NVIDIA GeForce GT500 series GPUs and USB 3.0 connectivity, and the integrated PowerSmart battery is said to be able to withstand a ton of recharges.

The new Ethos rigs will ship later this month starting at £999.

Acer presents the new Aspire Ethos
Multimedia enjoyment redefined

London, 7th June 2011 – Acer’s new Aspire Ethos series is set to leave the mark, giving a new meaning to the concept of home entertainment. They are the dream of even the most demanding multimedia and entertainment enthusiasts. Starting from the cool new look down to the eye-popping visual experience, the enhanced sound system, the powerful processors and the superior ergonomics. Nothing was left to chance; everything down to the smallest detail was painstakingly designed to summon the ultimate user experience in terms of entertainment and performance.

Sleek frameless CineCrystal™ Full HD and HD displays and are equipped with outstanding HD discrete graphics solutions to provide a stunning multimedia experience, while full DirectX® 11 support accounts for an incredible gaming performance and superior image quality with realistic effects and crisp, life-like imagery for a more immersive and detailed experience.

The new Aspire Ethos boast an enhanced sound system that delivers a better audio performance for a richer and more enjoyable listening, while the professionally-tuned Dolby® Home Theater® v4 solutions maximizes volume output and makes the most of the speakers’ performance to create a home theater surround sound. The Aspire Ethos 8951G comes with Acer CineSurround with five Dolby-tuned built-in speakers and Acer Tuba CineBass subwoofer supporting low-frequency effects and vibrant audio for the ultimate movie enjoyment. The Aspire Ethos 5951G packs True5.1-channel surround sound output, two built-in stereo speakers and the Acer Tuba CineBass booster, supporting low-frequency effects for a totally engaging experience.

With a detachable touchpad that doubles as a MediaRemote for convenient multimedia and content enjoyment at a distance, the Aspire Ethos take full control and ergonomics to the next level. An orientation sensor allows the touchpad to be used either horizontally or vertically.

What’s more, these laptops allow seamless media sharing and enjoyment via clear.fi: clear.fi is Acer’s media sharing system based on the idea that it’s easier if all multimedia content is simply brought into a single system with a common interface. No matter where they are. clear.fi is a cross-platform solution that works straight out of the box, automatically detecting the clear.fi-enabled devices connected to the wireless home network, and then allowing all digital content stored on any of these to be shared seamlessly using the clear.fi media interface.

Thanks to the InstantOn Arcade key the Aspire Ethos can be fast booted allowing you to watch movies, play music and view photos in no time. Just press the quick access multimedia key and have fun!

With the option of Blu-Ray Disc™ or a DVD optical drive you can enjoy your movies on the sleek 16:9 frameless displays or extend the 1080p HD experience to you big screen TV via the latest version of the HDMI® standard for the ultimate cinematic splendor.

The 48 cm (18.4”) or 39.5 cm (15.6”) format and Full HD (1920x1080)[1] or HD (1366x768)[2] resolutions, the ultra-stylish frameless displays, protected behind a scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass, offer an edge-to-edge view and ensure attractive natural shades. The panels employ mercury-free LED backlight technology that not only improves image quality and increases readability in low light conditions but also reduces power consumption

The Aspire Ethos laptops flaunt a total black look with contrasting glossy and matte surfaces that oozes style from every angle. The brushed aluminium-magnesium alloy cover shows off a sophisticated hairline finish. Inside the elegant display is mirrored by the handsome back-lit chiclet keyboard that is easier to work with in low light.

The Acer Ethos series is based on second generation Intel® Core™ i processors, offering dynamic processing power and smart multitasking for music, gaming, videos, movies, photos, social networking and other demanding mainstream applications while consuming less power. The new processors also feature Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 to deliver great media processing for faster video editing and sharing, accelerated web browsing and awesome gaming experience. NVIDIA GeForce GT500 series discrete graphics ensure spectacular image quality that will satisfy even the most demanding gamers, while the USB 3.0 port transfers data to and from external devices 10 times faster than before.

The integrated PowerSmart long life battery ensures prolonged battery performance over a longer period of time. With conventional batteries, power capacity starts to fade after 300 charge cycles. The new battery with long cycle life formula can retain 80% capacity for over 1000 charge cycles: over 3 times more compared to traditional notebook batteries. This also make the Aspire Ethos more environmentally-friendly as fewer battery replacements are needed.

With the new Aspire Ethos you can charge your smartphone or other USB devices without turning on the laptop. As your laptop becomes your charging station you can travel even lighter because there is no longer need to carry along power adapters. Just plug your USB device into the blue USB port and charge. To ensure that your laptop doesn’t run out of battery, power-off USB charging is only enabled when above a user-defined battery level.

A generous HDD space meets the needs of multimedia enthusiasts, while on the Aspire Ethos 8951G there is even the possibility to combine a SSD, for superfast booting and application loading, with a big sized HDD for storage purposes. In addition, the Aspire Ethos series features a convenient multi-in-1 card reader that also supports the latest SDXC card format for easy and speedy data transfer across devices.

The Aspire Ethos family integrates state-of-the-art wireless and wired technologies: Wi-Fi® CERTIFIED® network connection supporting Acer SignalUp™ with Nplify™ wireless technology, Bluetooth® 3.0 (optional) and Gigabit LAN. The Acer Video Conference solution, including the Acer Crystal Eye high-def webcam and built-in microphone, lets you keep in touch with your friends or business contacts through high quality video conferences.

The Aspire Ethos series will be available mid June with RRP’s from £999 Inc VAT