Question re. Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel

Hi, asking more out of curiosity and not so much because I´m in the market for that particular device: Where I´m from (Germany), there seems to be steep price drop of these machines and I´m wondering if anyone here knows whether that ushers in a new generation of the device, or if it means the end of product line alltogether.

So far, the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel could be had mostly in 2 variants:
a) For around 3000€, featuring Intel I7 11th gen Octacore, 16-32GbRam, 1Tb HD, and usually an RTX A3000
b) For around 5000€, featuring Intel 11th gen Xeon Octacore, 32Gb RAM, 2TB HD, and an RTX5000 with 16GB Ram.

Now I´m seeing the second version sometimes with 64Gb RAM for around 3000€, or even slightly less.

To my knowledge, the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel represents everything one could want in a convertible: 4K display, plenty of power (well, in terms of Intel 11th gen CPU territory), sufficient RAM, and a powerful GPU. It did have some disadvantages though: Price tag, weight (2,5Kg), apparently a very noisy fan (never experienced one personally but that is what I heard), very short battery life (no wonder considering the hardware specs), and some versions came equipped only with a Wacom AES pen, not the EMR pen.

I´m beginning to wonder if in light of a dramatically falling price tag, this machine could become a reasonable proposition.

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I think I’d only consider it if the price falls below the going price for an SLS. The Concept has it’s benefits, such as better port selection and slightly high power specs, along with the EMR (this is only the 7 btw. The 3’s use AES) but for the asking price of still $3000+ it’s just not worth it to me. You’d get better value out of a decent gaming laptop combined with a cintiq for that money.

The SLS is already a poor value, and if I didn’t need the pen capabilities I’d never have picked mine up (used at that), but the Slim Pen 2 + latest MPP on the surfaces makes it acceptably good coming from the EMR on my GalaxyBook x360. The 3050ti isn’t great, neither is the i7-11370H, but it’s good enough for my uses. If you find it on sale, you can often get the i7 version for under $2000 nowadays.
I’d just take that saved $1000 if it were me, but perhaps if the differences are justifiable for your use it’d be worth it.

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Hi, thanks for the answer! You wrote that you came from the Samsung Galaxy Book 360 and switched to the MS SLS. Did this feel like a downgrade in terms of pen technology? Last year I rented a Surface Pro 8 for one month, and the Slim Pen 2 combined with MS Pen Protocol 2.5 felt like 85%-90% of what Wacom EMR offers. In other words: Almost there, but not quite…

What I noticed in particular was the slightly higher initial activation pressure necessary for the Slim Pen 2 to register on the display. When doing very fine detail work with dots or small strokes (like stippling with ink), sometimes the pen was touching the surface so lightly it wouldn´t register. I never had this problem with anything Wacom EMR.

And re. the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel: I´ve been also thinking about getting a regular laptop with a Wacom 16 (pro or non-pro). But the best would still be one single device which covers both sides.

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Funny, maybe it’s due to the pen-tips and screen protectors I’m using, but I find my SLS with a protector currently feels like it has a lot lower activation force using a slim-pen 2 compared to my galaxy book + matte protector using a wacom one pen.

This is a test I did in onenote:


I just rested the pens on the screen and dragged downward. Without applying some force, the wacom wouldn’t even register

Some of it might be the particular protector I’ve got on my SLS at the moment. I used some generic matte protectors before, but they were wearing through pen tips really fast. I’ve been using an armorsuite matte protector for now, which is actually one of those tacky film types. It puts a huge amount of drag on pen movements, but it also seems to make any touch of the screen get picked up, and it’s not grinding down the pen as fast. I think I don’t actually enjoy the feel though (like writing on paper on a mousepad), might switch back to bare screen and see.
I think the activation force was different when I was running bare, but having some friction was really nice.

I’ve used a surface since college days for note-taking and engineering homework though. Could be I’m just a gorilla that’s used to high activation force haha.

Interesting - maybe the differences in the particular pen technologies somehow explain the different effect protectors have on the initial activation force in each respective device.

I cannot speak from experience, but even though I´m not a fan of the “hard-plastic-on-glass” feeling Slim Pen 2 gave me, I still would prefer this over rapidly wearing out nibs and diminished responsiveness overall.

Yes, it’s a unicorn. -Though…, where do you even get one these days?

They’re not just expensive, but rare. (Like a unicorn?)

Acer doesn’t even appear to offer them.

As for your question and what indicates a watershed switch in computer designs wrt tablet tech…

I think when somebody with bags of cash decides to invest heavily in a new trend and floods the market with a new device…, that’s when we see a bunch of new designs. MS did it way back in 2004-ish with the first “Tablet PC” with the reversible screen and inch-thick chassis.

They sold a bunch and I can’t imagine they lost money, but the public didn’t really know what to make of them and the design sort of fell by the wayside. The iPad changed the world and the pen idea was a natural evolution, though it never really attracted investment.

Then MS again decided that you couldn’t work on a tablet so well and came up with the whole Surface line. (That was quite an exciting time, if I remember correctly). The pens came with that wave.

Now today…,

I’m thinking that we may actually be done with ‘waves’. The tech is very well established and what can we really add to it? A mid-size manufacturer can tap the factory sector and crank out a basic tablet, so now it’s down to cutting corners and re-packaging all the same tech under different cosmetics.

I think of the auto industry. Getting a four door sedan in the 1980’s renders about the same experience as it does today. There’s not really been much significant innovation beyond materials science, air bags and cup holders, the actual driving experience hasn’t changed. In the tablet world, there was a time when there were simply no integrated pens. That would be like not being able to get a car with…, well, some critical feature option we now take for granted and can’t imagine ever going away.

All of which is to say…,

I’m not expecting much change or advancement from here on out. -None that I’m interested in at any rate.

But that said, I suspect there will be only a few drawing laptops which meet my personal criteria. And they will likely never be cheap. I think computers are likely always going to be complex enough to never go the way of the digital calculator, (which went from premium item to dollar store convenience plastic).

Who knows? I don’t see laptops even used as much these days anyway, with everybody doing everything on phones. Maybe the hayday is over…?