I never expected to see "convertible" and "gaming notebook" in the same sentence, but here we are. Today (Aug. 21), Acer announced the Nitro 5 spin, a convertible gaming notebook using Intel's new 8th Gen Core CPUs. It will start at $999 when it launches in October.
Acer claims that the aluminum-clad, 15.6-inch laptop will offer up to 10 hours of battery life. It includes an FHD display, Windows Hello fingerprint reader, up to 512GB PCIe SSD and GTX 1050 GPU.
The choice to go with Intel's new 8th Gen Core CPUs at this point is a curious one, as the company is only updating its mainstream U-series of chips at this point. Enthusiast and gaming-level CPUs are coming later, meaning the system may not have the same high performance we expect from even most cheap gaming notebooks. That being said, most games are GPU bound, so we'll have to see how it holds up in our testing.
We've never seen a bend-back gaming PC before, but Lenovo's 15-inch Yoga 720 includes a 1050 GPU, so it's not unheard of to have this kind of power in a convertible. That PC, however, is marketed as being for productivity, not gaming. It also has an HQ-series CPU, which is generally more powerful than a U-series.
We'll put the Nitro 5 Spin to the test as both a gaming rig and a bend-back convertible when it shows up in our labs this fall.
