Acer this week debuted its first Chromebook optimised for cloud gaming. The Acer Chromebook 516 GE offers instant access to full PC and console games powered by the cloud.
It doesn’t have the field to itself, though. The news was broken by Google, which also announced two rival gaming Chromebooks: the Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip, and the Ideapad Gaming Chromebook from Lenovo. Neither has announced local availability, however, while Acer said the Chromebook 516 GE would arrive in South Africa in the first quarter of 2023.
It is powered by “the latest technology and features that matter most to gamers”, says Acer, namely 12th Gen Intel Core processors, a fast 120Hz display, an RGB keyboard with anti-ghosting technology, advanced DTS audio, and support for leading cloud gaming platforms, including the highest performance tier of NVIDIA’s GeForce Now, Xbox, and Amazon Luna.
James Lin, GM for notebooks and the IT products business at Acer, said: “The Acer Chromebook 516 GE sets the stage for a new era of Chromebooks with the focus squarely on gaming; it combines the ideal collection of gaming hardware, game-streaming support for NVIDIA GeForce NOW’s top tier and easy access to popular game titles from the leading cloud gaming platforms. Chromebooks have secured their position as an indispensable tool for education, work, entertainment and personal productivity, so now it’s time to have more fun.”
The highest performance tier of NVIDIA GeForce Now enables games to be streamed at 1600p and 120 frames per second, with cutting-edge graphics features like ray tracing.
To amplify these new graphics, the Chromebook is powered by up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7 P-series processors for responsive performance and video decoding technology, ideal for cloud gaming. It comes with 16GB LPDDR4X RAM and up to 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD storage to further boost responsiveness.
TIts ultra-smooth 120Hz high-resolution WQXGA (2560×1600) IPS display enables high Frames-per-second gameplay, while its 16-inch narrow-bezel and 16:10 aspect ratio display bring immersive visuals to life.
DTS audio delivers high-quality, distortion-free sound on two upward-firing speakers and two downward-firing speakers. Unwanted sound vibrations are also eliminated by force-canceling woofers that project in opposite directions.
The gaming keyboard features anti-ghosting technology to register fast and accurate keyboard inputs and key combinations. The keyboard also offers vibrantly coloured preset backlight colour modes to add excitement to gameplay. Users can select from one of seven colours or a predefined 4-zone colour option.
Other faetures include a 9-hour battery, full HD flare-reducing webcam with temporal noise reduction technology, and dual microphones complement the quad speakers.
Pricing and Availability
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE laptop will be available in the South Africa in Q1 2023, starting at R20,000 excluding VAT.
