Acer hopes to battle the Nvidia Shield tablet with a gaming-focused slate of its own.
Announced today at the company’s New York launch event, Acer showed off its secretive Predator tablet.
It’s the first we’ve heard of such a device from the firm, although it’s no stranger to gaming with an existing roster of game-focused Predator systems.
The company wasn’t exactly liberal in doling out details on the enigmatic slate, but we did get a few clues as to what we’ll see when it eventually launches.
The internals are also quite the mystery, although we do know that it makes use of an Intel Cherry Trail processor.
As
to whether it can actually take on the Nvidia Shield tablet remains to
be seen, but Acer’s president of tablets Maverick Shih certainly thinks
it’s up to the challenge.
“We are working with Intel very closely,” Shih told TrustedReviews.
He added: “
Shih
said told us he was confident it would benchmark higher than the Shield
tablet, but said there was ‘a lot of tuning still required’.
The Acer Predator, snapped from the rear. Oh my…
It’s got a quirky, pointy design, which isn’t exactly surprising; game machines are rarely minimalist.
There’s four speakers on the device – all of which are front-facing – which will purtpoedly deal out impressive surround sound thanks to Acer’s True Harmony audio technology.
The device also has haptic feedback built in, but Acer was light on exactly how this would be implemented. Vibrations were assured, so that’s a start.
The Predator tablet runs on Android, which means it’s facing off directly against the Nvidia Shield slate.
Acer said there were no plans to ship a dedicated controller with the Predator at present, but it will be able to support third-party peripherals.
Related: Best Tablet 2015
Another perk of the Predator tablet is that it comes with Acer’s Precision Plus screen tech built in.
This is marketing faff for what is effectively a high-density touch screen. “So
He said it would be particularly good for fiddly games that require poking and prodding at small graphics, and said SimCity Build It was a good example of a title that would benefit from the tech.
Acer declined to be specific about an exact release date, but told us it would be coming to the UK, and would be available in Q3.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
