Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel Review – Almost Amazing…
Can your laptop do this? Unless you’ve got one of these Acer ConceptD Ezel laptops, probably not. This rotating display design is definitely unique, and promises a lot of functionality that it can’t quite deliver. Lets take a look at it so you can see what I mean. But first, if you haven’t already, consider subscribing for more videos like this one every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Acer’s ConceptD line of laptops are essentially gaming laptops for creators. They’ve got similar, or identical, hardware, but come with different power and fan profiles and stunning displays. They generally strike a good balance between offering enough power for content creators on the go, while still being practical to carry. Acer offers two of these ‘Ezel’ models, this, the ConceptD7 Ezel, and a thinner, lighter, and lower power ConceptD 3 Ezel – and ‘Pro’ models of both which swap the GTX/RTX graphics for NVIDIA Quadro cards instead.
Obviously, the main selling point of these Ezel models is the hinged display. It’s a PANTONE validated, 100% AdobeRGB panel with a calibration profile preloaded meaning delta Es of less than 2 out of the box. Colours are stunning, vibrant, beautiful. It’s also a touchscreen with pressure sensitivity through the built in stylus hidden away in a pocket on the right side of the display. And, of course, it folds. You can have it in a load of different modes, the obvious standard clamshell position, or folded out a little more so you can still access the keyboard but is also closer to you for drawing. Or cover the keyboard entirely for a comfortable drawing position. Or flat like a tablet. Or inverted to show off your work. Lots of possibilities.
The thing is though, unlike Microsoft’s Surface kickstands, this hinge isn’t perfect. In any mode where the display isn’t resting on another surface, it’ll wobble like crazy. Even while trying to draw gently, it’ll still jump around which isn’t great for a good drawing experience. Once you do rest it against the keyboard plate, it gets a lot more firm… until you draw anywhere on the top half of the display. Then it tilts back and flattens itself. The trouble is, if Acer just makes the hinge stiffer, it’ll be more difficult than it already is just to open the thing, let alone position it where you like.
Then, there is the touch support. The included stylus feels pretty cheap, it was the first comment my partner made when trying out drawing on this, but that’s not my main concern. That goes to the serious amount of left handed prejudice built into their palm rejection software. On the Lenovo Yoga I reviewed recently, no matter what hand you use, you can rest your entire hand on the display and as long as it detects the stylus is on, or near the display, it’ll reject any other inputs. But on this, if you use your right hand, it does an… ok job at not registering your palm. It seems to only work well when you are already drawing, as lifting the stylus can mean it refuses to draw until you lift your palm and place the stylus back down. But, try that with your left hand and it flat out refuses. It’ll spin the canvas, draw with your palm, zoom in and out. All while still detecting the stylus’ position.
When you use your right hand and it does draw, it’s a decent experience. It’s got 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, something I am wholly under qualified to utilise, but still it’s reasonable enough. My partner tried it out and had a good enough time with it without many complaints.
One of the selling points of one of these over something like the Yoga is all the horsepower built in. This model is rocking an 8 core, 16 thread Intel i7-10875H, 16GB of RAM (with up to 32GB available), RTX 2070 Max-Q for graphics (and up to 2080 Max-Q or RTX 5000 Max-Q available) and up to 2TB of SSD space too. As you’d expect, there is more than enough power to do pretty much anything. Lets take a look at just how much with some benchmark results.
| Result | |
| Cinebench R20 1T | 459 |
| Cinebench R20 nT | 3172 |
| Cinebench R23 1T | 1216 |
| Cinebench R23 nT | 9844 |
| Blender BMW | 4m 40s |
| Blender Gooseberry | 24m 52s |
| Premiere 10m Render | 3m 42s |
While we here, there is a subset of designers who I’m sure like to game on the side, so lets take a look at gaming performance too.
| AVG | 1% Low | |
| COD MW 1080p | 81.61 | 63.86 |
| Watchdogs Legion 1080p | 45 | 36 |
| Fortnite 1080p | 92 | 69.06 |
You do get a lot in terms of connectivity, namely two Thunderbolt 3 ports which can be used to attach fast external storage, external graphics, or displays and hubs. Speaking of displays, you’ve got a full size DisplayPort connection as well as HDMI. You’ve also got 2 USB type A ports, ethernet, a 4 pole headphone jack, DC in, and a full size SD card reader on the front which takes the cards all the way in meaning you could leave a card in there while travelling with it without fear of it breaking the card.
Actually, on the note of travelling with this in general, this ConceptD 7 model doesn’t make much sense to me. I guess this one is more meant to be a keep on your desk most of the time and occasionally take to meetings or out with you, but it’s rather thick size, and hefty weight makes this something even I wouldn’t want to carry with me often. I imagine the lower power ConceptD 3 would suit that use case a little better.
And then there is the price. £3000 for the model I’ve got here, or if you want the full-fat ‘Pro’ model with the RTX 5000 GPU, it’s £5000. Ouch. That’s a lot to be spending on what to me feels very much like a ‘first gen’ device. The concept (heh) is excellent, but the execution isn’t quite to the point where I’d happily own one. I’m sure if you were to buy one, and weren’t left handed, you’d have a reasonable time with it. It’s got plenty of power for video editing, and anything you want to do with the touchscreen, but does get loud and warm. The CPU hit 98°c and thermal throttled under heavier workloads, and especially when the GPU was in use the fans did get on the louder side, plus heat transferred to the keyboard a little too well making it a little uncomfortable to use after a while.
Build quality felt a little lacking too, the matte white does look great, but either the plastic the whole shell is made from, or the coating, feels fairly cheap especially in comparison to the metal bodies of the the other ConceptD machines.
Overall, I wouldn’t buy one myself. Not just because I’m not the target market, but because there are a few key things I’d like to see improved first. The palm rejection and the hinge mainly, maybe build quality too. Once those are fixed, I see this as an innovative solution for creative professionals that offers a stunning, and accurate display, plenty of horsepower, and a great illustration experience. But until then, it’s just a great concept… D.
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TechteamGB Score
