Acer shows off wild Predator gaming laptop with detachable controller and pop-out speakers

In addition to the new Nitro Blaze 7 gaming handheld, Acer also brought its wild Project Dual Play concept gaming laptop to IFA. It’s essentially a gaming laptop in Acer’s Predator lineup with an interesting design that fits a detachable gamepad and pop-out speakers. It’s the most unusual laptop to show up at IFA this year, but it definitely has the potential to end up as a pretty useful laptop in stores sometime in the future, in my opinion. Head below for a closer look and more details.

Acer Project Dual Play concept laptop with detachable controller and pop-out speakers

The highlight of Acer’s Project Dual Play concept laptop is that it comes with a detachable controller that sits in a cutout below the keyboard. The back of this controller essentially doubles as the laptop’s trackpad, and you can hit the button at the top of the keyboard to release the controller for gaming. Notably, the controller can be further separated into two gamepads similar to Nintendo’s Joy-Cons. Releasing the controller also causes two 5W speakers to pop out from the sides of the laptop.

Looking at the renders provided by Acer, it appears as though the Project Dual Play gaming laptop also has per key RGB lighting on the keyboard, along with a bunch of other accented lighting strips throughout the chassis. Removing the gamepad from the chassis also appears to have exposed a secondary trackpad at the bottom, although there is no official confirmation on that just yet.

Please note that Acer’s Project Dual Play is just a concept for now, meaning it may never actually make it to the market as a finished product. Acer isn’t ready to disclose a lot of the details either, so don’t get your hopes up about seeing this land on the market any time soon. You are better off buying one of the new Razer Blade gaming laptops instead, with up to a massive $1,000 in savings right now.

That being said, it’s an interesting concept that caters to those who switch between a controller and a mouse and keyboard combo for gaming. It also lets a second person join you for gaming, making it easier to play games that support split-screen functionality. Acer can, perhaps, use the same concept to hide a mouse within the chassis, too, making it easier to carry a portable gaming setup without any hassle.

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