Acer has just unveiled the world's first laptop with a curved display at its IFA 2016 press conference. Joining the rest of its gaming lineup from Q1 next year, the Predator 21X looks to be an absolute beast of a machine – not only has it got a huge 21in curved IPS display and built-in eye-tracking technology, but it also comes with one of Nvidia's latest 10-series GTX graphics chips, providing serious horsepower for would-be gamers.
We'll go hands-on with the device tomorrow, but from the looks of things, Acer hasn't spared any expense in making this the ultimate gaming laptop. Its 21in display has a 2,560 x 1,080 resolution – perfect for taking full advantage of its dual GTX 1080 graphic chips in SLI – as well as G-Sync support, and it also comes with a seventh-generation Intel Core processor.
The eye-tracking comes courtesy of Tobii, which we saw make its way into the standalone Steelseries Sentry tracker last year. It uses infrared sensors to track the position of your pupils, allowing you to move game elements such as the camera simply by looking where you want to go. Tobii's built-in software will also let you aim, tag enemies and take cover simply by flicking your eyes over the respective targets onscreen.
Even better, the Predator 21X has a full-sized mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX switches, customisable backlighting for each individual key, and a numeric keypad that can be flipped over and turned into a Precision Touchpad.
The Predator 21X wasn't the only world-first at Acer's IFA press conference, as it also lifted the lid (quite literally) on the Chromebook R13, the first convertible Chromebook with a 13.3in display.
Of course, 360-degree hinges aren't quite as revolutionary as a curved laptop display, but it's great to see Chromebooks getting the same kind of hybrid treatment as the company's ultraportables.
Acer's hoping for 12 hours of battery life with the new R13, which, if true, would be pretty impressive given its 13.3in, 1,920 x 1,080 IPS display. Its performance looks slightly less promising, however, as it will only be powered by a quad-core MediaTek M8173C CorePilot processor and 4GB of RAM.
Still, at least you get plenty of storage options, as the R13 will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. They all come with a USB Type-C port as well, along with USB 3, HDMI, Bluetooth 4 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi support.
There's no word yet on UK prices, but European prices are set to start from 399 euros. Check back tomorrow to see what they're like in the flesh.