Acer Teamed Up with Porsche Design and Made a Laptop That’s Not Stupidly Expensive

Acer Teamed Up with Porsche Design and Made a Laptop That’s Not Stupidly Expensive

I admit I’m kind of a sucker when it comes to Porsche Design gadgets (I once bought a Porsche Design lighter for well over $150 for no real good reason) because even though devices like the Porsche Design Book One, multiple Huawei phones, and others are typically wildly expensive, there’s something about their ultra-sleek styling that I kind of like. And now, in a somewhat surprising move, Porsche Design has teamed up with Acer to create a minimalist laptop that’s actually kind of reasonably priced.

Featuring an 11th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU and an optional Nvidia MX350 GPU crammed inside a metal and carbon fibre body, the Porsche Design Acer Book RS combines a simple MacBook-style body with harder edges and some touches from the auto world, and I think it looks damn good. On the computing side, the Porsche Design Acer Book RS has been Intel Evo certified to support things like instant wakes time, a bright display, and support for both Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6. You even get a full-size HDMI port, which is something you rarely get on 14-inch ultraportables.

Here's the full Travelpack including the Porsche Design Acer Book RS, leather carrying case, and custom Porsche Design wireless mouse.  (Image: Acer)
Here’s the full Travelpack including the Porsche Design Acer Book RS, leather carrying case, and custom Porsche Design wireless mouse. (Image: Acer)

The rest of the Porsche Design Acer Book RS’ specs look solid too, including standard Intel Iris XE graphics, 16GB of RAM, a 1920 x 1080 IPS display with a 90% screen-to-body ratio, and a claimed 17 hours of battery life. Elsewhere, diamond-cut CNC sides and a nifty hinge that elevates the laptop slightly when open for better airflow help marry form and function. And weighing in at 1 kg and measuring 0.63-inches thick, the Porsche Design Acer Book isn’t that much bigger or heavier than a typical 14-inch notebook.

Meanwhile, in addition to its carbon fibre lid, the Porsche Design Acer Travelpack adds some extra flair to the kit thanks to a water-repellent carrying case made from Ecco Palermo leather and a wireless Bluetooth mouse that has carbon fibre panels on the left-mouse button and the bottom of the mouse (because of course they did).

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But the most impressive thing for people familiar with the price of most Porsche Design electronics is that starting price at $US1,400 ($1,984) (or $US2,000 ($2,834) if you opt for the full travel pack), the Porsche Design Acer Book RS won’t totally break the bank. Sure, it’s a bit higher than you might normally expect for the specs, but it’s not completely outlandish.

So even though I’ve largely learned to appreciate Porsche Design electronics from afar, it’s still nice seeing Acer and Porsche design team up to create another slick and minimalist laptop. The Porsche Design Acer Book RS is expected to go on sale sometime later this year.