As Kendrick Lamar said, “sometimes you gotta pop out…” and Acer did just that. During its IFA presentation, the company unveiled their Acer Project Dual Play concept. A 2-in-1 machine, Acer strives to answer that age-old question: controller or keyboard. The answer, it seems is “Why not both?”
At first, the notebook just looks like any other Predator gaming laptop – big on RGB lights and a Transformer aesthetic. But it only took two button presses to reveal that the system is more than meets the eye. And suddenly, the crowd erupted into oohs and ahhs. In a flash, we saw the touchpad and part of the palm rest popped out of the keyboard deck. If that wasn’t wild enough, flipping the track pad over revealed the device as a game controller. It’s an elegant, you-got-your-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter solution.
But that’s not all. The controller can be broken down into two separate joysticks a la the Nintendo Switch. And when the controller is removed from the laptop, the side-mounted speakers pop out. I’m not sure how much the new positioning will affect the audio, as the unit I saw was only a prototype.
The controller felt very solid, but not too bulky. The sides of the controller detach with a firm, quick pull. The pieces are held in place with strong magnets. The buttons felt okay, but could be a bit firmer. But again, this is currently a prototype and probably not the final product. Hell, we don’t even know if this concept will see the light of day as a fully-realized consumer product.
I’d personally love to get my hands on this as I could switch between keyboard and controller at the click of a couple of buttons. No more hunting around for the controller when it’s time to play Black Myth: Wukong or Street Fighter 6.
But there are still so many questions to be answered about Project Dual Play. Will it need a separate app? How long can the controller last on a charge? Can you still interact with the keyboard when the touchpad’s in controller mode?
Whether or not those questions get answers depends on Acer’s appetite to bring the Dual Play from concept to reality.
