Acer to take on Apple's retina MacBooks with high-resolution laptops

Posted on 18 Jan 2013 at 10:20, by Gareth Halfacree

Acer is reportedly looking into adding high-resolution displays into its top-end laptops, offering a far crisper image than has previously been possible using the company's hardware.

Currently, the king of the hill when it comes to laptop image quality is the Apple MacBook Pro with Retina Display. Based on the same concept as the iPhone 5 and iPad 4 displays - which claim that, when the resolution of a display gets to a certain pixel density, the eye stops seeing pixels and instead sees a wholly convincing image - the MacBook Pro with Retina Display is undeniably impressive.

For those who don't want an Apple machine, however, the choice of hardware is significantly more restrictive - something Acer is reportedly looking to change. According to prototype demonstrations available at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Acer has already developed laptops with retina-class displays - and could be launching them in the next few months.

Using a 16:9 aspect ratio, the same widescreen format as used by HDTV sets, rather than the 16:10 ratio chosen by Apple, the prototype Acer laptops feature a 2,880x1,620 resolution - roughly the same as the resolution of the 15in MacBook Pro with Retina Display, minus a few pixels vertically as a result of the wider aspect ratio. As with the Apple displays, they will be IPS-based screens for excellent image quality.

What Acer has not yet shared is a release date and pricing for laptops equipped with the new display types. While it's unlikely that the company will be trying to command a price as high as Apple's top-end laptops, the units will almost certainly sit towards the higher end of the pricing spectrum when they launch later this year.