Acer has unveiled a new gaming laptop concept that has a removable controller housed right where the trackpad sits. Called the Acer DualPlay, it’s aimed at making it easy to have a “sit back and relax” gaming experience on your portable powerhouse PC.
We’re well used to seeing the best gaming laptop contenders of the world sport some truly bizarre designs, but this new Acer model perhaps takes the cake.
As wacky as this all sounds, though, at first glance you might not think the DualPlay Concept is all that remarkable. The core shape and design of the laptop is a classic large, powerful gaming laptop, with a few extraneous design flourishes. However, go rummaging around that trackpad and this laptop has a little trick up its sleeve.
With a press of a button just above the keyboard, the trackpad is released and able to be pulled free of the rest of the machine. Flip it over and it reveals a full set of PC controller interfaces, with two analog sticks, a d-pad, and ABXY buttons.
With the flick of another switch, you can then release each side of the controller, so that it can be used as a standalone controller, just like the way the Joy-Cons of the Nintendo Switch can be used individually.
Acer also talked about detachable speakers on the laptop, though it wasn’t showing these off at the device’s reveal at the Acer booth at IFA 2024.
Exact specs and other core details of the gaming laptop concept haven’t been revealed yet, with the device being, as its name suggests, a concept. However, were a product ever to make it to market, it’s safe to say it would be a high-end gaming laptop option.
In our time trying the product, the trackpad worked as you’d hope, and the controller interfaces all responded largely as expected. However, this is clearly a machine with niche appeal, especially given it’s quite easy to just hook up a controller to a normal gaming laptop.
Still, we’re all for hardware manufacturers truly pushing the boat out with wild new designs, rather than just touting the wonders of AI, and Acer has certainly done that with the DualPlay.
For more from the IFA trade show floor, check out our IFA hub, with stories so far including the launch of Intel Lunar Lake laptops with their very long battery life and powerful GPU, Qualcomm’s rival X Plus 8-Core laptop CPU launch, and Acer’s entry into the world of gaming handhelds with the Nitro 7 Blaze powered by AMD.