Acer wanted to make the Aspire Z3-600 all-in-one PC easy to move around, so it integrated a battery into the computer.
It has a 21.5-inch screen that can display images at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Its weight was not immediately available. However, with only 2.5 hours of battery life, it can’t be kept away from a power outlet for long.
The all-in-one is priced starting at $779 and will become available to consumers this month, Acer said. It will come with Windows 8 and gaming, social networking and productivity applications.
All-in-ones with batteries emerged earlier this year when Lenovo showed Horizon all-in-one products at the International CES show. With the product design in mind, companies such as Dell and Asustek have referred to these computers as “tablets.”
The Z3-600 has a flexible design that allows the frame to stand 90 degrees, or be laid flat. In the latter position, it can be used for multiplayer games or collaboration, Acer said. All 10 fingers can be used on the touchscreen simultaneously.
The system has a quad-core Pentium processor, up to 750GB of storage, 4GB DRAM and a webcam. HDMI and USB 3.0 are the port options.
The Aspire Z3-600 is less expensive than many competitive all-in-ones with batteries from top PC vendors. Hewlett-Packard’s Rove 20 is priced starting at $929, Dell’s XPS 18 starts at $999 and Lenovo’s Flex 20 starts at $858. Asustek’s Transformer AIO with an 18.4-inch screen is priced at $1199 on Newegg, and comes with both Windows 8 and Android OSes.