Acer makes awesome computers, and its latest range of gaming laptops looks amazing. But the company also unveiled a desktop PC among those computers—and not only does it sit in an awkward place in Acer’s lineup, but it has reasons to do so as well compared to other SFF computers.

Acer today expanded its popular Nitro gaming lineup with the announcement of four new laptops and a redesigned compact desktop PC. Let’s talk about the desktop PC first, though, since that’s the one I found the most unique. It’s unique because of its choice to use laptop specifications. The Nitro 20 N20-100 is powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, or alternatively, you can also outfit it with an Intel Core i5-13420H desktop processor. Graphics are handled by up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU. It’s as mid-range as it gets, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and the case itself is just 15 liters, so that puts it firmly in SFF territory.

Still, it does make us wonder whether Acer could’ve done better here. Don’t get me wrong. Laptop specs on tiny PCs aren’t a weird sight—just look at ASUS’ NUC range of computers for an example. But at 15 liters, this is really not that small. There are cases out there that are roughly the same size and are capable of fitting full-fledged desktop hardware, and if you know how to buy and how to arrange things inside properly, you can even fit massive three-slot GPUs in there, too. It reminds me a bit of the Framework desktop, but I’m not sure if this one is as open as Framework’s is. The Framework Desktop does at least leave the door open for future upgrades, and it’s already pretty upgradeable out of the box. Here, however, I’m not sure about it.

It does have some cool redeeming qualities. There’s an integrated fingerprint sensor built into the power button, allowing for secure authentication without requiring passwords or PINs. And considering we have laptop specs, we technically also have a desktop computer that’s as quiet as it gets. And also, it should barely sip power—laptops are more power-efficient than desktop computers, so this could be a worthy option if you have power/thermal constraints. But it’s a weird piece of hardware otherwise. I’m not saying it’s bad, either, but if you’re going for a desktop PC, you might as well look at other options first.

Getting into the laptops, the Nitro 18 AI (AN18-61) features a large 18-inch WQXGA (2560×1600) display with a 165 Hz refresh rate, 100% DCI-P3 color, and G-SYNC. The Nitro 16 AI (AN16-61) offers a 16-inch WQXGA panel with a faster 180 Hz refresh rate, 400 nits brightness, and G-SYNC. We also have the Nitro 16S AI (AN16S-61) and Nitro V 16S AI (ANV16S-61). Both have 16-inch WQXGA, 180 Hz, 400-nit displays. These are your regular, run-of-the-mill Acer gaming laptops, and those are always among the best you can buy, so no complaints there. They will eventually be amazing options once they’re in the market.

We don’t have any pricing and availability info for North America just yet—like everyone else, Acer is probably waiting to see how much tariffs will affect their business.

Source: Acer