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Following leaks revealed earlier this week, Acer officially revealed the Switch Alpha 12 during an event in NYC. The Switch Alpha 12 is a newcomer to the flourishing 2-in-1 convertible laptop market, but with numerous vendors occupying this arena, Acer’s latest contender has to go above and beyond to stand out. It did do primarily by implementing liquid cooling, a first for the 2-in-1 market and a surprise given the lack of a fan.
Creative Liquid Cooling
Cooling for the Switch Alpha 12 is handled by LiquidLoop, Acer’s proprietary closed-loop liquid cooling solution. Up to now, liquid cooling on a mobile device was essentially absent, save for the Asus GX700, a high-end gaming laptop behemoth, but gamers and mobile power-users rocking thin-and-light laptops run into thermal throttling issues that liquid cooling can easily address.
Acer’s LiquidLoop, though, eschews huge radiators, pumps and all the conventional bulky parts associated with liquid cooling systems. Instead, as coolant passes through the loop over the processor, the heat generated by the laptop expands the gas within the loop, propelling the coolant through the circuit. The intended result is a silent and cool 2-in-1 laptop.
The Switch Alpha 12 has 6th-Generation (Skylake) Intel Core processors (Core i3, i5 and i7 options) within an anodized aluminum chassis. The detachable backlit keyboard offers 1.4mm of key travel and connects to the display via a flexible magnetic hinge. Also included with the Switch Alpha 12 is Acer’s optional Active Pen stylus.
The device has a 12-inch 2160x1440 touch display with an IPS panel supported by Intel HD Graphics 520. It also has a 1080p web camera, dual front-facing speakers, 128/256/512 GB SSD options, and either 4 or 8 GB of LPDDR3 SDRAM.
The Acer Switch Alpha 12 will be available in China and EMEA in May starting at ¥5,999 CNY and €699 respectively, and available in the U.S in June, starting at $599.
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Alexander Quejado is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’sHardwareand Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Alexander Quejado onTwitter.
