Save a staggering $ 630 on Acer’s most powerful Surface Laptop Studio rival

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio may have felt like the future, but the Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel was the past, as in, the first on the market with a pull-forward laptop design. And right now, the mighty Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel is path cheaper than Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio.

For Black Friday Acer is selling the ConceptD 3 Ezel for $ 869.99 via Amazon, a staggering 42 percent or $ 630 off the regular purchase price of $ 1,499.99. The version of Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio we reviewed costs $ 2,699. In other words, you can buy the ConceptD 3 Ezel, a laptop that is very similar to the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio, for 66 percent less!

It’s worth it? At this price, absolutely. While we didn’t review the ConceptD 3 Ezel directly, we did take the ConceptD and Surface Laptop Studio head-to-head as part of our Surface Laptop Studio review and the ConceptD 3 Ezel ranked at the top in most tests, except for 3D performance. There, the Surface Laptop Studio’s Core H35 i5-11300H / RTX 3050 Ti CPU outperformed the Core i7-10750H CPU / Nvidia GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU inside the ConceptD. This is primarily a creative machine (and it even includes a pen!), But it will work just fine as a general or light gaming laptop thanks to that low-profile GPU.

(Maybe you’d like something with a little more oomph in the GPU department? Consider the $ 699.99 Acer Nitro 5, on sale for $ 250 off for Black Friday instead of. Acer’s budget gaming laptop packs an Intel Core i5-10300H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics behind a 144Hz 1080p display).

The ConceptD uses a forward design where you can simply pull the screen forward, supported by the hinge, either for inking or for direct perspective on the streaming media. You can also fold it flat. We would definitely characterize the Surface Laptop Studio as a more refined experience, with a softer hinge. But the ConceptD is tougher and, as the price certainly indicates, a lot cheaper. However, grab it while you can, as there are limited quantities available.