Acer Aspire AS8940G Notebook Packs Core i7 and an 18.4-inch Display

Acer is pulling out all the stops with its new Aspire AS8940G-6865 notebook, running a Core i7 processor, sporting an 18.4-inch display, and Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics.

Taiwan’s Acer has been inching up the global PC market share ratings, challenging Dell and Hewlett-Packard for the top spots—and today the company is making a grab for the high-end multimedia and gaming notebook market with its new Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865. The new notebook is a behemoth with an 18.4-inch full HD LCD display, an Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics with 1 GB of dedicated video RAM…and lets not forgive copious storage options, including a Blu-ray optical drive.

“This new Aspire notebook offers multimedia enthusiasts the ultimate in mobile entertainment—cinematic quality sound and visuals, an industry-leading feature set, and the performance to handle demanding digital media,” said Acer America notebook product manager Preeta Anil, in a statement.

The Aspire AS8940G sports an Intel Core i7 CPU running at 1.6 GHz with 6 MG of L3 cache, 4 GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500 GB hard drive, an integrated multi-in-1 media card reader, 802.11/b/g/n Wi-Fi, five USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet 1 HDMI output, an eSATA port, and a touch capacitive media control interface for swiftly flipping through video, music, photos, and more. The unit also sports Acer CineSurround Sound with five integrated speakers, and integrated webcam, and wither a 4× Blu-ray disc drive or a DVD Super Multi dual-layer DVD burner.

But the start of the piece is almost certainly the mammoth 18.4-inch LD-backlit display, offering a native 1,920 by 1,080-pixel resolution, powered by a Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M graphics controller. And, as one might expect with a screen that size, the notebook itself features a full size keyboard with a dedicated gamer-friendly keypad in addition to those touch-capacitive media controls.

Acer says the Aspire AS8940G will be available from U.S. retailers in time for the end-of-year holiday season, with prices starting at $1,349.99.