Acer is Doubling Down on its 3D SpatialLabs Tech

Tech brands have been pushing for glasses-free 3D displays for two years, with Acer announcing its first SpatialLabs-eqiupped laptop in 2022. We’ve seen the tech in person at COMPUTEX 2023 and we’re impressed by how immersive SpatialLabs is in showcasing glasses-free 3D imaging–save for the headache and nausea we experienced after a prolonged session.

–Acer SpatialLabs Is An Adjustable 3D Technology For Gamers

Acer is doubling down on its SpatialLabs tech in 2024 with two new products: the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs and the Predator SpatialLabs View 27. Both products were shown at Acer’s Mini-CES 2024 showcase at Mall of Asia Arena, and we got to briefly experience it.

The red lights above the display are the tracking sensors that detect your eyes to give you a stereoscopic 3D viewing experience.

Is it better compared to our experience at COMPUTEX 2023? I’d say it depends on the content being viewed. With the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs, it appears that Acer has polished the performance of both hardware (specifically the two tracking cameras) and the software needed to give us the glasses-free 3D experience. Viewing the image presented on the display in 3D worked well, with the tracking cameras giving us a 360-degree view of the said model.

The photos don’t do justice, but we assure you: the images literally pop out of the display, giving you the illusion that you can touch them.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs is more affordable than Acer’s other SpatialLabs laptops at $1400 or around Php 79k. That price gets you the said 3D tech, along with features like a 15.6-inch UHD display and specs that include up to a Intel Core i7-13620H processor, RTX 4050 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and 2TB of storage.

The Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs can potentially give the MacBook Air M2 15-inch a run for its money–especially with how refined Acer’s SpatialLabs tech is with this iteration.

The Predator SpatialLabs View 27 also has the same set of eye-tracking sensors on top for accurate 3D renditions with games.

While viewing static images is a fun experience, we experienced headaches when we tried playing games on the Predator SpatialLabs View 27. Trying to explore the area with an RPG title gave us a headache after a few minutes of gameplay, and the experience becomes more nauseating when we tried a round of Tekken, where the fighting game is pushing FPS to the limit with its fast-paced action. And unlike the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs, the Predator SpatialLabs View 27 is expensive at $1999–or around Php 112k for a specialized, 3D-capable gaming monitor.

There’s no denying that Acer’s current iteration of SpatialLabs works–and is arguably the best we’ve seen so far–but we think there’s still room for improvement. Acer’s approach (and pricing) with the Aspire 3D 15 SpatialLabs helps in making glasses-free 3D viewing more accessible to a wider audience, but we need to wait a little longer before 3D gaming is more accessible–and less nauseating.