CES: Acer unveils Fusion laptops

Acer Aspire 5253 and 4253 among the first models with AMD Fusion APUs

Acer is one of the first vendors to announce systems based on AMD's Fusion accelerated processing unit (APU) chips, in the shape of two laptops suitable for productivity and entertainment, according to the firm.

Unveiled at CES, but not due to ship in the UK until the second quarter of this year, the Acer Aspire 5253 and 4253 are based on AMD's E-Series APUs, which combine CPU and GPU cores onto a single chip for better graphics and multimedia performance.

The Aspire 5253 has a 15.6in screen and is based on the 1.6GHz E-350 dual-core chip, while the Aspire 4253 has a 14in screen and a choice of the E-350 or the 1.5GHz E-240 single-core APU.

Both systems have up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, upgradable to 8GB, DVD Super-multi-drive, and hard disk options from 250GB to 750GB. Both also feature 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and gigabit Ethernet, and weigh in at 2.6kg.

Acer said that the laptops feature a new media sharing system called Clear.fi. This is a cross-platform technology that automatically detects other Clear.fi-enabled devices on a network and allows them to share all digital content.

Prices for the Aspire 5253 and 4253 have yet to be announced.