Acer shows modular mini PC and dockable Windows 10 smartphone

Acer showed an easily customizable mini PC at IFA, the Revo Build M1-601. The Revo Build uses several blocks that can be stacked. Acer also showed the first dockable Windows 10 phone that ‘becomes’ a PC after connecting to a docking station.

The Taiwanese manufacturer showed the devices during its keynote at the IFA in Berlin. The Revo M1-601 consists of different ‘blocks’ of 12.5 by 12.5 centimeters in surface, with different heights. The basic component is a mini PC equipped with an energy-efficient Intel Pentium or Celeron chip. The basic storage consists of 32GB of flash memory, which can be expanded with an extra ‘block’ with 500GB or 1TB. Each block connects to the other block by means of magnetic spring pins.

At the moment, the company has not yet gone into detail about all the plans. For example, several other blocks contain a wireless charger and there is an audio block with speakers and microphone, but precise specifications are missing.

In addition to the Revo Build, Acer introduced a dockable Windows 10 smartphone, the Jade Primo. This makes it appear to be the first smartphone to use the ‘Continuum’ functionality of Windows 10. The Jade Primo runs on Windows 10 Mobile and was docked live at the event, after which the phone acted as a ‘PC’ and could be controlled via keyboard and mouse, while the image was displayed on an external monitor.

The Jade Primo comes with a docking station, keyboard and wireless mouse. The phone is equipped with a 21-megapixel camera, a 5.5-inch superamoled screen, an 8-megapixel camera on the front and a Snapdragon 808-soc from Qualcomm. Both price and release date are not yet known.