Acer may have announced its new Aspire Ethos line a few months back, but this is the first time we have had the chance to catch a glimpse of the multimedia monsters in person, albeit these were lacking that special Ethos branding on the exterior. We’ve really got to hand it to Acer on the new aesthetic of the 18.4-inch 8943G and 15.6-inch 5943G — the systems have a nice brushed metal coating and glorious-looking chiclet keyboards. Though obviously, the first thing that caught our eye was that black dual-mode touchpad which is pictured above — it’s a standard touchpad until you press the circular button between the buttons, after which it turns into the system’s multimedia controls. When we tapped that movie button, it briskly launched Windows Media player, but we do fear that the glossy plastic coating on the pad will hamper everyday navigation. Both models on display were powered by 1.6GHz Core i7-720QM CPUs, but the 5943G had 4GB of DDR3 RAM and ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics while the 8943G boasted 8GB of RAM and a Radeon HD 5850. In addition, they’ve got 8-cell batteries and Blu-ray drives, so three cheers for that. We’ll be keeping an ear out for the arrival of these bad boys stateside, but until then feast your eyes on the beauty shots below.

Craftily unhidden at the tail end of its press conference, Acer’s long-awaited Aspire 1820PT convertible laptop has finally passed into our hands for ever the briefest of moments. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we? Strong hinge, accelerometer for tablet mode, capacitive multitouch, and the ability to use stylus for input (protected in a slot just below and to the right of the screen when not in use). Beyond that, seems like the typical underpowered laptop you know and love — well, maybe not love, but you get the idea. Under the hood there’s an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB RAM, and 320GB HDD, all priced at 599 euro, which we’d venture a guess to mean it’ll be about $599 when it comes to the US (actual release date MIA). Gallery below, and brief video demonstration after the break.

Acer’s Aspire Timeline 1820PT lit up our radar today after going official in Italy and arriving unheralded on the company’s Australian site. Yet another 11.6-inch convertible notebook, this guy ships with Windows 7 Home Premium and features both multitouch display and touchpad, up to 1366 x 768 display resolution, an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.2GHz) processor, GMA X4500MHD, up to 8GB RAM and 320GB storage, 3G, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. In addition to all that, this bad boy sports the usual ins ‘n outs, including HDMI and a card reader, and boasts an eight hour battery life. Sounds like the company’s 1820P, eh? We thought so too. No word yet on price or stateside availability, but you can get a closer look in the gallery below, and be sure to peep the specs after the break.