Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) review – content creator or designer, you have to check this out

It was all the way back in April when Acer announced their ConceptD devices. If you remember, they are aimed at content creators, professionals and everyone that wants a good performance package inside a very classy outfit. Today we are taking a look at the midranger of the three series. Okay, midrange could lead to the misconception that this laptop is a midranger altogether so let’s call it middle-sized.

So what does a mid-sized ConceptD laptop looks like? Well, it has a very tight chassis that weighs just over two kilos and can be equipped with 9th Gen Intel Core processors, while on the GPU it maxes out with the GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q. Screen-wise it comes with a 4K 60Hz panel that according to Acer covers 100% of Adobe RGB and its colors are Pantone Validated.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-conceptd-7-cn715-71/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) technical specifications table

Acer
Not available
Display
15.6”, 4K UHD (3840 x 2160), IPS
HDD/SSD
1024GB SSD NVMe
M.2 Slot
2x 2280 M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe slots with RAID 0 support
RAM
32GB DDR4
Dimensions
360 x 258 x 17.9 mm (14.17" x 10.16" x 0.70")
Weight
2.13 kg (4.7 lbs)
Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort, HDMI
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • HDMI
  • VGA
  • DVI
  • Displayport mini
  • Ethernet lan Gigabit LAN (Killer E3000)
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac (Killer AC 1550i)
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • Audio jack 2x 3.5mm audio jacks
Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera HD 720p
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive

What’s in the box?

We’ve got the engineering sample of the ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) inside an unbranded white box. It includes the 180W charging adapter and the magnificent white Acer ConcepdD 7 itself.


Design and construction

If you have been suspicious over the look of the ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) you were right to do feel so. It is based on the Acer Predator Triton 500‘s chassis and not only the outer look confirms that – they are both 17.9mm thick and both weigh 2.1 kg. However, this is perfectly fine, because the Triton 500 itself didn’t look like a gaming laptop, whatsoever. In fact, we really like the white shell of the ConceptD 7 machine.

Expectedly, the lid opens easily with a single hand, however, we’ve seen some noticeable flex to it – both when you press upon it and when you try to twist it.

Next, there is the base of the device. As with the Triton 500, here we see a huge ventilation grill above the keyboard. Then, the keyboard itself has a good feel to it – key travel is long enough and it has some decent click action going on. Beneath it there is the touchpad, which is fairly accurate – it’s not as good as the one on MSI GS65 Stealth, but it definitely does the job.

By the way, we just couldn’t keep our eyes away from the matte white finish of the laptop. While it doesn’t attract fingerprints at all (or at least not visible ones, FBI), it is super susceptible to dirt and other commonly found substances – coffee, chocolate, cherries and much more.

At the bottom of the laptop, you’re going to find another huge ventilation grill, as well as the speakers, while the hot air comes out of the back and the sides, via three fans – a’la Triton 500.


Ports

The I/O on this laptop is split between the left and the right side of the laptop. On the left there is the charging plug, an RJ-45 connector, a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1), followed by an HDMI port and two audio jacks. On the right, you are going to find another two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) ports, a Mini DisplayPort as well as a Thunderbolt 3.0 (Type-C) connector. Sadly for the photographers, there is no SD card slot at all.


Disassembly and upgrade options

Quite frankly, during the disassembly of this device, we felt we’ve done this before. It turned out that we actually have – ConceptD 7 uses absolutely the same chassis as the Predator Triton 500. You need to perform the same operation of taking the motherboard out of the body. However, first, you’ll need to remove the bottom plate, that is mounted with T5 screws. After that, take off the black protective material and remove all of the connectors from the motherboard, starting with the battery.

Next, there are some screws holding the motherboard to the chassis, two of which are located around the double fan segment. After you remove them (and the Wi-Fi card) you can turn the board around and you’ll see all of ConceptD 7’s guts. Similarly to the Triton 500, there are three fans cooling a total of four heatsinks. There is one heat pipe shared between the CPU and the GPU, one more for each of them, one for the VRMs and one for the video memory.

Spot the difference (SPOILER: the ConceptD 7 is on the left)

Just beneath the cooling system, you can see the memory and storage that are comprised of two RAM DIMMs with a maximum capacity of 32GB in total, and two M.2 NVMe slots that support RAID 0.

On the battery side, there is an 84Wh battery pack – a mandatory size in order to supply the monster specs and the 4K display.


Display quality

Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) comes with a UHD panel. It bears a model number AUO B156ZAN03.1 (AUO31EB) and has a diagonal of 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 3840 x 2160 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 282 ppi, and a pitch of 0.09 х 0.09 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 30cm (12″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

It has excellent viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness is 386 nits in the middle of the screen and 386 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of just 3%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7520K – colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 7560K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color sensitive work. The contrast ratio is astonishing – 1400:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976. It also covers 100% of Adobe RGB and goes in DCI-P3 teritorries.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 21 ms – not bad for a 4K IPS panel.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71)’s display backlight doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels. This means it is going to be comfortable in this aspect for extended periods of us.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) has a 4K UHD IPS panel that offers an extremely detailed image, comfortable viewing angles, decent contrast ratio, and high maximum brightness. Additionally, the color coverage of this panel is insane – it is able to reproduce 100% of the colors in sRGB and all of the colors in the Adobe RGB spectrum. Color accuracy, however, is not as good as Acer is stating.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) configurations with 15.6″ UHD IPS AUO B156ZAN03.1 (AUO31EB).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) isn’t the loudest in terms of sound volume. However, the sound quality is definitely not bad and while the low tones have some deviations, the mids and highs are clear.


Drivers

As of the writing of this review, drivers were not available on the Web.

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) is equipped with the same 84Wh battery we found on the Triton 500.

Big battery = long battery life. At least this is the case with the laptop we have in our hands today. We were able to extract 11 hours of web browsing and around 7 hours and 40 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.


CPU options

Currently, the laptop is available only with the Core i7-9750H. Certainly, the hexa-core CPU is going to be sufficient enough for designers and content creators that need a lot of processor power.


GPU options

GPU-wise the choices include the GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2070 Max-Q and tops with the RTX 2080 Max-Q.


Gaming tests

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
Average138 fps76 fps48 fps

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average80 fps78 fps74 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
Average102 fps66 fps59 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average87 fps75 fps48 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
Average79 fps74 fps49 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core temperature (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Core i7-9750H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71)2.93 GHz (B+13%)@ 73°C2.83 GHz (B+9%)@ 83°C2.69 GHz (B+3%)@ 80°C
ASUS ROG G7313.38 GHz (B+30%)@ 87°C3.43 GHz (B+32%)@ 94°C2.63 GHz @ 73°C
ASUS ROG G5313.41 GHz (B+31%)@ 95°C3.23 GHz (B+24%)@ 95°C2.72 GHz (B+5%)@ 79°C
HP Omen 17 20193.44 GHz (B+32%)@ 86°C2.74 GHz (B+5%)@ 71°C2.67 GHz (B+3%)@ 71°C

Contrary to the ROG Strix G531 and G731 which are typical gaming laptops, the Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) uses a slightly different approach towards its thermals. We see that the frequency never exceeds 3.00 GHz under full load, however, the temperatures are managed very well with a maximum of 83C in the second time period. In the end, however, the thin chassis takes its toll and the temperature is 80C and probably rising, compared to 73C on the ROG Strix G731. On the bright side, the fans were barely audible – something we’ve only seen on the HP Omen 17 2019 as of yet.

Real gameplay

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71)1502 MHz @ 74°C1481 MHz @ 79°C
Dell G7 17 77901432 MHz @ 73°C1462 MHz @ 73°C
Lenovo Legion Y7401526 MHz @ 70°C1499 MHz @ 74°C

Despite being slightly warmer than the G7 17 7790, the ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) provides a higher frequency of the GPU. This is not the same when you compare it to the Legion Y740, but let’s not forget that it has a lot more space inside for the cooling.

Gaming comfort

We measured the hottest point of the laptop to be just above the “P” key. Certainly, the RTX 2060 produces less heat than the RTX 2080 Max-Q located inside the Acer Predator Triton 500. There was plenty of noise coming from the fans as well.


Verdict

Acer ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) should be the sweet spot for content creators, web designers, and professionals. It has a very good base – that of the Triton 500, and we can assure you, as soon as they applied the white matte paint to it, even they were baffled. Especially when it is paired with the yellow backlight.

In terms of I/O they Acer has provided the ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) with more than enough ports. However, there is something that left us disappointed. You simply cannot make a professional-oriented notebook without putting an SD card slot. No, one would argue, you can always use dongles… While this is true, you shouldn’t need a dongle, especially when you prepare a kidney and perhaps your liver to pay for this device. By the way, don’t you dare to mention Apple!

By the way, the 4K panel (AUO B156ZAN03.1 (AUO31EB)) on this laptop is insane! It covers 100% of both sRGB and Adobe RGB color spectrums and even spreads throughout the DCI-P3 one. Additionally, the maximum brightness is just below 400 nits and remains the same across the entire display, which is very important if you don’t need light bleed in your work. Moreover, it doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels.

Nevertheless, let’s continue with the nitpicking by saying that the laptop becomes pretty hot on the bottom after a long gaming period. Absolutely as its Prototype – the Triton 500, we would suggest placing the laptop on a desk upon playing or if you plan on heavy graphically-intensive work. Here is some good news for you – another legacy of the Triton 500 is the dual M.2 slot with RAID 0 support.

Other than that, the ConceptD 7 (CN715-71) was on point and would clearly be a must-have in terms of usability. As soon as we get the results from our Display Lab, we are going to provide you with information about one of the most interesting feature of the laptop – its 4K display.

By the way, given the artistic nature of the laptop, it would have been a shame to have mediocre battery life. Thankfully, it is not – you can get up to 11 hours of web browsing and 7 hours and 40 minutes of video playback – not bad given the 4K screen and the monster hardware.

Pros

  • Sleek white design
  • Super bright 4K display option (AUO B156ZAN03.1 (AUO31EB))
  • Doesn’t use PWM to adjust brightnes levels (AUO B156ZAN03.1 (AUO31EB))
  • Great battery life
  • Supports Thunderbolt
  • Two M.2 slots with RAID 0 support


Cons

  • No SD card reader
  • Gets a little warm on the bottom plate

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-conceptd-7-cn715-71/

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Alexandr
Alexandr
4 years ago

It is very interesting to learn about noise measurements in different operating modes. + Is there electronic noises, coil whine?

Alexandr
Alexandr
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex Iliev

Well, we expect noise tests. 🙂
The manufacturer stated that it uses a modern ventilation system and there will be a minimum of noise.

Alexandr
Alexandr
4 years ago
Reply to  Alex Iliev

Is the max noise level the same as the Triton 500? 47dB?

Alexandr
Alexandr
4 years ago

Is it possible to charge this laptop via USB?

Hamad
Hamad
4 years ago

Is 60hz the maximum refresh rate this laptop can get to? Even if you lower the settings to 1080p?

Thank you for the review.

anone
anone
4 years ago

Give the version of GTX 1650 and quality QHD display (bright, high contrast, P3, DE <2, and less AdobeRGB coverage) with competitive price. This laptop will storm the creators market.

Michael
Michael
4 years ago

Hello, what is the model of the SSDs? What is the speed?