Acer has been busy over the last week, introducing everything from new Aspire Timeline notebooks to fresh desktop families. Today, the company is debuting a new line of laptops that puts digital entertainment in the forefront.

Oh The Aspire Ethos will come in 15.6-inch and 18.4-inch varieties, with the larger model sporting a 1,920×1,080 full HD screen. Both have displays made of Corning Gorilla glass to resist scratches. The bigger Ethos 8951G comes with five built-in speakers and Acer’s Tuba Cinemas subwoofer. The two configurations announced today — the Ethos AS8951-9600 and AS5951-9696 — include an Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, NVIDIA George GT555M graphics card with 2GB of video RAM, 750GB hard drive, and a Blue-ray reader/DVD writer combo drive. This 18.4-inch Ethos comes with 8GB of memory, whereas the 15.6-inch config has 6GB. Both have four USB 2.0 ports, a USB 3.0 connection, HDMI output, and a USB/eSATA combo port.

One interesting design wrinkle with the Ethos is a detachable LED-backlit touchpad that can double as a remote control and can be used horizontally or vertically. There’s also a backlit chic let-style keyboard and a fingerprint reader for added security.

Oh The Ethos AS5951G will cost $1,399.99, and the AS8951 is priced at $1,599.99. Both will be available starting this week at online retailers. Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

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