Acer unveiled a pair of new Windows 10 machines today — a convertible notebook and a portable all-in-one PC. However, these are familiar designs that don't offer much excitement, and, unlike some of the recent news we've seen from the industry, it's unlikely they'll help the firm's prospects in the long run. (The latest figures from IDC show the Taiwanese company is now the fifth biggest PC vendor, slipping behind even Apple in the second and third quarters of 2015.)

Acer has tried battery-powered All-In-one PCs before

The more interesting of the pair is the all-in-one Aspire Z3-700 (above). It has a built-in battery that will allow users to take the device on the go, while the addition of a mouse and keyboard will turn it into a regular PC if you're staying put. However, with the Z3 weighing in at 2 kilograms and offering only five hours of battery life, it's unlikely that it will make for a convenient carry, and Acer has offered similar battery-powered AIOs in the past without much success. The 17.3-inch full HD display is also on the large side, and a choice of Pentium or Celeron processors don't promise much power. However, this isn't priced as a speed machine, and Acer is promising the Z3 will be available in EMEA markets from €599 ($681) sometime near the end of the year.

The Acer Aspire R 14 convertible notebook. (Acer / Microsoft)

The new Aspire R 14 is more powerful, with the convertible notebook offering Intel's new sixth-generation Core processors. It's slimmer than its identically-named predecessor and has a new brushed metallic finish, with the display folding over into a tablet "without any gaps whatsoever" remaining (this wording from Acer is perhaps a dig at Microsoft's convertible Surface Book, which folds over in a similar fashion but leaves a large crevasse between keyboard and screen). The R 14 offers up to 8GB of RAM and will be available in the US from late October with prices starting at $699.