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A Sit-Down With Acer's Predator Thronos Air, the Ultimate In-Home Gaming Battlestation

Got $13,000 to burn and a gaming den big enough for a monster, all-purpose, multi-screen gaming cocoon? The second generation of Acer's epic Thronos has got you covered.

 & Chris Stobing Senior Analyst, Security

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Acer's Predator Thronos Air chair has been making the rounds at various conferences and events for roughly two years now, and I'm still amazed when I see it every time. There's nothing quite like the Thronos Air, and while some might argue that there shouldn't be, personally I'm a big fan of the audacious, over-the-top nature of everything it sets out to do. Calling it a mere chair does undersell it a ton; it's a gaming station that features three monitors, a shelf for your keyboard or racing wheel of choice, superb cable routing, and now, side doors.

CES 2020 Bug ArtThis year at CES, the company told us that it has managed to drop the price of the Thronos pretty significantly, from $24,000 for the original Thronos down to "just" $13,000 with the Air. One area where a lot of this cost-cutting likely came from, though, is the fact that a deluxe Acer Predator gaming PC was included standard with the first-gen chair. It's not included anymore; you would bring your own desktop gaming rig to hook up to the Air.

Acer has also removed any automatic hydraulics. Now, all elements of the chair must be manually adjusted to get your setup tuned just right. Finally, Acer includes a white-glove delivery service in that $13,000 price tag. A representative for the company will come out to your home and set up the whole thing from start to finish, including measuring your space and testing the floor for weight restrictions to ensure that the structure can support the chair.

The Thronos Air is definitely made for the 1 percent of the 1 percent of gamers, but for those who can afford it, there's no other gaming experience like it out there today. Here's a first look at our experience with the Thronos Air on site at Acer's CES 2020 suite...

About Our Expert

Chris Stobing

Chris Stobing

Senior Analyst, Security

My Experience

I'm a senior analyst charged with testing and reviewing VPNs and other security apps for PCMag. I grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley and have been involved with technology since the 1990s. Previously at PCMag, I was a hardware analyst benchmarking and reviewing consumer gadgets and PC hardware such as desktop processors, GPUs, monitors, and internal storage. I've also worked as a freelancer for Gadget Review, VPN.com, and Digital Trends, wading through seas of hardware and software at every turn. In my free time, you’ll find me shredding the slopes on my snowboard in the Rocky Mountains where I live, or using my culinary-degree skills to whip up a dish in the kitchen for friends.

My Areas of Expertise

  • Privacy software, including VPNs and proxy services
  • PC building, and all the ins and outs of desktop PCs
  • Processors and motherboards
  • Graphics cards
  • PC cases
  • Networking equipment
  • Internal storage

The Technology I Use

As a former PC component reviewer and longtime gamer, almost every PC I use is one that I've custom-built. I use a system that runs an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X processor, along with an AMD Radeon RX 6800 graphics card in a black case. For mobile devices, I'm a longtime user of Apple smartphones and am deeply integrated into Cupertino's app ecosystem, and currently I have an iPhone 10X.

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