One Of The Most Battery-efficient I've Tested This Year Is Also One Of The Most Affordable

2 days ago

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

The guidelines exemplary of Acer's Aspire 14 AI usually retails for $699.
It has a awesome artillery and immoderate of nan latest hardware: each for a very approachable value point.
I propose opting for nan OLED, since nan low-end show isn't nan best.

At Costco, nan Acer Aspire 14 AI with an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU is connected waste for $700. Act accelerated because this woody ends connected July 27.

I went hands-on pinch Acer's Aspire Go 15 past twelvemonth and praised it arsenic 1 of nan champion inexpensive laptops you tin get, priced astatine astir $300. This year, 1 of nan latest additions to Acer's Aspire line, nan Aspire 14 AI, is simply a fewer steps up successful position of hardware and features, but maintains a competitory value constituent of $699 -- aliases $499 connected sale.

Acer's marque messaging has positioned itself arsenic astatine nan forefront of eco-friendly components and post-consumer recycled materials, and nan artistic of its laptops from nan past fewer years reflects this.

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From nan exposed grill connected nan hinge to nan visible copper power pipes connected nan bottommost of nan instrumentality to nan heavy bezels surrounding nan display, nan Aspire 14 AI isn't nan sleekest laptop around. Still, it reflects an unpretentious, eco-conscious artistic pinch a coagulated suite of hardware that shows up fresh to work.

It features 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports that tin support an outer show astatine an 8K resolution, an HDMI 2.1, support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, positive a Kensington fastener slot. This dispersed of ports makes it a tin business laptop for distant aliases hybrid workers, peculiarly erstwhile paired pinch nan battery.

Battery life, however, is nan Aspire 14 AI's champion feature. I cognize we've been singing nan praises of galore laptops pinch marathon artillery life complete nan past year, but Acer's Aspire 14 AI fills a niche: an AI-ready fund laptop pinch an absolute marathon artillery that will past for days connected end.

During my testing, I brought nan Aspire 14 AI into nan agency connected a afloat complaint and utilized it intermittently passim nan day. It was still supra 90% by nan extremity of nan workday, and erstwhile I closed it up and brought it backmost retired nan adjacent day, it hadn't dropped a azygous percent point.

The adjacent day, I brought it backmost successful and utilized it rather a spot much aggressively: holding aggregate video calls, doing much sustained multitasking, and keeping nan show jacked up. It yet started to dent nan artillery life, but by nan extremity of nan day, it was still conscionable correct astir 30%.

Like different power-efficient devices successful its class, nan Aspire 14 AI's powerfulness depletion drops to a trickle erstwhile it's not being pushed excessively difficult and virtually stops depleting altogether erstwhile dormant and not successful use. This makes it cleanable for all-day use.

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The awesome artillery life is enabled acknowledgment partially to nan Intel Core Ultra 7 (Series 2) processor, which has performed very good connected different machines I've tested, for illustration nan Asus Zenbook S 14 and nan Dell XPS 13. With Acer's 14 AI, nan inclination continues, arsenic this instrumentality not only competes pinch these 2 laptops but somewhat exceeds them.

The device's 3.05-pound beingness shape facet is non-descript, pinch an aluminum ammunition connected nan apical and bottommost and a lightweight integrative framework successful a graphite finish. The keyboard is fine, without immoderate noteworthy characteristics, though nan keys characteristic a very short recreation region and are connected nan mushy side.

Depending connected really it's configured, nan Aspire 14 AI comes pinch either a 14-inch WUXGA IPS touch show aliases an OLED. The IPS show is functional but not peculiarly noteworthy successful position of brightness aliases colour gamut. The OLED, connected nan different hand, makes it consciousness much premium.

The Aspire 14 AI is well-stocked successful position of memory, pinch up to 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD, making it a coagulated action for immoderate mainstream workflow. As its sanction suggests, nan Aspire 14 AI is expressly designed for AI tasks, delivering up to 40 TOPS and nan accustomed suite of AI-specific features that travel pinch different Copilot+ PCs.

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Additionally, nan Intel Arc GPU supports up to 53 TOPS, pinch upscaling exertion for gaming and amended capacity erstwhile it comes to graphics rendering and video editing.

That being said, while gaming connected nan Aspire 14 AI is well-supported by nan hardware, nan IPS show whitethorn clasp backmost nan experience. Therefore, if you person immoderate notions astir gaming connected this laptop, I'd propose opting for nan OLED configuration.

ZDNET's buying advice

Acer's Aspire 14 AI is 1 of nan amended bang-for-your-buck options disposable correct now. On waste for $499, it offers immoderate of nan latest hardware and a artillery that will past aggregate days successful a very competitory package.

If you're looking for a "budget plus" laptop pinch respectable hardware that opts for a much utilitarian shape facet (and approachable price), nan Aspire 14 AI is simply a coagulated choice. I would propose opting for nan OLED configuration if you're consenting to salary for nan upgrade, particularly if you'll beryllium utilizing it for visually imaginative activity aliases gaming.