Acer Aspire 14 AI Review: Cheap Copilot Plus PC Offers Great Battery Life and Future-Proofing

8.0/ 10
SCORE

Acer Aspire 14 AI

$700 at Costco

Pros

• Exceedingly long battery life
• Competitive performance for the price
• Useful port selection

Cons

• Dull display
• Dull design

With the Aspire 14 AI, Acer delivers a modern AI processor to its budget laptop line in the form of an Intel Lunar Lake CPU. The Intel Core Ultra 5 226V features a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS) for local AI processing, which happens to be the minimum requirement for Microsoft’s Copilot Plus PC platform. The Aspire 14 AI costs just $700 at Costco, making it the cheapest Copilot Plus PC we’ve reviewed. So, the question becomes, In what areas does this budget model sacrifice to hit a lower price than other Copilot Plus PCs?

The Asus Zenbook A14, the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 and the HP OmniBook X 14 each cost hundreds more than the Aspire 14 AI, as do models from Acer’s mainstream Swift line, like the Acer Swift 14 AI and the Acer Swift Go 14 AI. At first glance, the Aspire 14 AI looks no different than the Swift models, but a closer inspection reveals some plastic in the design. Similarly, I noticed immediately that the display was dimmer than that of either Swift, and testing confirmed my initial impression while also revealing poor color performance. But with a matte finish, wide viewing angles and enough brightness, the Aspire 14 AI’s display suffices for general use — and that’s really all you can expect from a budget laptop.

It might not be one of the best laptops, but with the lengthy battery life we’ve come to expect from Copilot Plus PCs and with application and AI performance that’s competitive with pricier models, the Aspire 14 AI offers great value for budget shoppers looking for a Copilot Plus PC.

Our test model (A14-52MT-59DP) of the Acer Aspire 14 AI is sold at Costco for $700. It features an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V CPU, 16GB of RAM, integrated Intel Arc 130V graphics and a 1TB SSD. The 14-inch touch display features 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution.

Through Acer’s website, I found a similar model (A14-52MT-53EH) for less. Acer links to an online reseller called Atlanta Network Technologies that has the same model but with a 512GB SSD on sale for $600.

There’s a step-up model (A14-52M-72FH) based on an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V that, at the time of this review, was on sale for $900 at Micro Center and $950 at Newegg.

Pages exist for the Aspire 14 AI on Acer’s UK and Australia sites, but pricing and availability remain to be seen.

Acer Aspire 14 AI performance

Aside from the display, which I’ll get to shortly, the other area where Acer cut a corner to hit such a low price is the CPU. It features a Core Ultra 5 226V, which is from Intel’s latest Lunar Lake mobile processor family but is a step down from the Core Ultra 7 series. However, the differences between the Core Ultra 5 226V and, say, the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V in the more expensive Aspire 14 AI configuration are smaller than you might think. Both chips are unthreaded, with eight cores split between four performance cores and four efficiency cores. Where the Core Ultra 7 chip has the edge is with operating frequencies (and then only slightly) and a higher TOPS count from the GPU (64 versus 53 TOPS) and NPU (47 versus 40 TOPS).

The Aspire 14 AI trailed other Copilot Plus PCs on our application and graphics benchmarks but was still in their general vicinity. And its AI performance was right in the middle of the pack, so I wouldn’t read too much into the difference in the TOPS count between the Aspire 14 AI’s Core Ultra 5 chip and a Core Ultra 7 or a Qualcomm Snapdragon X series processor.

Likewise, the Aspire 14 AI’s battery life was a bit shorter than the exceedingly long capacities of other Copilot Plus PCs, but it’s still impressive, especially for the price. It ran for nearly 19 hours on our YouTube streaming battery-drain test, which is enough to merit a spot on our best battery-life laptops list.

Hear me out about the display

The Aspire 14 AI looks strikingly similar to Acer’s Swift laptops. It’s a basic and boxy design with sharp corners and square edges. Everything is dark gray — from the top and bottom panels to the keyboard deck and the keyboard itself. Unlike Acer’s all-aluminum Swift laptops, the Aspire 14 AI supplies aluminum for the top and bottom panels but uses plastic for the keyboard deck. The keyboard deck feels rigid, however, so at least it’s a high-quality piece of plastic. Many budget laptops are plagued by thin, flimsy plastic surfaces, but that’s not the case here.

At 3.1 pounds, the Aspire 14 AI is nearly identical in weight to the 3-pound Acer Swift Go 14 AI. The Acer Swift 14 AI and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 are each ever-so-slightly lighter, at just under 3 pounds. If you’re looking to shave weight on a 14-inch laptop, the Asus Zenbook A14 is the easy choice; it’s substantially lighter, at just under 2.2 pounds.

The keyboard has a similar feel to what I encountered on the aforementioned Swifts. The keys have shallow travel and a soft, spongy response. I prefer firmer feedback, but the keys are at least quiet when pressed, which I appreciate as someone who likes to type in a coffee shop and in my kitchen when others are around. I like to fade into the background when writing and not draw attention with loud, clacky typing.

The touchpad offers a firm response with a quiet click and is a great example of a mechanical touchpad done right. You’d have to spend more for the lively and customizable feedback you get with the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7’s haptic touchpad, so I consider the Aspire 14 AI’s touchpad a positive in this budget package. And I also appreciate that Acer left off the gimmicky «AI Activity Indicator» that it slapped on the touchpads of the Swift models I reviewed.

The display is a ho-hum 14-inch IPS panel with 1,920×1,200-pixel resolution and a standard 60Hz refresh rate. It does offer touch support, which is a nice surprise, however the display tested poorly. You can’t expect to use a budget laptop for detailed, color-accurate work, even if it has the graphics for such a task. Even so, the Aspire 14 AI’s color performance was dreadful. On my tests using a Spyder X Elite colorimeter, it covered only 63% of the sRGB and 47% of the P3 gamuts — adequate for general use but not much else.

Stepping up from the budget class to the midrange category brings greater color performance. For example, the Swift 14 AI hit 82% of Adobe RGB and 85% of P3, and the Asus Zenbook A14 covered 100% of both color spaces. If you do need better color performance, there’s a full-size HDMI out port for an external monitor.

The Aspire 14 AI’s display isn’t especially bright, either. In testing, it hit a peak of 313 nits and presented a dimmer image than the display of the Swift 14 AI or Zenbook A14, each of which was brighter, with a max of 391 nits.

What saves the Aspire 14 AI’s display from being an all-around dreadful budget display is its matte finish and wide viewing angles. I had the brightness slider all the way to the right during my time with the Aspire 14 AI, but I still had no trouble viewing the screen under bright indoor light and even in my sunny breakfast nook.

The speakers are predictably underpowered and produce underwhelming sound. That’s par for a budget laptop. Then again, the speakers on the pricier Swift models I reviewed weren’t any better.

The Swift models, however, have the edge in webcam resolution. The Aspire 14 AI has a 1080p camera, which produces a slightly fuzzier image than the Swifts’ 1440p cams. Still, the picture appeared well-balanced and crisp enough for video chats.

A pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports highlight the strong port selection. You also get two USB-A ports and an HDMI connection. The USB-A ports are split on either side of the Aspire 14 AI, which is good for lefties looking to connect a mouse on the left side of the laptop. The Thunderbolt 4 ports, however, are both located on the left, which means you’ll need to run the power cord around the laptop if the nearest outlet is on your right. Then again, this placement is less of a concern when you consider the Aspire 14 AI’s long battery life. This is not a laptop that you’ll need to keep plugged in all that often.

Is the Acer Aspire 14 AI a good budget laptop?

Yes, it’s a great pick among budget laptops. Its performance and battery life exceed what you can expect for the price, and the design is nearly the same as you get with Acer’s more expensive Swift models. You’re forced to sacrifice display quality in order to hit such a low price, but that’s an item that’s usually not very high on a budget shopper’s priority list. More important is getting a modern CPU that delivers sufficient performance for everyday use that’s also efficient to allow for lengthy battery life — plus a bit of future-proofing with its AI capabilities.