This cheap and cheerful Acer laptop will just keep on going

The best AI laptops are everywhere, and Acer is right at the heart of bringing AI into consumer laptops. In recent memory, I've reviewed the Acer Swift 16 AI, the Acer Swift 14 AI, the MSI Cyborg 15 AI, and the MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo review. Throwing 'AI' into the name of a laptop appears to be all the rage at the moment.

Most of what I've seen so far has been a little disappointing for high-end creative users, with the current niche for AI laptops being amongst low-intensity users who will benefit from flashy and fancy AI features such as real-time transcription of meetings and automated content generation for documents.

The Acer Aspire 14 AI is a lightweight laptop that aims to position itself as one of the go-to options for students and home users who do most of their work through a web browser rather than power-intensive applications.

In this review, we put the laptop through its paces with our eyes set on whether it deserves any mention among the best laptops for graphic design or photo-editing. We'll take a look at its design, build, features, and performance to see what's good and not so good about one of Acer's smallest AI laptops.

Key specifications

Design, build and display

• Lightweight and portable
• Plastic and aluminium material mix lacks durability

The most positive thing to say about the Acer Aspire 14 AI is that the size and lightweight materials make it perfectly portable for hybrid workers and students. At 16.90 mm x 318.9 mm x 225.1 mm and 1.4 kg, the laptop isn't the lightest on the market, but you'll have no problems popping it in your bag while you travel between locations.

The light weight is a result of the plastic and aluminium material mix, and even though I would have preferred an all-metal chassis, it's hard to complain considering the price point. Unfortunately, what you gain in portability, you lose in durability. There is some definite flexing in both the screen and the base panel, something that I'm never very forgiving about. I wouldn't expect this laptop to last more than a few years, especially if you're moving it around daily.

The display boasts a 1920 x 1200 pixel resolution, which will be fine for almost all users except 4K video editors. In reality, high-end editors are not going to touch this laptop with a bargepole anyway, so there are no concerns regarding the display size and resolution. I like the tall aspect ratio, which provides more vertical height when scrolling long documents and web pages.

The display itself lacks brightness, and even though you'll be able to open it up in any location you like, you'll want to make sure the environment is not overly bright. I imagine it also goes without saying that the colour accuracy is not sufficient for photo editors or colour graders.

Aside from this, you'll benefit from a full-size keyboard and a reasonably sized trackpad. There's nothing to write home about here, though, and I'd opt for a dedicated mouse over the trackpad every day of the week. Oh, and there's also a middle-performing webcam built in.

In summary, I'd say that the design of the Aspire 14 AI is okay, but if you're particularly fussy about any specific element or you like a well-designed and -built laptop, then you'll be left wanting.

Design score: 3/5

Features

• AI features including Copilot and Cocreator
• A respectable range of I/O options

The primary focus of the Aspire 14 AI feature set is, you guessed it, AI! Copilot takes centre stage as an assistant that provides answers and inspiration across the web. If you're concerned about productivity, then Copilot will enable you to spend less time on laborious tasks and more time on what matters most.

With creatives in mind, you'll also get access to Cocreator, which generates image interpretations from text or image prompts. I wouldn't use it over and above Midjourney or DALL-E 3, but if you need it for basic image generation, then I'm sure it'll come in handy from time to time.

The laptop serves up real-time subtitles in video calls and can even translate instructions from other languages. This is particularly helpful for those working in multilingual teams or for those who travel a lot for work. Additionally, I like the inclusion of video call enhancements that allow for lighting improvements and the removal of noisy distractions.

Acer advertises creative performance as a result of up to 67 TOPS of AI performance on the built-in Intel Arc GPU. This should provide smoother gameplay as well as faster photo and video editing, but this wasn't my experience. Read the 'Performance' section for more on that.

In terms of connectivity, the laptop provides a range of I/O options. The inclusion of two USB-A and two USB-C ports provides enough versatility to cover a range of peripherals. Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 will also help to keep you connected.

Feature score: 4/5

Benchmark scores

We test every one of our laptops using the same benchmarking software suite to give you a thorough overview of its suitability for creatives of all disciplines and levels. This includes:

• Geekbench: Tests the CPU for single-core and multi-core power, and the GPU for the system's potential for gaming, image processing, or video editing. Geekbench AI tests the CPU and GPU on a variety of AI-powered and AI-boosted tasks.
• Cinebench: Tests the CPU and GPU's ability to run Cinema 4D and Redshift.
• UL Procyon: Uses UL Solutions' Procyon software suite to test the system's ability for AI image generation in Stable Diffusion, its Microsoft Office performance and its battery life in a looping video test.
• Topaz Video AI: We use Topaz Video AI to test the system's ability to upscale video and convert video to slow-motion.
• PugetBench for Creators: We use the PugetBench for Creators benchmarking suite to test the system's ability to run several key tasks in Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro, as well as its performance when encoding/transcoding video.
• ON1 Resize AI: Tests the system's ability to resize 5 photos to 200% in a batch process. We take the total time taken to resize the images and divide by 5.

Performance

• Basic photoshop work is fine but video editors should stay clear
• Reasonable performance for basic AI tasks

Boasting an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V CPU and an integrated Intel Arc Graphics 130V GPU, I wasn't expecting any fireworks when it came to performance, and I wasn't surprised.

In terms of overall power, the Aspire 14 AI performs comparably to the Dynabook Tecra A60-M, a laptop that we said lagged "rather too far behind similarly priced rivals to bother pro photo editors' wishlists." The same is true for the Acer. This was made clear not only by the laptop's middling benchmark results during Photoshop tests but also by its inability to even run our Premiere Pro tests. I would urge you not to throw too much at this laptop, and you'll be just fine.

AI performance was more of a mixed bag, with basic AI benchmarks performing well, but once you started throwing some serious weight at the processor, it quickly came unstuck. This was evidenced by the reasonable Geekbench AI results, which suggest all Copilot features will work without a hitch, but video AI generation or image resizing could come unstuck.

A short word for demanding creatives is important. Please don't expect the Aspire 14 AI to mask over its hardware cracks with AI. Cinebench rendering performance was no better than the MSI Cyborg 15 AI A1V. It continues to be true: if you're working in 3D visualisation or similar intensive fields, then you'll need a high-end CPU with a dedicated GPU.

More positively, the Aspire 14 AI performed incredibly during our battery tests, managing 21.5 hours while playing a looping video with the screen on all the time. This puts it firmly alongside the HP Elitebook X G1i and further reinstates the laptop's credentials as a portable laptop.

If you're set on buying Acer but are undecided as to which model, then it's worth noting that other than photo and video editing, the Acer Aspire 14 AI actually performed similarly to the Acer Swift 16 AI. The latter will serve you better for high-end creative workflows, but if that's not what you need, then the Aspire 14 AI, along with its budget-friendly price, will serve up enough performance for most.

Performance score: 3.5/5

Price

The Acer Aspire 14 AI ships from a very affordable £479/$879.99, although some base models run on a Snapdragon CPU rather than the Intel one we had in the review unit, which at the time of writing will set you back £849 in the UK. I think coming in under £500/$900 makes it instantly more appealing to a wide range of customers. As a result, it'll no doubt be a favourite among students who want a reliable and portable laptop that goes beyond the functionality of a simple Chromebook.

Value score: 4.5/5

Who is it for?

• Hybrid workers and students

The Acer Aspire 14 AI has two main things going for it. The first is that it performs reasonably, especially given the price. The second is that it's a 14-inch laptop, which makes it perfectly portable. As a result, this laptop is ideal for hybrid work and is one of the best laptops for students.

If you're working in high-end creative disciplines, including video editing and 3D rendering, then you'll need a laptop with a higher-end CPU and GPU.

Buy it if...

• You need an affordable laptop
• You will make use of AI features such as Copilot
• You work in multiple locations and therefore value portability

Don't buy it if...

• You're a high-end creative
• You want a laptop that will last many years
• You'll be using the laptop screen as your primary display

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