Acer Aspire 14 AI review: Sometimes simple utility is all it takes

The Acer Aspire 14 AI is a budget-minded laptop aiming to bring reasonable performance and the latest Microsoft Copilot+ capabilities in a laptop that’s modest and affordable. To that end, Acer has built a fairly simple machine that has many of the qualities — for better or worse — I’ve become accustomed to from laptops bearing the Aspire badge. 

You’ll get a modest machine in the Acer Aspire 14 AI. It’s not impressively thin or light nor is it leading the way in terms of performance or battery life. And while the display is perfectly useful, it falls well short of excellence. The result is a utilitarian machine that’s at least likable and well met by a $699 price tag.

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Specs and features

The review unit we received boasts an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. For more details on specifications and features, check out the bulleted list below.

• CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 226V
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 130V
• Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS Touchscreen
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p
• Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Biometrics: Windows Hello facial recognition
• Battery capacity: 65 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.57 x 9.06 x 0.70 inches
• Weight: 3.07 pounds
• MSRP: $699 as-tested ($699 base)

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Design and build quality

IDG / Mark Knapp

Outside of some of its more premium products, Acer seems quite averse to rejiggering its designs. While the Acer Aspire 14 AI has changed slightly, opting for an all-gray color scheme, it still looks like many of the other Acer models I’ve come across in the last couple of years. It finds itself somewhere between the more polished designs of the Acer Swift Go series and the base-tier Aspire models. 

You’ll still find somewhat thick bezels around the display and a plastic keyboard deck. The bottom of the laptop and the display lid are made of aluminum, though. This model is rather chunky, measuring 0.7-inches thick before factoring in the sizable rubber feet. It’s a bit of a surprise to see it so large when it packs a low-power processor. The thickness makes the laptop feel a little brick-like, but at least that comes with a sturdiness. 

The underside of the laptop has a sizable grille, and a single fan pulls in fresh air to blow it out through a vent above the keyboard. Acer has gone with this vent positioning on many of its laptops, and it always leaves me concerned about debris or liquid entering it, as it opens upward.

The positioning also ensures it exhausts heat right at the display, where it could cause damage over time. The Acer Aspire 14 AI fits in a modest 14-inch display, and above that is situated a webcam system paired with a Windows Hello-capable facial recognition scanner.

Altogether, the look of the Acer Aspire 14 AI isn’t very special to behold. It looks uncommitted to any sort of sense of style, and some of it appears cobbled together, with odd seams, some jagged geometry and some curved.

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Mark Knapp

Acer hasn’t done anything I can detect to improve the keyboard on the Acer Aspire 14 AI compared to any of its other machines. The keys are still very flat and don’t have great stabilization, which can make for tricky typing as you adjust to the keyboard.

Having tested loads of Acer laptops, I’ve managed to adapt somewhat to these designs and was able to reach an acceptable typing speed of 114 words per minute with 98 percent accuracy in Monkeytype, but the mushiness of the keys was a regular annoyance.

The keyboard gets white backlighting, but because Acer has opted for a gray keyboard, it can reflect a lot of light, making it hard to see in bright conditions. When so many other Acer Aspire laptops have opted for black keycaps, this switch doesn’t make much sense, especially since it just harms visibility.

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Display, audio

IDG / Mark Knapp

The Acer Aspire 14 AI doesn’t have a particularly special display, and is rather bad in some respects. The 1200p resolution is unobjectionable at this size, but plenty of competition is going sharper. The display also only offers a 60Hz refresh rate where you can find 90Hz and 120Hz on many other devices. The display has a responsive touchscreen, which can simplify some navigation and is a nice addition to get for the money.

Where the display gets some credit is in its visibility. It reaches a modest brightness of 327.6 nits and has a strong anti-glare finish that dramatically cuts down on reflections. This makes it easy to see the screen in most conditions where glossy displays would be marred by reflections.

Sadly, you’ll only be seeing a utilitarian display. The contrast is typical of an IPS panel, and the color gamut is about as low as you can get from a modern display, hitting just 64 percent of the sRGB color space. 

The speakers on the Acer Aspire 14 AI are respectable. They offer bright and loud mids that provide plenty of volume for clear, easy-to-hear speech. The high-end is a bit harsh and resonant, which takes away from music. The bass is also limited, not digging in very deep to give music or voices their proper fullness. There’s some clear ducking as well, where too much volume at one frequency will pull down the volume elsewhere. 

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The webcam included on the Acer Aspire 14 AI is a modest, 1080p one. It’s not amazing, but it’s surprisingly decent at handling different lighting conditions. The picture looks a little soft, but even in less-than-ideal lighting, the camera manages to expose the image well. It can end up a little noisy in anything less than sunlight. 

The mic array on the Acer Aspire 14 AI pairs well with the cameras. They do a good job picking up my voice without too much echo. As a result, my voice sounds loud and clear, rather than distant. The mic can also reduce some background noise. A sample recording had an air filter running in the background, but the mics completely negated its noise.

Acer has integrated Windows Hello facial recognition with the webcam. This makes for snappy sign-ons, and while it’s surprising to not see fingerprint as a secondary option, I’ve often found facial recognition the faster of the two on Windows laptops anyway.

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Connectivity

IDG / Mark Knapp

You get respectable connectivity from the Acer Aspire 14 AI. On the left edge of the laptop, you’ll find a pair of USB-C ports providing Thunderbolt 4 connectivity and charging capabilities. There’s also a full-size HDMI 2.1 port over there to provide high-resolution output. Each side of the laptop includes a high-speed USB-A port. This is all rounded out by a 3.5mm audio combo jack and a Kensington lock slot on the right side of the laptop. 

The system includes Wi-Fi 6E connectivity for fast and reliable wireless connectivity. Bluetooth 5.3 is also supported and worked without a hitch while playing back audio to a pair of Bluetooth headphones. 

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Performance

The Acer Aspire 14 AI is a decent performer overall, and it gets bonus points for doing so at a competitive price. In PCMark 10, it does a decent job keeping up with the Core Ultra 7 155H-powered Dell Inspiron 14 Plus ($799 as tested) and the Acer Swift Go 14 ($1,000 as tested), though it’s still trailing those models. It’s also close, but again trailing the AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS in the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED ($849 as tested). 

A good bit of its ability to keep pace with them at all is probably coming from the storage, which proved quite fast in testing. The drive exceeded my expectations for a 1TB SSD in such an economical package, reaching 6388MB/s sequential read speeds and 5571MB/s sequential write speeds in CrystalDiskMark 8.