When looking for the best laptops, a few brands will constantly appear on various lists. Companies like HP, Dell, and Acer all make fantastic devices, and thus, they’re almost always at the top of our recommendations. Usually, though, those lists all have devices from different brands, so if you have one brand you really like, it can be hard to find what you’re looking for. To help with that, we’ve rounded up the best Acer laptops you can buy today in a few different categories. This way, you should be able to find something that suits your specific needs.
Acer makes great laptops in all kinds of segments. Whether it’s premium thin-and-light devices, unique form factors for creators, powerful gaming rigs, or even affordable Chromebooks, you’re sure to find something you like here. Let’s get started.
Best overall: Acer Swift 5
The 2022 Acer Swift 5 is one of the most beautiful laptops of the year, and with powerful specs and a great display, it’s a very well-rounded machine. We have no problem considering it one of the best Acer laptops you can buy today.
First things first, the Acer Swift 5 is powered by 12th-generation Intel Core processors, specifically from the P series. You can go up to a Core i7-1260P, which gives you 12 cores, 16 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, so you get a lot of performance for all kinds of tasks. This processor has integrated Intel iris Xe graphics, and the laptop is backed up by 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, though other configurations are also available. This makes for a great premium experience across the board, and you probably will never feel restricted in terms of performance.
Something else that’s fantastic with the Acer Swift 5 is the display. This laptop comes with a 14-inch panel, and it adopts the increasingly popular 16:-10 aspect ratio. This taller screen makes for a fantastic canvas for productivity, with more space to see what you’re working on without scrolling. On top of that, it comes in a very sharp Quad عالية الجودة HD+ (2560 x 1600) resolution, so everything looks crystal clear. The screen also supports touch and reaches up to 425 nits of brightness, so it’s still visible outdoors.
Above that display is even more good news in the form of a 1080p webcam. Acer has updated to a higher-resolution sensor with temporal noise reduction, and it shows, you get pretty great image quality from this camera. Unfortunately, there’s still no Windows Hello facial recognition (as with most Acer laptops), but there’s a fingerprint reader if you want a more convenient way to unlock your PC.
The design is one of the best things about the Acer Swift 5, though that’s obviously a subjective matter. The surfaces of this laptop are “mist green”, a shade of dark grey with green undertones, and that’s complemented by gold accents along the edges of the laptop, the trackpad, and on the key labels. It makes for a very premium-feeling look that’s beautiful but not overly flashy. The laptop weighs just 2.65lbs and measures 14.9mm thin, so it’s also a very portable machine, especially for an aluminum laptop.
And as for ports, you get a pretty great selection. Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack ensure you have all the basics covered, while also giving you room for expansion with Thunderbolt docks.
There’s no doubt the Acer Swift 5 is one of the best laptops the company makes, being well-rounded in just about every way. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that a successor is already on the way with the Acer Swift 14.
Acer Swift 5 (2022)The Acer Swift 5 is a thin and light laptop with a premium design, high-end specs, and a great display.
Best convertible: Acer Spin 5
If you want something that you can use as a laptop and as a tablet, then the Acer Spin 5 is the one to go for. This is a premium convertible with solid specs and a great screen that will give you a great experience. It’s very similar to the Acer Swift 5, except it’s a convertible.
First off, the Acer Spin 5 is powered by Intel’s 12th-generation Core processors, up to a Core i7-1260P. As we mentioned above, that’s a processor with 12 cores, 16 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, plus it includes Intel Iris Xe graphics to help with some lightweight GPU tasks. That’s also paired with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD for storage, so performance-wise, this is just as great as the Acer Swift 5.
In many ways, the same can be said for the display. It has a 14-inch panel with a 16:-10 aspect ratio, and it comes in Quad عالية الجودة HD+ resolution. It’s a very sharp display that looks great, and the tall aspect ratio makes it even more suitable as a tablet for drawing and taking notes. And that’s the core difference from the device above: Besides supporting touch input, this panel supports a pen, which is included with the laptop, so taking notes by hand becomes much easier.
The webcam is also great on the Acer Spin 5, being a Full عالية الجودة HD sensor with temporal noise reduction. Acer is oddly reluctant to include Windows Hello facial recognition in its laptops, so you’ll still have to make do with a fingerprint reader.
The design is where the Acer Spin 5 distinguishes itself from the Swift 5. Instead of a dual-tone look, it’s just a single-color laptop, and it comes in a slightly tinted shade of silver. It still looks and feels premium, albeit not as unique. It’s also just over 17mm thick and it weighs 2.87 pounds, which is still fairly thin and light for an all-metal convertible of this size. We should also note that the laptop is designed to store the included pen in a dedicated garage, so you don’t have to worry about losing it.
Finally, the port selection on the Acer Spin 5 covers all the bases. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. That’s a very good supply, with room for expansion thanks to Thunderbolt.
All in all, the Acer Spin 5 is a fantastic laptop all around, and certainly one of the best in the company’s lineup. It looks and feels premium, it has great performance, and it offers the versatility you can only get from a convertible. If you’re interested, you can check it out below.
Acer Spin 5The Acer Spin 5 is a premium convertible with a thin and light design, top-tier performance, and a great display.
Best with an OLED display: Acer Swift Edge
OLED displays are becoming more and more common in the laptop space, and Acer’s most recent attempt knocks it out of the park. The Acer Swift Edge not only features a fantastic OLED panel, but also some top-tier specs and an ultra-light design.
Let’s start with those specs. The Acer Swift Edge is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor, which is already fairly uncommon. This powerful CPU gives you 8 cores, 16 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, so you can count on great performance for everyday tasks. It also includes 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, so you’re set up for a great experience across the board.
The display on the Acer Swift Edge is one of its main draws, however. This is a 16-inch panel with a tall 16:-10 aspect ratio, and it comes in a super-sharp Ultra عالية الجودة HD resolution (3840 x 2400). On top of that, as we’ve mentioned, it’s an OLED panel, so it looks absolutely fantastic for work and watching movies. It also covers 100% of DCI-P3, so it’s simply a great display all around. Above that display, there’s a Full عالية الجودة HD webcam, so the video quality should be solid for video calls and meetings.
Something else that makes the Acer Swift Edge special is that it’s incredibly light, and Acer says it’s the lightest 16-inch laptop on the market. Indeed, at 2.4 pounds, you’re not going to find 16-inch laptops lighter than this one, and the 13.95mm thickness is equally impressive. The laptop comes in a dark green colorway called Olivine Black, so it’s subdued without being overly boring.
Finally, in terms of ports, we’re looking at two USB Type-C ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack. For a laptop this thin and light, that’s a great selection of ports, and it’s hard to ask for more.
All in all, the Acer Swift Edge is a fantastic laptop, and for everything it offers, the $1,499.99 is actually very reasonable.
Acer Swift EdgeAt just 2.4 pounds of weight, the Acer Swift Edge is an incredibly lightweight laptop that still packs a big 16-inch OLED display and high-end performance for everyday use.
Best gaming laptop: Acer Predator Triton 500 SE
Now we’re getting into fun territory, and for the gamers out there, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is a beastly laptop. It’s powerful, but it still has a sleek look with just enough flair to make it feel unique without being obnoxious. We had a lot of good things to say in our review of it.
Let’s start with performance, and the Predator Triton 500 SE comes with Intel’s 45W processors, up to a Core i9-12900H. This is a powerful 14-core, 20-thread processor that can boost as high as 5GHz, and it’s the most powerful laptop on this list. Backing that up, you get up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card with 16GB of video memory meaning you can run just about any modern game at high settings and enjoy smooth frame rates (more on that in a second). Rounding things out, you can get up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, making this a beastly laptop all around.
That’s not all that’s great about this laptop, though. The display on the Predator Triton 500 SE is a large 16-inch IPS panel, and it comes in a tall 16:-10 aspect ratio, which is a bit unusual for gaming laptops. This is a great aspect ratio for productivity, and it works well for games, too, but it’s not very common. To make things even better, this is a very sharp Quad عالية الجودة HD+ (2560 x 1600) display, and it also has a super-smooth 240Hz refresh rate, providing a great balance of sharpness and fluidity in games. It also makes this a great laptop for getting work done if you need to.
Of course, if there’s one kind of laptop that often neglects the webcam, it’s gaming laptops, and this is no different. It’s another 720p webcam (that’s the minimum required for Windows 10 laptops), and there’s no Windows Hello support. What you do get is a fingerprint reader built into the touchpad, so you can use that to unlock your laptop more easily.
Despite all the power crammed inside, the Predator Triton 500 SE still manages to be under 20mm thick, though it can’t disguise its hefty 5.29-pound weight. Still, for a high-end gaming laptop, that’s not bad, and in terms of looks, the Triton 500 SE is very sleek. There are no excessive angular designs or obnoxious RGB lighting. The keyboard is RGB backlit, but it mostly only shines through the key labels, so it’s still subtle enough to be pleasant.
Thanks to its beefy design, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE also has space for a lot of ports. You get two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.1, Gigabit Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader, all evenly distributed on both sides of the laptop to make setting up easier. In terms of wired connectivity, this is one of the best laptops from Acer, and one of the best in general.
If you want a powerful gaming rig that’s still somewhat portable, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is an easy recommendation.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SEWith powerful Intel processors, range-topping RTX graphics, and a fantastic display, the Predator Triton 500 SE has everything you could want in a gaming laptop.
Best business laptop: Acer TravelMate Spin P4
While pretty much any laptop can be used for work, proper business laptops still have benefits thanks to features like Pro Windows licenses and extra security. If you want something you can use in a professional environment, the Acer TravelMate Spin P4 is one of the best laptops in the company’s lineup. Of course, it comes with Windows 10 Pro, and you can upgrade to Windows 11 Pro for free.
The latest model is powered by up to an Intel Core i7-1260P processor, which gives you 12 cores, 16 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.7GHz, so you get a ton of performance for day-to-day tasks, though battery life might not be the best because of the 28W TDP. In addition, you can get up to 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, based on the current configurations available.
The display on the TravelMate Spin P4 is a 14-inch panel with a 16:-10 aspect ratio — a big upgrade over the previous model — and it comes in Full عالية الجودة HD+ (1920 x 1200) resolution. It’s an IPS panel, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass, reinforcing that this is a premium laptop and a convertible, complete with touch and active pen support. The webcam is still a 720p sensor, which isn’t ideal for video quality, but it should suffice if you don’t use it that frequently.
The TravelMate Spin P4 is designed to fit into business environments, so it looks decidedly subdued but classy. It comes in a stealthy black color, and the Acer branding looks different on the lid, so it’s a bit more professional. In terms of portability, the TravelMate Spin P4 weighs 3.48 pounds and measures 17.99mm thin, so it’s clearly not meant to be extremely portable. However, it is designed to meet the MIL-STD-810H standard for impact resistance, plus it should survive drops and water (to a reasonable extent). It’s meant to be durable, something business users will likely appreciate.
One thing business laptops are good at is connectivity, and the TravelMate Spin P4 delivers. It includes two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a headphone jack. That covers just about every need you could have, including wired internet connectivity. In theory, a model with LTE support should also be available, but we couldn’t find it available for sale.
With a durable and professional design, a healthy supply of ports, and a Windows 10 Pro license, the Acer TravelMate Spin P4 is one of the company’s best business laptops, complete with the versatility of a convertible.
The Acer TravelMate Spin P4 is a capable business laptop with 12th-generation Intel processors and a 16:-10 display.
Best for creators: Acer ConceptD 5
Some laptops need power for gaming, but others need it for professional reasons. If you need a laptop to handle advanced content creation, the Acer ConceptD 5 is the best choice for you right now.
Indeed, this is a powerful laptop, featuring an Intel Core i7-12700H processor with 14 cores and 20 threads, paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti graphics card that should make quick work of all kinds of creative workloads, whether you’re editing video or rendering 3D scenes. In addition, this configuration includes a massive 32GB of RAM that makes multi-tasking and heavier workloads much easier. You’ll also get a 1TB SSD that should be able to store quite a few projects.
The display is also a big factor with creator laptops like this, and the Acer ConceptD 5 has that in spades. It has a large 16-inch IPS panel with a 16:-10 aspect ratio and a very sharp 3072 x 1920 resolution. The screen also covers 100% of DCI-P3, and it has a rated color accuracy of Delta E < 2, so it’s ideal for color-sensitive work like image or video editing. Above that display, you also get a Full عالية الجودة HD 1080p webcam, ensuring you look your best during video calls and online meetings. Sadly, there’s no facial recognition support, but you do get a fingerprint reader on the touchpad for Windows Hello.
Design-wise, the Acer ConceptD 5 is fairly simple, but that’s probably for the best, It comes in an all-black chassis, and while there’s no RGB, the keys are backlit in a soft amber color that looks unique without being obnoxious. The laptop as a whole weighs 5.29 pounds, and it’s 19.81mm thick, which isn’t exactly light, but it’s about what you might expect for a powerful machine like this.
As for ports, there are a lot of them. With two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader, there isn’t a lot more you could ask for. It’s one of the most complete setups on this list.
The ConceptD 5 does miss out on the cool convertible design of the ConceptD 3 Ezel or ConceptD 7 Ezel, but Acer hasn’t updated those models in a long time. This is still a very capable machine, and certainly, the best laptop Acer makes for creators right now.
Acer ConceptD 5The Acer ConceptD 5 is a powerful laptop with a sleek design and a color-accurate display, ideal for creative professionals.
Best budget laptop: Acer Aspire Vero
High-end laptops can get ridiculously expensive, but you don’t have to spend a fortune to have a good experience with your laptop. Acer has done some excellent work with the Aspire Vero, which is not only a solid-performing and affordable laptop but also symbolizes a big push for environmentally-friendly electronics. We reviewed the 14-inch Aspire Vero, but we’re focusing on the 15.6-inch model here.
Inside the Acer Aspire Vero are 12th-generation Intel processors, up to a Core i7-1255U, though our focus here is on the Core i5-1235U model. That version gives you a 10-core, 12-thread CPU with boost speeds up to 4.4GHz, which should already get you great performance for all kinds of day-to-day tasks, whether you’re just casually browsing the web or using it for school work. It also has 8GB of RAM and a large 512GB SSD, which is very nice to see at this price.
The display is unremarkable, but it’s completely within expectations for a laptop in this price range. It’s a 15.6-inch panel with a regular 16:-9 aspect ratio, and it comes in Full عالية الجودة HD resolution. That won’t be the sharpest display, but it’s more than good enough for basic use. Above that display is a 1080p webcam, which is also very nice to see for a laptop this affordable.
A big focus for the Acer Aspire Vero is the eco-friendly design, featuring an unpainted chassis made of recycled materials, which reveals speckles through the surface of the laptop that actually helps it look unique. Many parts of the laptop use recycled materials, including ocean-bound plastics used for the touchpad. The R and E letters are printed backward, which can be somewhat distracting, but if you can get over that and the somewhat squeaky keys, you should be okay with this laptop.
Rounding things out, we have the ports, and there’s a decent selection here. You get one Thunderbolt 4 port, which is very nice to see at this price point, plus there are three USB Type-A ports, HDMI, Ethernet, and a headphone jack. It’s a surprisingly complete setup, and the inclusion of Thunderbolt support is especially interesting,
For $630, the Acer Aspire Vero is a really good laptop that covers all the basics you could ask it to. It has great performance, a solid display and webcam, and an environmentally-friendly design, which makes it look quite unique compared to most laptops in this price range.
The Acer Aspire Vero is an eco-friendly laptop with 12th-generation Intel Core processors and a very appealing price point for what it offers.
Best Chromebook: Acer Chromebook Spin 714
The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 is the successor to one of our most praised Chromebooks ever, the Spin 713. While it cuts back in some ways, it also makes some very welcome improvements, and it’s still a fantastic choice if you want one of the very best Chromebooks around.
For starters, it’s been upgraded with the latest 12th-generation Intel Core processors, specifically a Core i5-1235U with 10 cores and 12 threads capable of boosting up to 4.4GHz on its performance cores. Just like before, the integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics can also help with some light 3D rendering for lightweight games. Additionally, you get 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage, which should give you everything you need to cruise through Chrome OS smoothly without any issues.
The change in name from Spin 713 to Spin 714 actually refers to the display because Acer has moved from a 13.5-inch panel to a larger 14-inch screen while also switching from the 3:-2 aspect ratio to the more common 16:-10 format. This is slightly wider, but it may feel more natural to many people. Acer did cut back on the resolution, bringing it to Full عالية الجودة HD+ (1920 x 1200), but this is still a very sharp screen, and since this is a convertible, it supports touch and pen input (plus, the pen is even built into the laptop itself!). At the top of the screen, the webcam has been upgraded from a 720p sensor to a 1080p one, so you should look that much clearer during video calls or online classes.
On the design front, the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 uses a premium aluminum chassis, and it also manages to look less boring than its predecessor. Instead of the classic silver, this model comes in Slate Blue, a dark, almost black shade, but with a bit more personality. A silver configuration also exists, though. The total weight comes to 3.09 pounds, which is fairly light for an aluminum convertible.
Coming around to the ports, we’re looking at a pretty good setup with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one USB Type-A port, HDMI, and a headphone jack, providing solid coverage for all the needs you might have. For a relatively light and thin laptop, it’s not bad at all.
Acer Chromebook Spin 714The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 is one of the best bang-for-the-buck Chromebooks, with solid performance and a premium design.
That wraps up what we’d consider the very best Acer laptops you can buy today, ranging from lightweight everyday laptops to powerful gaming rigs. We chose the Acer Swift 5 as the best overall because it’s a stunning laptop with a thin and light design, in addition to packing powerful processors and a great display. Of course, if you have more specific needs, there are plenty of other options that might be more tailored to you.
Are you not an Acer kind of person? No worries — check out our lists of the best HP laptops, or maybe even the best Lenovo laptops if that’s more your speed.
