Best Acer laptops

The best Acer laptops hold true to the Taiwanese manufacturer’s reputation for delivering quality devices at affordable prices. This practice has earned the tech giant a great deal of favor with budget-conscious consumers the world over looking to make every cent count. And, while these lower prices would scare most into thinking they had the thermal output of a Harrier Jump Jet, Acer has proven themselves more than capable of producing competitively priced hardware that consumers can rely on.

Acer offers an impressive selection of laptops, from lightweight Chromebooks to beefy, creator-class laptops. There’s a real mixed bag to delve into here, which means there’s something in their catalog for everyone. However, if you’re tied to no particular brand, you can always check out our shortlist of the best laptops available. If you have a budget in mind, there’s also our selection of the best laptops under $1,000, and if your budget is really tight there’s always the best laptops under $500, too.

We’ve rounded up some of Laptop Mag’s best reviewed Acer laptops, so you can quickly sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to which machines are worth your hard-earned cash. As a note, in order to make the cut, these laptops had to score at least four stars in their individual reviews, and were preferably reviewed no more than two years ago. Without further ado, let's get into our picks for the best Acer laptops of 2023.

Quick List

Best Overall

Triton is the largest natural satellite of Neptune, and the first Neptunian moon to have been discovered. How fitting, then, that the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is also first to appear on our list. If you need a laptop without limits, you’ve found it. In every synthetic benchmark we put the Triton 500 SE through, it performed above (if not well above) the premium gaming laptop standard. It showcased itself as a true do-it-all device, and could easily stretch itself across any number of computing tasks.

Taking a look under the Triton 500 SE’s hood explains a lot about its performance. Acer’s powerhouse has configurations that combine a powerful 11th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU with the might of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. That’s an impressive amount of power made available for anything from gaming and rendering to video editing or programming. You can also opt to have up to 32GB of RAM, making multitasking a breeze.

Throw in 1TB of super-fast SSD storage and a bright, 16-inch, 1440p display (with a refresh rate of 165Hz) and you cap off one of Acer’s best offerings to date. It’s our pick as one of the best gaming laptops you can currently own, but it’s easily versatile enough to double as an effective desktop replacement for content creators as well.

Read our full Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (2021) review.

Best 2-in-1 Laptop

You can’t have everything, that much is universally true. However, that isn’t to say you can’t get really, really close to having everything. The Acer Spin 5 is a fantastic thin-and-light 2-in-1 that left its convertible contemporaries in the dust when it came to our benchmark testing. The Spin 5 has it all: A punchy panel, powerful performance, professional presentation, prominent portability, and plenty of ports. That isn’t even everything, I just ran out of words beginning with the letter “P”.

Acer’s versatile hybrid houses a 10th Gen Intel Core CPU, 16GB of RAM and integrated Iris Plus graphics, which isn’t super impressive when compared to traditional laptops. However, it gleefully outperforms when it comes to its 2-in-1 competition. Whether it was transcoding a 4K video, duplicating files, or under pressure in our overall performance testing, the Spin 5 crushed the category average every time. While its performance is notable, we were also left impressed by the Spin 5’s built-in stylus, lightweight build and its bright and colorful, 13.5-inch display. 

Our only gripe came from the battery life of the machine. While it lasted 9 hours and 6 minutes in our testing, that does fall almost 30 minutes short of the category average. However, that isn’t enough to sully an otherwise fantastic experience, leaving the Acer Spin 5 as one of the best 2-in-1 laptops Acer have released to date.

Read our full Acer Spin 5 (2020) review.

Best Budget Chromebook

Most of the time people don’t know what they want, and that’s because most of the time people don’t know what they need, either. If you’re looking for a notebook for school or business and you buy yourself something capable of running half of your Steam library, you now know you didn’t buy that laptop for school or business. Sometimes limitations are important, and they can be a fantastic way to keep you focused on the task at hand.

If you’re a student or needing a laptop for business and productivity, the Acer Chromebook C933T is one of the better Chromebooks out there — and it’s one that won’t see you overbuying or left feeling shortchanged. For a price as low as $390, Acer’s C933T comes reasonably well equipped with an Intel Pentium Silver processor with 8GB of RAM. That’s more than enough power to run most classroom or light office related apps. And with 64GB of storage available, you won’t be left hard pressed for document space any time soon. Add to this a comfortable keyboard, a 720p webcam and a bright, 14-inch FHD display and you have a fantastic companion for the classroom or the home office. 

Read our full Acer Chromebook C933T review.

Best Acer laptop for content creators

At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be much that makes the Acer Swift 3x truly stand out as an ideal pick for content creators. Sure, its 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU affords impressive performance. Yes, 16GB of RAM is a sizable amount for a great many computing tasks. And of course, an ultra-fast 1TBof SSD storage — alongside a color rich, 14-inch 1080p display — will no doubt sweeten the deal. But what is it that makes the Swift 3x really stand out as an option? Take a closer look at the Swift 3x’s GPU and you realize it isn’t the usual Iris Xe graphics offering found in most 11th Gen Intel based laptops. Instead, the Swift 3x offers up Intel’s first discrete graphics option in decades: the Intel Iris Xe Max.

It won’t make a noticeable difference when it comes to gaming, but it will make a considerable difference when it comes to content creation. Laptops with this pairing of processors can combine the two’s efforts under the label Deep Link, and improve the speed and efficiency of certain workloads — especially video encoding and photo editing. What’s the catch? Current drivers and software don’t yet fully support the use of Deep Link, meaning it’s more of a future investment.

That being said, the Swift 3x still did impressively well in our own benchmarking, transcoding 4K video almost five minutes faster than the competition. This makes it a more than capable device for content creators already, but with an impressive amount of potential for the future, too.

See our full Acer Swift 3x review.

Best Acer Intel gaming laptop

Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE is an impressive gaming laptop by a lot of metrics. It combines an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU with a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU to offer considerable gaming and overall performance. When paired with 16GB of RAM, the Triton 300 SE notched up some competitive results in our overall performance testing. However, the Triton 300 SE really came to life when we let it take on a range of demanding titles at their highest settings, showcasing an impressive frame count across the board.

The 14-inch, 1080p display was another strong suit, outputting vibrant pictures at a speedy refresh rate of 144Hz. In testing, its color reproduction was well above the mainstream average, covering 80.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The brightness of the Triton 300 SE’s screen also impressed, registering at 292 nits. That not only bested the category average, but is also brighter than a number of premium gaming laptops.

So, quality components? Check. Slim, sleek style? Check. Impressive display? Check. Affordably priced? Surprisingly, another check. You can pick up the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE for just $1,399, which is pretty reasonable pricing considering its level of performance and the components housed within. It’s a great gaming laptop for those working within a budget, and its price to performance ratio won’t leave you second guessing your purchase.

Read our full Acer Predator Triton 300 SE review.

Best Acer Chromebook

Seen by some as existing just a few rungs up the ladder from a VTech children’s toy, there’s a real stigma surrounding the Chromebook. For all the good they offer, they are to this day often dismissed as “baby’s first laptop” devices. However, after over a decade of refinement, modern Chromebooks are capable of some impressive computing — and few of them showcase that potential quite like the Acer Chromebook Spin 713.

Housing an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, integrated Iris Xe graphics and 8GB of RAM, the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 is powerful enough to shatter even the sturdiest of preconceptions about Chromebooks. It’s a great fit for enthusiasts and power users looking to run heavier Android or Linux apps. Better still for developers looking for a powerful platform to test or develop their own apps on. A standout feature here is the bright and colorful 13.5-inch, 2256 x 1504 touchscreen. More still, Acer’s Chromebook is a versatile 2-in-1, allowing it to be converted between laptop, tent and tablet modes.

The Spin 713 is also impressively durable with a MIL-STD-810G certification ensuring survival from drops of up to four feet. Factor in the Spin’s impressive 10 hour battery life and you’re left with a portable powerhouse that even the most fervent Chromebook skeptic will find hard to deny.

Read our full Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2021) review.

Best Acer laptop for all-day power

Two impressively stand-out features of the Acer Swift 3 have to be its lightweight 2.6 pound build and all-day battery life of 14 hours and 48 minutes. The last time I saw something this light run for this long, Eliud Kipchoge won gold at the 2020 Olympics. This alone makes the Swift 3 a very tempting choice for those among us who like to make the world their office — especially when considering its budget-friendly price tag.

The Acer Swift 3 is powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics and 16GB of RAM. Our synthetic benchmark tests saw the Acer Swift 3 outperform in the ultra-portable laptop category average across numerous tests, with the integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics even proving useful for some light gaming. The Swift 3 is a genuine all-day device with enough power behind it to suit most uses, but it will really excel for those with productivity needs while away from their desk.

Read our full Acer Swift 3 review.

Best Acer AMD gaming laptop

While product names are rarely accurate, Acer’s decision to name its gaming laptop the Nitro would surely have been to showcase its impressive bang-for-your-buck potential. That’s because the Nitro range of Acer laptops has typically catered to the budget-conscious gamer— until now, that is. The Nitro 5 takes a sharp right turn on things and instead offers up incredible internals for premium levels of performance.

The pairing of a mighty octa-core AMD Ryzen 9 processor with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU can hit harder than a punch from the Hulk, and generated some impressive results in our benchmark tests. When pitted against some of gaming's most demanding titles the Nitro 5 was more than capable of frame rates that met or surpassed the premium gaming laptop average. That performance also translates to VR, where it sailed past the category average scores by some margin.

There’s an  atypical keyboard on display as you look at the Nitro 5, and it’ll take some acclimation. On the plus side, it is fully sized, but the downside is that it’s a little uncanny valley at first. Looking a bit further up from the keys should distract you. The Nitro’s 15.6-inch, 1440p display is capable of some seriously sharp images; and has an impressive 165Hz refresh rate to boot. There’s a lot going on with the Nitro 5, much more than this line of laptops is used to. So, take a fresh look at Acer’s Nitro 5 and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Read our full Acer Nitro 5 review.

Best Acer creator-class laptop

Designed with creators in mind, the Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel is capable of some serious graft, but a few interesting design choices make this laptop stand out from most. The 15.6-inch, 4K touchscreen is actually hinged, meaning once the laptop is opened it can be switched into either display or pad mode. Along with the included stylus, these modes make creator-focused tasks like photo editing, 3D sculpting and digital painting a cinch — moving the screen closer to the user and allowing much easier access to the panel. It’s a novel design that isn’t often seen, but it absolutely has its uses.

The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel is by no means a one-trick pony. While the posable screen is an interesting gimmick, Acer didn’t come up short on delivering some impressive performance to go with it. The ConceptD 7 Ezel houses a 10th Gen Intel Core i7, up to 32GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 20 series GPU all the way up to the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. That’s an impressive amount of power, and it was confirmed as such in our benchmark tests as the ConceptD 7 Ezel outperformed every workstation average we put it up against.

The ConceptD 7 Ezel also makes for a decent gaming laptop, and was able to run some of the most taxing AAA titles, even with maximum settings and at 4K resolution. It’s safe to say that Acer’s ConceptD 7 Ezel is a very versatile machine, and can take on pretty much anything you send its way.

Read our full Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel review.

How to Choose the best Acer laptop

Do your intensive daily workloads require more RAM than the average Joe? Are you a video editor who needs extra storage? Are you a power user who wants a beefy GPU? Sorting through the best laptops to fit your lifestyle is a tricky business.

To make your shopping process a little easier, our Editor-in-Chief Sherri L. Smith has put together some tried-and-true guidelines to help you choose the best laptop.

Budget: What you get for the money.

You can find decent Windows laptops and high-quality Chromebooks for under $500. However, better mainstream laptops usually cost more than $700 and premium Ultrabooks can run over $1,000. The best gaming laptops can cost $2.000 and up, but you can play the latest titles at decent frame rates on gaming laptops under $1,000.

Screen Size: 12 to 14 inches for Portability

Knowing a laptop's screen size tells you a lot about its portability overall. If you want to use your computer on your lap or carry it around a lot, go for one with a 12, 13 or 14-inch display. If you want to use the computer on tables and desks and won't carry it around much, a 15-inch model may give you more value. Some gaming rigs, media machines and workstations even have 17 or 18-inch screens, but those are hardest to carry.

2-in-1 or Clamshell?

More and more of today's laptops are 2-in-1s with screens that either bend back 360 degrees or detach so you can use them as tablets. If you like the idea of using your laptop in slate mode for drawing, media consumption or just using it standing up, a 2-in-1 could be for you. However, you can often get better features or a lower price by going with a traditional clamshell-style laptop.

Battery Life: 8+ Hours for Portability

Unless you only plan to use your laptop on your desk, battery life matters. Even within the home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work on the couch or at the conference table, without being chained to the nearest outlet. For the best portability, we recommend getting a laptop that lasted over 8 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test. The longest-lasting laptops endure for over 10 hours.

Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 8GB Are Best Bets

You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components to think about. If you just want really good mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p screen.

How We Test the best Acer laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 4.3 and 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests. 

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Dirt 3 benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 10 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise. 

These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming. 

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on. 

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it. 

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.