Acer today (April 9) unveiled four new gaming laptops powered by the latest chips from AMD and Intel.

These new Nitro and Predator Helios laptops are all 14" or 16" and all but one feature the new Intel Core Ultra chip or AMD's "Hawk Point" 8040 CPU. Both feature NPUs (Neural Processing Units) optimized for the low-level processing often required by the latest "AI" functions and apps, which is still rare among the best gaming laptops.

In addition, all of these new gaming laptops come with the option to upgrade to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000 series laptop discrete graphics card, especially with Nvidia's DLSS 3 upscaling technology, you get one with enough power to play the best PC games at reasonable frame rates.

That said, Acer today announced four new laptops that will soon begin hitting store shelves: two refreshed models of the Acer Nitro 16, and two new 14-inch models, the Acer Nitro 14 and Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 They are.

Of these, the most interesting and most expensive (at least initially) is the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14. [This new gaming laptop from Acer is essentially a smaller version of the extant 16-inch Acer Predator Helios Neo, and is the only gaming laptop announced by Acer this week to feature one of the new Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, specifically the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H.

These are the first batch of Intel chips with NPUs, not the old-fashioned ones like "Intel Core i7 14700HX," but the first with the new nomenclature called "Intel Core Ultra 9."

Testing a gaming laptop with an integrated NPU I haven't had many opportunities to do so yet, so I'm curious to see how much of a difference (if any) there is in terms of performance. [At least a 3K (3,072 x 1,920) 165Hz panel will be available and will support Nividia G-Sync. Full details of all the different configurations that will be available are not yet known, as Acer says they are not final at this time.

What we do know is that the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 will be available in North America in May 2024 starting at $1,799. It will then be available in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) in June for $1,999/£1,799.

The Acer Nitro 14 is another new gaming laptop to be released in this batch, and as you can guess from its name, it is basically a smaller version of the company's Nitro 16 gaming laptop. Ideally, it would be a bit more portable than the larger 16-inch laptops, and not much less powerful. [Acer's Nitro 14 has a 14-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, driven by an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 laptop graphics card with up to driven by AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 laptop graphics card.

It's powerful enough for a 14-inch gaming laptop and would be a great machine at the right price; Acer thinks the right price starts at $1,299, which is at least what the new Nitro 14 will cost when it goes on sale in North America in May 2024. The Nitro 14 will be available in EMEA in June starting at £1,199.

Acer will revamp the Nitro 16 for 2024, releasing two new models with the latest Intel or AMD CPUs. Whichever CPU is chosen, it will be paired with an Nvidia 40 series GPU and the same 16-inch display as last year's Nitro 16.

Specifically, the 2024 Acer Nitro 16 will ship with up to an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU or Intel Core i7 14700HX. These chips may be faster when running games than the newer Intel Core Ultra chips, as they are older Intel laptop chips designed without NPUs.

No matter which CPU you choose, all Acer Nitro 16s can be configured with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU. They also feature the same 16-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) 165 Hz panel as last year's model, making them suitable for gaming.

While some may feel that the 14-inch and 16-inch Nitros are lacking the same screen resolution, 1600p is a good sweet spot for gaming, allowing for more resolution than the standard 1080p without overloading the laptop. Perhaps a larger 16-inch Nitro would look slightly better, with a bit more screen area to appreciate the detail.

Like the other laptops on this list, the Acer Nitro 16 will be available in the US by May 2024, with prices starting at $1,399. It will then be available in EMEA in June starting at £1,599.

But there is one catch: the AMD-powered Acer Nitro 16 will (for now) only be available in the US. So if you want to buy one in the UK this June, your only option will be to buy an Intel model.

The new gaming notebook packages that Acer is bringing to market this summer are strong, and it is interesting to see the focus on the 14" and 16" models in this drop.

These are going to be excellent gaming machines for under $2,000, but we won't know how profitable they will be until we try them out. Stay tuned.

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