Acer’s new Aspire notebooks for Computex 2025 offer the choice of all three processor platforms, with either 14- or 16-inch display options. But there’s one big problem that the company can’t do anything about. In a word? Tariffs. Acer’s Aspire notebooks typically are its most affordable, so America’s fluctuating import tariffs add a confusing wrinkle to anything Acer announces. As a result, Acer isn’t announcing either the pricing or the ship date for its six new Copilot+ PCs. It is, however, disclosing what European customers will pay. Acer’s new Aspires are easy to understand: the company is shipping two notebooks, each with Intel’s Core Ultra (Lunar Lake) series, the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, and the low-end Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform inside. In each processor category, Acer is shipping both a 14-inch and a 16-inch version. All qualify as Copilot+ PCs. Perhaps because of the price, Acer executives told us that the emphasis is on the Snapdragon-based Aspires. The 14-inch version will ship for 899 euros ($1,006) and will be available in June to European customers. Naturally, we just don’t know what tariffs will do to your wallet. Acer While there are slight differences, each of the 14-inch Aspires generally shares the same features as the others, and the same goes for the 16-inch Aspires, too. There are some slight variations, we’re told: for example, the Snapdragon PC platform includes a 1440p webcam, while the AMD and Intel versions include a more basic 1080p webcam. The Intel- and Qualcomm-based Aspires include Wi-Fi 7, while the AMD-based Aspire ships with a Wi-Fi 6e radio instead. The Intel variant also includes Thunderbolt 4 ports, while the others include the virtually identical USB4. Finally, the Intel-based Aspire ships with a 1920 x 1280 display option (and a 60Hz panel), while the others ship with a 1920 x 1200 display instead but nudge up to 120Hz. Qualcomm These are the specifications for the new 14-inch and 16-inch Aspire AI notebooks, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip inside. I had a chance to briefly check out the new Aspires in a press preview before Computex. The displays of the new Aspires are better than you might expect, with both OLED options and conventional IPS panels that can reach 500 nits and top out at 120Hz refresh rates — not what you would normally expect for a budget PC. Memory options climb to 32GB of LPDDR5X, with storage options of up to a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSDs. In general, the 14-inch Aspires measure 12.28 x 8.89 x 0.63in. and weigh about 2.73 pounds, while the 16-inch versions measure 13.97 x 9.85 x 0.63in. and weigh about 3.28 pounds. There are some slight variations depending upon the processor. Acer Acer’s 14- and 16-inch Aspire AI notebooks, this time with an Intel Lunar Lake chip inside them. Again, the key is the price. Acer’s two Snapdragon Aspires, the A14-11M and A16-11M, will ship for 899 euros ($1,006) and 999 euros ($1,118) in June and July, respectively. The Acer Aspire A14-53M, a 14-inch Aspire with Intel’s Core Ultra chip, will ship for 999 euros ($1,118) in July and accompany the 16-inch A16-52M for 1,099 euros ($1,230), which will ship in August to the European market. Finally, Acer will ship its 14-inch A14-61M and the 16-inch A16-61M with Ryzen AI 300 processors inside to Europe in July and August for 999 euros ($1,118) and 1,099 euros ($1,230). As for the United States? Acer said that it will announce a ship date and price for the various models closer to when you can buy them. Read...

Acer is launching two creator-class laptops at Computex 2025: the Swift X 14 and Swift X 14 AI, which give buyers the choice of either an AMD or Intel processor as well as an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070. A creator-class laptop splits the difference between a traditional productivity laptop and a gaming device, with a midrange GPU that can handle both tasks, and with decent battery life, too. In the case of the Acer Swift X line, the two laptops have identical measurements (12.69 x 8.95 x 0.38-0.71 inches) and weigh about 3.5 pounds. What the Swift X offers is demure performance: It lacks the RGB keyboards of Acer’s Predator lineup, and includes a haptic touchpad as an additional feature. A haptic touchpad is equally clickable all along its surface, with minimal effort. Acer even includes a stylus for taking notes on the touchpad or the laptop’s 14.5-inch 2800×1800 OLED display, which delivers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That display appears to be just 60Hz, however. The only difference between the two Swift X’s is in the processor: The Swift X 14 AI features the choice of a Copilot+ capable Ryzen AI 300-series chip, from the AI 5 340 on up to the AI 9 365. Alternatively, the Swift X 14 includes either Intel’s Core Ultra 225H, 255H, and 285H. All are members of Intel’s Arrow Lake family, which can only provide 13 TOPS and do not meet Copilot+ requirements. Mark Hachman / Foundry Inside, Acer offers up to 32GB of LPDDR5X system memory as well as up to a terabyte of storage — but with two M.2 slots for SSDs, so users can add more. Acer provides a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a pair of USB-A ports, with one available for charging. The laptop also includes an SD slot, as well as an undisclosed HDMI port. Acer includes a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports in additional to USB-A and HDMI.Mark Hachman / Foundry Though there’s just a 1080p webcam, it can identify you for Windows Hello biometric recognition. There’s a fingerprint reader underneath the power button, too. The wrinkle is the pricing and availability. Because of the constantly changing tariffs, Acer isn’t disclosing pricing or availability quite yet. The company will ship the Swift X in 30 to 90 days, but isn’t saying exactly when. “We will announce U.S. pricing, availability, and configurations closer to market availability in the United States/North America,” Acer said in a statement. Both Swift X laptops will be available in Europe in July, for 1,799 euro, or about $2,012. Acer Read...

Acer’s most interesting gaming notebook for Computex 2025 isn’t necessarily a gaming notebook at all. The Predator Triton 14 AI is a surprisingly thin, creator-class notebook that includes both Intel’s Lunar Lake notebook CPU alongside an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU cooled by something new: graphene. Acer also is announcing the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI, a slightly cheaper version, plus refreshes of the Nitro lineup that go as large as an 18-inch display. Here’s what you need to know about all three gaming laptops: Acer’s 14.5-inch Predator Triton 14 AI is just 11mm thick at its thinnest point. Acer replaced the traditional liquid metal with graphene for improved cooling, and there’s a haptic touchpad (with its own stylus!) for inking while you’re on the go. Acer’s new 14.5-inch Helios Neo 14 AI combines a Core Ultra 9 285H with an RTX 5070, and should cost a bit less. Acer also is shipping several versions of its Nitro gaming laptops, both 16- and 18-inch versions which focus on the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processors. One of the questions I asked was if Acer is designing toward a price point, or to the component choices it deemed best for its users. Acer executives said they were making the latter choice, which might be one of the reasons that Acer is keeping the price and availability of the laptops mum for now. “We will announce U.S. pricing, availability, and configurations closer to market availability in the United States/North America,” Acer said in a statement. Acer did provide pricing and availability for Europe, which we’ve included here for comparison’s sake. Acer Predator Triton 14 AI Acer’s new Predator Triton 14 AI reminds me of a classical gangster: dark suit, dark tie, sunglasses, coolly confident. That’s until the per-key RGB lights up, reminding you what you’re here for. Creator-class notebooks have always interested me, since they offer some of the power of a gaming laptop without all of the weight. A few years ago, you might have to think about whether a lower-end discrete GPU could offer enough gaming horsepower; today, frame generation technologies are working to make that a moot point. As I held the Triton 14 AI (PT14-52T) at Acer’s preview, I was impressed by how compact it felt: it measures 12.6 x 8.7 x 0.43 inches at its thinnest, sloping out to 0.68 in (17.31mm) at its thickest — it still weighs 3.7 pounds, but that’s a far cry from the laptops that weigh over 5 pounds or more. (It earned Nvidia’s Studio Premium certification, which requires a thickness under 20 mm.) Acer treated the dark chassis with an anti-fingerprint coating that seemed to really work, and it’s the only one of its new gaming notebooks that included it. Acer’s Predator Triton 14 AI features per-key lighting and an Intel Core Ultra 200-series chip inside. Willis Lai / Foundry Acer built in a graphene thermal interface material into the insides of the laptop, which the company estimates will actually offer 14.5 percent better cooling, combined with the 0.5-mm-thin AeroBlade 3D metal fans that directs cooling air to the laptop’s hot spots. With the additional cooling, Acer has a choice to either push clock speeds faster or go thinner and lighter, and executives said the target market caused them to opt for the latter. While Acer didn’t reveal the key travel, the RGB keyboard does offer per-key lighting, controlled by the PredatorSense app. The touchpad joins the small but growing trend of laptops that use haptics for a uniform click experience across the whole of the trackpad. I didn’t expect Acer to include a bundled stylus, but it has done so, with support for the AES 2.0, USI 2.0, and MPP 2.5 protocols with 4,096 pressure level and tilt support. And look at the photo above. The trackpad almost disappears! Otherwise, the 14.5-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED display features 100% DCI-P3 color at up 120Hz — with touch support, which in OLEDs isn’t always a given. There’s just 340 nits of light output, however. Inside is an Intel Core 288V “Lunar Lake” chip, up to 32GB of DDR5-8533 memory and a PCI Express Gen 4 connection allowing customers to configure up to 2TB of SSD storage. Intel’s Killer Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 5 also appear. These are the specifications of the Acer Predator Triton 14A AI, as provided by Acer. Acer also made some last-minute changes that are reflected in the text.Acer Remember, Intel’s Lunar Lake processor and its 48-TOPS NPU makes this a Copilot+ PC, with support for all of Microsoft’s AI-powered features like Windows Recall. The Predator Triton 14 AI (PT14-52T) will be available in EMEA in July, starting at 2,999 euro Acer said. Predator Helios Neo 14 AI Acer’s Predator Helios Neo 14 AI laptop (PHN14-71), also with a 14.5-inch display, uses the Core Ultra 200H “Arrow Lake” chips, which performed surprisingly well in our laptop tests without all of the issues of their desktop cousins. They don’t offer the AI performance of the Lunar Lake family, however. Acer’s Predator Helios Neo 14 AI.Acer Acer typically uses the “Neo” branding to denote a step down, and some of the innovations on the Predator Triton 14 AI do not appear here. For example, Acer returned to the 5th-gen AeroBlade technology and the more traditional liquid metal thermal grease and a vector heat pipe. Likewise, the laptop uses a slightly older WiFi 6e technology alongside Thunderbolt 4, and the RGB keyboard is divided up into three zones. Physically, the Helios Neo 4 AI weighs 4.2 pounds, and measures 12.7 x 10.2 x 0.81 in., with the thinnest point being 11.5mm. Acer Users will have an option between a 14.5-inch OLED (2880 x 1800, 120Hz, 400 nits, 10 percent DCI-P3) or a 14.5-inch IPS (2560 x 1600, 165Hz, 400 nits, 100% sRGB) and choices of either a Core Ultra 9 285H/255H and an RTX 5060 or 5070 GPU. Users can choose from up to 32GB of DDR5-7467 memory and up to 2TB of PCI3 Gen 4 storage. The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI (PHN14-71) will be available in EMEA in July, starting at 1,699 euro. Nitro 18, 16, and 16S Finally, Acer has the Nitro lineup of gaming notebooks, which typically include almost dozens of different variants. For Computex, Acer is launching the Nitro 18 AI and the Nitro 16 AI, as well as the Nitro 16S and Nitro V 165 AI. They’re all oriented around the Ryzen AI 9 365 (Strix Point) architecture from AMD, which includes Copilot+ AI capabilities. Typically, Acer charges about $1,200 to $1,500 for these laptops. Here’s what we know about the Nitro 18: it will have an 18-inch display with 2560 x 1600 resolution at 165Hz, with 32GB of DDR5 5600 memory and 2 TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. Acer will use copper and vector heat pipes inside to cool an Nvidia GeForce 5070 Ti. As for the Nitro 16S AI, Acer is offering users a Ryzen AI 9 365, up to an RTX 5070 Ti, 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory and 2 TB of SSD storage, all hidden below a 2560 x 1600, 180Hz display. The Nitro V 16S AI will offer the same display, memory, and storage options, but an RTX 5070 instead, plus USB4. Read...

I don’t know how your tech drawers look, but mine are filled with wires I’ll likely never use again because technology has advanced quite a bit. Thankfully, USB-C seems to be here to stay since there is no wrong way to plug these things in. It’s not just smartphones, tablets, and laptops that use these, however, but also a long list of gadgets. We’ve scoured the market for hidden gems: gadgets that will make you think “Wow, I didn’t know I needed that, but it will make my life so much easier!” So, let’s dive in and see what cool devices you’ll be able to use your type-C cables and ports with. Wowstick 1F+ mini electric screwdriver Wowstick If you often have to fiddle around with your computer or other gadgets, this Wowstick mini electric screwdriver may be just what you need. This pen-shaped screwdriver features three LED lights so it’s easier to see what you’re working on and rotates 200 times per minute so you can finish the job faster. The screwdriver has a stylish base so you can hold it on your desk, and a whole collection of 56 aluminum alloy bits. The screwdriver can be charged via USB-C and it can last for hours. This super fun electric screwdriver usually goes for $41. Anker Nano Power Bank Anker One thing you need to have in you bag/pocket/backpack is a power bank because you never really know when your phone will fail you and cry for a recharge. Well, the Anker Nano power bank is tiny enough to fit just about anywhere. It comes with a foldable USB-C connector and a port on the side so you can charge two devices at once if you need to. The 5,000mAh capacity is just about enough for a full phone recharge, so it will be great in a pinch. It’s also only $30, but we’ve seen it as low as $16. Endoscope camera with light Ennovor Although it’s not something you’ll use every day, this Ennover endoscope camera can definitely come in handy. You just plug it in your phone, install and app, and see everything your camera does. Our team swears by it, using it for finding whatever they dropped behind the desk, while working on the car, or looking for pipe leaks. Since it has an IPS67 rating, you can even plop it in your aquarium. The camera comes with a 16.4ft semi-rigid cable and several accessories, including a hook, magnet, and a mirror. You can get this one for $23 right now. Blukar flashlight Blukar I don’t care who you are—you need a flashlight. The smaller, the better, because you get to shove it into any pocket. This model from Blukar comes with a built-in 1800mAh battery that you’ll recharge with one of those many type-C cables you have in that tech drawer we were talking about. It can work for up to 16 hours on a single charge, which is pretty decent. There are four different lightning modes to cycle through, including one that will help you signal for help. Plus, one of these is only $10, so no excuse to pass on this one. Samsung flash drive Samsung The vast majority of flash drives have a USB-A connector, but this one from Samsung has a Type-C connector. With transfer speeds of up to 400MB/s, you’ll move files around in no time. The beauty of this thumb drive is that you can even pop it in your smartphone to record 4K vids directly on it. The Samsung Type-C flash drive comes in multiple storage options, starting at 64GB and up to 512GB and they start at $14. The 256GB version, for instance, is $27 at the time of writing. Read...

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This deal had me rubbing my eyes because I couldn’t believe it was real. Right now, it’ll only cost you $549 for a touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop with an Intel Core 7 processor and 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM. I’m talking about the Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 that’s currently 39% off at B&H. We’ve seen affordable laptops of this type before, but at this price point you’re usually only getting a Core 5 CPU and maybe half the RAM. If you want to run Windows 11 plus other apps smoothly, you’re going to want at least 16GB of memory and a speedy processor like this. It’s a solid combo that’ll carry you through the day, whether you have emails to write, doomscrolling to do, or shopping to get done. The IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 has a 16-inch IPS touchscreen display with a crisp 1920×1200 resolution and an office-level 60Hz refresh rate. With it being a 2-in-1, you can quickly shift between tablet and laptop modes thanks to the 360-degree hinge, and you can even prop it up like a tent for an angled display that’s perfect when streaming Netflix or reading PDFs. Connectivity won’t be an issue with this laptop either, which features two USB-A and two USB-C ports as well as an HDMI. Quit hemming and hawing and grab this Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 for $549 while it’s still on sale because this deal is bonkers! The Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 for $549 is a bargainBuy now from B&H Read...

Back in March, one Twitter user leaked a new Windows 11 24H2 feature that tells you whether your PC hardware is powerful enough to handle demanding tasks like gaming and video editing. Now, that feature is being tested via Windows Insiders and will roll out to all regular Windows 11 24H2 users in the coming weeks, reports Windows Latest. This new feature can be found in the Settings app as a special FAQ section in the About page (accessible via Settings > System > About). In that FAQ area, you’ll see expandable questions like: “Am I running the latest version of the Windows OS? What is the latest Windows version?” “How does having 8-16 GB of RAM impact my PC’s performance? Can I run modern applications smoothly with this RAM capacity?” “What is a GPU? I don’t have a dedicated GPU, how does its absence impact gaming and graphical performance?” “Is my GPU sufficient for high-end gaming and video experience? How can having a dedicated GPU enhance my experience and productivity?” When you expand a question, Windows provides answers that are personalized to the very hardware in your system and will flat-out tell you if it’s sufficient or insufficient for various scenarios. They’re pretty generic, as you can tell, but the fact that they’re tweaked and customized for your PC makes this feature pretty useful potentially. Further reading: Windows 11’s May update has cool new features Read...