The 2024 Acer Gaming Laptops Lineup: The Complete Guide!

Acer has been one of the longest-standing gaming laptop manufacturers, with their coveted Predator and Nitro brands offering devices at any price point. For 2024, we’ve got a cedent chunk of devices to cover, so today we’ll give you a straightforward guide about the whole 2024 lineup. We’ll go from the best of the best like the Predator Helios and Predator Triton devices, which elevate the brand in realms other than gaming, to the Nitro series, which annually brings one of the best price-to-performance offerings that can even come to challenge the Predators themselves.

Acer also “bought back” a form factor that’s very much needed in today’s gaming laptop market. The thin and light Acer Nitro V 15 is a mix of an office machine and a gaming laptop, offering both portability and gaming performance. Long ago, Acer had the Aspire V15 Nitro, which utilized a similar formula. Nowadays, with hardware becoming more powerful and efficient, it makes so much sense to bring back these types of laptops, since they’re affordable and can still kick some serious butt in games.

To increase performance, we offer a whole eBook Guide and Tools, which includes overclocking and undervolting tips, which are proven to improve gaming performance.

Acer Predator Helios 16 (PH16-72)

The Helios 16 is the premiere gaming laptop from Acer, harnessing the latest tech from Intel and NVIDIA. You can pick a configuration with up to a Core i9-14900HX and an RTX 4080.

The display options are quite good as well, as the whole Predator lineup has moved to 16:10 displays. This gives you more screen space, and thinner bezels while keeping the laptop chassis relatively similar.

With the design of the Helios 16, you certainly get a lot of RGB, as the logo on the lid lights up, as well as a whole RGB strip on the back near the cooling vents. The keyboard has a backlight too, and all lighting can be synced up for a more uniform look.

There’s also liquid metal applied to the CPU and graphics, but there are no fancy cooling solutions, like a vapor chamber. Still, the old reliable air-cooling will do a solid job, with vents on the sides and the back, as well as chunky rubber feet that elevate the surface and improve intake airflow.

Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-72)

The Helios 18 is a beefier and bulkier version of the Helios 16, with a bigger 18-inch 16:10 screen that maxes out at Quad HD+ resolution and a 250Hz refresh rate. The Core i7 CPU option is gone, leaving only the Core i9. The bigger chassis can also fit a 175W RTX 4090, which is as good as GPUs can get on a laptop.

Our review of the Helios 18 showed that the cooling is plenty capable of handling the Core i9, pushing clock speeds well north of 3.00 GHz even in long stress tests, thanks to the Turbo preset. It makes the laptop quite noisy, but also very powerful.

We were also able to test the display, and the MiniLED panel that we selected brought high-brightness of up to 480 nits, 100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3 coverage, as well as a dE value of 1.4, which means that this is no more a pure gaming monitor.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (PHN16-72)

Compared to the regular Helios 16, the Neo variant provides more CPU and GPU options on the lower end. The Neo 16’s base configuration comes with a Core i5-14450HX and the RTX 4050, an ideal combo for 1080p gaming. Thankfully, the Neo 16 also offers Full HD+ displays, going up to 180Hz, so if you play a lot of competitive games you can be happy with the snappy performance of the screen.

In terms of the design, it does look a lot like the normal Helios, however, the chassis is heavier, with a weight of 6.2 lbs (2.80 kg) and a thicker 1.02″ (25.95 – 27.85 mm) profile. This is 0.5 lbs (200 grams) heavier, and 0.04″ (1 mm) thicker. We’re not saying that it’s super important, as the laptops are already pretty heavy, however, it needs to be said so you can make the best choice for yourself. The Neo 16 is also a rival to the Nitro 16, as both laptops offer similar specs and take the same position in the market.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 18 (PHN18-71)

Bigger and stronger than the Helios Neo 16, the 18-inch version will take a toll on your back if you decide to carry it around with you. It weighs 7.5 lbs (3.40 kg) and has a thickness of 1.07 – 1.14″ (27.15 – 29.15 mm). We do have a review of the Neo 18, in which we got pretty familiar with the laptop. Overall, it has the specs and the cooling to match the regular Helios 18 with ease, as two identically configured laptops would probably perform the same or close to the same.

Compared to the Helios 18, there haven’t been many cutbacks and corner cutting. The RGB around the chassis and logo on the lid aren’t here anymore, however, if you don’t really want the flashiness, it’s even better. The designs of the Predators have also improved a lot. They are now a lot boxier and look like workstations, albeit very big and heavy ones.

The display that we tested was also creator-ready with 100% sRGB and 99% DCI-P3 coverage. The color accuracy is exceptional too, with a dE of 1.2 once we apply our Display Profiles. For gaming purposes, the screen is super fast too, with a Black to White and White to Black response time of 6.7 ms.

Acer Predator Helios 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition (PH3D15-71)

For those of you who straight up want an experimental type of technology, Acer offers the Predator Helios 3D 15 SpatialLabs Edition. It comes with the same powerful specs, along with a smaller 15.6-inch screen. However, it’s exactly this screen that makes the laptop stand out. There’s a huge array of sensors where the camera usually would be. These sensors include two stereo cameras with sensors that constantly track the position of your eyes and head.

The screen that’s inside has a 4K resolution, which is insane at a 15.6-inch diagonal. In normal 2D mode, the 4K resolution is super crisp. However, you can turn to 3D mode, in which case the resolution drops to 1920 x 2160p. It also covers the entire sRGB color gamut as well as 90% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Regardless of the 3D screen, the laptop performs very well, maintaining high power limits on the CPU and GPU across all stages of the stress tests. Due to the high resolution of the display, battery life isn’t very good, so you’ll need the charger with you most of the time.

Acer Predator Triton 14 (PT14-51)

The new Triton laptops are made to be a hybrid between workstations and gaming devices. The designs are more minimalist, with little to no branding, as well as features that are usually reserved for office devices. One such feature is the fingerprint reader, which is in the upper left corner of the touchpad.

The Triton 14 comes with a silver fully aluminum CNC chassis. It’s very compact at 14 inches, however, it’s still got a bit of heft to it, with a weight of 3.7 lbs (1.70 kg) and a thickness of 0.74″ (18.9 – 19.9 mm). There’s a MicroSD card on the front, which we’ve seen before on many Creator notebooks. There’s ample airflow, with vents on the back, sides, and bottom, as well as a grill above the keyboard.

With smaller notebooks, you need as much air inside the chassis as possible. The Triton 14 that we bought came with a Core i7-13700H, an RTX 4070 with a 105W power limit, and a QHD+ 240Hz IPS MiniLED panel. With the MiniLED backlighting, you get much higher brightness and contrast. We measured up to 667 nits for the brightness and 12000:1 for the contrast ratio. The display also fully covered the sRGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts.

Acer Predator Triton 16 (PT16-51)

The same formula, but for those who need a bigger screen, you can get the Triton 16. This gives you the same screen but stretched across a 16-inch frame, so you have more room to deal with editing software or whatever else you have going on. The other differences are in the dimensions, where the Triton 16 is 1.6 lbs (690 grams) heavier and 0.12″ (0.30 cm) thicker.

Strangely, the keyboard is the same, as the larger chassis didn’t force Acer to implement a NumPad, which might or might not be a dealbreaker for some.

The battery is bigger, jumping from 76Wh to 99Wh. The bigger laptop also gets a more powerful GPU. It’s still an RTX 4070, but the one in the Triton 16 has a bigger 125W power limit.

Acer Nitro 16 (AN16-72)

The Acer Nitro 16 boasts serious amounts of power, thanks to the 14th Gen Intel CPUs and the RTX 40-series graphics. We purchased the best CPU possible, a 20-core Core i7-14700HX, and paired it with a 140W RTX 4050, as well as a Quad HD+ IPS panel with a 165Hz refresh rate.

All in all, it’s an excellent performer, maintaining high power limits during all stages of our stress tests. The RTX 4050 runs quite cool, with 67°C and 2655 MHz during the peak of the torture test.

The Nitro Sense application is also a big upgrade over the old one, allowing you to tweak the performance presets as well as create your own. Overall, we’d recommend the Intel version over the AMD one, as you get much more CPU performance, however, the AMD model does have its positives, which we’ll talk about below.

Acer Nitro 16 (AN16-41)

This is the AMD version, which sports a Ryzen 7 7840HS, an 8-core 16-thread chip, so quite different from the 20-core beast that’s the Core i7. There’s also the entire Ryzen 7000 HD-series available, which is generally less powerful than the 13th and 14th Gen Intel processors. However, they are much more efficient, with around 12 hours of web browsing and around 11 hours of video playback. You can check the complete in-depth review below.

Strictly for gaming, you’ll hardly notice the difference in CPU performance, mainly because both laptops come with evenly matched graphics, which is the main driving factor for gaming performance.

 

Acer Nitro 17 (AN17-41)

The Nitro 17 in its AMD form is a very efficient gaming laptop, thanks to its Ryzen 7 CPUs. Its display is also a sight to behold, as it covers 100% of the sRGB and 99% of the DCI-P3 gamuts.

With our Display Profiles, we transform the display into a dream for any creator, lowering the dE value that measures color accuracy to 0.6. Usually, values lower than 1.0 are indistinguishable by the human eye, so, you’re getting the best possible-looking colors that you can. With the higher 17.3-inch diagonal and the Quad HD resolution, the panel offers a lot of detail on a big canvas.

The efficiency of the laptop is unmatched by other models in the gaming space, with 20 hours of web browsing and around 9 hours of video playback. The GPU performance is quite good, as the RTX 4070 is pushed quite well during stress tests and benchmarks.

This means that you’re not only getting a great gaming laptop, but with this display, you’re getting a straight-up creator laptop with very good performance that can handle complex 3d modeling, video editing, and any other type of graphic design work.

Acer Nitro 17 (AN17-51)

Compared to the AMD model, the Intel version of the Nitro 17 brings more performance, as the Core i7-13700H overpowers the Ryzen 7 7840HS. The GPU capabilities are pretty similar, as all versions share the same TGPs between the Intel and AMD models.

The display options are also the same, however, the Quad HD panel that we tested here didn’t come even close to matching the accuracy of the AMD-based system. This only shows that the panel lottery is crazy. While the accuracy isn’t that good, the color coverage remains really wide.

The Intel version also brings decent efficiency, but, not on the level of the AMD-powered laptop. You get around 9 hours of web browsing and 8 hours and 20 minutes of video playback, which is still quite good for a gaming laptop.

Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-51)

The last, but probably most important Acer Gaming laptop, we have the Nitro V 15. It’s the cheapest gaming option that Acer offers, so it has a very important job. Many kids and teens who enter PC gaming for the first time will surely stumble or maybe even purchase the Nitro V 15, so it has the tough task of being the best possible gaming device for its price, so consumers are happy and willing to recommend and maybe even upgrade to an Acer product down the line.

It’s a thin and light laptop (or at least it tries to be), weighing 4.7 lbs (2.11 kg) and having a thickness of 0.90″ (22.9 – 26.9 mm). Considering today’s gaming laptop space, this is pretty light for a 15.6-inch device. C0ntributing to that is also the smaller 57Wh battery pack and a slimmer cooling setup consisting of two smaller fans bunched up together and three heat pipes.

You can get up to a Core i7-13620H and an RTX 4050, which is a decent combo for 1080p gaming. You get two 1080p screens to choose from, either a 144Hz or a 165Hz.

Overall, Acer has upscaled the Nitro series with the Nitro 16 and Nitro 17 laptops, leaving the Nitro V 15 to handle the more budget end. We don’t really see this as a smart play, as the Helios Neo and the Nitro series are overlapping in the mid-range segment, however, the market will decide how good of an offering the whole Acer Gaming Laptop lineup is as a whole.

So, what do you think of Acer’s model lineup? What’s your preferred model?