Acer’s most captivating gaming laptop showcased at Computex 2025 isn’t exactly a gaming laptop. The Predator Triton 14 AI is an unexpectedly slender, creator-oriented notebook that features both Intel’s Lunar Lake notebook CPU and an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, utilizing a novel cooling method: graphene.
Acer is also introducing the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI, a more affordable variant, along with updates to the Nitro series that include sizes up to an 18-inch display.
Here’s the essential information regarding all three gaming laptops: The 14.5-inch Predator Triton 14 AI measures only 11mm in thickness at its slimmest part. Acer has substituted traditional liquid metal with graphene for enhanced cooling, and it features a haptic touchpad that comes with its own stylus for note-taking while traveling. The new 14.5-inch Helios Neo 14 AI pairs a Core Ultra 9 285H with an RTX 5070, and is expected to be priced lower. Additionally, Acer is releasing multiple versions of its Nitro gaming laptops, including both 16- and 18-inch options that center around the AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processors.
I inquired whether Acer was designing with a specific price point in mind, or if they were prioritizing the components they believed would best serve their users. Acer executives stated they opted for the latter, which could explain why they are currently keeping the pricing and availability of the laptops under wraps.
“We will announce U.S. pricing, availability, and configurations closer to market availability in the United States/North America,” Acer stated. However, Acer did provide pricing and availability information for Europe, which we have included here for comparison purposes.
Acer Predator Triton 14 AI
Acer’s latest Predator Triton 14 AI reminds me of a classic gangster: dressed in a dark suit and tie, wearing sunglasses, exuding cool confidence. That is, until the per-key RGB lighting illuminates, reminding you of its gaming essence.
I’ve always been intrigued by creator-class notebooks, as they deliver much of the power found in gaming laptops without the excessive weight. A few years back, potential buyers often had to consider if a lower-tier discrete GPU could provide sufficient gaming power; thanks to frame generation technologies, that concern is becoming less relevant.
While holding the Triton 14 AI (PT14-52T) during Acer’s preview, I was struck by how compact it felt: it has dimensions of 12.6 x 8.7 x 0.43 inches at its slimmest and slopes to 0.68 in (17.31mm) at its thickest — it weighs 3.7 pounds, which is a notable reduction compared to laptops that often exceed 5 pounds. (It earned Nvidia’s Studio Premium certification, which requires a thickness under 20 mm.) Acer applied an anti-fingerprint coating on the sleek chassis, which appeared to be effective, making it the only one of its new gaming laptops to feature this treatment.
Acer integrated a graphene thermal interface material into the laptop’s internals, which the company estimates will improve cooling efficiency by 14.5 percent, alongside the 0.5-mm-thin AeroBlade 3D metal fans that direct airflow to the laptop’s hot spots. With this enhanced cooling, Acer had the option to either increase clock speeds or to create a thinner, lighter design, and executives indicated that the target audience influenced their choice for the latter.
Though Acer did not disclose the key travel, the RGB keyboard features per-key lighting, which can be adjusted through the PredatorSense app. The touchpad joins the increasing trend of laptops that incorporate haptic feedback for a consistent clicking experience across the entire trackpad. I was surprised to find that Acer included a stylus, offering support for AES 2.0, USI 2.0, and MPP 2.5 protocols with 4,096 pressure levels and tilt sensitivity.
In other features, the 14.5-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED display delivers 100% DCI-P3 color at up to 120Hz — including touch support, which is not always typical for OLEDs. However, it has a relatively low brightness output of 340 nits. Within the device is an Intel Core 288V “Lunar Lake” processor, up to 32GB of DDR5-8533 RAM, and a PCI Express Gen 4 connection that enables configurations of up to 2TB of SSD storage. Additionally, it includes Intel’s Killer Wi-Fi 7 and Thunderbolt 5.
It’s worth noting that Intel’s Lunar Lake processor, with its 48-TOPS NPU, enables this to be a Copilot+ PC, supporting all of Microsoft’s AI-driven features such as Windows Recall.
The Predator Triton 14 AI (PT14-52T) is set to launch in the EMEA region in July, with a starting price of 2,999 euros, according to Acer.
Predator Helios Neo 14 AI
The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI laptop (PHN14-71) from Acer, which also features a 14.5-inch display, incorporates the Core Ultra 200H “Arrow Lake” chips, which have surprisingly excelled in our laptop testing without the issues observed in their desktop counterparts. Nevertheless, they don’t provide the same level of AI capabilities as the Lunar Lake series.
Acer usually employs the “Neo” branding to signify a lower tier, and certain innovations from the Predator Triton 14 AI are absent here. For instance, Acer has reverted to the 5th-generation AeroBlade technology, using traditional liquid metal thermal grease and a vector heat pipe. Additionally, the laptop incorporates slightly older WiFi 6e technology together with Thunderbolt 4, and the RGB keyboard is segmented into three zones.
In terms of dimensions, the Helios Neo 4 AI weighs 4.2 pounds and has measurements of 12.7 x 10.2 x 0.81 inches, with the slimmest section being 11.5mm.
Users will have the option of a 14.5-inch OLED display (2880 x 1800, 120Hz, 400 nits, 10 percent DCI-P3) or a 14.5-inch IPS display (2560 x 1600, 165Hz, 400 nits, 100% sRGB) along with choices between a Core Ultra 9 285H/255H and an RTX 5060 or 5070 GPU. Users can select up to 32GB of DDR5-7467 memory and as much as 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage.
The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI (PHN14-71) is set to launch in the EMEA region in July, starting from 1,699 euros.
Nitro 18, 16, and 16S
Lastly, Acer presents the Nitro series of gaming laptops, which generally comprise nearly dozens of variants. For Computex, Acer is introducing the Nitro 18 AI and Nitro 16 AI, along with the Nitro 16S and Nitro V 165 AI. All these models are based on the Ryzen AI 9 365 (Strix Point) architecture from AMD, featuring Copilot+ AI functionalities.
Typically, Acer prices these laptops between $1,200 and $1,500.
Here’s what is known about the Nitro 18: it will feature an 18-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 at 165Hz, alongside 32GB of DDR5 5600 memory and 2TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage. To cool the Nvidia GeForce 5070 Ti, Acer will incorporate copper and vector heat pipes.
Regarding the Nitro 16S AI, Acer is providing users with a Ryzen AI 9 365, up to an RTX 5070 Ti, along with 32GB of DDR5-5600 memory and 2TB of SSD storage, all beneath a 2560 x 1600, 180Hz display. The Nitro V 16S AI will present the same display, memory, and storage alternatives, but with a different RTX 5070 instead, in addition to USB4 support.
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