Acer’s CES 2023 laptops get new names and the latest tech upgrades

3 Jan 2023

Jonathan Bray

Acer’s laptop lineup now easier to understand with new OLED Swift Go models taking the limelight

As usual, Acer has unveiled a host of new laptops at CES 2023, but this year the brand has taken the unusual step of introducing a name change, too. Instead of shiny Acer Swift 3, 5 and 7 machines, the company has introduced more intuitive branding for its 2023 line-up, with screen sizes replacing the cryptic numbering system of old.

The first out of the blocks is the Acer Swift 14, which tops Acer’s range of Swift laptops. It comes with a 14in touchscreen at resolutions of either 2,560 x 1,600 or 1,920 x 1,200 with a topping of antimicrobial Gorilla Glass to resist scuffs and scratches. Inside are Intel’s latest 13th Gen H-series CPUs and the whole lot is wrapped up in a sleek aluminium chassis that measures 14.95mm thin, weighs 1.2kg and is finished in double-anodised green or blue.

Improved thermal design incorporates a dual fan system and copper heat pipes to keep things from getting too toasty, there’s also a 1440p webcam to keep you looking sharp on video calls and the laptop gets a fingerprint reader to help speed up logging in.

This is joined by an updated Acer Swift X 14, which comes with a 14in OLED screen, and a pair of new “Go” branded machines.

The Acer Swift X 14 is the most powerful of these, with 13th Gen Intel H-series CPUs inside and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. Its 14in OLED display has a 2.8K resolution, a 120Hz frame rate and, according to Acer, is able to reproduce 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. Like the Swift 14, it comes with a 1440p webcam and, inside, Acer’s engineers have improved the thermal design and made space for a bigger battery with a claimed 9hrs 30mins of battery life. Prices for the Acer Swift X 14 start at €1,499 and it will be available from April 2023.

The two Go laptops are a totally new venture for Acer, with the name here signifying that they’re at the value end of the range. Prices for the Acer Swift Go 14 (available from February 2023) start at €999 while the Acer Swift Go 16 starts at €1,099 (available from March).

Perhaps surprisingly, both of these “cheaper” laptops come with 120Hz OLED screens that deliver full DCI-P3 colour and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification, so they ought to look easy on the eye. The 14in model’s screen is a sharp 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800), while the 16in is 3.2K (3,200 x 2,000).

With both including Intel’s 13th Gen H-series CPUs, there ought to be enough power on tap to cope with most workloads, and they look slim and light enough to be reasonably portable, too – 14.9mm thin and 1.3kg for the Swift Go 14 and 1.4kg for the Swift Go 16. We’ll see for sure when we get our hands on them both for testing.

Acer Predator and Helios laptops surface at CES 2023, alongside budget Nitro machines

Alongside the new Swift laptops, Acer’s new range for 2023 predictably encompasses a host of refreshed gaming laptops and leading the charge on this front is the Predator Helios 16 and 18 machines.

Just like the updated Swift range, Acer has dumped the obscure 300, 500 and 700 numbering system and replaced it with simpler numbers indicating the size of the laptops. Thus, the Helios 16 comes with a 16in display and the Helios 18 with an 18in screen along with upgraded internals and a physical redesign, too.

As you’d expect, the new gaming machines come with 13th Gen Intel silicon inside – either Core i9 or Core i7 HX CPUs – up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 mobile GPUs, 32GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM and RAID 0 SSD storage up to 2TB in capacity.

There’s a plethora of exotic display options to choose from as well. With the Helios 16 you can have either a regular WQXGA display (2,560 x 1,600) running at 165Hz or 240Hz, or a mini-LED panel running at 250Hz with a peak brightness of over 1,000cd/m² and full coverage of the P3 colour space.

The Helios 18, meanwhile, has even more screen choices, with a 1,920 x 1,200 165Hz at the bottom end, a 2,560 x 1,600 screen running at 165Hz or 240Hz in the middle, and a 250Hz mini-LED screen at the top end.

These impressive specifications are complemented by the usual army of modern gaming laptop accoutrements, with per key RGB backlighting (with improved tech for 2023), Wi-Fi 6E, twin Thunderbolt 4 ports and a Micro SD card reader. The Acer Predator Helios 16 will be available in February with prices starting at €2,399 and the Helios 18 will be available from March with prices starting at €2,499.

Last, but by no means least, there’s a selection of more budget friendly Acer Nitro gaming laptops on the horizon, also with 13th Gen Intel CPUs and Nvidia GeForce 40-series GPUs inside but less exotic display tech.

The Nitro 16 comes with a screen that’s 5% larger than its 15.6in predecessor, a choice of 1,920 x 1,200 or 2,560 x 1,600 resolution 165Hz displays and full sRGB colour space coverage. The Nitro 17 is more run of the mill, coming with either a regular 1,920 x 1,080 screen at 144Hz or 165Hz or a 2,560 x 1,440 screen running at 165Hz.

You can have both machines with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, and prices start at €1,499 for the Nitro 16 and €1,599 for the Nitro 18. Both Nitro machines will be available to buy from May.