Acer pulled out all the stops for CES 2022 with the announcement of five new laptops for the coming months, with two Swift X ultraportable laptops and a trio of gaming laptops that span the Nitro and Predator model lines. With new models that combine updated designs with the latest Intel, AMD and Nvidia hardware, these laptops promise something for everyone, with enough power to handle both work and play.
With our all-virtual coverage of CES 2022, we haven’t had a chance to handle these systems or see them up close, but from what we’ve seen in our brief video demo which you can watch below, the new laptops leave us eager to test and review later this spring.
Acer Swift X, Now With Intel Arc
The first big announcement is the updated Acer Swift X, a thin-and-light laptop that comes in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes.
The 14-inch Acer Swift X (SFX14-51G) is an ultraportable laptop that packs a punch, with the slim 3.09-pound notebook outfitted with a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 processor and an Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti laptop GPU. This is further bolstered with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 memory and a whopping 2TB of PCIe SSD storage.
Connectivity is ample, thanks to a quartet of USB connections—two USB Type-C ports plus two USB Type-A ports, all rocking USB 3.2 speeds and bandwidth—along with HDMI 2.0 and a headset jack. A full HD (1080p) webcam offers better-than-average resolution, along with noise reduction technology for clearer images. A fingerprint reader offers one-touch secure logins via Windows Hello.
Networking gets an upgrade, too, with Intel Wi-Fi 6E, offering the sort of bleeding-edge wireless connectivity that can support 4K video streaming and online gaming with ease.
The laptop uses a 16:10 aspect ratio to deliver a better screen-to-body ratio, and the 2,240-by-1,440-pixel IPS panel provides 100% of the sRGB color gamut and up to 400 nits of brightness. Acer adds some of its own enhancements, like reduced blue light for less eye strain, as well as automatic color tuning that promises a more vibrant picture without the need for manual fine-tuning in the display settings.
It also comes with a splash of color, with options for red and blue-green lid options.
There’s also a larger 16-inch model coming from Acer. The 16-inch Acer Swift X (SFX16-52G) comes with a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, with 14 cores and 20 processing threads, delivering potent processing power.
Acer is pairing this with Intel Arc graphics, the chipmaker’s new competitor to GeForce and Radeon GPUs. This discrete graphics solution promises high-performance gaming and plenty of power for media creation, and we’re excited to see how well it does when we get it in for testing.
The larger size allows Acer to add a compact 10-key pad alongside the full-size backlit keyboard, and a large touchpad should offer plenty of comfort as you swipe, tap and scroll.
Unlike the 14-inch model, the 16-inch Swift X will initially be offered in a basic black color scheme.
Pricing and product availability have not yet been announced for the new Swift X laptops, but we will be looking forward to getting the new units in for testing and review.
Acer’s Gaming Laptops Get a Nitro Boost
But Acer isn’t stopping there, with the announcement of three new gaming laptops for 2022.
The most affordable of these is the Acer Nitro 5, a continuation of the popular Nitro model line of 15-inch gaming laptops, as seen in our Acer Nitro 5 (2021, 15-inch) review and the previous year’s Acer Nitro 5 (2020) review. But this is something different than the budget-friendly gaming rigs the Nitro line has been known for.
The redesigned Nitro 5 has toned down the gamer aesthetics a bit, but ramped up the power with all new hardware, ranging from an Intel Core i7 12th Generation processor to an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU, along with a pair of M.2 SSD slots (both PCIe Gen 4) for bigger, faster storage. You can outfit the laptop with up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM, for speedy performance across the board.
The Intel-based version of the Nitro 5 can be configured with a 165Hz QHD panel that Acer boasts has a speedy 3-millisecond response time.
The base model of the Nitro 5 is a bit more modest, with an Intel Core i5, Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics and 8GB of memory.
An AMD version is also offered, with an AMD Ryzen 6000 CPU that also comes with up to an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti and stepping up to 32GB of DDR5 4,800MHz RAM. Like the Intel model, you can get the AMD-based Nitro 5 with a 165Hz QHD display or you can opt for a full HD 144Hz panel, instead. Both display options offer AMD FreeSync for smoother gameplay.
The Acer Nitro 5 will be available this March, starting at $1,099.99. That’s not unreasonable, given the hardware listed above, but it’s a more premium price point than past Nitro models have offered, edging the new Nitro 5 away from the sub-$1,000 entry-level models many associate with the name.
The next step up is the Acer Predator Helios 300, a powerful gaming notebook that comes in 15-inch and 17-inch sizes.
The Helios gets a full complement of new hardware, from a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 processor to a choice of Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 3080 laptop GPUs. The base configuration comes with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, but you can max out the configuration at 32GB of DDR5 RAM, while storage scales up to an impressive 1TB of PCIe SSDs in RAID 0.
Everything is cooled with a pair of Acer’s 5th generation AeroBlade 3D fans, which are matched with liquid metal thermal grease and Acer’s CoolBoost technology to keep things running at their best. A dedicated PredatorSense button lets users choose from preset cooling modes for desired performance, while a Turbo key throttles everything up for the best gaming performance.
The 15-inch model comes with a 1080p full HD display and a 165Hz refresh rate, while the larger 17-inch model gets a QHD IPS panel with 144Hz refresh, and an optional 240Hz panel. In either instance, the combination of resolution and speedy refresh rates should offer a great gaming experience.
Acer tells us that the Predator Helios 300 will start selling in May, with a base price of $1,649.99.
Predator Triton Goes All-Metal
At the top of the food chain is the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE, a special-edition gaming laptop that also offers plenty of horsepower for content creation, school, or work. Instead of an RGB-festooned angular chassis, the Triton 500 SE has a starkly Spartan all-metal design that offers only a small polished Acer Predator logo to hint at the gaming grade muscle inside. But don’t worry that it’s a drab, colorless machine—the dark polished metal looks slick, and the keyboard still offers RGB lighting, so you can customize it to your liking.
Under the hood you’ll find a powerful 12th Generation Intel Core i9 processor and Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti GPU, paired with 32GB of 5200MHz LPDDR5 memory and up to 2TB of high-speed PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage. No matter what you’re doing, for work or play, this machine should be able to chew through any task you throw at it.
The Triton’s 16-inch display boasts an impressive 2,560-by-1,600-pixel resolution WQXGA panel with an equally impressive 240Hz refresh rate, all with Nvidia G-Synch built-in. Both gamers and content creators will appreciate the display’s 550 nits of brightness, along with 100% DCI-P3 coverage and a 16:10 aspect ratio that offers more screen real estate for productivity—or a slightly larger field of view for gaming.
The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE isn’t cheap, starting at $2,299.99, but it will be available starting this March.
We’ll be looking at reviewing all of these systems as they come to market in the coming months, so keep an eye out for our testing and review in the coming weeks.
