The Acer TravelMate X 14 AI is a solid mid-range pick that strives to compete with the heavyweights

You can always rely on Acer's TravelMate family of enterprise notebooks to offer reliable performance at more affordable prices. While they won't look as flashy as an ultraportable or pack as much punch as a workstation, these machines are a prudent choice for employees who won't need to push a machine to its limits while still taking advantage of basic AI functionality.

The Acer TravelMate X 14 AI is a mid-range enterprise machine that offers all the above at a fairly reasonable price of under $1,500. With that, you'll pick up a lightweight and versatile machine powered by an Intel Core Ultra 5 Series 200 processor, with a 120Hz HD display. But does this machine offer good value for money, and how does it compare with similar machines in this bracket?

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Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Design and display

There's very little surprising or unexpected about the way that Acer has designed this enterprise-facing laptop. Its basic chassis combines plastic and metal with ports on either side slightly indented, and the display is depressed within the casing. The rear features two bars that, while allowing the machine to benefit from more airflow while stood on your desk, feel very uncomfortable when resting it on your lap.

Its gray finish, meanwhile, is pretty bland and doesn't catch the eye in the same way that plenty of Dell or HP laptops might. The inclusion of the Acer branding in a box on the lid does offer contrast in an otherwise uninspired design, but it's a little jarring.

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You likely won't be in this for the looks, but the machine's build quality isn't of the highest quality either. Heavy plastic inclusion gives way to a lightweight feel (not in a good way); you'd be forgiven for fearing it's a little flimsy at times – although it's certainly not the case, having passed MIL-STD 810H benchmarks. There are some positive aspects, however. Rubber pads on the bezels on either side of the display means the keyboard won't leave impressions or marks on the screen.

More encouragingly, the machine's 1.27kg weight is on the lighter side, and it's in line with machines like the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 (1.24kg), Lenovo ThinkPad X9 14 Aura Edition (1.24kg), and Acer Swift Go 14 AI (1.32kg). The thickness is also decent (15.9mm) considering the nature of the ports included in this machine, including HDMI and Ethernet.

The 14-inch display doesn't seem appealing at first glance, but it still has plenty of positive points, like a 120Hz refresh rate. It's not incredibly sharp, with a weak 162 pixels-per-inch ratio for its 1,900 x 1,200-pixel aspect ratio. It also feels much dimmer than average to the naked eye, which we confirmed in testing with a display calibrator, registering a maximum luminosity of 267 cd/m2 (much lower than the roughly 330 cd/m2 that we'd consider a decent level). The color accuracy isn't fantastic either, with the display registering a 96.6% coverage of the sRGB gamut. On the other hand, it scored well in terms of coverage of the Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 gamuts with 70.9% and 84.1%, respectively. Also decent is a black level of 0.19 cd/m2 and a 1,376:1 contrast ratio. Finally, color distortion scores of an average of 0.52 and a maximum of 1.58 are very strong. So, overall, the display is fairly mediocre, but we've seen aspects that are much worse in more premium machines – and it's about in line with what we would have expected from a mid-range machine.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Performance and battery life

Given the pricing of this machine, and the components fitted into it, the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI punches above its weight; it nears (but doesn't meet) the standard often seen in higher-end laptops.

The eight-core Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor is the beating heart of this machine, and this is partnered with an Intel Arc Graphics chip and an integrated NPU that can hit 40 TOPS. While not as strong as the roughly 50 TOPS you'll see in the higher-end counterparts, it's plenty of AI firepower and enables core AI functionality. Memory options include 16GB LPDDR5x RAM as well as 512GB SSD.

Benchmarking the machine with Geekbench 6 produced a respectable single-core result of 2,453 – what we'd normally expect across Lunar Lake processors -- and a multi-core score of 9,334 – which is actually just shy of what we've sometimes seen in Intel Core Ultra 7 200 Series chips. For instance, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V CPU scored 10,021 in the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI. That said, the mid-range Snapdragon X Plus-powered Acer Swift Go 14 AI scored 2,364 and 11,044, respectively, with Qualcomm's processors generally offering more juice.

It's a symptom of the Lunar Lake CPUs, in that the difference between different models, and between this generation and the Meteor Lake chips, is slight. While older processors may offer similar performance levels, they come without the AI or graphics firepower. For instance, the excellent entry-level Intel Arc Graphics chip scored 25,514. While higher-end models hit closer to 30,000, previous-generation Intel machines may score well under 20,000.

We were equally impressed with the machine's battery life, with the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI lasting 14hrs and 37mins in our looped video playback test. Anything below by today's standards would be a little disappointing, considering plenty of machines are capable of reaching more than 20 hours. Again, however, for a mid-range machine, it's a strong result and in line with plenty of higher-end machines. In a similar vein, there's no reason to be displeased with the SSD -- with range-topping reads of 6,706MB/s and writes a little more sluggish at below average speeds of 3,644MB/s.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Features

The TravelMate's keyboard is balanced well and enjoyable to use. Keys have a moderately deep travel distance, and they're well spaced. There's enough snap and bite with each keystroke so that it feels punch while you're using it, but with a mutedness that means you can touch type without feeling you're up against much resistance. There aren't many surprises with the function keys, or complaints more generally. Handily, you can use the Acer MyKey to choose from a selection of frequently used apps to open on command.

The touchpad, meanwhile, is well-sized and perfectly sensitive – but its surface feels slightly uncomfortable if you apply too much pressure while navigating. Both the left-click and right-click buttons are positioned well, although there isn't much feedback, and clicking feels hollow.

The machine offers a great amount of connectivity, with the left-hand side of the laptop featuring an HDMI port, USB-A port, and two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4. On the right, you'll have an Ethernet port, USB-A port, and 3.5mm headphone jack, alongside a security lock slot. The only thing missing, you could argue, is an SD Card slot -- but otherwise it's an impressive complement of physical connectivity options. You'll also benefit from up-to-date wireless standards in Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 – ensuring a degree of future-proofing.

Elsewhere, you can take advantage of several AI-powered features baked into Windows 11, including Cocreator, Recall, and Live Captions. The manufacturer has also developed PurifiedView 2.0 to improve framing and image clarity in video calls, as well as PurifiedVoice 2.0, which uses AI-powered noise reduction and a three-mic setup to make sure you can be heard when you speak up.

Acer also claims the stereo speakers benefit from AI magic to generate 200% more sound output with 70% less vibration. Anecdotal, the sound is clear, and there's plenty of treble but about as much bass as you'd expect from a laptop. In fairness, playing music on full blast was louder than we expected – and while we could experience vibrations, they were within reason.

As for security, the laptop incorporates a webcam shutter for privacy as well as facial recognition with Windows Hello – but there's no fingerprint scanner, unfortunately.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI: Is it worth it?

For a sub-$1,500 price tag, the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI offers plenty of value, and there are very few reasons to avoid it if you're on a tight budget. If you can look past a bland and generic corporate-feeling design – as well as a screen that won't threaten to dazzle you – you'll be able to enjoy solid and reliable performance alongside great quality-of-life features. The keyboard, for example, is excellent and makes typing very enjoyable. We also found the Acer MyKey hotkey a tiny, but really useful, shortcut.

Performance also reaches heights in a similar ballpark to higher-end Intel-powered counterparts, with very few, if any, compromises when it comes to the AI functionality, thanks to 40 TOPS of power and a decent entry-level graphics output too.

The chassis itself, despite feeling a little tacky at face value, does hold up against the stresses and strains of day-to-day mobile working. It's also compact and light – especially given the excellent array of physical ports you can take advantage of – with a decent battery life. Overall, these qualities make the Acer TravelMate X 14 AI a very strong candidate to be your next mid-range travel companion.

Acer TravelMate X 14 AI review: Specifications