Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI review: a powerful, pocketable laptop

Earlier this summer I tested the impressive Acer Predator Helios Neo 16S AI, and found it to be a really capable new 16-inch gaming laptop for those wanting great specs without breaking the bank.

For many, though, 16-inches remains big, even if they're into gaming – so Acer's 14-inch alternative also seems worth checking in on.

The Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is a very similar beast, but a little smaller – and therefore more manageable. I used it for a fortnight for this review to put it through its paces and see if it's one of the best gaming laptops.

Price & Availability

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI comes in from £1,799 in the UK, and €1,699 in the EU, with pricing and release windows still seemingly to be finalised in the US. That means its availability is more than a little dependent on where you're based.

I'd assume that the laptop will indeed make it to the US sooner rather than later, but in all regions it can also be upgraded in feature areas to pump that price tag up higher.

Design

It doesn't come as a surprise to confirm that the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI has a design that's extremely reminiscent of its bigger sibling. That means you get a laptop finished all over in matte black plastic, with an Acer Predator logo on its back that lights up when in use.

The most noteworthy part of its design, when the laptop is closed, is that it has a protruding rear behind the display's hinge, giving it a bigger footprint than some other 14-inch options like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

Acer is far from the only brand to make this choice, squeezing in more cooling and components at the expense of aesthetics, but I can't pretend to love how it looks.

Still, the laptop should comfortably fit in most laptop sleeves and backpacks regardless, and the amount of cooling you get from the fan array at the back of that protrusion is obvious when it's powered on and gaming.

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The left side of the laptop holds an array of ports – the charger, a USB-A and USB-C, a headphone jack. There's also some indicator lights for power and charging. The right side adds to these with an HDMI port, USB-A and a power-bearing USB-C, plus a microSD card slot for expanded storage.

Opening the laptop up, you get a tenkeyless keyboard with backlighting, along with a wide (but not that tall) trackpad below it. A gaming mode-switching key is above that keyboard to the left, and there are some function keys on its right-most row, too. Finally, the display is a really glossy one, which I'll get to in the performance section, but it has a webcam above it for practical use.

The whole machine weighs in at 1.90kg, which isn't insignificant, but pales compared to some other gaming laptops you could opt to buy. When closed, it's also 20.80mm thick, which means that, while slim, it's far from the slimmest I've tried in recent months.

Specs & Features

The headline attraction whenever you're talking about a 2025 gaming laptop is which of Nvidia's latest series of GPUs it manages to squeeze into its form factor – and the answer when it comes to the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI is that it rocks the standard GeForce RTX 5070.

That's a sterling card, and one that I've already tested in other machines with a very positive impression, and Acer has paired it with the Intel Core Ultra 7 255H chipset to ensure that you're not CPU-bound as you game, either.

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You also get 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM, which means multitasking should be a cinch, although this is one of many gaming laptops I've tested recently where the 1TB SSD for storage looks increasingly stingy in a time of simply massive download sizes for PC games.

That OLED display is star of the show, though. It's 14.5-inches across the diagonal, so slightly bigger than you might expect, and comes in at WQXGA+ specification, which means a resolution of 2880 x 1800. In my experience, that's more than enough sharpness for a screen of this size, and it also boasts a 120Hz refresh rate to bring super-smooth action when you're gaming at high frame rates.

This all adds up to a pretty good package for the price, by my judgment – the inclusion of that 5070 being the most important single component. Acer matches the sort of value offered by the 16-inch version, and that's a very good thing if you want a new laptop that piles in features without going crazy on price.

Performance

I played a heap of games on the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI and found its performance to be pretty much exactly in line with my expectations. That smaller screen is still high-resolution enough to demand plenty from the 5070, but you'll still be able to play recent releases on their highest settings smoothly.

Doom: The Dark Ages was extremely responsive and climbed up near the 120Hz or 120fps refresh rate limit when I tuned it right, while Ghost of Tsushima was similarly gorgeous and extremely responsive even on the highest preset.

That said, in every case where support has been patched in, frame generation can be a godsend that fully underlines the utility of Nvidia's latest cards. On a 4K monitor, you might be able to pick out ghosting or blurring at times using this AI-assisted tech, but on a 14-inch display here, I found it to be all upside and no downside.

It can have a huge impact on your frame rate when you push into the highest graphical settings, and I would hope that it'll mean the Predator Helios Neo 14 AI has a decent amount of longevity to rely on. After all, frame generation should help it to cope with titles moving forward for a long while.

All that being said, the diminutive size of the laptop doesn't mean it's a great option if you want to do some work on the go between gaming sessions. Unplug it and you'll only realistically get a few hours of battery from it under regular use, and while it's smaller than many alternatives, its extra bulk does make it feel a little less convenient.

Sound quality is solid enough, but, again, you'll almost certainly want to pair the best headphones or headset you have access to, to really make the most of the gaming power at your fingertips.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 AI review: Verdict

Having tested this laptop's bigger sibling a couple of months ago, the smaller package hasn't surfaced any shocks or surprises.

Acer's 14-inch Predator Helios Neo is just as solid and reliable as the 16-inch model, while packing in a really great specs list without pushing its price to a silly place.

However, it's not as inspiring in design terms, or as useable for general admin, as some others I've used this year – but if you want a great gaming laptop that's not giant then this should last for a good number of years before it starts to show any weakness.

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Also consider

If you're married to the 14-inch size for your new gaming laptop, then I can only point at the best one I've tested this year, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. It's also drastically more expensive than Acer's alternative, which might make it hard to justify.

If you want something a bit bigger and are intent on keeping your costs down, though, a lesser-known brand could be the answer. The Medion Erazer Beast 16 X1 Ultimate is extremely powerful, but undercuts some bigger-name brands nicely, and I think it's a great step-up option in this case.