It’s been a year, perhaps a bit longer, and it’s been a relentless conversation about AI PCs, or computing devices (laptops, tablets and convertibles, running Microsoft’s Windows 11) being the future. That conversation however, had been about an ecosystem developed in what architects and designers would call “top heavy”. Expensive laptops, much above the ₹1,00,000 price point, showing us the future of artificial intelligence layered on the operating system and apps that we are supposed to use. Precious little has happened with AI PCs at more affordable price points, the HP OmniBook 7 Aero from earlier this summer, a rare example. Acer is attempting to change that with the Aspire Go 14 AI, and the proposition has worked to a large extent. But it does leave me with a distinct feeling, Acer could have done more.

Acer, with the Aspire Go 14 AI (NX.JF5SI.001 is the exact model) that is priced at ₹59,999 and built with a rather impressive spec sheet, is trying to build a new category of mainstream AI PCs. The headline specs include an Intel Core Ultra 5 125H processor with a powerful enough neural processing unit rated at 11 TOPS or trillion operations per second, 16GB memory, 512GB storage and a 14-inch IPS, or in-plane switching display which on a budget laptop is ticking illumination as well as vivid colour checkboxes rather resoundingly. Most specs are on point, but the question really is, how well does this all come together with Windows. It is not as easy as you may imagine, and that is something I encountered soon enough.

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There is something about the design that absolutely doesn’t tap a premium-ness aspect that many a buyer would aspire for. After all, this is still a lot of money to part with for a laptop that one hopes would be future-proof enough to last a few years. In the sea of slimmer and thinner laptops, the Aspire Go 14 AI is still clinging to a design language most common in a prior generation of laptops. It has all to do with the design, with the Aspire Go 14 AI at 17.5mm not exactly thinner than the Omnibook 7 Aero at 16.5mm, but the latter looks thinner due to smarter design cues.

The colour, space grey as they call it, doesn’t add any charm. And I have a particular dislike for laptop designs which rely on the far side of the lid to prop up the machine from the rear, once opened. You could, at this point, say that Acer’s design could be better at managing thermals. That absolutely isn’t the case. While its competitor ran hot, the Aspire Go 14 AI runs perceptibly hotter still, with the cooling fans more than immediately audible even as the machine is booting the operating system. That is mostly unexpected, because it isn’t what you’d typically classify as stress testing the specs.

That said, the Intel Core 5 Ultra chip proves to be a good choice by Acer, who’ve done well to pair this with 16GB memory and nothing less. There is more than enough headroom for multitasking without any stutters (though you’ll hear the fans in the background most of the time). There could have been an argument for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X with an up to 45 TOPS NPU, but considering the Aspire Go 14 AI’s baseline performance is top-notch, I wouldn’t give much weightage to higher TOPS — the AI experience, compute and performance will remain in the same ballpark for all tasks sent to the cloud. Which is most of the stuff you do with generative AI these days.

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Battery life is less than expected, with the Aspire Go 14 AI lasting anywhere between 9.5 hours to 11 hours on a single charge — depending on app load and other factors such as screen brightness. I’d point to the increased internal temperatures as one of the reasons why this AI PC drains its battery a couple of hours quicker than the HP OmniBook 7 Aero. These numbers still aren’t a hardship, because you can easily get through a day at work without having to carry the 65-watt USB-C power adapter as well.

Complimenting the somewhat dated design is a keyboard that’s decidedly spongy in response to every key press. I would prefer a slightly firmer keyboard response than this soft feedback, but this is subjective. For one, I wouldn’t want a keyboard to be the reason to slow down the typing speed or hurt accuracy (which also is detrimental to speed). Albeit, this is much quieter than keyboards that HP, Lenovo or Asus have designed for their AI PC range — that means Acer’s approach is certainly working in terms of not being a disturbance in the office or in a coffee shop.

There is the old conventional wisdom that affordable laptops would generally compromise on some elements of the checklist. That holds true, in the AI PC era as well, though dependent on how you view affordable laptops now and what’s acceptably within the purview of a compromise and what isn’t. In this case, core performance more than makes up for the restrained design approach, while the display and fairly good battery life add to a proposition that does work well enough without complications. There is some bit of future proofing in terms of the NPU, to get you going in the world of AI tools. The Copilot key is a constant reminder of that.