Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI evaluate: A wise purchase on the proper value

Greatest Costs At present: Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI

For those who’re on the lookout for a transportable enterprise laptop computer you’re prone to flip first to one thing like a Lenovo ThinkPad, HP EliteBook, or Dell Professional… however the value might nicely scare you off, as enterprise laptops have a tendency to hold a considerable value premium. The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI can be costly on paper, however aggressive retail pricing makes it extra alluring. Which is nice, as a result of the laptop computer’s design gained’t get your pulse racing.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Specs and options as-tested

The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s primary specs gained’t set your hair on fireplace. It is a enterprise moveable with a concentrate on battery life and productiveness, so it sticks to modest {hardware} together with an Intel Core Extremely 5 processor. It additionally has 16GB of RAM, a 512GB stable state drive, and a 1200p show.

• Mannequin quantity: TMX414-51-579T
• CPU: Intel Core Extremely 5 Processor 226V
• Reminiscence: 16GB LPDDR5x-8533
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 130V
• NPU: Intel AI Increase (40 TOPS)
• Show: 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS-LCD 120Hz
• Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 stable state drive
• Webcam and microphone: 1080p FHD IR digicam with privateness shutter
• Connectivity: 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C, 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x USB-A 2.0, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Home windows Hiya facial recognition
• Battery capability: 65 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.28 x 8.89 x 0.64 inches
• Weight: 2.75 kilos
• Working System: Home windows 11 Professional
• Worth: $1,199.99 MSRP, $650 to $850 typical retail

The TravelMate X4 14 AI lists an MSRP of $1,199.99, which looks like quite a bit for a laptop computer with these specs. Nonetheless, the laptop computer tends to promote for lower than that, as I noticed pricing all the way down to $687.99 on CDW. It’s additionally $842.99 on Perception. For those who’re curious why it’s not bought on Amazon or Greatest Purchase, that has to do with its enterprise focus. CDW and Perception are retailers that target enterprise and enterprise prospects.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Design and construct high quality

Foundry / Matthew Smith

The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI makes use of a well-recognized design language which leans on easy silver or gunmetal colorways, angular options, and a mixture of steel and plastic development. There’s nothing essentially flawed with this method however Acer’s rivals, most notably Lenovo and Asus, are extra aggressive on design with extra attention-grabbing colorways and extra distinctive finishes. This leaves the TravelMate X4 14 AI feeling a bit too acquainted.

Construct high quality, in the meantime, is a bit above common for the worth level at which this laptop computer really sells, which is often across the $650-$850 vary. There’s little or no flex within the chassis, even when it’s dealt with roughly. The identical will be mentioned of the show and the massive, easy hinge offers straightforward actuation so you’ll be able to open the laptop computer with one finger with no bother in any respect.

Sadly, I had one critical high quality situation. After I eliminated the plastic movie that protects the digicam and different sensors from harm in delivery, the everlasting plastic inlay beneath it got here alongside for the journey. It was nonetheless a bit cheesy, so I used to be capable of slip it again into place, but it surely didn’t depart an excellent impression.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Keyboard, trackpad

Foundry / Matthew Smith

I discovered the keyboard to be one of many Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s higher traits. It’s a fairly spacious keyboard that’s almost edge-to-edge, with massive keys in an ordinary structure. Key journey is nice and keys activate with a crisp, clicky really feel. Most fashionable Home windows laptops have no less than an appropriate keyboard even on this modest value vary, however I’d say the TravelMate X4 14 AI keyboard is above common.

The touchpad is much less spectacular, although nonetheless OK. It’s fairly massive, measuring about 5 inches vast and about three inches deep, which is massive sufficient to deal with even the extra elaborate Home windows multitouch gestures. The floor of the touchpad has a relatively plastic texture that didn’t please my fingertips. It does the job, however no extra.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Show, audio

Foundry / Matthew Smith

A typical 14-inch IPS-LCD show with a decision of 1920×1200 is accessible on the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI, and apart from the refresh price of as much as 120 Hz, there’s not a lot concerning the show that’s exceptional or stands out from the group. It has a most brightness of about 350 nits and it doesn’t assist HDR, so it’s positively not the simplest show to learn and use in vibrant settings, and it’s not going to be the only option for video games or leisure.

The show is in any other case ok. It offers vivid shade, and whereas the 1920×1200 decision is nothing particular for a laptop computer bought in 2026, on a 14-inch show it nonetheless leads to good sharpness with a pixel density of roughly 162 pixels per inch, which is excessive sufficient to look crisp.

Audio efficiency, however, is a disappointment. The built-in audio system are downward-firing, so they are going to be muffled by some surfaces relying on what you place the laptop computer on. The audio system aren’t loud even at their most quantity, and regardless of that lack of quantity, the audio system nonetheless endure some muddiness and distortion when dealing with motion pictures and music. You’ll in all probability need to have headphones or exterior audio system helpful.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

Like most midrange Home windows laptops, the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI has a built-in webcam with 1080p decision that may report as much as 30 frames per second. It presents first rate sharpness however can look grainy in a dim room. On the whole, it’s superb, however not any higher than the competitors.

I can say the identical for the twin microphone array, though in comparison with the webcam, it’s barely higher total. The microphones picked up clear, crisp audio once I used them to report. They’re nonetheless clearly laptop computer microphones with a hole, distant sound, however they’re nicely fitted to video conferences.

Biometric login is supported by means of Home windows Hiya facial recognition, made attainable by the IR digicam on the system, and it really works about as anticipated, offering easy, fast logins. Additionally like many fashionable Home windows laptops, the TravelMate X4 14 AI helps presence detection to robotically flip off the show or put the laptop computer to sleep if the webcam sees that you simply’ve moved away.

A fingerprint reader isn’t obtainable, so when you want that over Home windows Hiya facial recognition, you’re out of luck.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Connectivity

Foundry / Matthew Smith

Connectivity is the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI’s best power. The laptop computer has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, which in fact additionally assist USB-C, in addition to two USB-A ports—certainly one of which is USB 3.2 Gen 1 and the opposite is USB 2.0. The laptop computer additionally has an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm combo audio jack, and a Gigabit Ethernet port.

The Ethernet port is uncommon for a skinny and light-weight enterprise laptop computer, as many such techniques not present it, and the general mixture of Thunderbolt 4/USB-C and USB-A ports offers loads of choices. The Thunderbolt 4 ports may also assist DisplayPort output and might deal with as much as 100W of USB Energy Supply, to allow them to be used to cost the laptop computer or to connect with an exterior USB-C monitor or to HDMI or DisplayPort screens with the correct adapter.

Wi-fi connectivity can be sturdy, because the laptop computer helps Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. A number of new laptops do assist these requirements, however I’d level out that Wi-Fi 7 is rather less widespread in laptops which are bought at $1,000 and under, and this laptop computer certainly does sometimes promote for fairly a bit underneath $1,000 regardless that the MSRP is $1,199.99. So it’s good to see Wi-Fi 7 is included.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Efficiency

The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI that I acquired for evaluate had an Intel Core Extremely 5 226V chip inside. This chip has an eight-core CPU with 4 efficiency cores and 4 effectivity cores, in addition to a most turbo enhance frequency of 4.5 GHz. The Intel chip is paired with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive.

As you would possibly’ve heard, Intel’s Panther Lake chips bought underneath the Intel Core Extremely Sequence 3 branding are beginning to develop into obtainable, and as you’ll be able to see within the graphs under, that places the older Intel Core Extremely Sequence 2 powered laptops at a drawback.

Foundry / Matthew Smith

Let’s begin issues off with PCMark 10, a common system benchmark that runs a wide range of assessments and strains a number of features of the laptop computer. 

Right here the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI places in a decent rating of 6,962. Though that’s clearly not the perfect outcome included on this graph (the Asus ExpertBook Extremely B9 with new Intel Core Sequence 3 chip handily beats it), it’s not dangerous. Certainly, the Acer is aggressive with laptops which have Intel chips from the next efficiency tier, such because the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo.

Foundry / Matthew Smith

Subsequent up is Cinebench 2024, a closely multi-threaded CPU benchmark. 

This benchmark doesn’t run nicely on Intel Core Sequence 2 chips, as proven by their relative efficiency in opposition to the entry-level AMD Ryzen 5 and Qualcomm Snapdragon X. 

Nonetheless, the Acer is as soon as once more aggressive with laptops which have Intel Core Extremely 7 inside, so that is one other first rate outcome for the Acer.

Foundry / Matthew Smith

Handbrake is one other multi-thread CPU benchmark, and one which tends to have a long term length that stresses a laptop computer’s cooling system. Right here we maybe see why the Acer performs nicely, because it will increase its benefit over the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo.

Foundry / Matthew Smith

Subsequent up is 3DMark. It will be affordable to anticipate the Acer to fall behind right here as a result of the Intel Core Extremely Sequence 5 226V solely has Intel Arc 130V graphics with seven Xe cores. It is a downgrade from Intel Arc 140V, which has 8 Xe cores.

Nonetheless, the Acer continues to punch above its weight. It almost matched the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 and beat the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo, each of which had Intel Arc 140V. After all, the brand new Asus Expertbook Extremely B9 with the most recent Intel Arc B390 runs away from the pack, however that’s to be anticipated.

On the entire, then, the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI can show to be an excellent efficiency worth relying on the worth you pay for it. This degree of efficiency isn’t spectacular if the laptop computer is bought at MSRP. However when you decide it up for nearer to $700 or $800, the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is an effective all-rounder.

With one unlucky exception: the stable state drive. Acer equips this laptop computer with a mere 512GB of stable state storage. Many value aggressive laptops will supply 1TB of storage, so the 512GB SSD is a bummer.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Battery life and portability

A 65-watt-hour battery is discovered contained in the Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI. It is a typical dimension of battery for a 14-inch enterprise laptop computer. Nonetheless, the mix of an Intel Core Extremely Sequence 5 chip with an IPS show retains the ability draw pretty low, and so the laptop computer is ready to obtain very respectable battery life.

Foundry / Matthew Smith

I’ve reviewed laptops that have been capable of final lengthy on a cost, to make sure, however over 20 hours in our standardized take a look at (which loops a 4K file of the brief movie Tears of Metal with the show at 200 nits of brightness) is nothing to scoff at.

Actual-world battery life can be much less, as is true for many laptops, however anyplace from 14 to 18 hours appears affordable when you’re working at modest show brightness and operating apps like Microsoft Workplace, an IDE, or an internet browser. Excluding battery run-down assessments, I solely needed to cost it 3 times in my week with the laptop computer.

Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI: Conclusion

The Acer TravelMate X4 14 AI is without doubt one of the extra generic laptops I can keep in mind testing within the final 12 months. It’s not thrilling to take a look at and doesn’t have a specific design trait or function that stands out. On the upside, nonetheless, the laptop computer has sturdy efficiency for the worth and delivers prolonged battery life.

This laptop computer is not possible to suggest at its $1,199.99 MSRP, however when you see it at retail for underneath $800, it may possibly make sense. The TravelMate X4 14 AI can be cheap for a laptop computer with Home windows 11 Professional, which will be essential when you want the options that working system offers.