No tradeoffs right here. Acer’s TravelMate is gentle and lasts all day

Traditionally, a journey laptop computer with lengthy battery life meant extra weight and thickness. That’s not the case with Acer’s TravelMate P6 14 AI, which by some means squeezes as much as 30 hours of battery life inside a laptop computer weighing lower than 2.2 kilos.

It’s a significant distinction. I don’t actually discover any distinction between two and three kilos when it’s inside my backpack, however simply waving a demo TravelMate round for a minute or two feels such as you’re holding a prop, not one thing that may carry out actual work.

The key sauce is the chassis materials — carbon fiber and magnesium-aluminum alloy — and the Intel Core Extremely Collection 3 (Panther Lake) processor inside. Acer consists of the Core Extremely 5 325 on as much as the Core Extremely X7 368H.

The ‘X7’ alerts that the TravelMate P6 14 AI consists of Intel’s highly effective built-in GPU, which helped propel Panther Lake into gaming territory.

(Don’t get too excited, although. Microsoft’s newest Floor Laptop computer 8, which I’m at present testing, features a comparable chip and appears to be thermally restricted, proscribing efficiency. I’d count on the identical from the brand new TravelMate.)

If you happen to’re a productiveness nerd, you would possibly surprise how giant the battery is: 71Wh. That quantity in all probability surprises you, it’s already fairly giant. For context, 99Wh is the utmost allowed on U.S. plane.

So maximizing the battery would have added, what? One other third of a pound? Maybe extra? Twirling the TravelMate round, I couldn’t assist however assume that laptop computer makers are already nearing the sensible limits in battery capability — in machines {that a} baby may comfortably carry round. Unimaginable.

To be truthful, Acer’s advertising division is taking a number of liberties. Acer’s TravelMate P6 14 AI consists of three show configurations: a 14-inch 3K (2880 x1800) OLED touchscreen, a 14-inch 3K IPS touchscreen, and a 14-inch 1920×1200 non-touch panel.

Whereas the primary two show configurations weigh 2.11 and a couple of.16 kilos, respectively, the latter configuration weighs a extra standard 2.65 kilos and may last as long as 30 hours in a video rundown check. The touchscreens eat extra energy and final a bit much less: 23.5 hours of video playback for each.

All three display choices embrace variable refresh price help, which may sluggish the refresh price all the way down to drastic ranges and save energy. Simply remember that solely the OLED possibility features a devoted matte masking, which may enable for work in well-lit areas with out annoying reflections. Acer apparently elevated the show energy of the OLED to 500 nits, leaving the others at 400 nits apiece. That ought to be sufficient for outside work, resembling on the finish of a transoceanic flight the place you’re making an attempt to reset your organic clock.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Nonetheless, designing a skinny, actually gentle laptop computer round Panther Lake is a great transfer. Earlier this month, I examined many of the consultant laptop computer platforms for his or her energy effectivity and Intel’s Core Extremely 300 (Panther Lake) was the clear winner. However my methodology used UL’s Procyon benchmark and its Productiveness benchmark to supply a harder workload than only a video rundown.

Acer did its personal testing with the TravelMate, utilizing the competing Bapco MobileMark 30 check as a substitute. It’s a very good distinction. The non-touch panel model of the TravelMate P6 14 AI lasted 15.5 hours, whereas the touchscreen fashions lasted 13 hours as a substitute — nonetheless wonderful on each fronts.

I don’t see the rest notably noteworthy — however actually, the exceptionally gentle weight and battery life communicate for themselves. Acer’s keyboards are nonetheless excellent, and the TravelMate feels comfy to kind upon. I certain would love a laptop computer maker to acknowledge that left-handers use a mouse, and that putting two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left aspect of the chassis creates a corded visitors jam to barter via.

Nonetheless, one of many issues I don’t see is a value, which Acer says will fluctuate by area and will likely be introduced nearer to the TravelMate’s August launch. With as much as 60GB of onboard (soldered) LPDDR5X reminiscence and a terabyte of PCIe Gen 4 NVMe storage, count on Acer to cost a premium value.