Amazon's Prime Day may have started July 8, but other retailers are offering some major discounts as well. Costco members can snag the Acer Aspire 14 AI for $500a $200 discount, until July 20 or while supplies last.
CNET's key takeaways
The Acer Aspire 14 AI is available for $500 at Costco.
The Intel Lunar Lake CPU offers good performance for the price and long battery life.
The display and design won't wow you.
Laptop prices are on the rise -- and the more they increase, the better Acer's Aspire 14 AI looks.
When I reviewed it in April, it cost $700 at Costco and was the cheapest Copilot Plus PC I had reviewed. Fast forward two months and it's now $500 at Costco, making it the the cheapest Copilot Plus PC I've seen -- and a great value.
Acer cuts the right corners to hit such a low price for the Aspire 14 AI, delivering a well-rounded laptop with modern components. This is no budget laptop with outdated parts. It features the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processor (codenamed Lunar Lake) that serves up competitive application and AI performance along with great battery life and a design that doesn't look all that different from Acer's pricier Swift laptops. The Aspire 14 AI's no-frills, but future-proofed package makes it one of the best budget laptops of 2025.
My experience with the Acer Aspire 14 AI
I'm still waiting for the killer AI app to make a laptop AI CPU a must but it's nice to know that when it arrives, you'll have a machine that's built for it.
... continue reading