Best Acer gaming laptop deals

Shh, do you hear that? It’s the best Acer gaming laptop deals around us,  watching, waiting to pounce.  No matter the day, there always seems to be a handful of solid deals on Acer gaming laptops.  Expect to find savings on supe-up Acer Predator laptops like the Helios or Triton in case you’re looking for decent desktop replacements.

Don’t forget the Acer Nitro line-up: great entry-level gaming laptops for those on a tight budget. They may not be as flashy as its more expensive siblings but still manage to pack an impressive punch where it matters most.

Thankfully, Acer has finally removed the word ‘Predator’ from its laptop’s lid, which might have caused some embarrassing misunderstandings in public.

Due to the sheer breadth of specs, styles, and price points in Acer’s portfolio, finding the specs to match your needs isn’t as easy as we’d like. With more and more laptops touting brand new GPUs like the Nvidia RTX 30-series, the choices and options can be overwhelming. But that’s what we’re here for. Below are some of the best Acer gaming laptops I tested this year.

The best Acer gaming laptop deals today

The best Acer laptops for gaming in 2022

Once you get past the initial dread of its god-awful startup sound, the Acer Predator Triton 500 is hands down one of the best gaming laptops (opens in new tab) I’ve ever used. Small enough to fit in a backpack and light enough not to be a burden, it stuffs a 15-inch screen into a 14-inch frame for an RTX gaming experience that is, against all odds, both portable and potent. 

It doesn’t have the strongest battery life, having conked out at less than three hours in our in-house battery test, but you can’t expect to play intensive triple-A games unplugged for long anyway. 

I would have loved to have seen a model offering a 1440p (or even 4K) display, but the 15.6 inch, 1080p IPS panel, is a gorgeous, bright screen that’s incredibly fast, which, more importantly, supports a 300Hz refresh rate. A 300Hz screen might seem slightly overkill, but don’t say that to anyone playing Valorant or Call of Duty: Warzone competitively. 

I have trouble telling much of a difference above 240Hz, but I like having that option considering the hardware is capable. Though I will say it was tough to go back to playing Call of Duty on a 120Hz monitor after living in the buttery smooth world of 300Hz. That IPS panel technology also ensures that the color range is good, useful if you edit photos and videos, and needs decent color accuracy. 

If it weren’t for a few glaring design oversights and a notable lack of screen resolution choices above 1080p, the Triton 500 would be a perfect machine. Still, it’s a relatively inexpensive gateway to ray-traced graphics rendered in real-time, deserving of its place on the best Acer laptop for gaming power rankings.

Read our full Acer Predator Triton 500 (opens in new tab) review.

Though it comes in 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch flavors, we prefer the 15-inch Acer Predator Helios 300, a budget-minded clamshell made for gaming in its many forms. They are all almost good choices despite being available in ten different configurations.

The Predator Helios 300 is one of the better-performing mid-range gaming laptops, packing in plenty of power for under $1,500, which is not an easy task. The vast number of configurations even let you find a way to lower the price by skimping on inconsequential components (for gaming, at least), like RAM or a screen with a lower refresh rate; you can save yourself a hefty chunk of change. 

Another thing that struck me is that the Predator branding is now only located on the inside of the laptop. I get it; some people might be a little self-conscious using a laptop with the word ‘Predator’ on it in public. It’s okay; the blue accents will still let people know you’re a gamer, so no worries. 

The metal cover with anodized finish gives the Helios a more sturdy feel than in previous years, though I would have loved to have seen it all over the laptop instead of just the cover.

The Helios 300 is a solid, lower-cost alternative to the Triton 500. It’s worth keeping an eye out for simply because it offers great power at a thoroughly reasonable price. It’s not maybe the thinnest or most portable gaming laptop around, but it makes up for that by being powerful where it matters most.

Read our full Acer Predator Helios 300 review (opens in new tab).

An old colleague once referred to the Acer Nitro series as a gaming laptop good at hiding its power level. The Acer Nitro 5’s magic trick is hiding a powerful mid-range gaming laptop inside the PC gaming equivalent of a sweater vest.  
Just because you’re on a budget doesn’t mean you have to miss out on playing some killer games on the go.

The Acer Nitro 5 offers plenty of AMD configurations and Intel ones for little cash, and you can still enjoy 1080p gameplay at modest frame rates. 

You’re generally in the realms of the GTX 1660 Ti or the RTX 3050 here, at least at the more affordable end of the Nitro 5 spectrum, but they’re powerful enough for 1080p. And with the RTX 3050, you can even potentially enjoy some ray traced pretties with DLSS 2.0 support thrown in for good measure.

If you’re a student, the Nitro 5 has plenty of ports for all your accessories like portable hard drives, gaming mice, and other goodies without breaking the bank. 

Acer’s NitroSense fan-control app ensures that your laptop remains cool during heavy usage. This means you can work on your lap without frying said lap. The touchpad can be temperamental; we recommend picking up a gaming mouse (opens in new tab) to complement this laptop.