Acer is kicking off 2026 by doing what it does best: flooding the gaming laptop space with aggressively specced machines that try to balance raw performance, new silicon, and just enough design flair to stand out in a very crowded market. This time, the focus is on Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 chips and NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50‑series GPUs, wrapped in refreshed Predator Helios Neo and Nitro V laptops that lean heavily into AI branding without forgetting that gamers still care most about frame rates, thermals, and display quality.

At the top of the stack sits the Predator Helios Neo 16S AI, a 16‑inch OLED gaming laptop that feels like Acer’s answer to the question, “What if we made the ‘Neo’ line look and behave like a proper flagship?” On paper, it’s a serious machine: up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, up to 64GB of DDR5 memory, and as much as 2TB of PCIe NVMe storage. The headline, though, is the display—16:10 WQXGA OLED at 2560 x 1600, 165Hz, 1ms response, full PCI‑P3 coverage, and HDR support—essentially the kind of panel you want if you split time between competitive shooters and color‑sensitive work like photo or video editing. In other words, this is no longer just a “cheaper Predator”; it’s a genuine all‑rounder that happens to have a gaming logo on the lid.​

Acer is also very aware that a slim metal chassis with high‑end silicon is a thermal nightmare if you get it wrong, so the Helios Neo 16S AI leans on a 5th‑gen AeroBlade 3D metal fan and liquid metal thermal grease on the CPU to keep things in check. That’s the kind of cooling stack more often associated with full‑fat Predator Helios models, and it suggests that Acer expects sustained workloads—think long gaming sessions or AI‑accelerated creativity tools—to be a real use case here, not just short benchmarking bursts. At around 18.9mm thick and 2.3kg, it’s not ultrabook‑light, but it is firmly in the “throw it in a backpack every day” category rather than the old‑school desktop‑replacement bricks.

The rest of the platform reads like the checklist of what a 2026 gaming laptop is supposed to have: Killer DoubleShot Pro Wi‑Fi 6E, Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, multiple USB‑A ports, a microSD slot, DTS:X Ultra audio, and a 1080p IR webcam for Windows Hello. The keyboard gets a 4‑zone RGB layout rather than per‑key lighting, which is a subtle reminder that this is still positioned slightly below the absolute top Predator tier, but more than enough for typical gaming setups. What Acer pushes hard is the “Copilot+ PC” story—an NPU rated for more than 45 AI TOPS, Windows 11 features like Live Captions for real‑time translation, and Acer’s own Intelligence Space software meant to automate performance tuning and offload some creative tasks.​

If the Helios Neo is the aspirational “I want one laptop that can do everything” machine, the new Nitro V models are pitched squarely at the people who treat gaming as an essential feature, not a lifestyle. The Nitro V 16 AI keeps things relatively straightforward: up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 355 processor, RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, up to 32GB of DDR5 memory, and up to 2TB of SSD storage. The display is a 16‑inch 16:10 WUXGA (1920 x 1200) panel running at 180Hz with 100% sRGB coverage and a MUX switch—a smart choice for the price‑sensitive segment, where higher resolution is often less important than responsiveness and battery life.

Design‑wise, Nitro V has quietly matured from the plasticky, shouty budget line of a few years ago into something more subtle and daily‑carry friendly. You still get the gamer staples—a 4‑zone RGB keyboard, ventilation cutouts, and slightly aggressive lines—but the chassis is slimmer than older Nitros and lighter at roughly 2.1kg. Underneath, cooling is handled by dual fans with dual‑intake and dual‑exhaust, which, combined with a MUX switch, should give you enough headroom to actually let the RTX 5070 breathe when plugged in without immediately throttling. DTS:X Ultra audio and a 1080p IR webcam with a physical shutter round out the “streaming‑ready” story.​

Then there is the Nitro V 16S AI, which feels like Acer’s play for the “I want a gaming laptop, but I don’t want it to look like one” crowd. It shares most of its spec sheet with the regular Nitro V 16 AI—same Intel Core Ultra 7 355 ceiling, same RTX 5070 option, same 16‑inch 180Hz WUXGA display, up to 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD—but trims the chassis down to under 17.9mm in thickness, tipping the scales at about 2.3kg. That doesn’t make it feather‑light, but it does push it into a more commuter‑friendly profile where it can pass as a powerful creator or productivity laptop that just happens to have a 4‑zone RGB keyboard and gaming‑grade GPU inside.​

Both Nitro models keep the port selection practical rather than flashy: Thunderbolt 4, multiple USB‑A ports (including one with offline charging), HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, and a 3.5mm combo jack. Wi-Fi 6E with Killer DoubleShot Pro and Bluetooth 5.2 are standard, which is increasingly non‑negotiable now that more multiplayer titles and cloud services depend on low‑latency wireless. NitroSense software returns as the one‑click destination for fan curves and performance modes, sitting alongside Acer Intelligence Space for AI‑driven optimizations and Windows Copilot+ features.​

What ties the Helios Neo 16S AI and the Nitro V duo together is Acer’s willingness to lean into AI as a differentiator without completely abandoning the fundamentals that actually matter to gamers. The NPUs inside Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 chips are there to handle tasks like real‑time translation with Live Captions and generative Image Creator tools, but the real‑world benefit for players may be more subtle: better battery life when offloading some work from CPU/GPU, smarter performance tuning, and a smoother experience when multitasking between games, recording, streaming, and background apps. It is very much Acer’s bet that “AI‑ready” will become as standard a spec line as “RTX inside” over the next couple of years.

The rollout cadence hints at how confident Acer is about these machines. The Nitro V 16 AI is due relatively early, landing in regions like North America and EMEA in the second quarter of 2026, while the slimmer Nitro V 16S AI and the Helios Neo 16S AI follow into Q2 and Q3, depending on the market. Pricing will vary by configuration and region, but given Nitro’s history, these laptops will likely undercut many rivals with similar silicon, leaving the Helios Neo 16S AI to sit a rung higher for those willing to pay extra for OLED and more headroom.​

For anyone shopping in 2026, the message is pretty clear. If you want a single machine that can handle competitive gaming, content creation, and everyday work without compromises, the Predator Helios Neo 16S AI is the one Acer wants you to look at first, especially if you care about display quality and higher‑end thermals. If you want something a little more grounded in price and friendlier to carry to class, the office, or a café, Nitro V 16 AI and Nitro V 16S AI are pitched as “good enough to take seriously” gaming laptops that no longer feel like obvious budget buys. And underneath the branding, RGB, and AI buzzwords, the story is fairly simple: new Intel and NVIDIA parts, more efficient cooling, faster displays, and enough AI acceleration onboard that these laptops should feel modern for more than just a single upgrade cycle.