Acer’s Core Ultra 7 laptop with 16GB RAM is just $550 right now

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I always keep an eye out for affordable laptops, but that’s becoming far more relevant (and far more difficult) as those laptops start to disappear. And I don’t recommend anyone run Windows 11 on less than 16GB of RAM, which makes deal-hunting even harder. But today I found one that meets my standard—it’s new, not refurbished, and only costs $550. If you’re in the market, you might want to snatch it right away.

The model in question is the Acer Aspire 14 AI, a 14-inch laptop that’s often featured with deep discounts. This one is notable for a few reasons. The specs are good: Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB of storage. The price is even better: $549.99, coming directly from Acer on its oddly voluminous eBay marketplace. What I’m really shocked about is that this particular listing is for a new laptop, not refurbished, which is what I would’ve expected in this price range.

You can read more about this laptop in PCWorld’s exhaustive review. In short, it’s a basic, no-nonsense design without many extra frills, coming in at around 3 pounds with a surprising amount of power thanks to Intel’s Lunar Lake platform. The laptop on sale on eBay is actually a little better than the one PCWorld reviewed, because the processor is bumped up to a Core Ultra 7 model with eight cores.

Other highlights include a touchscreen, infrared camera for Windows Hello facial recognition unlock, and plenty of ports including double USB-C, double USB-A, full HDMI, and a headphone jack. The battery is 65 watt-hours, which isn’t gigantic but should last for well over 10 hours on basic web browsing tasks.

With that processor and its integrated Arc graphics, you should be able to play just about any 2D or older game, and even a few newer ones on low settings. For any other kind of regular work, it’ll fly through tasks and browser tabs. The Aspire 14 AI isn’t fancy, but for a laptop buyer on a 2026 budget, it’s practically a diamond in the rough. For more options, check out PCWorld’s picks for best laptops under $500.