The new Acer Nitro V 16 AI is a thin gaming laptop that doesn’t compromise on thermals or raw gaming performance. Published on January 7, 2026 at 8:02AM PST If you've been out of the loop when it comes to high-powered gaming laptops you might be surprised to discover that the days of thick, heavy, and loud workstations are a thing of the past. For some time now the market has been blessed with various thin and light options, each one equipped with enough pixel-pushing horsepower to dispel concerns about compromise. Brands such as ASUS and Razer have traditionally dominated this space with exceptionally crafted albeit incredibly expensive laptops, targeting a market that isn't usually considered mainstream. Acer seems to understand this, with the latest Nitro V 16 AI aiming at a more affordable price point while still delivering top-notch performance in a chassis that remains thin and light for exceptional portability. The most eye-catching aspect of the new Nitro V 16 AI isn't what's lying underneath its surface, but just how thin and compact that surface is. Measuring at just 19.9mm (0.78 inches) thick when closed, this is one of the thinnest gaming laptops around, cutting it very close to premium options such as the Razer Blade 16 and MacBook Pro 16. It's relatively light, too, weighing in at just 2.3kg (5 pounds). If you've ever handled those you'll know just how much of a difference that thinness makes to a device's overall portability, letting you easily make use of it on a desk at work, on a small table during a commute, and anywhere in between. The thinness doesn't compromise on cooling, either, as is often the concern with this design. Acer has managed to cram in two fans for a distinct dual-intake and dual-exhaust design, with the Nitro V 16 AI drawing in cool air from above and below the keyboard, redirecting that across its wide heatsinks, and expelling it towards the top and bottom of the laptop. This keeps things cool where it counts, reducing residual heat build-up on the keyboard which will prevent sweaty hands while engaging in longer gaming sessions. The slimness does not compromise on inputs and outputs either, with a variety of ports to let you bring along additional storage and connect to external monitors without concern. The Acer Nitro V 16 AI features an HDMI 2.1 output, a single Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port with power delivery and DisplayPort 3.0 output, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, 3.5mm combo audio jack, RJ-45 and DC power. That should make it easy enough to get through any work at an office or on campus using a single USB-C cable, and giving you more than enough versatility to have the Nitro V 16 AI function as a powerful gaming device at home connected to a high refresh-rate monitor making use of the HDMI 2.1 output. The benefit of being a laptop means you don't need to seek out an external monitor for most uses, and the Nitro V 16 AI has you covered on both creative and gaming fronts with its included display. The 16-inch 1920x1200 LCD is a good fit for a laptop that wants to balance crispness and battery-life, with the 180Hz refresh rate becoming very handy for competitive games you might want to hop into on the go. The 16:10 aspect ratio also gives you more vertical space to play with, which can come in handy for many productivity tasks. The display also features 100% sRGB range support, making it a good option for color-sensitive editing that will equally benefit from the additional power afforded by the substantial CPU and GPU grunt that the Nitro V 16 AI offers. The Nitro V 16 AI features the latest iteration of Intel's Panther Lake, recently announced at CES 2026. You can expect a series of CPU options up to and including the Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 Series 3 processor, featuring a total of eight cores, with four performance cores and four low-power cores (equivalent to efficiency cores albeit running at lower clock speeds for better efficiency). The performance cores can boost up to 4.7GHz while the chip also comes equipped with a 4-core Xe 3 iGPU, for lighter graphical tasks that won't require the use of the dedicated Nvidia GPU. Paramount to AI features is the on-board neural processing unit (NPU) with 50 TOPS (trillion operations per second) which allows the Nitro V 16 to take full advantage of Microsoft's Copilot+ suite of tools.