Get Acer’s Aspire 14 AI laptop with 16GB RAM + 1TB SSD for $400

Acer, where the hell are you hiding all these refurbished laptop deals? While stores like Best Buy scramble to find affordable laptops with more RAM than the average television, Acer seems to have an unlimited supply of laptops on its eBay store. Case in point, this Aspire 14 AI with a recent Intel CPU, 16GB of RAM, a touchscreen, and an upgraded 1TB of storage, all for just $400 (originally $580).

Not that I’m complaining. While PC buyers are starved for machines with decent specs (that don’t have an Apple logo), the official Acer eBay store seems to be the best bet for those on a budget. The Aspire 14 AI isn’t much to look at, but its hardware is great for a machine at this price. 16GB of RAM is the least I would recommend for any Windows 11 laptop, and its speedy DDR5 RAM pairs well with the Intel Core Ultra 5 226V with 8 cores. 1TB of storage is a great upgrade as well—you usually see half that for even more expensive laptops.

You can read all about it in PCWorld’s review of the Aspire 14 AI, which appears to be using exactly the same hardware configuration. Other highlights include a 16:10 touchscreen (another feature you rarely see in budget designs), double USB-C, double USB-A, and HDMI ports, Windows Hello facial recognition, and a pretty beefy 65 watt-hour battery. With a modern CPU, that should last for over 10 hours at least, even if you’re playing low-level games on the (surprisingly good) integrated graphics.

The Aspire 14 AI isn’t much of a looker with its gray plastic, and it won’t outperform a gaming laptop. But it’s an extremely solid work-a-day laptop at a great price. Right now that’s hard to argue with. Like most of the refurbished laptops Acer sells on eBay, it comes with a two-year warranty from Allstate. That’s not as nice as the standard manufacturer warranty, but much better than the 30- or 90-day warranty you usually see on refurbished electronics.