The Acer Aspire Go 14 is a budget-friendly option with a decent performance for everyday tasks and a good battery life, making it a solid choice for general use on the go. Its screen is sharp with a higher-than-average pixel density, and the laptop is lightweight and portable. However, it's not suitable for intensive gaming or demanding engineering tasks, and it lacks advanced features like a touchscreen, facial recognition, or high-speed Thunderbolt ports.
On the other hand, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is a premium, high-performance machine designed for professionals who need top-tier performance for tasks like 3D rendering, machine learning, and engineering. It boasts a stunning Mini LED display with exceptional color accuracy and brightness, a powerful M2 Pro chip, and an extensive array of ports including Thunderbolt 4. It's also built with a robust keyboard and trackpad, superior build quality, and offers excellent heat management and speaker quality. However, it comes with a much higher price tag, and while still portable, it's heavier and has a shorter battery life compared to the Acer.
In summary, if you prioritize portability, battery life, and value for money for general use, the Acer is a practical choice. But if you require a powerhouse laptop for professional workloads and are willing to invest in a device with superior display quality, performance, and build, the MacBook Pro is the way to go. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Acer Aspire Go 14
Very good portability
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
Excellent for general use
Very good for engineering and design
Good for gaming and AI
Very good for software development
Excellent for content creation
Excellent overall display quality
Best in class overall build quality
Best in class battery life
Best in class speakers
Best in class keyboard
Key differences
General Use
6.7/10
9.1/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3456 x 2234
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
280.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
487.0 nits
9.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
17.5 Hours
7.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.5/10
8.2/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
7.6/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is excellent for general use, while the Acer Aspire Go 14 is only fair.
PerfectRec’s General Use Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for general productivity, web browsing, streaming, video calls, and running a wide variety of apps and programs.
Gaming and AI
5.8/10
7.4/10
3.5/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
5.8/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3456 x 2234
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
120Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
No
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
8.0/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
8.7/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is good for gaming and AI, while the Acer Aspire Go 14 is poor.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
Engineering and Design
6.2/10
8.8/10
4.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
8.5/10
3.5/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
5.8/10
8.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is very good for engineering and design, while the Acer Aspire Go 14 is only fair.
PerfectRec’s Engineering and Design Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for graphic design and 3D rendering work.
Content Creation
7.1/10
9.1/10
4.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
8.5/10
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3456 x 2234
8.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is excellent for content creation, while the Acer Aspire Go 14 is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.0/10
8.9/10
4.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
8.5/10
8.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3456 x 2234
7.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) is very good for software development, while the Acer Aspire Go 14 is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
6.7/10
9.3/10
14.0in
SIZE
16.2in
1920 x 1200
RESOLUTION
3456 x 2234
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
120Hz
280.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
487.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has a better screen than the Acer Aspire Go 14 for general use, AI, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
PerfectRec’s screen quality scores take into account various important factors that are relevant for different use cases.
Battery
9.0 Hours
17.5 Hours
The Acer Aspire Go 14 has 9 hours of battery life. The Apple MacBook Pro 16 has 17.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Very Good
Good
14.0in
SIZE
16.2in
3.2 lbs
WEIGHT
4.7 lbs
0.7in
THICKNESS
0.6in
The Acer Aspire Go 14 has very good portability, while the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has good portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.4/10
10.0/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) has best in class build quality, while the Acer Aspire Go 14 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$350
$2,423
$0
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
The Acer Aspire Go 14 has a price of $350 and the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023) costs $2,423.
"The Apple MacBook Pro 16 2023: M2 Max challenges GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. The new MacBook Pro 16 2023 with the M2 Max SoC is the most powerful laptop Apple has on sale right now. While we do not get the expected performance and efficiency improvements from completely new 3 nm chips, which we expected ahead of the launch, the 2023 model is still a solid update. The CPU of the M2 Max can be up to 20 % faster than the old model and we also see an advantage of 25-30 % for the GPU with 38 cores. However, both components also consume more power, so the efficiency did not change that much under maximum load."
Get a great deal on the Acer Aspire Go 14 or the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2023)
About Acer
Acer is a prominent Taiwanese electronics brand which makes a wide range of laptops, with multiple product lines catering to personal use, gaming, and business use. They are renowned for having exceptional value for money, as they frequently offer good specifications at a lower price than other manufacturers.
About Apple
Apple, an American technology company, is one of the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. Their MacBook laptops feature a slim, minimalistic design, class-leading battery life, and premium display and speaker quality. In 2020 Apple switched from using Intel processors to their own silicon chips which have excellent performance and efficiency. The macOS operating system is the second most widely used OS, after Windows.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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Joe Golden, Ph.D
CEO and Laptops Editor
Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Chandradeep is a staff expert and software engineer and expert in televisions and monitors. He’s been making monitor recommendations for ten years.
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Laptops Expert
Craig is a UK-based laptops expert. Craig works in IT, where he recommends and supports laptops and PCs for clients and has been recommending laptops on Reddit for five years.