Hands on: Acer’s new TravelMate P6 brings OLED to the business space

Looking for a business laptop with a pretty display? Acer has you covered.

Acer held its spring next@acer event today, introducing a wide range of products from Chromebooks to gaming laptops. In the business laptop department, we have the new TravelMate P6, and Acer was kind enough to send us a pre-production unit to check out.

However, note that being a pre-production unit, there’s no actual testing I was allowed to do. That means no benchmarking and no battery life tests. All I can tell you about are my impressions. That said, we did get to look at its gorgeous OLED screen, a rarity on a business laptop in this space, and its subtle design.

The Acer TravelMate P6 (2023) has a beautiful display

One of the big improvements (probably the biggest) in this generation is that the TravelMate P6 now comes with a 14-inch 2880×1800 OLED display. That’s a big change from the old FHD panels we’ve seen from Acer in the past, so things look sharper, the blacks are blacker, and the colors are more vibrant. Not only that, but you have the option of turning on a 90Hz refresh rate, so animations will look smoother too.

Some of the best business laptops on the market do offer OLED screens, including those from HP’s premium Dragonfly lineup and Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 series; however, they all come in a more expensive tier. When the Acer TravelMate P6 starts shipping in June, you’ll be able to get a base model with this display for $1,249.

13th-gen Intel processors mean faster performance and better memory

As I said earlier, I wasn’t allowed to benchmark this laptop. In fact, I can’t even make speculations based on using it. I can say, however, that Intel’s 13th-generation processors promise a 15% boost in productivity performance, according to the company’s own announcement. I’ve also now tested several laptops with 13th-gen processors, such as the Lenovo Yoga 9i (2023), and the boost feels pretty significant.

I suspect that most people won’t notice it though. That’s the thing about productivity performance boosts: nobody was asking for it. When it comes down to working through web browsers like so many of us do, performance is just fine. Still, you can always say that with newer processors. You’ll just be a bit more future-proofed with Intel’s latest.

Everything else

If you’ve seen an Acer TravelMate P6, then you’re already familiar with the design. It comes in black, with an Acer logo stamped in the corner of the lid. I’ve seen TravelMate units with silver accents, but that’s not the case here.

The more subtle design is what you’d expect in a business device. When it comes to consumer laptops, Acer has some pretty devices, such as Swift 14, which has gold accents. But this is the same across the board, whether you’re buying Acer, Dell, HP, or Lenovo. Business laptops simply aren’t meant to be flashy.

That doesn’t mean they can’t be stylish though, which I think is the case here. It also weighs in at 2.42 pounds, so it’s super-light and easy to take with you. Another feature that adds to its ultra portability is the optional 5G. If you’re on the road, you want connectivity. While public Wi-Fi exists in many places, cellular just adds a level of convenience and security, so that always helps.

As far as ports go, there’s nothing too crazy going on here. There are dual Thunderbolt ports, along with a USB Type-A port and HDMI. It’s not uncommon for business laptops to have more ports, since commercial customers tend to use more legacy peripherals.

If you’re looking for a business laptop that doesn’t make compromises on power but is still ultra-portable, this is a solid option. The OLED display adds to that value proposition, too. The Acer TravelMate P6 (2023) ships in June, and it’ll start at $1,249.99.