Acer responds to tariff question about new Aspire laptops

Acer on Friday unveiled an impressive suite of six new Aspire laptops, but an Acer rep tells Laptop Mag that tariffs are among the reasons why they haven’t been priced or made available in the United States yet.

Six new AI PCs — all capable of running the generative AI service Microsoft CoPilot+ — made their debut ahead of Computex, the annual tech industry summit in Taipei that starts next week.

The Aspire range has long been recognized as filled with everyday-quality get-it-done devices. The new laptops, made of lightweight aluminum and boasting powerful processors, come in the popular 14" and 16" sizes. They will be available in Europe and Australia starting in June.

When asked if tariffs had any role in the delay of these laptops arriving in the US and their prices, an Acer rep told Laptop Mag on Friday:

“The pricing impact of the tariffs will vary based on the country where each product is manufactured, the date the product arrives in the U.S., ongoing negotiations with major retailers as well as commercial and education customers, and various other factors.

"Due to this, we are refraining from disclosing U.S./North American pricing for future products and instead, will announce pricing, availability, and configurations closer to market availability in the United States/North America.”

About the new Acer Aspire AI laptops

The six laptops are divided into three categories — those with processors from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm —and each category offers a 14” and 16” version. Most share a similar price range: between €899 and €999 for the 14” models and between €999 and €1,099 for the 16” models.

A key difference does crop up in display, though. Perhaps to keep the price similar to Intel and AMD models, the Aspire with a Snapdragon X processor doesn’t have an OLED screen — that model has IPS tech instead.

All laptops are expected to go on sale in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa this summer, and this fall in Australia. Notably, the United States and other North American countries are left off the news release.

Tariffs: Acer CEO says customers will pay. The White House says that's "silly."

In February, Acer CEO Jason Chen said that the company had to adjust prices to reflect the tariffs put on goods made in China. In an interview with The Telegraph, Chen said, "We think 10% probably will have to be the default price increase because of the import tax. It's very straightforward."

To borrow a phrase from an earlier political era, U.S. President Donald Trump has been flip-flopping on tariff threats since he began to face pressure over them.

On Friday, Axios reported that Trump said the U.S. will unilaterally set tariff rates in the next few weeks.

Trump has previously walked back tariff threats after the global economy went into a tailspin and stocks sank.

In an interview with CNN earlier this month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that "We do expect a 10% baseline tariff to be in place for the foreseeable future — but don't buy the silly arguments that the U.S. consumer pays."

Lutnick said then, “The businesses and the countries primarily eat the tariff.” However, that directly contradicts what Acer CEO Chen has said.

Trump’s plan on a tariff rollout has been uncertain above anything else. What is certain is that new Aspire laptops don’t appear to be going on sale in the US anytime soon.

Dig into the specs on these impressive new laptops below — and once they go on sale in the U.S., Laptop will be sure to report the news.

More from Laptop Mag

• Did Tim Cook orchestrate Apple’s tariff break? What we know
• Tariffs and TSMC delays could turn Apple into an Intel Foundry customer
• Jensen Huang says Nvidia will 'continue serving the Chinese market' despite tariffs