Previously, the laptop could be configured with up to the Core Ultra 9 275HX. Now, Acer has replaced this 24-core processor with the newer Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus; the lesser Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus should be joining later this year, too. Despite containing the same CPU core count and arrangement, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus should provide the updated Helios Neo 16 with around 11% higher CPU performance than the Core Ultra 9 275HX, according to our benchmarks. For some reason, the laptop is cheaper in the US when configured with 32 GB of RAM than with 16 GB of RAM. Acer suggests that a Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus variant with the GeForce RTX 5070 (8 GB) should eventually be available for $2,399.