Acer ES Series 4 Select vs Hiboy S2 Pro - Which "Everyday Hero" Scooter Actually Delivers?

Fast Answer for Busy Riders ⚡ (TL;DR)

The Hiboy S2 Pro wins on raw value and punch: it is cheaper, accelerates harder, climbs better, and still delivers perfectly adequate range for typical city commutes. If you want maximum speed and minimum maintenance for the least money, the Hiboy has the edge on paper.

The Acer ES Series 4 Select fights back with a calmer, more refined ride: better tyres, front suspension, stronger safety features, and a more mature feel that inspires confidence, especially in mixed weather and traffic. It is the better choice if you care more about comfort, safety and "boringly reliable" commuting than bragging rights.

In short: performance hunters and budget hawks will lean Hiboy, daily commuters who want a safer, more civilised experience should seriously consider the Acer. Keep reading - the differences become very obvious once we get them out on real streets.

Electric scooters like the Acer ES Series 4 Select and the Hiboy S2 Pro promise to replace packed buses and short car trips with something cleaner, cheaper and frankly more fun. On paper they look oddly similar: mid-class motors, decent claimed ranges, sensible top speeds and price tags that don't make your bank app scream.

But ride them back to back for a couple of weeks and they reveal very different personalities. The Acer feels like a tech company's idea of a "safe, grown-up commuter appliance". The Hiboy, in contrast, is the budget hot-hatch of scooters: lively, a bit rough around the edges, and very focused on headline value.

If you are trying to decide which one should carry you through rain, potholes, tram tracks and the occasional badly parked SUV, the details matter. Let's dig into how they actually compare when you stop reading spec sheets and start riding.

Who Are These For, and Why Compare Them?

Both scooters live in the same broad category: single-motor, mid-power commuters aimed at people who want something substantially better than a rental, but not a monstrous dual-motor beast. Price wise, they sit in that crowded "serious first scooter" bracket, just under what most people would spend on a decent city bicycle.

The Hiboy S2 Pro targets riders who want maximum punch and minimum upkeep for the lowest possible entry ticket. Think students, first-time owners or anyone who sees a scooter as a tool rather than a lifestyle object.

The Acer ES Series 4 Select, meanwhile, aims more at office workers and daily commuters who care about comfort, predictable handling and a bit of brand reassurance. It is the sort of scooter you park under a desk without feeling like you've brought your kid's toy to work.

Same class, similar stats, similar money - but very different answers to the question: "What should a commuter scooter feel like?"

Design & Build Quality

Put them side by side and the design philosophies leap out immediately. The Acer is understated: matte dark finish, clean lines, cables tucked neatly inside the stem. It looks like it was drawn by the same team that designs office laptops - in a good way. The frame feels solid in the hands, with a reassuring lack of rattles, and the hinge mechanism locks with a convincing "I've got you" clunk.

The Hiboy S2 Pro wears its budget-sport attitude proudly. It has that familiar Xiaomi-inspired silhouette with sharper, slightly more aggressive touches and red accents. The welds are acceptable, the frame is strong enough, but it doesn't exude the same "industrial design department" vibe as the Acer. You feel more "mass-market Amazon bestseller" than "polished product line". Functional, yes; refined, not exactly.

Cable management is better on the Acer: fewer exposed lines to snag, less visual clutter. The Hiboy does a decent job of hiding its innards, but there are still more visible runs and plastic bits that shout "cost-optimised" if you've handled many scooters.

In hand and underfoot, the Acer feels a touch more premium and coherent. The Hiboy feels sturdy, but you are never completely forgetting that part of your savings went into the motor and battery, not the cosmetics.

Ride Comfort & Handling

This is where the two scooters go their separate ways entirely.

The Acer combines a front fork suspension with large air-filled tyres. On typical city streets - patched tarmac, joints in pavements, the occasional manhole or brick path - it takes the sting out of impacts nicely. You still know you hit something, but your wrists and knees don't send hate mail after 5 km. The steering is calm and predictable, and the low battery placement keeps the centre of gravity planted. It is a scooter that encourages one-handed glances over your shoulder and relaxed lane changes.

The Hiboy S2 Pro bolts on a rear dual-spring setup to fight the brutality of its solid honeycomb tyres. On very smooth asphalt, it feels perfectly fine and tracks straight. As soon as the surface deteriorates, you are reminded what solid tyres really mean. The rear suspension softens the worst hits, but small repetitive bumps, cobblestones and cracked pavements translate into a constant buzz through your feet and legs. The handling is stable enough, but with less grip and more chatter, you tend to ride a little more tensely, especially in fast corners or over rough patches.

Over a short commute on good surfaces, the Hiboy is tolerable and even fun. Stretch that to a longer daily route with mixed terrain, and the Acer's calmer, more cushioned ride simply wins. It feels like a scooter built for actual cities, not just brochure photos of smooth boulevards.

Performance

In straight-line performance, the Hiboy S2 Pro does exactly what its spec sheet promises: it feels meatier. That slightly stronger motor gives it a more assertive launch from traffic lights, and it hangs onto its top speed a bit more stubbornly on flats. You won't be rocket-launching past cars, but you also won't feel like you bought the "slow version" when commuting with cyclists and other scooters.

The Acer's motor is no slouch, but its tuning is more measured. Acceleration is smooth rather than punchy, and you feel the controller protecting traction and comfort rather than dumping everything into the rear wheel. It will get you to its top speed without drama, and it copes well with typical commuter hills, but it doesn't have that cheeky, eager shove the Hiboy can deliver.

On climbs, both will manage city bridges and moderate slopes. The Hiboy keeps its pace better on steeper sections, particularly with heavier riders. The Acer, while competent, tends to settle into a more conservative rhythm when the gradient steepens; you arrive, just not with the same sense of effortlessness.

Braking is interesting. The Acer pairs a front disc with rear electronic braking, tuned to avoid lock-ups. The lever feel is progressive, and emergency stops feel composed, with the tyres working with you rather than against you. On the Hiboy, the rear mechanical disc is beefier and backed by a front regenerative brake that bites more noticeably. Stopping distances are good, but with solid tyres you are more aware of the limits of grip, particularly on damp surfaces. With both brakes correctly adjusted, the Hiboy stops hard, but the Acer stops with more finesse.

Battery & Range

Both scooters fall into that sweet spot where you can realistically commute across a city and back without obsessing over charge levels - as long as you are not treating every traffic light as a drag race.

The Hiboy carries a slightly larger battery and, unsurprisingly, tends to go a bit further at moderate speeds. In real-world riding at full power, most owners report getting through a typical there-and-back commute comfortably, with some buffer left. Push hard, and the last third of the battery feels a bit more tired, but it doesn't collapse into limp-home mode straight away.

The Acer has a slightly smaller pack on paper, but couples it with more sensible power delivery. Ride it like a grown-up - mixed modes, not full throttle everywhere - and it will cover medium-length urban days without complaint. Ride it flat-out in Sport all the time and, of course, you'll watch the bars drop faster than the marketing claims suggest. But that's true of both.

Range anxiety? If your daily total is under roughly a couple of dozen kilometres, neither will stress you out. Go beyond that regularly and the Hiboy's larger battery gives a bit more breathing room, while the Acer answers with a more predictable power curve as the charge drops.

Portability & Practicality

On the scales, the Hiboy is the lighter of the two, and you notice it. Carrying it up a short staircase is doable without muttering under your breath, and swinging it in and out of a car boot or onto a train feels just about acceptable. The folding mechanism is quick and simple, and once latched to the rear mudguard it stays together reasonably well.

The Acer is chunkier. It is still a commuter scooter, not a gym machine, but those extra kilos are real when you are on the third floor with no lift. The upside is that on the road that mass translates into a planted, less twitchy feel, especially at speed or in crosswinds.

Folded size is similar enough that they both fit under a desk or behind a door. The Acer's hinge feels more confidence-inspiring over time, whereas the Hiboy's latch system benefits from occasional attention to keep play at bay. For multi-modal commuters who carry their scooter a lot, the Hiboy's weight advantage is noticeable. For riders who mostly roll and rarely lift, the Acer's extra solidity is more valuable than those missing couple of kilos.

Safety

Safety is where the Acer quietly pulls ahead in a way that matters when traffic gets messy.

First, tyres. The Acer's big tubeless pneumatics grip tarmac, wet or dry, with much more assurance than the Hiboy's solid rubber. Emergency manoeuvres, painted crossings in drizzle, potholes - the Acer gives you traction and compliance. The Hiboy's solid tyres, while brilliant against punctures, simply do not match that level of grip, especially in the wet. You can ride safely on them, but you must moderate speed and lean, and you learn quickly not to be ambitious on wet paint or cobblestones.

Lighting is a closer race. The Hiboy comes surprisingly well equipped: bright headlight, brake-reactive tail light and side illumination that does a decent job of outlining your presence. The Acer answers with a strong headlight and brake light plus the ace up its sleeve - integrated turn signals. Being able to indicate without taking a hand off the bar is not just a convenience; in fast urban traffic it is a genuine safety asset.

Braking systems on both are competent, but again the Acer feels more polished out of the box, with its combined disc and rear e-brake tuned for stability. The Hiboy can stop just as quickly when properly set up, but the margin for clumsy inputs on sketchy surfaces is narrower thanks to those tyres.

If you ride mostly in dry conditions on good surfaces, both are "safe enough". If your reality includes rain, dodgy road markings and inattentive drivers, the Acer's safety package is simply the more confidence-inspiring one.

Community Feedback

Price & Value

The Hiboy's headline advantage is clear: it costs less than the Acer while offering more motor power and a slightly larger battery. If you reduce scooters to watts, amp-hours and top speed per euro, Hiboy looks like the obvious winner. It is the classic "big spec, small price" formula that sells a lot of units.

The Acer asks for a bit more money and spends that extra budget on nicer touches: integrated indicators, better tyres, front suspension, tidier design and the support infrastructure of a major electronics brand. You are paying less for bragging rights and more for the daily experience - the feel of the ride, the confidence in the wet, the sense that the scooter was engineered as a whole, not bolted together to hit a price point.

If your goal is pure spec efficiency per euro, the Hiboy is hard to argue with. If you look at value as "how pleasant and safe is this thing year after year on real streets", the Acer makes a quieter but very sensible case for itself.

Service & Parts Availability

Acer brings decades of consumer electronics experience to the table, including established European service networks and warranty processes. That doesn't magically turn every repair into a five-star experience, but it does mean you generally know where to go and who is responsible. For a lot of buyers, that's worth something.

Hiboy operates more as a classic online budget brand. They do send parts, they do respond (most of the time), and there is a huge community of owners who have documented every possible fix on YouTube and Reddit. But quality control and support experiences can be... let's say "variable". If you are handy with tools and don't mind a bit of DIY, this ecosystem is actually a strength. If you want walk-in service and predictable turnaround, it may not inspire the same confidence as Acer's more traditional support network.

Pros & Cons Summary

Parameters Comparison

Final Verdict - Which Should You Choose?

Both scooters will get you from A to B faster than your feet and cheaper than your car. But they prioritise different things, and that becomes painfully clear once the road gets less than perfect.

If your idea of a commute is mostly smooth bike paths in decent weather, and you want maximum motor for minimum money with zero puncture headaches, the Hiboy S2 Pro is the obvious temptation. It is quick off the line, climbs hills with surprising confidence and keeps your running costs low. For a first scooter on a tight budget, it's understandable why so many people hit "buy now".

If, however, your riding includes wet days, broken pavements, mixed traffic and longer stretches where comfort and control really matter, the Acer ES Series 4 Select is the more grown-up companion. Its air-filled tyres, better overall safety package and calmer, more refined ride make it easier to live with when this stops being a toy and becomes your daily transport.

Put bluntly: the Hiboy wins the spreadsheet battle, but the Acer feels like the scooter you are more likely to still be happily riding a few years down the line - especially if your commute is anything less than perfectly manicured.

Numbers Freaks Corner

These metrics strip everything down to pure maths. Price-per-Wh and price-per-km/h show how much raw battery and speed you buy for each euro. Weight-based metrics tell you how efficiently each scooter turns bulk into energy and performance. Wh per km is your energy efficiency in real riding. Power-to-speed and weight-to-power hint at how lively the scooters feel. Charging speed reveals which battery fills faster relative to its size. Remember, though: numbers can't capture comfort, grip in the wet or how relaxed you feel weaving through traffic.

Author's Category Battle

Overall Winner Declaration

In the Numbers Freaks Corner, the ACER ES Series 4 Select scores 3 points against the HIBOY S2 Pro's 7. In the Author's Category Battle, the ACER ES Series 4 Select gets 27 ✅ versus 19 ✅ for HIBOY S2 Pro (with a few ties sprinkled in).

Totals: ACER ES Series 4 Select scores 30, HIBOY S2 Pro scores 26.

Based on the scoring, the ACER ES Series 4 Select is our overall winner. For me, the Acer ES Series 4 Select is the scooter I would actually want to live with every day: it may not shout the loudest on paper, but it feels composed, safe and grown-up in the chaos of real streets. The Hiboy S2 Pro fights hard on value and thrills, and for the right rider on smooth, dry roads it will absolutely put a grin on your face. In the long run, though, comfort, grip and that sense of quiet confidence matter more than a few extra watts - and that is where the Acer quietly walks away with the more complete commuting experience.

That's our verdict when we try to stay objective – but hey, riding is mostly about emotions anyway, so pick the one that will make you look forward to your commute every single day.