Acer Swift Edge 16 review: A super-thin laptop that’s light on your wallet

Price When Reviewed

$1,299.99

Best Prices Today: Acer Swift Edge 16

Modern laptops are normally skinny, however there exists a poorly outlined class that takes portability to a different degree. Ultraportables, tremendous thin-and-lights, ultrabooks: no matter you name them, these machines are svelte sufficient to dip underneath three kilos even when packing a 16-inch show. This historically comes paired with a sky-high price ticket, however Acer’s Swift Edge 16 brings the idea to a extra palatable value. 

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best ultraportables proper now.

Acer Swift Edge 16: Specs and options

The Acer Swift Edge 16 veers away from the Intel processors present in equally sized Acer laptops (in addition to these from many rivals) and as an alternative opts for AMD’s Ryzen 7 7840U. It’s an eight-core, 16-thread processor with a Boost Clock as much as 5.1GHz. AMD’s Radeon 780M graphics, with 12 compute cores and a most clock of two.7GHz, tags alongside. 

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840U
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Iris Xe
• Display: 16-inch 3200 x 2000 120Hz OLED
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 
• Connectivity:  2x USB-C, 2x USB-A 2.1, 1x HDMI, 1x MicroSD, 1x 3.5mm audio jack
• Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery capability: 54 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.1 x 9.7 x .51 inches
• Weight: 2.71 kilos
• MSRP: $1,299.99

There’s two variations of the Acer Swift Edge 16 in circulation. They differ in each CPU and show: the mannequin I examined had AMD’s Ryzen 7 7840U and a 3,200 x 2,000 OLED, whereas the choice mannequin affords a Ryzen 7 7735U and a 4K IPS show. They’re in any other case an identical and share an MSRP of $1,299.99. 

Acer Swift Edge 16: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Matthew Smith

Acer’s laptops lean in direction of bland design with an unbranded, minimalist look. The Swift Edge 16 turns that as much as 11, exchanging the corporate’s typical gray-silver metallic end for a deep metallic black. It’s not a lot to have a look at, and it’s not attempting to be. Shoppers who desire a trendy, trendy laptop computer might want to look elsewhere.

The Swift Edge 16 is the tremendous thin-and-light in Acer’s lineup, and it comes with a specific set of perks and issues. It feels insubstantial and tends to flex when dealt with, which makes the laptop computer really feel fragile. But this additionally makes the laptop computer extra moveable, because it has a profile of simply .51 inches, and weighs a mere 2.71 kilos. That rivals LG’s Gram 16, which is thicker at .66 inches however lighter at 2.61 kilos. Most 16-inch laptops weigh 3.5 to 4.5 kilos.

It could be good if Acer delivered each wonderful construct high quality and portability in a single bundle, however that’s an unfair expectation. Competitors that construct related machines (like LG’s Gram 16) additionally battle to ship inflexible, sturdy design in a 16-inch laptop computer that ideas the size underneath three kilos. Those who desire a extra substantial laptop computer ought to look in direction of the Acer Swift Go 16—however if you’d like portability, the Edge 16 is sensible.

Acer Swift Edge 16: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Swift Edge 16’s massive show affords ample room for a spacious, comfy keyboard structure that finds room for a numpad. The left-side Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, and Control keys are barely smaller than they might be, and the numpad keys are extra slender than others, however the structure nonetheless works. I felt instantly at house. It most likely helps that Acer makes use of an identical structure throughout all its 16-inch productiveness laptops—when you strive one, you’ve tried all of them.

Key really feel is much less alluring, nevertheless. The versatile chassis permits important wobble when typing at excessive speeds and results in a hole, squishy expertise. It’s not all dangerous information, nevertheless. Key journey is cheap and the bottoming motion feels taut. A keyboard backlight comes commonplace, but it surely’s primary, offering simply two brightness choices. 

The touchpad is a minor drawback. It feels fast and responsive however measures a mere 5 inches extensive and barely greater than three inches deep. That’s slightly small for a 16-inch laptop computer in 2023, and it may well make Windows’ multitouch gestures really feel cramped. It’s not a horrible expertise, however many 16-inch laptops provide more room.

Acer Swift Edge 16: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

Acer affords two show choices within the Swift Edge 16: a 3200×2000 120Hz OLED and a 3840×2400 60Hz IPS LCD. The mannequin I examined had the OLED show and confirmed wonderful efficiency.

The Swift Edge 16’s OLED delivers an infinite distinction ratio and deep, inky black ranges that produce convincing shadows in darkish scenes. Streaming reveals, films, and video games profit immensely from this trait because the show’s distinction attracts your eye into the image. 

Color efficiency is superb, too. The show can deal with 100 p.c of sRGB and DCI-P3, in addition to 97 p.c of AdobeRGB. These are excellent figures nicely past one of the best LCD shows. The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i’s Micro-LED display, as an illustration, delivers 97 p.c of DCI-P3 and 86 of AdobeRGB. Put merely, the Edge 16’s OLED show appears to be like vibrant and alluring.

Brightness is first rate, too, with a most sustained luminance of 372 nits in SDR, which will increase to 522 nits in HDR. This is a weak spot of OLED, which might’t obtain the 400 to 500 nits widespread to an LCD show. However, the Edge 16’s brightness is okay in most conditions. The show’s brightness solely feels dim when utilized in a shiny, sunlit room, the place the show’s shiny end permits loads of glare. 

I additionally just like the 120Hz refresh fee. Though typically touted as a characteristic for avid gamers, an enhanced refresh fee could make Windows feel and look extra responsive in day-to-day use. 

All of this provides as much as a beautiful show that’s arguably the Edge 16’s greatest characteristic. There’s only one wrinkle: this show is obtainable in many various 16-inch laptops, together with different Acer fashions, so its strengths aren’t benefits over the competitors. Still, it’s a terrific show—buyers upgrading from a five-year-old laptop computer are in for a deal with.

The Edge 16’s audio system, however, are disappointing. They’re weak, tinny, and battle to deal with any film or soundtrack that dares to pair highs and mids alongside beefy bass (which, let’s be sincere, is most trendy music). External audio system or headphones are a necessity. 

Acer Swift Edge 16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

You’ll discover a 1440p webcam crammed into the Acer Swift Edge 16’s high bezel. It supplies nice sharpness and good coloration replica for a laptop computer webcam, although it continues to battle with publicity in mixed-lighting circumstances. The stable webcam is paired with a decent microphone array that readily picks up my voice whereas obscuring many repetitive background noises. Most equally priced laptops now provide related options, however the Edge 16 is a stable alternative when you spend loads of time on Zoom.

A fingerprint reader is hidden within the laptop computer’s energy button. It does the job however, like most fingerprint readers, it’s simply fooled by mud, grime, or a slight dampness to the person’s fingers, all of which might make it unreliable.

Acer Swift Edge 16: Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

Two USB-C ports line the Acer Swift Edge 16’s left flank. Both can deal with USB Power Delivery, and each present DisplayPort out, so each can be utilized to energy the laptop computer or hook up with a USB-C monitor. Acer ships the laptop computer with a compact 65-watt USB-C energy adapter. 

Thunderbolt 4, which is discovered on rivals just like the LG Gram 16, is lacking from the Swift Edge 16. I don’t discover this particularly important, although. Thunderbolt 4’s knowledge capabilities are good to have, however extra obligatory on laptops in a better efficiency tier. 

The USB-C ports are paired with two USB-A ports, HDMI-out, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card reader. That’s a flexible array of connectivity and helps all kinds of gadgets. Ethernet is the one bodily port lacking, however its absence is widespread amongst new laptops in 2023. Owners can nonetheless entry wired Ethernet, if wanted, with a USB adapter.

Wireless connectivity consists of the same old duo of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6E, which is true of just about all laptops bought in 2023. The Swift Edge 16’s Wi-Fi sign was stable and dependable in my testing, and Wi-Fi speeds hit a excessive of as much as 945 Mbps. That’s as excessive as attainable on my house’s Gigabit Internet connection.

Acer Swift Edge 16: Performance

Acer leans on AMD’s Ryzen 7840U, an eight-core, sixteen-thread processor. This comes paired with Radeon 780M graphics, probably the most highly effective model of AMD’s built-in graphics, which has 12 compute models. 16GB of RAM and 1TB of PCIe stable state storage spherical out the {hardware}. Acer’s determination to make use of AMD units it other than many competing laptops.

IDG / Matthew Smith

PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, begins the Acer Swift Edge 16 off with a powerful rating of 6,494. Surprisingly, this defeats Acer’s dearer Acer Swift Go 16, and comes near Samsung’s dearer and highly effective Galaxy Book3 Ultra. It’s a really favorable end result for the Swift Edge 16 that reveals it may well sustain with laptops bought for tons of extra.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15, a short-duration multi-threaded CPU benchmark, additionally delivers a powerful results of 2,007. This is barely behind the Intel Core i7-13700H within the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Acer Swift Go 16, however forward of older AMD and Intel processors. This benchmark reveals the Swift Edge 16 can ship snappy efficiency in workloads that final a number of seconds or minutes—duties like picture enhancing or compressing or decompressing recordsdata.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Handbrake flips the script, nevertheless. The Swift Edge 16 struggled on this check, transcoding a roughly two-hour film into an Android-friendly 1080p video file in simply over half an hour. The Swift Edge 16’s drawback is sustained efficiency. It begins robust, however the processor’s clock speeds steadily decline all through the check as a result of thermal limits. That’s dangerous information when you want a laptop computer for long-duration CPU workloads, like encoding movies and CPU-heavy PC video games.

IDG / Matthew Smith

We’re again to excellent news in 3DMark, because the Swift Edge 16 achieved a Fire Strike rating of two,952. That’s not aggressive with a devoted GPU like Nvidia’s RTX 4050, because the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra reveals, but it surely’s forward of options laptops with built-in graphics. The Swift Edge 16 isn’t a gaming laptop computer, however it may well deal with most trendy titles at 1080p decision and low to medium element. 

The Swift Edge 16’s general efficiency is robust for the class. It supplies good CPU efficiency in short-duration workloads and higher GPU efficiency than most laptops with built-in graphics. This provides as much as a handy guide a rough, versatile laptop computer that’s succesful, although not distinctive, in most conditions. Acer’s modest $1,299 price ticket sweetens the deal. LG’s Gram 16, the one 16-inch different to realize a lighter weight, can be priced at $1,299—but it surely has an Intel Core i7-1360P processor with Intel Iris Xe built-in graphics and ships with half as a lot storage. 

Acer Swift Edge 16: Battery life

The Acer Swift Edge 16’s efficiency may need you questioning: what’s the catch? 

Simple. Acer settled for a small, 54 watt-hour battery. That’s a lot smaller than the 80 watt-hour battery within the LG Gram 16 and, inevitably, it results in unimpressive battery life. 

I recorded roughly seven hours of battery life in PC World’s commonplace battery check, which loops a 4K video file of the quick movie Tears of Steel. I noticed related outcomes from my day-to-day use of the laptop computer. Six to seven hours of endurance appears the norm even in modest workloads like internet shopping and Microsoft Word.

That’s not terrible, but it surely’s behind the curve. Many Windows laptops ship higher battery life. 

Acer Swift Edge 16: Should you purchase it?

The Acer Swift Edge 16 is a stable tremendous thin-and-light that pairs a big, beautiful 16-inch show with moveable design that rivals the load of LG’s superlight Gram 16. Remarkably, Acer achieves this at a lower cost level with out sacrificing efficiency. Boring design and disappointing battery life maintain the laptop computer again from stardom, however its rivals regularly undergo in these areas, too. That makes the Swift Edge 16 an alluring worth decide.