Acer Swift Edge review: An extremely light and incredibly thin OLED laptop

Price When Reviewed

$1,499.99

Best Prices Today: Acer Edge Swift (2022)

Screen dimension and journey weight are seemingly at or close to the highest of each laptop computer purchaser’s record of priorities, the place you need the a lot of the former and the least of the latter. The Acer Swift Edge lets you might have your show and journey weight, too, supplying a roomy and trendy 16-inch 16:10 wrapped in a skinny, magnesium alloy chassis that’s a mere half and inch thick and roughly two and a half kilos. We’ve not seen a laptop computer with a bigger display screen that weighs much less. Although I’d fortunately settle for an additional ounce or two of carrying weight for a extra inflexible lid for the show.

The 16-inch show—an OLED panel with a crisp, 4K decision—is excellent and price defending. The picture high quality is stellar, providing sensible shade and excellent distinction with inky blacks and shiny whites. An octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 6800U CPU and built-in Radeon graphics energy the motion, a duo that gives some multimedia enhancing capability however higher suited to basic house leisure and workplace pursuits. If you need the largest OLED show within the thinnest, lightest design, the Acer Swift Edge is it.

Looking for extra skinny and light-weight laptops? Check out our roundup of the best 2-in-1’s.

Acer Swift Edge: Specifications and options

Our Acer Swift Edge check system prices $1,499.99 from Acer and options the next specs.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800U
• Memory: 16GB
• Graphics: AMD Radeon 680M (built-in)
• Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 16-inch 16:10 4K (3840 x 2400) 
• Webcam: 1080p
• Connectivity: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, HDMI 2.1, combo audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
• Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
• Battery capability: 55 Watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.0 x 9.5 x 0.55 inches
• Measured weight: 2.59 kilos
• Price: $1,499.99

Acer Swift Edge: Design and keyboard

With its matte black surfaces and understated aesthetic, the Acer Swift Edge provides off ThinkPad vibes. It appears like an extra-thin X1 Carbon. The lid is apparent black and the keyboard and keyboard deck on the within are additionally black with a easy Acer brand on the highest fringe of the lid and one other centered on the underside bezel beneath the show. A small, refined Swift brand sits beneath the keyboard on the correct aspect of the wrist relaxation. The Swift Edge appears like a company workhorse laptop computer, however one which’s extremely skinny.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

The laptop computer is a hair thicker than half an inch and weighs a scant greater than 2.5 kilos. That’s simply not a weight we’ve even seen for a 16-inch laptop computer—not even shut. At 3.86 kilos, the Acer Swift 3 is greater than a pound heavier. Even the impressively skinny and smaller 14-inch Lenovo Slim 9i weighs extra at an excellent 3.0 kilos. The Swift Edge is ready to obtain such a skinny design and light-weight weight as a result of it’s made not from aluminum like most laptops however a magnesium alloy that Acer states is 20% lighter and twice as robust as aluminum.

Even with the reported double energy, the Swift Edge’s magnesium alloy chassis doesn’t have essentially the most rugged and inflexible really feel. There is a few flex on the keyboard deck, and the lid lets the show flex to an virtually worrisome diploma. I wouldn’t thoughts a thicker aluminum lid for added safety, even when it meant the Swift Edge can be a bit thicker and some ounces heavier. Even with a extra substantial lid, the Swift Edge would seemingly nonetheless weigh lower than three kilos and stay eminently moveable.

The ThinkPad vibes start to dissipate after you begin typing on the Swift Edge. The keys are flat and supply very shallow journey—not shocking given the thinnest of the machine. They really feel extra like Apple’s derided butterfly keyboard. If you’re a quick contact typist, you’ll in all probability benefit from the quick suggestions, however others could bemoan the shortage of a extra conventional really feel with deeper journey and a snappier response. The keyboard presents two-level backlighting, which you’ll conveniently management from the F11 key. The energy button sits within the upper-right nook of the keyboard and doubles as a fingerprint reader for straightforward, safe logins.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

The touchpad is roomy and responsive with a cushty click on response that gives simply the correct quantity of journey. The matte end permits for clean glide, and it precisely recorded my pinches and swipes and different mouse gestures.

Acer Swift Edge: Display and ports

Other than the acute thinness and unimaginable lightness of the chassis, the show is the star of the Swift Edge present. It’s a roomy 16-inch OLED panel with a 16:10 side ratio and a high-quality 4K (3840×2400-pixel) decision. The show is excellent in each method: shiny and crisp with unimaginable distinction and vivid, correct shade. The 4K decision produces a spectacularly sharp image with crisp textual content and edges. I measured the max brightness at a powerful 630 nits—it is a laptop computer able to getting used outdoors in direct daylight. The OLED panel produces absolute black ranges and shiny whites—there may be simply no beating the distinction ratio of an OLED show.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

With a tall 16:10 side ratio, the 16-inch show feels large. It presents loads of area to juggle a number of home windows and a giant display screen for watching exhibits and flicks. Taller than the normal 16:9 widescreen laptop computer show, the Swift Edge’s show requires much less scrolling by lengthy docs and internet pages.

The webcam above the show is a contemporary 1080p digital camera that produces a crisp, well-balanced image with correct shade and pores and skin tones. I’ve no complaints in regards to the webcam’s efficiency, however I’ll register a grievance in regards to the lack of a bodily shutter or digital kill swap to guard your privateness when the digital camera is just not in use.

Don’t let the dotted grill above the keyboard idiot you: that large stripe of dots is venting for the laptop computer’s cooling system and never a speaker grill. The Swift Edge options two downward-firing audio system that produce common laptop computer audio. It suffices for YouTube movies however lacks the bass wanted for music playback and results and explosions in films.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

IDG / Matthew Elliott

The Swift Edge includes a pair of USB-C ports and a pair of USB-A ports, so that you gained’t want to hold round an adapter. The USB-A ports are break up throughout the left and proper edges, however the USB-C ports are each positioned on the left edge, which suggests you’ll must loop the facility twine round to that aspect if you’re seated with an outlet to your proper. The USB-C ports don’t help Thunderbolt 4 due to the AMD chipset. They are USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with as much as 10 Gbps switch speeds in contrast with 40Gbps for Thunderbolt 4. The Swift Edge additionally has an HDMI 2.1 port, an appreciated inclusion that’s usually omitted on thin-and-light laptops. It does lack an Ethernet port, which suggests you’ll want a dongle if you wish to hook up with a wired community.

Acer Swift Edge: Performance

The Swift Edge options the Ryzen 7 6800U, a CPU with eight cores and 16 processing threads. It’s an environment friendly CPU with a TDP between 15 and 28 watts. The different core specs are a ample 16GB of RAM, built-in AMD Radeon 680M graphics, and a spacious 1TB SSD. We in contrast its efficiency to fashions that includes Intel Core i7 processors from Intel’s present 12th technology in addition to a laptop computer with a Ryzen 7 chip from AMD’s earlier Ryzen 5000 sequence.

In basic, the Swift Edge felt peppy when navigating Windows and multitasking with a handful of open apps, together with Chrome with dozens of open tabs. While the general efficiency felt quick, the cooling followers have been usually employed throughout multimedia enhancing and 3D graphics duties, a results of the ultra-thin chassis. 

Our first benchmark is PCMark 10, which measures efficiency on on a regular basis computing work together with workplace productiveness duties, internet shopping, and video chats. The Swift Edge obtained off to a scorching begin in labs testing, surpassing the 6,000 threshold and ending second to the high-powered MSI Summit E-16 Flip that has the added benefit of devoted RTX graphics. 

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Our HandBrake benchmark exams how a laptop computer is ready to deal with crushing CPU hundreds over a prolonged interval—on this case, transcoding a 30GB MKV file to a format appropriate for Android tablets utilizing HandBrake, the free video encoding utility. The Swift Edge slipped to 3rd on HandBrake behind the 2 laptops with RTX graphics however was first among the many techniques with built-in graphics.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Next up is Cinebench, one other CPU-intensive check however one which renders a posh 2D scene over a brief time period. The Swift Edge posted a constructive end result on Cinebench, however the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i took high honors among the many laptops with built-in graphics.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Not surprisingly, the 2 RTX-based laptops completed first and second on our 3DMark benchmark, however the Swift Edge with its built-in Radeon 680M GPU has a transparent benefit over the Intel Iris Xe machines because the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 with its previous-gen Radeon graphics.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

To check a laptop computer’s battery life, we loop a 4K video utilizing Windows 11’s Movies & TV app, with the laptop computer set to Airplane mode and earbuds plugged in. We set the display screen brightness at a comparatively shiny 250 nits to 260 nits, which is an efficient brightness for watching a film in an workplace with the lights on. We had hoped that with its environment friendly Ryzen 7 6000 U-series chip, the Swift Edge would run longer. A runtime of 10 hours will get you thru most workdays, however the competing laptops listed here are in a position to run for hours longer. The Swift Edge’s high-resolution 4K OLED show is the seemingly offender for the merely common runtime. Powering all of these pixels is the best drain on battery assets. A lower-resolution show would enable it to run longer, and we’ve additionally seen that OLED panels have a slight opposed impact on battery life.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Acer Swift Edge: Conclusion

Go forward, discover one other 16-inch 16:10 laptop computer that’s thinner than 0.55 inches and lighter than 2.59 kilos. We have but to come across such a machine. The Acer Swift Edge makes for a straightforward commuting companion with a display screen that’s massive sufficient to work and multitask on all day. And higher nonetheless, the show is a 4K OLED panel that delivers a beautiful picture. We’d argue for a barely thicker and heavier chassis if it meant the lid behind the show was a bit extra substantial and the keyboard deck allowed for keys with deeper journey and snappier suggestions. As at present constructed, nonetheless, the Acer Swift Edge presents an unmatched mixture of display screen dimension and portability.