Acer Swift Edge review 2024: great 16-inch laptop

Most laptop buyers put screen size and weight near the top of their list of priorities. You want the biggest screen and the lightest weight. The Acer Swift Edge gives you a large and modern 16-inch 16:10 screen in a thin magnesium alloy chassis that weighs about two and a half pounds and is less than half an inch thick. We haven’t seen a laptop that weighs less but has a bigger screen.

The 16-inch OLED panel with a sharp 4K resolution is a great feature that you should protect. The image quality is great, with bright colours and great contrast between dark and light areas. The action is powered by an octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 6800U CPU and Radeon graphics that are built in. Together, these two parts can do some multimedia editing but are better for general home entertainment and office tasks. The Acer Swift Edge has the largest OLED screen in the thinnest and lightest design.

Acer Swift Edge specifications

Acer Swift Edge review: Design and keyboard

The Acer Swift Edge looks like a ThinkPad because it is mostly black and has a simple design. It looks like an X1 Carbon that is even thinner. The keyboard and keyboard deck on the inside are also black, as is the lid.

There is a simple Acer logo on the top edge of the lid, and another in the middle of the bottom bezel below the screen. On the right side of the wrist rest, below the keyboard, there is a small Swift logo that is hard to see. The Swift Edge looks like a business laptop that can do a lot of work, but it is very thin.

The laptop is a little thicker than half an inch and weighs just a little more than 2.5 pounds. We have never seen a 16-inch laptop weigh that much, not even close. The Acer Swift 3 weighs more than a pound more at 3.86 pounds.

Even the 14-inch Lenovo Slim 9i, which is very thin and small, weighs more at 3.0 pounds. Most laptops are made of aluminium, but the Swift Edge is made of a magnesium alloy that Acer says is 20% lighter and twice as strong as aluminium. This is how it can be so thin and light.

Acer Swift Edge review: Features

The Swift Edge has two speakers that face downward and generate audio that is on par with other ordinary laptops. It is adequate for watching videos on YouTube, but the music playback, sound effects, and explosions in movies all suffer from a lack of bass. You won’t require an adapter because the Swift Edge comes equipped with four USB ports, two of which are of the USB-C kind and two of which are of the USB-A variety.

The USB-A ports are dispersed throughout the left and right sides, while the USB-C ports are co-located on the left edge. Because of this, if you are sat with an outlet to your right, you will need to route the power cord to the left side of the device in order to use one of the USB-C ports. You can get this laptop from its official website.

Acer Swift Edge review: Performance

It has the usual problems of an AMD-powered laptop: it works well when it’s plugged in, but when it’s not, it’s very slow. Also, the fan can get really loud, and when you hear it turn on, it means that the performance is about to slow down even more. But it has a 15W Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB solid-state drive, so it definitely has the extra space you need. Overall, this is a great laptop that offers unique value propositions that the rest of the market simply doesn’t.

Acer Swift Edge review: Battery Life

We loop a 4K video on Windows 11’s Movies & TV app while the laptop is in Airplane mode and earbuds are plugged in to see how long the battery lasts. We set the brightness of the screen to be between 250 and 260 nits, which is bright enough to watch a movie in an office with the lights on.

We thought that the Swift Edge would last longer because it had an efficient Ryzen 7 6000 U-series chip. Most workdays can be finished in 10 hours, but the competing laptops here can run for hours longer. The Swift Edge’s short battery life is probably because of its high-resolution 4K OLED screen.

Most of the battery power is used to power all of these pixels. It would run longer if the screen had a lower resolution, and we’ve seen that OLED screens have a small effect on battery life.

Acer Swift Edge review: Pricing and availability

The first US configuration, model SFA16-41-R7SU, costs $1,500 and is well-suited for use in an office or school. At the moment, you can buy it from Acer or Costco. The same set-up in the US costs $1,599 in the UK. Australia doesn’t have prices or availability information right now, but the price in the UK is about AU$2,610.

Final words

This Acer Swift Edge is a good choice for people who want a lightweight ultrabook with a full-size screen. That means it isn’t as fast or good at handling hard tasks as most other full-size laptops, but it makes up for that by being much thinner and lighter.

So, it’s made for everyday tasks and doing more than one thing at once. The AMD Ryzen 6000 hardware specs are more than enough to give a well-rounded experience. This whole package is versatile because it has a nice OLED display, good inputs, and good outputs.

FAQs

Are Acer Swifts good?

Yes. In the highly competitive market for 14-inch laptops, the Acer Swift 3 stands out as a viable option thanks to its high processing speed and long battery life.

What is the best Acer Swift?

The Acer Swift 5 2022 is not only one of the most aesthetically pleasing laptops of the year but also a very well-rounded machine thanks to its powerful specifications and fantastic display. It is without question in our minds that it is one of the finest Acer laptops that money can buy right now.

Is Acer low quality?

Although though Acer is already considered to be a highly regarded brand of laptops, the company still has room for improvement. Its popularity can be attributed to both its value and its selection, but unfortunately, the immense diversity it offers might often prevent it from receiving a high rating. Several customers are satisfied with both the high-end and more economical models of laptops that Acer offers.