Display measurement and shuttle weight are most probably at or close to the highest of each and every computer purchaser’s checklist of priorities, the place you wish to have the lots of the former and the least of the latter. The Acer Swift Edge means that you can have your show and shuttle weight, too, supplying a roomy and fashionable 16-inch 16:10 wrapped in a skinny, magnesium alloy chassis that’s an insignificant part and inch thick and more or less two and a part kilos. We’ve no longer observed a computer with a bigger display screen that weighs much less. Even supposing I’d luckily settle for an additional ounce or two of sporting weight for a extra inflexible lid for the show.

The 16-inch show—an OLED panel with a crisp, 4K decision—is exceptional and price protective. The picture high quality is stellar, providing sensible colour and exceptional distinction with inky blacks and brilliant whites. An octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 6800U CPU and built-in Radeon graphics energy the motion, a duo that provides some multimedia modifying talent however higher fitted to normal house leisure and workplace interests. If you wish to have the most important OLED show within the thinnest, lightest design, the Acer Swift Edge is it.

Searching for extra skinny and lightweight laptops? Take a look at our roundup of the most efficient 2-in-1’s.

Acer Swift Edge: Specs and lines

Our Acer Swift Edge check device prices $1,499.99 from Acer and lines the next specifications.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800U
• Reminiscence: 16GB
• Graphics: AMD Radeon 680M (built-in)
• Garage: 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
• Show: 16-inch 16:10 4K (3840 x 2400) 
• Webcam: 1080p
• Connectivity: 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Sort-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
• Value: $1,499.99

Acer Swift Edge: Design and keyboard

With its matte black surfaces and understated aesthetic, the Acer Swift Edge offers off ThinkPad vibes. It looks as if an extra-thin X1 Carbon. The lid is apparent black and the keyboard and keyboard deck at the inside of also are black with a easy Acer emblem at the best fringe of the lid and any other targeted at the backside bezel under the show. A small, refined Swift emblem sits under the keyboard at the correct facet of the wrist leisure. The Swift Edge looks as if a company workhorse computer, however person who’s extremely skinny.

The computer is a hair thicker than part an inch and weighs a scant greater than 2.5 kilos. That’s simply no longer a weight we now have even observed for a 16-inch computer—no longer 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 Narrow 9i weighs extra at an excellent 3.0 kilos. The Swift Edge is in a position to reach the sort of skinny design and lightweight weight as it’s made no longer from aluminum like maximum laptops however a magnesium alloy that Acer states is 20% lighter and two times 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 may be some flex at the keyboard deck, and the lid shall we the show flex to a nearly worrisome level. I wouldn’t thoughts a thicker aluminum lid for additonal coverage, even though it intended the Swift Edge could be somewhat thicker and a couple of oz heavier. Even with a extra considerable lid, the Swift Edge would most probably nonetheless weigh not up to 3 kilos and stay eminently transportable.

The ThinkPad vibes start to deplete after you get started typing at the Swift Edge. The keys are flat and be offering very shallow shuttle—no longer unexpected given the thinnest of the device. They really feel extra like Apple’s derided butterfly keyboard. In case you are a quick contact typist, you’ll almost certainly benefit from the rapid comments, however others might bemoan the loss of a extra conventional really feel with deeper shuttle and a snappier reaction. The keyboard provides two-level backlighting, which you’ll very easily keep an eye on from the F11 key. The ability button sits within the upper-right nook of the keyboard and doubles as a fingerprint reader for simple, protected logins.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

The touchpad is roomy and responsive with a relaxed click on reaction that provides simply the correct amount of shuttle. The matte end permits for clean flow, and it as it should be recorded my pinches and swipes and different mouse gestures.

Acer Swift Edge: Show and ports

Rather then the intense thinness and improbable lightness of the chassis, the show is the famous person of the Swift Edge display. It’s a roomy 16-inch OLED panel with a 16:10 facet ratio and a superb 4K (3840×2400-pixel) decision. The show is exceptional in each and every means: brilliant and crisp with improbable distinction and bright, correct colour. The 4K decision produces a spectacularly sharp image with crisp textual content and edges. I measured the max brightness at an excellent 630 nits—it is a computer able to getting used out of doors in direct daylight. The OLED panel produces absolute black ranges and brilliant whites—there may be simply no beating the distinction ratio of an OLED show.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

With a tall 16:10 facet ratio, the 16-inch show feels massive. It provides various house to juggle a couple of home windows and a large display screen for gazing presentations and flicks. Taller than the standard 16:9 widescreen computer show, the Swift Edge’s show calls for much less scrolling via lengthy medical doctors and internet pages.

The webcam above the show is a contemporary 1080p digital camera that produces a crisp, well-balanced image with correct colour and pores and skin tones. I haven’t any court cases concerning the webcam’s efficiency, however I can sign in a criticism concerning the loss of a bodily shutter or digital kill transfer to offer protection to your privateness when the digital camera isn’t in use.

Don’t let the dotted grill above the keyboard idiot you: that huge stripe of dots is venting for the computer’s cooling device and no longer a speaker grill. The Swift Edge options two downward-firing audio system that produce moderate computer audio. It suffices for YouTube movies however lacks the bass wanted for song 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 couple of USB-A ports, so that you received’t want to elevate round an adapter. The USB-A ports are break up around the left and correct edges, however the USB-C ports are each positioned at the left edge, this means that you’ll want to loop the ability wire round to that facet in case you are seated with an outlet in your correct. The USB-C ports don’t give a boost to Thunderbolt 4 as a result of the AMD chipset. They’re USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with as much as 10 Gbps switch speeds when put next with 40Gbps for Thunderbolt 4. The Swift Edge additionally has an HDMI 2.1 port, an preferred inclusion this is ceaselessly ignored on thin-and-light laptops. It does lack an Ethernet port, this means that you’ll want a dongle if you wish to hook up with a stressed community.

Acer Swift Edge: Efficiency

The Swift Edge options the Ryzen 7 6800U, a CPU with 8 cores and 16 processing threads. It’s an effective CPU with a TDP between 15 and 28 watts. The opposite core specifications are a enough 16GB of RAM, built-in AMD Radeon 680M graphics, and a spacious 1TB SSD. We when put next its efficiency to fashions that includes Intel Core i7 processors from Intel’s present twelfth era in addition to a computer with a Ryzen 7 chip from AMD’s preceding Ryzen 5000 collection.

Basically, the Swift Edge felt peppy when navigating Home windows and multitasking with a handful of open apps, together with Chrome with dozens of open tabs. Whilst the full efficiency felt rapid, the cooling enthusiasts had been ceaselessly hired all through multimedia modifying and three-D graphics duties, a results of the ultra-thin chassis. 

Our first benchmark is PCMark 10, which measures efficiency on on a regular basis computing paintings together with workplace productiveness duties, internet surfing, and video chats. The Swift Edge were given off to a scorching get started in labs checking out, surpassing the 6,000 threshold and completing 2d to the high-powered MSI Summit E-16 Turn that has the added good thing about devoted RTX graphics. 

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Our HandBrake benchmark exams how a computer is in a position to maintain crushing CPU a lot over a long duration—on this case, transcoding a 30GB MKV record to a structure appropriate for Android drugs the use of HandBrake, the loose video encoding software. The Swift Edge slipped to 3rd on HandBrake at the back of the 2 laptops with RTX graphics however was once first some of the techniques with built-in graphics.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Subsequent up is Cinebench, any other CPU-intensive check however person who renders a posh 2D scene over a brief time frame. The Swift Edge posted a good outcome on Cinebench, however the Lenovo Narrow Professional 9i took best honors some of the laptops with built-in graphics.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

No longer unusually, the 2 RTX-based laptops completed first and 2d on our 3DMark benchmark, however the Swift Edge with its built-in Radeon 680M GPU has a transparent merit over the Intel Iris Xe machines because the Dell Inspiron 14 7000 with its previous-gen Radeon graphics.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

To check a computer’s battery existence, we loop a 4K video the use of Home windows 11’s Motion pictures & TV app, with the computer set to Plane mode and earbuds plugged in. We set the display screen brightness at a fairly brilliant 250 nits to 260 nits, which is a great brightness for gazing a film in an workplace with the lighting fixtures on. We had was hoping that with its environment friendly Ryzen 7 6000 U-series chip, the Swift Edge would run longer. A runtime of 10 hours gets you via maximum 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 most probably perpetrator for the simply moderate runtime. Powering all of the ones pixels is the best drain on battery assets. A lower-resolution show would permit it to run longer, and we’ve additionally observed that OLED panels have a slight opposed impact on battery existence.

IDG / Matthew Elliott

Acer Swift Edge: Conclusion

Pass forward, in finding any other 16-inch 16:10 computer that’s thinner than 0.55 inches and lighter than 2.59 kilos. We’ve got but to stumble upon the sort of device. The Acer Swift Edge makes for a very easy commuting significant other with a display screen that’s sufficiently big to paintings and multitask on all day. And higher nonetheless, the show is a 4K OLED panel that delivers a stupendous symbol. We’d argue for a quite thicker and heavier chassis if it intended the lid at the back of the show was once somewhat extra considerable and the keyboard deck allowed for keys with deeper shuttle and snappier comments. As lately built, on the other hand, the Acer Swift Edge provides an unequalled mixture of display screen measurement and portability.