Acer Swift Edge 16 (2023) Evaluation: Massive OLED Laptop computer That is Additionally Impossibly Mild

Execs

• Extremely skinny and light-weight

• Lovely 3.2K OLED show

• Crisp 1440p webcam

Cons

• Mushy keyboard

• Lackluster audio output

Acer’s Swift laptop computer household includes three siblings, every centered round a 16-inch, 3.2K OLED show. The Swift X 16 is for content material creators and different energy customers who’re keen to commerce battery life for larger efficiency aided by Nvidia RTX discrete graphics. If the Swift X 16 is the football-playing huge brother who positively lifts, then the Swift Go 16 is the peace-making center youngster that goals for a stability between efficiency and battery life. That leaves the Swift Edge 16 because the carefree youngest youngster of the household; it has the thinnest and lightest physique that is able to go anyplace.

The Swift Edge 16 is not simply the lightest of the three Swift fashions — it is one of many lightest 16-inch laptops we have ever encountered. It weighs simply 2.7 kilos and feels shockingly mild for its dimension. Nonetheless, it was no light-weight in our lab testing, ending near the Swift Go 16 on all assessments and clearly outclassing it in a single occasion. The identical holds true when it comes to battery life, the place the Swift Edge 16’s runtime was really a couple of minutes shorter than the Go’s. For such a conveyable 16-inch laptop computer, it is a disgrace that battery life is not higher, however powering a giant and vivid OLED panel hardly ever ends in lengthy runtime. Even with common battery life, the amazingly thin-and-light Swift Edge 16 is worthy of significant consideration for its unusual mixture of show dimension and portability.

Acer sells two fashions within the present Swift Edge 16 sequence based mostly on AMD Ryzen 7 7000 U-series processors. Our $1,300 check system (mannequin SFE16-43) includes a Ryzen 7 7840U, 16GB of RAM, built-in AMD Radeon graphics, a 1TB SSD and a 16-inch OLED show with a 3,200×2,000-pixel decision and 120Hz refresh price. It additionally options Home windows 11 House; the identical configuration with Home windows 11 Professional prices $1,420. A barely completely different configuration is out there for $1,300 with a Ryzen 7 7735U CPU and a 4K OLED panel with a normal 60Hz refresh price.

The Swift Edge 16 begins at £1,299 within the UK and might be discovered on Acer’s Australian website however with out pricing info.

The Ryzen 7 7840U processor options eight cores and 16 processing threads, with a base clock of three.3GHz. It is a 28-watt chip, which is identical energy draw as Intel’s Core P sequence and practically double that of Intel’s 15-watt U sequence. The Swift Edge 16 carried out properly in lab testing. It saved tempo largely with the Swift Go, which includes a higher-powered CPU from Intel’s 45-watt Core H sequence on each check, as you possibly can see within the efficiency charts under. And, in truth, the Swift Edge 16 was considerably higher than the Swift Go on PCMark 10, which assessments for general system efficiency on fashionable workplace duties. It offers a clean Home windows 11 expertise, from typical workplace apps to multitasking and even some mild media modifying.

Sadly, it would not provide longer battery life than the Swift Go. It lasted solely 7 hours and 14 minutes on our on-line streaming video battery drain check, which was a couple of minutes shorter than the Swift Go. That is considerably disappointing for a system that’s so moveable, however common for a 16-inch laptop computer. And whereas the OLED show is fantastic to take a look at, it has an adversarial impact on battery life in contrast with a conventional IPS LCD panel.

Thinnest and lightest

The dialog in regards to the Swift Edge 16 has to start out with its implausibly moveable, thin-and-light chassis. The all-aluminum enclosure is simply half an inch thick and weighs 2.7 kilos. That is practically a pound lighter than the three.6-pound Swift Go 16, which is impressively mild in its personal proper. It is significantly lighter than the 4.3-pound Swift X and different 16-inch opponents, together with the 4-pound Samsung Galaxy Guide 3 Extremely and 4.7-pound MacBook Professional 16. The one 16-inch laptop computer that comes near the Swift Edge 16 is the LG Gram 16, which weighs 2.8 kilos.

Acer makes use of a skinny aluminum alloy for the Swift Edge 16’s enclosure. It would not really feel as stable and inflexible as a MacBook Professional or Acer’s personal Swift X. Like the marginally heavier Swift Go, the skinny aluminum flexes a bit. I am an admittedly heavy typist, and after I was banging away on the keys, the keyboard deck flexed, which detracted from the typing expertise. The lid behind the show, nonetheless, is pretty inflexible. Some flex is predicted; it is a tradeoff for utilizing such a skinny materials for the case. The excellent news is the slight flex would not make the Swift Edge really feel low-cost or flimsy. It has simply sufficient rigidity to go the build-quality check.

The flex within the keyboard deck is not the one snag with the Swift Edge 16’s keyboard, although. The keys themselves provide shallow journey and lack the snappy suggestions {that a} thicker laptop computer would permit. Acer additionally squeezes in a quantity pad, which ends up in some shortened keys, particularly the Caps Lock, Ctrl and Shift on the left aspect of the keyboard.

The facility button doubles as a fingerprint scanner for simple, safe logins while not having to key in a password. And it is good to have because the webcam lacks an IR sensor that may mean you can use facial recognition.

The webcam additionally lacks a bodily cowl that may shield your privateness when it is not in use, and there is no hotkey for an digital shutter, both (there’s a mic mute button, nonetheless). The digicam itself is superior. It is a 1440p webcam that produces a crisp, well-balanced picture with not one of the graininess that you just get with an older 720p mannequin or some 1080p cams.

The intense portability is the headliner for the Swift Edge 16, however the show can be noteworthy. For a mainstream value of $1,300, it is nice to get an OLED panel that’s roomy, sharp and quick.

Let’s take these three beautiful attributes so as:

• Roomy: The 16-inch show with a 16:10 facet ratio offers you an enormous display to juggle a number of home windows or simply relax and watch a film. Once more, to get a show this dimension in a sub-3-pound package deal is exceptional.
• Sharp: The three.2K decision offers greater than sufficient pixels for sharp textual content and edges of pictures. A 4K decision is not wanted and would seemingly end in a diminished battery life.
• Quick: The 120Hz refresh price is twice the everyday 60Hz price and permits for clean motion. Sooner refresh charges are often discovered on gaming laptops in order that video games are much less jittery and seem extra lifelike, however a sooner refresh price additionally permits for smoother motion for movies. With its built-in graphics, the Swift Edge 16 is not an ideal match for media creators, however if you wish to use it for some mild video modifying, the sooner refresh price will assist your efforts there.

Final word on the show: The OLED panel has glorious distinction the place particulars are in a position to be seen in vivid and darkish areas of a scene. Colour accuracy can be sturdy. In testing with a Spyder X Elite colorimeter, the show exhibited glorious protection with 100% of each sRGB and DCI-P3 and 98% of AdobeRGB. Brightness was fairly good, too, reaching a peak of 398 nits.

The fundamental set of stereo audio system, sadly, cannot match the excellence of the show. Bigger laptops usually provide 4 audio system for fuller sound, however the Swift Edge 16 has solely a primary set of stereo audio system, and so they produce primary laptop computer sound: tinny and underwhelming.

Alternatively, many ultrathin laptops present solely a naked minimal of ports, however the Swift Edge 16 affords a wide array. There is a pair of USB-C 4 ports on the left aspect, together with an HDMI port and a USB-A port. On the precise, you get one other USB-A port, an audio jack and a microSD card slot.

If you’re on the lookout for an optimum between display dimension and portability in a laptop computer, the Swift Edge 16 is a superb decide. And that the big show can be a pointy and quick OLED panel solely sweetens the deal. The ultrathin-and-light chassis does pressure you to make two sacrifices: The keyboard is a bit mushy and shallow, and the audio system’ output is lackluster. Neither is a deal-breaker, nonetheless, and the Swift Edge 16 deserves consideration for anybody on the lookout for a laptop computer for normal journey or commuting who can be unwilling or unable to be caught with a cramped show.