There’s been something of an influx in 16-inch gaming laptops in recent months, with many, such asLenovo’s Legion Slim 7i, that combine heavyweight graphics performance with a lightweight, portable design.
Acer’s new Swift Edge 16 goes further still, providing one of the lightest 16-inch laptops currently available. Measuring just 13mm thick and weighing 1.23kg, it might even qualify as the first 16-inch ‘ultraportable’ that I’ve ever seen.
Some of the credit for that design goes to AMD, as the Swift Edge 16 is one of the first laptops to introduce the new Ryzen 7 7840U - the latest addition to AMD’s ‘thin and light’ Ryzen U series of processors. The Swift Edge 16 also stands out thanks to its bright, colourful OLED display, which works a treat for web browsing or viewing photos and videos. It’s competitively priced too, costing around $1300/£1300 for the model that I’m testing here.
But have there been any compromises to get everything into such a slim frame? Here’s my full review.
Acer Swift Edge 16 (2023)
With a lightweight, streamlined design and large, bright display, the Swift Edge 16 is pretty impressive, with very little competition at its price. While the build quality and battery life leave some room for improvement, its competitive price helps to allay most concerns, making it a solid offering for those needing a big screen to take on the go.
Specs, price and availability
This 2023 update for the Swift Edge 16 has only just been released in the US, and Acer’s website still lists a number of older models that use previous-generation Ryzen 7 processors, so you need to pay close attention when ordering.
There’s just one option available with the new 8-core Ryzen 7 7840U processor at the moment, costing $1299.99 with 16GB and 1TB solid-state storage (approx. £1299.00 inc.VAT). That price also includes the 16-inch OLED display, which provides ‘3.2K’ resolution (3200x2000) and a maximum 120Hz refresh rate, while graphics duties are handled by the Ryzen’s integrated Radeon 780M. This new model is currently only available in the US, although it’s expected to become available in the UK and other territories within a few weeks.
It’s worth noting, though, that Acer’s website is rather inaccurate in places. For instance, it states that the Swift Edge 16 includes Wi-Fi 7 and Gigabit Ethernet, yet the review unit I tested only had Wi-Fi 6E, and no Ethernet at all. You should therefore make a careful note of the specifications before buying from Acer or any of its online retailers.
I’d also like to see Acer get rid of some of the bundled bloatware that is supplied with the laptop, with promotions for Amazon, Dropbox and others requiring some irritating house-cleaning before I could start testing.
The plain black, rectangular design of the Swift Edge 16 isn’t particularly eye-catching - apart, of course, from the fact that it’s so strikingly slim and light. As mentioned, the slimline laptop measures just 13mm thick and tips the scales at a mere 1.23kg, compared to 16.8mm and 2.15kg for Apple’s far more expensive 16-inchMacBook Pro. However, the weight is so well balanced that the Swift Edge 16 actually feels lighter than the quoted weight, and I’m even able to pick it up with one hand without much trouble at all.
That weight comes at a cost, though, and the Swift Edge 16 certainly doesn’t feel as sturdy as aluminium-clad MacBook Pro. Acer’s website indicates that the laptop’s casing is made from an ‘ultra-thin aluminium alloy,’ but the screen panel and keyboard both flex a little more than I’d like. The movement on the keyboard may also be irritating for people who are rapid typists (or journalists on a deadline) who need a firm, responsive keyboard for their work.
It does provide a full-size keyboard, though, and a large trackpad, and there’s room for a numeric keypad in case you need to do some number-crunching for work. The size of the laptop also means that the Swift Edge 16 provides good connectivity features. There’s an HDMI port for an external display, as well as two USB-C ports with support for DisplayPort, and two USB-A ports for older peripherals. There’s also a 3.5mm connector that provides audio input and output, and a slot for microSD memory cards as well.
Display and multimedia
The build quality may leave room for improvement, but I can’t complain about the quality of the Swift’s 16-inch display. This OLED display provides ‘3.2K’ resolution (3200 x 200) with a maximum 120Hz refresh rate (which can be dropped to 60Hz if you want to save battery power).
The information provided with this review unit stated that the display only provides 400 nits brightness, although Acer’s website contradicts this and lists the display at 500 nits. In any event, I found the display to be very bright and colourful - so much so that I was easily able to lower the brightness to just 40 per cent during my battery tests with streaming video.
While the Swift isn’t designed for content creation, the display does support the professional-level DCI-P3 colour standard, and the AMD processor is more than powerful enough to handle some light photo- or video-editing work, either for sharing with friends, or for presentations at work.
There’s a good webcam too, providing 2560x1440 resolution with a very bright, sharp image even on a gloomy November morning. Only the built-in speaker system disappoints - it’s loud enough to listen to a few tunes when you’re out and about, but the bass is almost non-existent, while the higher frequencies sound rather harsh.
Performance and battery
The reliance on integrated graphics means that the Swift Edge 16 can’t compete with some of the slimline 16-inch gaming laptops that are now available. Even so, the new Ryzen 7 7840U processor provides strong performance that makes the Swift Edge 16 a good, reliable workhorse for a variety of day-to-day tasks.
Benchmark results
GeekBench 6 single core
GeekBench 6 multi core
Acer Swift Edge 16
Lenovo Legion Slim 7i
Acer Zenbook 15 OLED
Razer Blade 16
The Ryzen processor scores 2,670 for single-core performance when running the GeekBench 6 test suite, and 10,215 for multi-core performance. Those scores sit about mid-way between Intel’s current i7 and i9 processors, so the Swift Edge 16 can certainly handle routine tasks such as web browsing, streaming video or running Microsoft Office with no trouble at all. And, even using integrated graphics, it can manage some casual gaming as well, reaching a playable 33.5fps when runningRise Of The Tomb Raideron medium graphics settings at 1920 x 1080 resolution.
The only disappointment is the laptop’s battery life, which lasts for a modest six hours and 23 minutes when streaming video via Wi-Fi. To be fair, that’s certainly better than the 4-5 hours provided by most 16-inch laptops, but if the Swift Edge 16 is going all-out to provide an ultraportable design then it would be nice if it had an all-day battery to match.
The Swift Edge 16 is something of a mixed bag. Its lightweight, streamlined design is very impressive, and the large, bright display is a treat for the eyes. However, the build quality and battery life both leave room for improvement and may deter some users.
The competitive price here might clinch the deal, though, and if you do need a laptop with a large 16-inch display that’s light enough to carry around every day then the Swift Edge 16 doesn’t have much competition in this price range.
