Acer Swift Edge 16 review: a big display without the bulk

Acer currently offers just one configuration of the Swift Edge 16. For a list price of $1,300 at Best Buy (currently on sale for a very attractive $1,000), you get an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, a 16-inch WDXGA+ OLED display at 120Hz, and integrated AMD Radeon 780M graphics. The list price is attractive for the class of machine, and the sale price is a steal if you can get it.

The Swift Edge 16 uses a newer AMD processor that we haven’t reviewed in another laptop. The Ryzen 7 7840U is a midrange CPU running at 28 watts, with eight cores and 16 threads at a Max Boost Clock of 5.1GHz. At that power rating, it directly competes with Intel’s 28-watt 13th-gen Core processors, primarily the Core i7-1360P with 12 cores (four Performance and eight Efficient) and 16 threads, with the Performance cores running at up to 5.0GHz.

The thing is, according to a couple of our benchmarks, the Ryzen 7 7840U is significantly faster than the Core i7-1360P. In fact, it competes better against Intel’s 45-watt Core i7-13700H with 14 cores (six Performance and eight Efficient) and 20 threads. For some reason, the Swift Edge 16 couldn’t complete the Geekbench 5 or 6 benchmarks, so I was a little limited in making comparisons. The Dell XPS 15 was slightly faster in these CPU-intensive benchmarks and benefits from a discrete GPU that will give it even better performance in creative apps like Adobe’s Premiere Pro. Acer implemented a new thermal design in this generation that provides about 10% better airflow, which seems to have helped in its performance.

The Swift Edge 16 was also faster than the Apple MacBook Air 15 with the M2 processor featuring eight CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, at least in these CPU-intensive benchmarks. In apps that can leverage the GPU, the MacBook is likely to be faster thanks to optimizations built into Apple’s Silicon chips. The Swift Edge 16’s AMD Radeon 780M graphics were faster than Intel’s integrated Iris Xe, but not by much.

Overall, the Swift Edge 16 held its own both against equally powered Intel chips and faster variants. It’s a productivity powerhouse, able to meet the most demanding workflows, but it will not please creators who benefit most from a faster discrete GPU. And gamers shouldn’t bother.

Perhaps it’s the small 54 watt-hour battery and the power-hungry, high-resolution OLED display running at 120Hz, but the Swift Edge 16 didn’t get the kind of battery life we usually see with AMD processors. The Ryzen 7 7840U isn’t as low-power as the 15-watt alternatives, but is uses less power than the 45-watt machines it best competes with. But whatever the reason, it didn’t last very long in our benchmarks.

It went for just 5.75 hours in our web-browsing test, which is well below average, and the same held true with the PCMark 10 Applications battery test that gives an idea of productivity battery life. In that test, it managed just 6.75 hours, whereas most machines come in at around 10 hours. Finally, in our video-looping test, which is the least computing-intensive, but is most impacted by the display technology, the Swift Edge 16 lasted for just 6.5 hours, which is a very poor score.

The laptop isn’t likely to last until lunch, let alone a full day. You’ll need your power adapter if you’re going to be out of the office or away from home.

The Swift Edge 16 has a sharp OLED display running at 16:10 and 3,000 x 2,000, with a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It’s a bright and beautiful display out of the box, with inky blacks and excellent colors. That’s my subjective opinion.

My colorimeter agreed. The display is bright at 416 nits, with incredibly wide colors at 100% of both sRGB and AdobeRGB and 99% of DCI-P3. Accuracy was also superior, at a DeltaE of 0.63 (anything under 1.0 can’t be seen with the naked eye). As with several OLED displays I’ve tested, my SpyderX Elite colorimeter didn’t return results for the contrast ratio, but I’m certain it’s as high as all OLED panels.

While the Swift Edge 16 doesn’t have the sheer performance creators need, it certainly has the display for creative work. It’s also excellent for productivity users and media consumers.

If you’re looking for a fast productivity laptop with a beautiful display, the Swift Edge 16 is a solid choice. It’s incredibly thin and light — not quite as thin as the MacBook Air 15, but much thinner than most 16-inch machines.

It’s not perfect, though. Its graphics performance isn’t great, and its battery life is poor. Balanced against that is an attractive list price and an incredible sale price. The Swift Edge 16 is recommended for anyone who wants a larger display, but not a larger laptop.

Editors’ Recommendations