When you unbox the Acer Swift Edge 16, the first thing you’ll immediately notice is its lightweight design. At 2.58 pounds, the Acer Swift Edge is as light as 16-inch laptops get. The device has a design that is both functional and stylish. Its rectangular body is adorned with a discreet silver Acer logo on the lid, giving it a clean and minimalist look. The back of the lid is seamless, with no contrasting panels or additional lights.
When you open it up, the thin bezel adds to its stylish look, and the backlit keyboard and moderately sized trackpad make it easy to use.
The Acer Swift Edge 16’s display is among the standout features of this laptop. It boasts an HDR OLED screen with a 16:10 resolution that’s not too far off from 4K, and a brightness output of 500 nits. It hits the DCI-P3 colour gamut, and is generally nice to look at. It also comes with VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 and TÜV Rheinland Eyesafe display certifications, ensuring a comfortable and extended viewing experience.
The screen hinge, however, doesn’t allow the laptop to lay flat. If you’re someone who works in different lighting conditions, the display is bright enough to be easily used. Also, it’s not a touchscreen, so it won’t get coated in fingerprints.
The Acer Swift Edge packs a powerful punch with its AMD Ryzen 6000 Series processors, which offer seamless and responsive performance that meets all your business needs and go-to applications. It comes with a 54Wh battery that is touted to last for more than 10 hours. However, during our testing, we found that it could only sustain a typical day of use, with a mix of apps, for about seven hours before needing a recharge.
In terms of connectivity, the device comes equipped with Wi-Fi 6E for high-speed wireless connections and file sharing, and a smooth 4K streaming experience. It also has a variety of ports on the outside edges, including two USB 4 Type-C ports, each of which can also connect to a monitor and charge the machine. There’s also a full-size HDMI 2.1 port capable of 10K output, although we had some trouble getting a signal on our test machine. Two additional USB 3 ports provide plenty of opportunity to connect to a docking station if you’re working at a desk. Unfortunately, there’s no Ethernet socket, so you’ll need a dock to use this feature.
The laptop also has a tiny webcam located at the top edge of the screen that boasts a 1080p resolution and utilises advanced noise-reduction technology in both the sensor and microphone.
As for security, while the Acer Swift Edge doesn’t support Windows Hello for face-recognition unlocking its power button integrates a fingerprint reader.
Overall, the Acer Swift Edge 16 is an impressively lightweight and slim device that delivers strong productivity performance, satisfactory battery life, and an outstanding visual experience.
