A Lovely Display screen Linked to a Dangerous Chassis

The massive cause you’d need the Swift 16 over the Swift 14 is the candy, 16-inch AMOLED. In any case, it’s a good and fairly display. Both means, Acer guarantees almost 20-hour precise use battery life and all of the Copilot+ PC goodness in a skinny bundle. That skinny bundle additionally has points after I push down on its keyboard. It’s flexible and surprisingly uncomfortable.

I even have points with the sound high quality of its twin audio system and its battery life, which doesn’t fairly match the promise of this machine. I might have liked to see if it may maintain an Intel Core Extremely 9 chip like all its promotional materials says, however that is probably not accessible earlier than the tip of 2024. If the display is all you need, the Acer Swift 16 AI has that, however for a value. Nonetheless, at $1,200 MSRP, chances are you’ll discover much better construct high quality elsewhere.

Acer Swift 16 AI Overview: Construct High quality

I need to just like the Swift 16 AI for its low-key colour, skinny physique, and three.37-pound gentle body, however Acer’s design has critical structural flaws. There are many I/O ports for this form and measurement, with an HDMI, two USB-A, and two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. I additionally respect the WiFi 7 connectivity, numpad, and 1 TB SSD, suggesting this might be an amazing workhorse laptop computer.

Organising this workhorse is one other matter. The chassis has a noticeable sag whenever you press too onerous on the keys, and it’s additionally noticeable across the space the place you relaxation your palms. It’s a disgrace as a result of the remainder of the machine, together with the quilt, feels sturdy. Basically, a lot of the construction is held by the edges of the machine, however the center is very flexible. Urgent the world closest to the display with a modicum of drive can sink near half an inch.

The keyboard additionally has some idiosyncrasies. The keys aren’t clacky however have a mechanical, rubbery noise that’s not disagreeable, simply totally different. On a desk, it’s simple to sort utilizing my often forceful fashion, however typing from my lap feels prefer it takes an excessive amount of effort. The mousepad additionally feels good, nevertheless it’s sometimes let down with some palm rejection points. No person likes typing a paragraph solely to seek out that your cursor has moved and clicked on one other a part of your doc.

A minimum of it’s skinny, which may also be stated in regards to the Acer Swift 16 Go from earlier this 12 months. A minimum of the display can lie flat, and you’ve got touchscreen capabilities. In any other case, all of it feels too substandard.

Acer Swift 16 AI Overview: Efficiency

My configuration got here with the Intel Core Extremely 256 V Lunar Lake processor launched in September, incorporating ARC 140V onboard graphics. Acer’s press supplies and its product web page promote how this PC can home as much as an Intel Core Extremely 9 288V, at the moment essentially the most highly effective of Intel’s new Lunar Lake chips. I might have liked to see it in motion with Acer’s slim laptop computer, however my unit makes use of the mid-to-low-end 256V. On the time of reporting, Acer’s retailer web page for the 16-inch doesn’t inventory every other choices for the higher-end chip.

On the very least, the 16-inch chassis does have barely improved efficiency over the 14-inch fashions from different OEMs with the identical chip. The 256V from Intel remains to be a very good chip for its core counts in comparison with chips with extra cores and threads, however for a number of hundred {dollars} extra, you will discover related laptops with the 258V, although it might nonetheless not carry out as properly in some multi-core checks in comparison with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. As for the way it compares to the M4 MacBook Professional, there’s actually no beating Apple’s energy in pure benchmarking.

In Cinebench scores, the Acer Swift 16 AI was sizably higher than a 14-inch laptop computer with the identical chip because the Asus Zenbook S 14 and the Dell XPS 13.

Nonetheless, it lagged behind the Snapdragon X Elite and a MacBook Air’s M3 chip in pure rendering efficiency. That distinction turns into extra stark in 3DMark graphics checks. The Arc 140V graphics are adequate for some functions however not for any actual heavy lifting. In our Blender benchmarks, the place we get the PC to render a scene of a BMW stressing the CPU and GPU individually, the Intel chip takes about 4 minutes and 40 seconds, which isn’t dangerous. Nonetheless, this PC will definitely not be one of the best match for a designer, regardless of the stunning show.

The 256V nonetheless lags far behind in our transcoding check. We used the open-source Handbrake program to transcode a 4K film into 1080p, which nonetheless took greater than three minutes longer than an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, the highest finish of Strix Level. This PC is nice at productiveness duties however no more intensive actions.

Acer Swift 16 AI Overview: Display screen, Sound, and Webcam

The massive cause you get the 16-inch over the 14-inch Swift mannequin is the 3K OLED show. It’s an opulent touchscreen you’ll be able to muddy together with your oily fingerprints. It could attain a max decision of 2880 by 1800 and a peak full-screen brightness of 340 nits. It’s not the brightest display, and also you may lose some constancy in direct gentle, nevertheless it’s a satisfying viewing expertise for normal use.

If you’d like this to be your favourite cellular machine for watching motion pictures, I’d suggest investing in a very good pair of headphones. The audio from the Acer Swift 16 AI sounded skinny and too tinny. The machine is meant to include two stereo audio system, however even with that at max quantity, it didn’t have a lot bass.

I don’t discover webcams to be a really thrilling a part of the laptop computer puzzle. I don’t suppose anyone cares about your visible high quality through the week’s 4th subsequent Zoom assembly. Nonetheless, the Swift 16 AI does embody a QHD webcam that may present a decision of 2560 by 1440.

I used the Swift 16 AI throughout a video name and located the picture high quality was pretty detailed, even in comparatively dim gentle. Acer’s webcams additionally embody a popup for its PureView and PureVoice. This software program is meant to make use of AI to reinforce the readability of your picture and the sound of your voice. If it helped all the opposite individuals on the opposite finish of the decision, I couldn’t inform. Nor may I see a lot distinction with it at my finish. That’s wonderful, and I don’t thoughts it working within the background. Nevertheless, the popup display for PureView stored reappearing a number of instances throughout my name.

Acer Swift 16 AI Overview: Battery Life

After about three hours of labor utilizing Google Chrome for fundamental shopping duties, I used to be sitting at round 50%. Even with Home windows’s energy settings on Balanced mode on medium display brightness, I used to be sitting at round 50%. Acer guarantees you will get about 13 and a half hours of shopping, although it might be much less if you happen to use performance-hog browsers like Google Chrome. It’s not a 20-hour battery life, nevertheless it’s honest sufficient for many work functions. I can get near a full day from it with fixed use.

In our battery checks, the place we ran the laptop computer on fundamental energy settings at low brightness with a 24-hour YouTube video, the Acer Swift 16 AI went from 55% battery to 0 in shut to eight hours. It’s shut, however not fairly the 19.5-hour video playback battery life promised by Acer. The 70Whr battery and Lunar Lake provide you with first rate mileage however gained’t tide you over a number of days of fixed use.

Acer Swift 16 AI Overview: Verdict

If I had the selection of a skinny Intel Lunar Lake laptop computer, the Swift 16 AI wouldn’t be my first alternative. It doesn’t have the construct high quality I might anticipate when spending over $1,000. Its display may be very good, although not very shiny. In any other case, it doesn’t have the qualities you search for in a laptop computer at this value level, save for—to some extent—battery life. I don’t discover a lot cause to spend $1,000 on a tool that bends a lot when utilizing it.