Acer Swift Edge 16 First Impressions

We’re here right now in Taiwan with Acer for the 2023 Computex Taipei or the Taipei International Information Technology Show. Acer had a lot of tech, computers, and laptops on display, but there was one model that particularly caught our attention – the new Swift Edge 16.

The Acer Swift Edge 16 was only launched earlier this year, and we got to try it out for the first time. For those unfamiliar with Acer’s lineup, the Swift Edge is some of the lightest and slimmest ones on the market today. No doubt the Swift Edge 16 continues to build on that despite measuring 16 inches in size.

What’s even more surprising is that the laptop this lightweight laptop can pack a punch. It’s powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 7040 series processors and can be spec’d with up to AMD Radeon 780M Graphics. It’s not the most powerful, but it’s more than enough if you want to do some light gaming on the go. Not to mention the Swift Edge 16 features AMD Ryzen AI on select models with select processors, allowing it to keep up with today’s AI demands and more.

In addition, users can spec the Swift Edge 16 with up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 2TB SSD storage. Given the specs, we’re definitely curious about how it performs once we get our hands on a review unit.

As for the screen it is quite bright, up to 500 nits according to Acer. It does seem color accurate too, although, we’ll have to do a full review of the laptop in order to judge color accuracy better. Acer does claim a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. What’s impressive is that the resolution is a 3.2k OLED display and you also get a 120Hz refresh rate, making it more enjoyable to use.

Perhaps the best feature of the Acer Swift Edge 16 is the weight, or in this case lack thereof. Acer says the laptop weighs only 1.23kg, and we believe them. You can easily carry the laptop with only one hand. This makes it perfect for people who are always on the go but still want a laptop that’s somewhat capable. Since it’s slim, it can also fit most bags without any problems.

Despite being slim, you do get a lot of ports. There are two USB-A ports, dual USB 4 Type-C 65W ports, an HDMI 2.1, and even a microSD card reader. Not to mention Acer claims it supports Wi-Fi 7.

From our initial impressions, the keyboard isn’t the most ergonomic. That’s because Acer decided to fit a full-size keyboard, making it rather easy to accidentally hit the numbers on the size. Not to mention this isn’t exactly a big laptop either. We feel like it would have been better if they dropped the num pad and spaced out the letters more.

Overall, we enjoyed our short time with the Acer Swift Edge 16, particularly carrying it around with one hand. Hopefully, we’ll get to try this in the Philippines later this year so we can do a more comprehensive review that includes battery tests, benchmarks, and more. Details regarding price, specs for the Philippine variant have yet to be released.

Stay tuned for more coverage from Acer at the 2023 Computex.