Acer Swift 16 AI looks like a slate. Without the Acer logo on the cover, I swear this laptop looks like something you picked up from a construction site. Powered by the latest Lunar Lake chips, the Swift 16 AI is an efficient machine, but it’s let down by build issues that don’t match your performance goals.
Acer Swift 16 AI
The Acer Swift 16 AI has good performance and a solid screen for its class, but the build quality is subpar.
Strong Points
Great-looking OLED display Battery life is solid but not as heavy as promised Chassis has a sleek black finish
Cons
The center of the laptop flexes when I put any pressure on it Sound quality is subpar Lunar Lake promises performance but there is no option to upgrade Some issues with palm rejection
A big reason to choose the Swift 16 over the Swift 14 is the superior 16-inch AMOLED. At least it’s a beautiful, beautiful screen. Either way, Acer promises close to 20 hours of real-world battery life and all the benefits of the Copilot+ PC in a thin package. This thin package causes problems when pressing down on the keyboard. It bends easily and is surprisingly uncomfortable.
There are also issues with the twin speakers’ sound quality and battery life, which don’t quite match my expectations for this machine. I wanted to know if it could be equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 chip, as all the promotional materials say, but it may not be available before the end of 2024. If a screen is all you need, the Acer Swift 16 AI has it. , but the price is high. Still, for an MSRP of $1,200, you might be able to find much better build quality elsewhere.
Acer Swift 16 AI review: Build quality
While I like the Swift 16 AI’s subdued color, thin body, and light 3.37-pound frame, Acer’s design has serious structural flaws. I/O ports are plentiful in this shape and size, with HDMI, two USB-A, and two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. We also appreciate the WiFi 7 connectivity, number pad, and 1TB SSD, suggesting this could be a flagship laptop.
Setting up this workhorse is another matter. There’s a noticeable flex in the chassis if you press the keys too hard, and it’s also noticeable around the area where you rest your palm. That’s a shame, because the rest of the device, including the cover, feels sturdy. Basically, most of the structure is held on the sides of the device, but the center is particularly prone to bending. If you press the area closest to the screen with a little force, it can sink nearly half an inch.
The keyboard also has some quirks. The keys aren’t rattling, but they do have a mechanical, rubbery noise that isn’t unpleasant, just different. At a desk, it’s easy to type in my usual strong style, but when I type on my lap, it feels like I’m using too much force. The mouse pad also feels good, but can sometimes be let down by palm rejection issues. No one likes typing a paragraph only to have the cursor move and click on another part of the document.
At least that’s the case with the Acer Swift 16 Go, which was released earlier this year, and it’s thin. At least the screen can be laid flat and has touchscreen functionality. Otherwise everything feels too substandard.
Acer Swift 16 AI review: Performance
My configuration came with an Intel Core Ultra 256V Lunar Lake processor with ARC 140V onboard graphics that was released in September. Acer’s press materials and its product page tout how this PC can be powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V, currently the most powerful of Intel’s new Lunar Lake chips. I wanted to see it in action on Acer’s slim laptop, but my unit uses 256V, which is in the mid-to-low price range. At the time of reporting, Acer’s 16-inch store page does not stock any other options for the high-end chip.
At the very least, the 16-inch chassis has slightly better performance than other OEMs’ 14-inch models with the same chip. Intel’s 256V is still a superior chip in terms of core count when compared to chips with more cores and threads, but for a few hundred dollars more you can find a similar laptop with 258V. can. However, performance may still be poor on some multi-devices. -Core test compared to Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. When it comes to comparisons with the M4 MacBook Pro, Apple’s strengths are hard to beat in pure benchmarks.
In Cinebench scores, the Acer Swift 16 AI significantly outperformed the Asus Zenbook S 14 and Dell XPS 13, 14-inch laptops with the same chips.
Still, in terms of pure rendering performance, it lagged behind the Snapdragon X Elite and the MacBook Air’s M3 chip. The difference becomes even more pronounced in the 3DMark graphics test. Arc 140V graphics are good enough for some purposes, but not for real-world heavy lifting. In the Blender benchmark, which forces a PC to render a BMW scene that taxes the CPU and GPU independently, the Intel chip took about 4 minutes and 40 seconds, which isn’t bad. Still, despite its beautiful display, this PC is certainly not the best choice for designers.
256V is still far behind in transcoding tests. I used the open-source Handbrake program to transcode a 4K movie to 1080p, and it still took more than three minutes longer than the top of the line Strix Point, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. This PC is great for productivity tasks, but not for more intensive work.
Acer Swift 16 AI review: Screen, sound, and webcam
A big reason to choose the 16-inch model over the 14-inch Swift model is the 3K OLED display. It’s a premium touchscreen that can withstand getting dirty with greasy fingerprints. The maximum resolution is 2880 x 1800, and the full screen peak brightness reaches 340 nits. The screen isn’t very bright, so you might experience some loss of fidelity under direct light, but it provides a satisfying viewing experience in normal use.
If you want this to be your favorite mobile machine for watching movies, you’ll want to invest in a good pair of headphones. Audio from the Acer Swift 16 AI sounded thin and too small. The device is supposed to have two stereo speakers, but even at maximum volume, there wasn’t much bass.
I don’t think the webcam is that interesting a piece of the laptop puzzle. At your fourth Zoom meeting this week, I don’t think anyone cares about the quality of your visuals. Still, the Swift 16 AI includes a QHD webcam that can display 2560 x 1440 resolution.
When I used the Swift 16 AI during a video call, I found the image quality to be quite detailed, even in relatively dim light. Acer’s webcam also includes pop-ups for PureView and PureVoice. The software is supposed to use AI to improve image and audio clarity. I don’t know if it helped everyone on the call. In my case, I didn’t see much of a difference. That’s fine. There is no problem running it in the background. However, the PureView pop-up screen kept reappearing during calls.
Acer Swift 16 AI review: Battery life
After about 3 hours of basic browsing tasks using Google Chrome, I was at about 50% sitting. Even with Windows power settings set to Balanced mode and screen brightness set to medium, it was still around 50%. Acer promises about 13 and a half hours of browsing time, but if you’re using a performance-oriented browser like Google Chrome, it could be less. Battery life isn’t 20 hours, but it’s plenty for most work applications. With continuous use, it can last almost a full day.
In a battery test run with the laptop at basic power settings and playing a 24-hour YouTube video on low brightness, the Acer Swift 16 AI went from 55% battery to 0 battery in nearly 8 hours. This is close to the 19.5 hours of video playback battery life that Acer promises, but not quite. The 70Whr battery and Lunar Lake give you a lot of range, but you can use it for several days without getting tired.
Acer Swift 16 AI Review: Verdict
If I had a choice between a thin Intel Lunar Lake laptop, the Swift 16 AI wouldn’t be my first choice. It just doesn’t have the build quality you’d expect when you spend over $1,000. The screen is very clean, but not very bright. Otherwise, other than some decent battery life, it doesn’t have the qualities you’d expect from a laptop in this price range. I don’t see much reason to spend $1,000 on a device that flexes this much during use.