I became a fan of 16-inch laptops last year and have come across almost every one of them from different brands.
While there’s no doubt that the 16-inch MacBook Pro is still the gold standard and benchmark for 16-inch laptops, the only 16-inch laptop that has managed to impress me and I still proudly use until today, is the Acer Swift Edge, which is the slimmest and lightest 16-inch laptop that boasts an impressive 4K OLED display and surprisingly good performance at just 1.2kg.
This year, Acer showcased its successor, the Swift Edge 16, in COMPUTEX 2023, and when I saw the improvements it has made over its predecessor, I was like – THIS is the 16-inch laptop I’d love to upgrade to.
The Swift Edge 16 looks very much like the Swift Edge in terms of aesthetics, though Acer gave it a new dark green finish which I very much prefer to the current Flax White color on my Swift Edge, it is also slightly thicker than the Swift Edge which I don’t really mind, I/Os are about the same but I’m glad that Acer added a MicroSD card slot which isn’t available back then.
What the Acer Swift Edge 16 really impressed me is the new 3.2K OLED display that refreshes at 120Hz, though you certainly get lesser pixel density than the Swift Edge’s 4K display, the difference isn’t noticeable at all and in return you get buttery smooth scrolling and animations as you work around Windows, it should also have better power efficiency when you tune the refresh rate down to 60Hz while running on battery, and I would prefer a high refresh rate over a 4K resolution at 60Hz any day.
Left: Acer Swift Edge 16, Right: Acer Swift Edge
For those who does a lot of number crunching workflows, you will be glad that the Swift Edge 16 has a full-size keyboard with a numpad area that its predecessor lacks, although I find it to be cramped and still prefer a ten-keyless keyboard, I am glad that Acer has improved the key travel of the Swift Edge 16 which gives it a better tactile feel as I test my typing speed on MonkeyType.com, and that has to probably do with the slightly thicker chassis its worth doing so.
My other favorite upgrade is the higher resolution 1440p webcam, which is a good upgrade over an already good 1080p webcam previously.
While I feel that my Swift Edge is already a pretty responsive machine, I have no doubt that the Swift Edge 16 is going to be a much better performer and possibly have better battery life with the Ryzen 7 7840U processor, which boasts a higher boost frequency and runs on a more efficient TSMC 4nm FinFET process, not to mention its faster Radeon 780M graphics, 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and WiFi 7 connectivity, there’s also two fans cooling the system which is very much needed to ensure it runs optimally.
The only question remains that will ultimately make me want to own the Swift Edge 16 is its selling price when Acer launches it here, it starts at US$1300 (RM6015) when it launches in the US, which is significantly pricier than the previous model no thanks to the depreciation of the Ringgit, but despite that, it is still way cheaper than the competition with a similar screen type and performance, which to me, could be the best budget premium 16-inch laptop for the year.
