Acer Swift AI 16 review: a large and lovely OLED display is the difference

There’s an argument to be made for a laptop that’s reasonably thin and light while still offering up a bunch of screen real estate. While some 16-inch laptops are thicker and heavier thanks to power-hungry components, others manage to be just fast enough to support the multitasking made possible by a larger display while remaining reasonably portable. The new Acer Swift AI 16 is one such laptop. It uses Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chipsets to provide reasonably fast and much more efficient performance, mated with a 16-inch OLED display. It’s also reasonably priced, making it an attractive option for road warriors who need to do more than one thing at a time.

Specs and Pricing

As of when this review is being written, there is just one available configuration of the Swift AI 16. It costs $1,250 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 16-inch OLED display. That’s an attractive price for a well-built laptop with a beautiful display. The Apple MacBook Air 15 and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 both start out lower with less RAM and storage, but they get more expensive as you configure more options.

Design

The Swift AI 16 is a reasonably sized laptop given its 16-inch display, with display bezels that are small enough to keep its width and depth in check. It’s at most 0.69 inches thick, which is slightly thinner than Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 with its 15-inch display and a lot thicker than the Apple MacBook Air 15 that’s an insane 0.45 inches thick with a 15.2-inch panel. The Acer is reasonably light at 3.37 pounds, compared to the Surface Laptop 7’s 3.67 pounds and the MacBook Air’s 3.3 pounds. Yes, the Swift AI 16 will take up some space in your backpack, but it won’t weigh you down.

Its construction is just okay, though. Its chassis is aluminum, as is the lid, but while the keyboard deck resists flexing the lid is a bit bendable. The Microsoft and Apple laptops are more solid, which certainly comes from the denser construction. The Acer isn’t exactly bad, though. It’s not like you’ll be concerned that it will fall apart anytime soon. I’d say it’s just good enough, and its price helps.

Aesthetically, the Swift AI 16 isn’t exactly exciting. It’s all-black, with a chrome Acer logo on the lid and minimal bling on the inside. The edges are streamlined with a flair to the rear side where the ports are located. Most laptops are minimalist today, but the Surface Laptop 7 and MacBook Air 15 do give off more of an elegant vibe. Again, the Swift AI 16 is good enough, but it’s nothing special.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard has snappy switches with a light touch, something I tend to favor. It’s a little like the Apple Magic Keyboard in this respect, making it comfortable for long-term typing. However, the keycaps are a little smaller and the spacing is more cramped than it needs to be, because Acer squeezed in a small numeric keypad that’s a bit anachronistic today. The keyboard props up at a bit of an angle when you open the lid, which is nice.

The touchpad is smaller than it could be, as well, and because of the numeric keypad, it’s not centered enough. Acer could have utilized some additional space on the palm rest to make it considerably larger, and that’s something you’ll get from the MacBook Air 15’s excellent Force Touch haptic touchpad. In addition, the Acer touchpad is mechanical, and it’s okay. The one interesting feature is an LED that lights up in a cool pattern when the Copilot key is engaged, but it seems like more of a gimmick than anything. The display is touch-enabled, and I appreciate it more given the smallish touchpad.

Webcam and Connectivity

Connectivity is very good, with a mix of fast, modern ports and legacy connections. You’ll give up one of the USB4 ports for power, something that both the MacBook Air 15 and Surface Laptop 7 avoid with their dedicated power connectors. However, thanks to the extra USB-A and HDMI ports, the Acer has better overall connectivity than those two. Wireless connectivity is fully up-to-date with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The webcam is a high-res 1440p version, and it provides a quality image with decent low-light performance. The Swift AI 16 features Lunar Lake’s fast Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that runs at up to 47 tera operations per second. The laptop supports fast and efficient on-device performance for various features. Those are still rolling out, though, and so far, I haven’t found much use for any of it.

Performance

Intel offers several variants of its 8-core/8-thread Intel Lunar Lake (Core Ultra Series 2) chipsets. The chipsets differ in their clock speeds but are aimed more at efficiency than sheer performance. I reviewed the Swift AI 16 with the Core Ultra 7 256V chipset. The Swift AI 16 isn’t the fastest of the Lunar Lake machines but it’s not the slowest either. It’s fast enough for productivity work and typical day-to-day tasks. Gamers and creators will want a 16-inch laptop with discrete graphics, however.

Battery Life

The Swift AI 16 has a 70 watt-hour battery, which is reasonable for a 16-inch laptop. The battery life wasn’t as good as some others, likely due to the high-res OLED display. You likely won’t get a full day’s work out of the Swift AI 16, but it will get close.

Display and Audio

The centerpiece of the Swift AI 16 is the expansive 16-inch 16:10 2.8K OLED display. This display is bright, with high contrast, wide color gamut, and excellent accuracy. It’s great for productivity work and media consumption. The audio from the downward-firing stereo speakers is fine but lacks bass compared to other laptops.

An Expansive OLED Display Saves the Day

The Swift AI 16 is reasonably priced, decently made, and has okay performance and battery life. However, the large OLED display is the standout feature of this laptop. For anyone who loves brilliant colors and deep contrast, it’s an awesome display that sets this laptop apart from others.