This 16-inch Acer Is A Full-package Value Pick I'd Happily Replace My Main Laptop With

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Acer Swift 16 AI is disposable now starting astatine $1,250.
• Its 16-inch OLED display, well-designed lightweight form, and marathon artillery activity together to create a laptop that feels much premium than its value would suggest.
• Its speakers, however, time off overmuch to beryllium desired, and it has its adjacent stock of bloatware.

Acer's Swift 16 AI is simply a bladed and ray laptop pinch a gorgeous OLED display, bully full-sized keyboard, and Intel Core Ultra 7 aliases 9 "Lunar Lake" processor starting astatine $1,200: a competitory value for a instrumentality that feels much premium than you'd expect. 

I've been commuting pinch nan Swift 16 AI for nan past 2 weeks, and it's go a astonishment favourite of nan year. It stands retired arsenic a great-value ultraportable that's arsenic versatile arsenic it is tin and has awesome artillery life. 

Also: I tested Acer's Swift X Laptop and its capacity amazed maine successful 3 ways

The Acer Swift 16 AI features a minimalist beingness build, pinch an all-over, metallic matte achromatic coating that looks a batch for illustration nan LG Gram Pro 16. Its full-sized keyboard and generous action of I/O make it applicable for a assortment of uses, and nan beingness shape is sleek and well-designed. 

The configuration I tested had an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 1TB SSD -- a elastic loadout that tin do a small spot of everything. It's peculiarly well-suited arsenic a activity instrumentality pinch Wi-Fi 7 and a responsive, very comfortable keyboard pinch a flimsy upward tilt acknowledgment to Acer's hinge design. 

I was happy to spot that some USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4, which is awesome for folks who want their outer monitors. Otherwise, you besides get an HDMI larboard that supports up to 8K resolution. The webcam is besides amazingly good, pinch 1440p solution for a crisp image during video calls. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

The glossy, 3K OLED show astatine 120Hz is 1 of nan laptop's strongest features. It's a crisp and vibrant image that looks awesome whether you're gaming, editing video, aliases conscionable moving successful productivity software. Despite its very bladed clamshell design, I knowledgeable very small surface wobble -- 1 of nan first things I look for erstwhile I spot a show this thin. 

You tin besides get immoderate amazingly bully gaming capacity retired of this laptop pinch nan Intel Arc GPU, arsenic agelong arsenic you're not pushing nan limits connected top-tier titles. I ran a fistful of my accustomed Steam titles, and though it's not a gaming laptop, it feels competitory and responsive, only stuttering pinch texture shaders turned up to max. 

Also: I replaced my activity PC pinch this Dell laptop, and it was 1 of my champion decisions

The only point is that nan show is incredibly glossy -- we're talking near-mirror status. You will request to set it if you're successful an agency aliases location pinch overhead lighting, thing I recovered myself doing alternatively frequently. If you're sitting pinch your backmost to a agleam window, it becomes borderline unusable. 

That said, nan show looks awesome otherwise, truthful I'd still urge this laptop to astir users unless you're specifically looking for a instrumentality to usage outdoors aliases are not a instrumentality of a glossy display. 

Another critique I person of this laptop (which is an inevitable consequence of its value point) is its speaker system, which is not great. While it's existent that laptop speakers are infamously lacking successful bass and depth, this 1 takes that estimation and runs pinch it.

Usually, I would opportunity this is simply a trade-off I don't mind, but it's a spot of a bummer that nan sound is truthful shallow erstwhile nan gaming capacity is truthful good. If you're personification who ever has a brace of headphones on, however, this won't beryllium an issue. 

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Ultimately, nan Acer Swift 16 AI's strengths outweigh its drawbacks. When it comes to mundane use, nan capacity is there, and arsenic a portable 16-inch laptop, it's well-designed and easy to commute with. 

The artillery is besides a banger. The laptop has a very bladed shape factor, but still manages to fresh successful a ample 20Wh artillery pinch a 65-watt charge. Depending connected really you usage it, you tin get aggregate days of usage connected 1 charge, and it ranks up location pinch different businesslike devices I've tested this twelvemonth specified arsenic nan Asus Zenbook A14, Microsoft's Surface Laptop, and nan Dell XPS 13 pinch nan Snapdragon X Elite chip. 

During our modular video playback test, I sewage astir 18 hours of video playback connected 1 charge. When it comes to utilizing this laptop for work, you'll easy past done nan activity time and into nan next, unless you're pushing it pinch much demanding workloads. Like each of nan different Lunar Lake-powered devices I've tested this year, powerfulness drain drops to a trickle erstwhile it's not successful use. 

Also: I switched to a $280 Chromebook from my Windows laptop for a week - and didn't regret it

The Intel Core Ultra 7 spot generates small to nary power during mundane use, but pushing it pinch heavier task loads and plugging successful nan charger will consequence successful somesthesia increases. 

Notably, nan charging process seems to beryllium hotter during nan first 30 minutes, aliases beneath 30%, past tapers down to a overmuch cooler somesthesia astatine higher artillery percentages. Also, erstwhile you commencement aliases extremity charging, nan laptop emits a chirp. All that said, it charges very accelerated and tin attack 100% successful astir an hr successful Balanced Mode. 

Beyond gaming, this laptop makes for a competent laptop for creatives pinch its accelerated refresh complaint and beautiful display. The 16GB of RAM mightiness limit high-end workloads pinch ample video files aliases 4K rendering, but it's different a joyousness to activity on.

Comparing this laptop to immoderate peers, we spot very adjacent (with 1 identical) benchmarking scores to Dell's XPS 13 pinch nan aforesaid Intel Core Ultra 7 "Lunar Lake" chip. 

ZDNET's buying advice

The Acer Swift 16 AI is simply a awesome worth and a sleeper deed from Acer's lineup. The bottommost statement present is that for astir $1,250, you're getting a 16-inch OLED show astatine 120Hz and 3K resolution, a sleek, minimalist build, afloat suite of I/O, and a marathon battery. Those elements unsocial activity together to make a practical, tin main driver that tin do a spot of everything. 

As a activity laptop, it feels premium and powerful, contempt nan subpar speakers, which is simply a tradeoff I'm consenting to take. 

Also: I battalion this portable workstation whenever I recreation - here's why it's worthy nan container space

Why nan Acer Swift 16 AI gets an Editors' Choice award

We've awarded nan Acer Swift 16 AI our Editors' Choice grant chiefly for its features, hardware, and build value comparative to price. The "Lunar Lake" Intel Core Ultra 7 processor future-proofs this laptop pinch commendable performance, and its beingness build feels much premium than its value constituent would suggest. 

Ultimately, it's an fantabulous prime for anyone wanting a gorgeous show paired pinch awesome artillery life. Starting astatine $1,250, it's already a value, and if you tin drawback it connected sale, it's moreover better.