This Acer Laptop From Last Year Is The Reason I'm Not Upgrading In 2026

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Acer Swift Edge 14 is presently connected sale, pinch prices starting astatine $1,500
• Its ultrathin design, vibrant 3K display, and soft-touch keyboard are judge to move heads
• It runs connected a last-gen CPU, which makes nan asking value difficult to justify.

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I went into this reappraisal expecting nan Acer Swift Edge 14 to beryllium nan brand's adjacent top-performing laptop, but that isn't nan case. Instead, it's Acer's latest midrange instrumentality -- but a very bully 1 astatine that. It boasts a standout design, decent performance, and a long-lasting battery. 

There's truthful overmuch to for illustration astir this laptop, truthful let's commencement pinch what impressed maine nan most. 

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Why we for illustration it

The first point that stood retired to maine was nan laptop's design: it's aesthetically striking. This is an ultrathin machine, measuring conscionable 0.65 inches astatine its thickest constituent and weighing 2.18 pounds. My aged assemblage notebooks weighed much than that. The laptop's sleek shape facet is made chiefly of a magnesium-aluminum alloy, a worldly known for its lightweight properties and durability.

Most of nan chassis is vanished successful a bright, eye-catching white, while nan backmost has nan device's double-arrow logo and institution branding etched successful gold.

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

The keyboard is conscionable arsenic visually striking. The keycaps lucifer nan body's achromatic decorativeness and beryllium somewhat raised, creating a melodramatic opposition pinch nan shadows beneath.

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According to Acer, nan Swift Edge 14 is nan first of its laptops to person a "soft-touch keyboard". The keys person been covered successful a UV-cured coating that helps nan caps defy deterioration and stains, while besides giving them a unique, velvet-like texture. I've ne'er felt a keyboard this soft before, and I don't cognize if I tin ever spell back. As a result, typing is some comfortable and responsive, allowing for agelong penning sessions without a hint of fatigue. Another large portion of this is nan 1.3mm cardinal recreation distance. Thanks to this, I recovered it easy to type quickly and accurately.

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

Above nan keyboard sits a 14-inch, 3K OLED surface that covers nan full DCI-P3 colour gamut and supports VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600. All this tech results successful vibrant, meticulous colour output pinch heavy contrast. It's thing short of stunning. 

The solid is besides covered successful Corning Gorilla Glass Matte Pro to trim glare and sphere that top-notch colour accuracy. As nan cherry connected top, nan show runs a maximum refresh complaint of 120Hz and a consequence clip of 0.2 to guarantee smooth, fluid visuals for multimedia.

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The main downside of nan surface is that it's not very bright, peaking astatine 400 nits. Even astatine 100% brightness, it's difficult to spot nan show outside. Under artificial lights, however, it's wholly fine. You'll beryllium capable to spot nan surface intelligibly successful astir indoor locations. 

Who it's for

The Acer Swift Edge 14 is simply a bully prime for anyone seeking a reliable activity laptop pinch coagulated capacity and an awesome battery. My reappraisal portion was equipped pinch an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM. This CPU is from 2025, not Intel's latest Panther Lake bid released this year, but it's still competitive. Because of that, however, I can't really comparison nan Swift Edge to nan latest laptops I've tested.

Below is simply a array comparing Acer's laptop benchmarks pinch nan Dell 14 Plus, Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1, and HP OmniBook 7 Aero.

As you tin spot successful nan array above, nan Acer Swift Edge performs likewise to Dell's and Lenovo's machines. It handles multi-core workloads well, making nan laptop a bully prime for tasks for illustration information analysis, photograph editing, and package development. Its single-core capacity is decent, too, ensuring accelerated app motorboat and soft web browsing. Acer's exemplary does autumn somewhat down HP's OmniBook Aero, a smaller instrumentality that we called out for its beardown all-around performance.

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

What sets nan Swift Edge isolated from its rivals, however, is its artillery life. During testing, nan laptop lasted complete 18 hours, almost 19, connected a azygous charge. It recharges quickly, too, reaching 41% successful astir 30 minutes. By comparison, Dell's and Lenovo's models lasted astir 12 hours each during my clip pinch them, and HP's Aero ran for conscionable 10 hours earlier tapping out.

Who should look elsewhere

This is not a powerhouse workstation laptop, it's a midrange instrumentality that's well-rounded capable for a assortment of mainstream user tasks. While it performs well, its Lunar Lake processor will struggle to grip peculiarly dense workloads extracurricular of its comfortableness zone. 

If you're looking for a much powerful 14-inch laptop, cheque retired nan 2026 Asus ExpertBook Ultra. Its Panther Lake processor delivers importantly stronger wide performance. Creative professionals whitethorn want to see Samsung's Galaxy Book6 Ultra, which offers much powerfulness and a 16-inch 3K show amended suited to video editing, animation, and design. 

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Outside of capacity limitations, there's very small to criticize. The Swift Edge 14 is an fantabulous activity laptop, and it excels astatine what it's designed to do.

Cesar Cadenas/ZDNET

ZDNET's buying advice

There are 2 versions of nan Acer Swift Edge 14 available. As a reminder, my reappraisal portion came pinch an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM, connected waste for $1,500. A higher-end exemplary lodging nan Intel Core Ultra 9 288V CPY retails for $1,600.

At those prices, nan Swift Edge 14 feels a spot pricey, particularly fixed that it relies connected last-gen hardware. If you're unfastened to alternatives, nan HP OmniBook 7 Aero mentioned earlier is worthy a look. It delivers stronger wide capacity astatine a little starting value of $1,250. HP's notebook is smaller, however, sporting a 13.3-inch screen.