The subject of our review today is the Acer Swift Edge 16, which is a new addition to the Acer Swift series. It’s aimed at the business market with model number SFE16-43-R2Y6. This laptop comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor and an integrated Radeon 780M graphics card.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 is priced at $1,299.99 and is positioned in the mid-range laptop market. Nonetheless, it includes some flagship configurations, notably a high-resolution OLED display, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.
Specifications
| Screen | 16″ 3.2K (3200 x 2000), OLED, 120Hz, 400 nits, 100% sRGB |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 7840U (up to 5.1 GHz, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads) |
| Wireless Connection | Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Graphics card | Integrated AMD Radeon 780M |
| Memory | 16 GB dual-channel LPDDR5 RAM |
| Storage | 512TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD |
| Camera | QHD camera |
| Ports | 2x USB 4 Type-C Ports 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A Ports 1x HDMI 2.1 1x 3.5mm headphone jack 1x MicroSD card slot |
| Battery | 54WHr Li-ion battery with 65W AC adapter |
| OS | Windows 11 Home |
| Weight | 1.22 kg (2.71lbs) |
Design
The Acer Swift Edge 16 continues the minimalist design tradition, which is very similar to its predecessor. The display casing has a matte finish and a modest Acer logo in the upper center. The construction of the laptop is made of sturdy magnesium-aluminum alloy. It is 20% lighter than standard aluminum, while being twice as durable as traditional materials.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 comes in a stylish black color scheme. It is designed with right-angled flat edges on all sides, a feature that greatly enhances the overall aesthetics of the laptop. According to the official specifications, the laptop weighs about 1.23 kg and measures 358.1 x 246.4 x 12.9 mm. With a thickness of only 12.9 mm, this laptop is a model of lightness and portability, making it an ideal companion for business trips without any extra weight or bulk.
Display
The Acer Swift Edge 16 features a 16-inch OLED display. The screen also features an impressive narrow bezel design with a 90.5% screen-to-body ratio, thus providing a wider field of view.
This screen supports a 3200×2000 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate for exceptionally smooth video playback and general use. It also boasts a peak brightness of 400 nits. It is also certified with VESA Display HDR 500 True Black, making the screen not only vivid but also clearly visible even in well-lit environments.
We conducted color gamut testing utilizing the Spyder X. The Acer Swift Edge 16 impressively covers 100% of the sRGB color gamut, 100% of the Adobe RGB color gamut, 97% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and 96% of the NTSC color gamut. It has an average Delta-E value of just 0.75, with a highest Delta-E of 1.51 and a lowest Delta-E of 0.18.
Screen Test Results | |
| sRGB | 100% |
| Adobe RGB | 100% |
| DCI-P3 | 97% |
| NTSC | 96% |
| Average Delta E | 0.75 |
| Minimum Delta E | 0.18 |
| Maximum Delta E | 1.51 |
Its overall quality not only meets the standards of many professional-grade monitors, but it also exceeds them.
Keyboard, TouchPad, and Ports
This laptop features a full-size keyboard with generous key spacing and a numeric keypad, which is valuable for everyday office tasks. After a long period of use, we can feel that the keyboard has a large key travel, clear rebound, and obvious tactile response. Together, these features guarantee fast and accurate typing without errors.
The keyboard also features a white backlight, allowing users to adjust the brightness according to their personal preferences. Another feature of this keyboard is the power button, which has a built-in fingerprint sensor for enhanced security and convenience.
Below the keyboard is a large touchpad, and the smooth glass surface and precise tracking capabilities make this laptop stand out from the rest. After a period of use, we find the comfort of the touchpad to be commendable. However, we believe that there is still room for further refinement and improvement.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 is undoubtedly equipped with the latest advanced technology, but the number of ports is still relatively small. On the left side, there is an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Type-A Gen 1 port, and two USB 4.0 Type-C ports.
On the right side, there is a MicroSD card slot, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB 3.2 Type-A Gen 1 port. There is also a security lock hole, a charging indicator, and a status indicator in this location.
Acer reduced the number of ports to achieve a thin and light form factor for the laptop. Nonetheless, the available ports still meet the basic requirements for office use. If additional connectivity is required, using a USB dock is also a practical solution.
RAM and SSD
The Acer Swift Edge 16 comes with 16 GB of dual-channel LPDDR5 memory. This memory is soldered to the motherboard, so upgrading the memory is not feasible. However, this laptop can support up to 32 GB of RAM.
To test the memory, we used AIDA64 Cache and Memory Benchmark software. The test results are as follows: a read speed of 50,364 MB/s, a write speed of 91,792 MB/s, a copy speed of 68,611 MB/s, and a latency of 113.9 ns. Compared to the laptops we’ve reviewed before, the write and copy speeds seem to be pretty good, but the read speeds are relatively low.
The laptop comes with a SK Hynix 512GB NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD. It has two SSD slots for easy storage expansion and supports up to 2TB of storage capacity.
We used CrystalDiskMark to test the SSD, and the results were as follows: 7142.19 MB/s for sequential reads, 5018.12 MB/s for sequential writes, 75.14 MB/s for 4K random reads, and 269.13 MB/s for 4K random writes.
In some respects, the performance of this SSD is noticeably lower, especially when compared to the laptops we’ve reviewed. However, it should be emphasized that this SSD is a mid-range product, and its performance is still satisfactory.
Battery
The Acer Swift Edge 16 comes with a 54Wh battery, which may not seem like a big capacity. However, this is offset by the low power consumption of the AMD Ryzen 7840U, which ensures satisfactory battery life even when paired with a 16-inch OLED screen. The laptop also comes with a 65W USB Type-C charger, a valuable accessory that supports fast charging.
For the battery life test, we used the PCMark 10 software in office mode. Before the test, the battery was fully charged to 100% and the screen brightness was set to 60%. The battery consumption was set to the best energy efficiency mode, AMD software was configured in power-saving mode, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth were both active. Under these specific conditions, we achieved a battery life of 8 hours and 49 minutes, which is satisfactory.
CPU and GPU
The Acer Swift Edge 16 comes with an AMD Ryzen 7840U processor. The processor is manufactured using a 4nm process and is based on the latest Zen4 architecture. It is designed with 8 cores and 16 threads.
This processor has an integrated Radeon 780M graphics card. It has 12 GPU cores and a peak acceleration of 2.7GHz, which is a 0.5GHz increase over the 680M graphics card. We ran a few benchmarks on the CPU.
3DMark CPU Test: Total 5,823 points on multi-thread and 982 points on single-thread.
Cinebench R23: 1,749 pts on single-core and 12,682 pts on multi-core
Geekbench 6: 2,442 single-core score and 10,595 multi-core score
The performance of the Radeon 780M is not only the most powerful integrated graphics solution available, but it also competes with entry-level dedicated graphics cards. This powerful graphics card ensures smooth gameplay in popular online games, such as League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Even resource-intensive 3A games like Tomb Raider are easily handled with the proper settings.
Below are the GPU benchmarks:
3DMark Time Spy: 2,281 GPU score and 2,523 total score
3DMark Fire Strike: 6,718 GPU score and 6,283 total score
Heat Dissipation and Stress Testing
The Acer Swift Edge 16 cooling system includes two fans, a heat pipe, and a heat sink. The cooling system also offers a range of cooling modes, including Silent, Normal, and Performance modes, allowing users to adjust the cooling performance to their specific needs.
In a stress test using the AIDA64 FPU software, we observed that the processor’s power consumption peaked at 18W and the temperatures stabilized at 57°C. It is worth noting that the Ryzen 7 7840U processor can be configured for a power consumption range of 15-30W for even better performance.
Summary
With a retail price of $1,299.99, the Acer Swift Edge 16 is an attractive mid-range offering on the market. It comes with AMD Ryzen 7 7840U and a 16-inch OLED display. It has a battery life of over 8 hours under office usage conditions. Its efficient cooling system and connectivity options make it ideal for both businessmen and consumers.