A year after launching a 2.6 pound laptop with a 4K OLED display and a Ryzen 6000U series processor, Acer is back with a new model.
This year’s Acer Swift Edge (SFE16-43) features a Ryzen 7040U processor for better CPU and graphics performance, support for WiFi 7, and a new 3200 x 2000 pixel display that may have a lower resolution, but which has a 120 Hz refresh rate. The new Acer Swift Edge should be available in North America in July for $1300 and up.
Measuring 257.6 x 245.9 x 13mm (14.08″ x 9.68″ x 0.51″), the new model is a little thinner than the original, while offering up to an hour of additional battery life (Acer says to expect “up to” 8.5 hours). It’s also a little heavier, weighing 1.24 kg (2.73 pounds), but that’s still extraordinarily light for a laptop with a 16 inch display.
Acer says the version that will be available in North America at launch will feature an AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processor with 8 Zen 4 CPU cores and Radeon 780M integrated graphics with 12 RDNA GPU cores. Also expect 16GB of LPDDR4 memory and 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 storage.
But the company says the 2023 Swift Edge also supports a Ryzen 5 7640U processor, 8GB to 32GB of RAM, and up to 2TB of storage (there are two M.2 slots, so you can also buy a 1TB model and add your own PCIe NVMe SSD). It’s unclear when or where models with those specs will be available.
All versions of the new Swift Edge feature a 3200 x 2000 pixel OLED display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, up to 400 nits brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and a 120 Hz refresh rate and 0.2ms response time.
The laptop’s ports include:
- 2 x USB4 (40 Gbps w/USB Power Delivery up to 65 watts)
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
- 1 x microSD card reader
The Acer Swift Edge also features stereo front-facing speakers with DTS X:Ultra audio, a 1440p webcam, a fingerprint reader in the power button, and wireless card with support for WiFi 6E, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.1 and higher.
LoVe to hear -> 2 x USB4 (why not 80 Gbps ?)
I have last years model. The keyboard, fan noise, thermals and battery life are poor (in that order). Looking at the specs for this one it seems like Acer are moving this update in the right direction. They could have sacrificed some weight and pushed for even more battery life. I really hope they’re not lying about the USB-4 this time though.
Thermals, fan noise, and battery life were all negatives of the last one … which Costco sold at $899 at some points. Hopefully those have improved.
A lot of laptops that look fantastic on specs alone have issues that only come out when looking at reviews (e.g. light weight trades off with heating issues, etc..)
Just read on PC World that they changed the keyboard’s travel from 1mm to 1.3mm. That’s promising as the keyboard was something people complained about.