Acer - Swift 16 AI - Copilot+ PC - 16" 3K OLED Touchscreen Laptop - Intel Core Ultra X7 358H 2026 - 16GB Memory - 1TB Storage - Basalt Gray

I wanted an OLED 1440p or greater laptop with the new 300 series Intel processor. This laptop checked all the boxes, and it does not disappoint. It is very fast, has excellent battery life and shocking how well it can play modern AAA title games for not being a dedicated gaming laptop. The touch screen is very precise and smooth. Make sure to change all your setting to get HDR content and the 120 hz refresh rate. From my research this is the best price to get an Intel Ultra X7 358H powered laptop that is OLED. For $1000 this is a great deal. The only negative thing I will say about the laptop is the 16gb of RAM. It's pretty easy to be at 80-90% RAM usage doing normal usage, Internet tabs, Steam open, and a few other apps running. A clean bloat free reinstall of Win11 would probably solve this but so far it hasn't been an issue. Again, the screen is amazing!

the good: - strong battery life - strong computing power - beautiful OLED screen - good storage capacity - large trackpad the bad: - memory could be better - it sometimes freezes when engaged in higher workloads. this is easily fixed by closing the screen/putting it in sleep mode and starting back up - touchscreen smudges easily - copilot AI enabled by default, and soaks up memory (there are guides on how to minimize/disable this) - OLED comes with an inherent risk of screen burn-in. While newer panels are better equipped to mitigate this, use a black screensaver and set the laptop to sleep when you're not using it to be on the safe side - large trackpad! verdict: at the price point i bought it at ($1099), it's a solid laptop and worthwhile buy. off sale? you could spend a bit more and get dedicated NVIDIA/AMD graphics

With computer components and RAM prices skyrocketing, it seems these days like most decently-specced laptops are priced at well over $2,000. Enter the Acer Swift 16 AI. I'll admit, Acer is not a brand that comes to mind when I think of high-end or premium laptops. But after using it for a couple of weeks, I'm extremely impressed. The design, build quality, display, and specifications are something I would have expected in a high-end gaming laptop -- not one from Acer. It's quickly moving towards the top of the list of the best Windows laptops I've used in the past 5 years. But there are a few minor quirks to consider. === PROS === - The design and build quality of the Swift 16 AI are excellent. The dark gray design with gold accents is very elegant. For a 16" laptop, it is incredibly thin and lightweight at under 3.5 pounds. The hinge feels strong and the display is easy to open with one hand. There is a little bit of flex to the keyboard when you push down hard enough, but it's nothing major. - The display is one of the major highlights of this laptop. It's an OLED with a 2880×1800 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate -- and it's beautiful. Colors are rich and vivid. It gets very bright, though not as bright as some of the most premium laptops on the market. The 120Hz refresh rate makes scrolling through documents, webpages, and photographs feel seamless with no lag. I was not expecting such a great laptop display at this price point. - The trackpad is, hands down, the best I have ever used on a Windows laptop. It's a haptic trackpad, which are hard to find on Windows laptops in general (even my high-end gaming laptop doesn't have a haptic trackpad). The trackpad is massive, so you have a very large area to move your fingers and scroll through content. You can click anywhere on the trackpad -- even at the very top or bottom -- and you will get the same satisfying haptic feedback "click" no matter where you press. It's incredibly satisfying to use, and it might even rival the trackpad of a MacBook Pro. - The internal specs of this laptop are equally impressive. The Intel Core Ultra X7 358H is a very powerful 16-core CPU that allows for excellent efficiency and battery life. But where the chip really shines is with its integrated graphics. The integrated Intel Arc GPU is capable of running AAA games at low to medium settings and decent frame rates. Is it going to keep with with a high-end, dedicated gaming laptop? No, but it's pretty incredible that a chip like this is even capable of running such games. It's perfect for 3D modeling and video rendering tasks. - The large 70 watt-hour battery paired with the Ultra X7 chip means this machine has some serious battery life. I used the machine on battery power for a full 8-hour workday (emails, Word documents, video calls) and I still had almost 30% battery remaining at the of the day. I could have easily gotten at least 12 hours out of the battery. - The Acer Swift 16 AI has a decent selection of ports, with two USB-C ports, two USB-A ports, and an HDMI 2.1 port. There's also a microSD card reader. The laptop also supports Wi-Fi 7, so the connectivity here is relatively future-proof. - The speakers are pretty good for such a thin laptop. They get very loud without any distortion, and the sound is mostly balanced without sounding tinny. - The laptop charges via USB-C and not some proprietary barrel charger. So if you lose the included charger or simply want to carry around a second one when you travel, any 100W USB-C charger will do. - This laptop comes with a very nice travel case/sleeve in the box, which is a nice premium touch. I don't recall any other laptop I've owned coming with a travel case in the box. === CONS === - My main gripe with this particular configuration is that it only has 16GB of RAM, which is basically the bare minimum for a decent Windows PC these days. If it weren't for the current RAM shortage, my guess is that Acer may have included 32GB of RAM in this base configuration. 16GB is fine for basic workloads, but if you do any kind of serious graphic design or video editing, you might need to look at a higher configuration. - The OLED display is stunning, but it is very glossy. If you frequently work outdoors or in a bright room, the reflections could get annoying. - I love that the laptop charges via USB-C, but only the left side of the laptop has USB-C ports. So depending on where your power outlet is located, you might have to reach the cord around to the opposite end of the laptop. - The Acer Swift 16 AI comes with a stylus that can be used on the trackpad to draw, write notes, sign your name, etc. Since the trackpad is so large, this could be a nice feature for artists. But the stylus does not work on the laptop's display, even though it's a touchscreen. So I don't really see myself using the stylus very often. - The keyboard is decent with a nice amount of travel to the keys. But I'm not a fan of number pads on keyboards. The number pad here just feels cramped and out of place, and it causes the space bar to not be centered over the trackpad. I guess it's a matter of personal preference, but I wish Acer would have just left off the number pad. - The webcam is 1080p, but it seems to produce washed-out and somewhat pixelated video. It will be fine in a pinch, but don't use this as your primary webcam if you make a living on video calls or YouTube. === OVERALL === Minor shortcomings aside, I'm seriously impressed by this laptop. It's simply a joy to use, and it feels more premium than some more expensive laptops I've used. It's thin and light. It has a gorgeous display. It has arguably the best trackpad ever on a Windows laptop. It has incredible battery life and even better performance. Honestly, what more do most people need in a laptop? At this price point, I think Acer has delivered the laptop of the year with the Swift 16 AI. Highly recommended!

My review focuses on the laptop’s 16 inch vivid OLED touch screen and new touchpad & pen combo, that may make it a good choice for creatives and content creators. I used various apps from Adobe CC suite, Affinity, as well as other apps to gauge performance. I also compared it to similar laptops that I’ve already reviewed that are close to specs and price. FLIR Thermal camera photos for idle and under load heat maps, audio quality, build quality, keyboard, cooling fans and more. Specs are only quoted when needed. The product’s overview covers all of that. Windows Setup was easy and simple. A very basic quick guide tells you where to plug it in and where to turn it on, and Windows takes over from there. Typical PC setup after that. Especially if you already have a Microsoft account / other Windows PCs. Mine did some updates, and Windows asks the typical questions it does during setup. The OLED touch screen is beautiful! The colors are vivid and the blacks are true black. The OLED panel is made by Samsung and is “VESA certified Display HDR, True Black 500”. That means it meets specific color and contrast standards for OLED panels. LCD panels have a different VESA HDR rating system. Google VESA for more. While researching this, I discovered that all my laptops with OLED panels, that the panels are made by Samsung and meet the same VESA True Black 500 certification. I think the 3K resolution is a better fit for the16 inch screen than 4K. I have a Dell with a 4K OLED screen, and the text is pretty small, even scaled up. It also requires more CPU and GPU power to push those pixels on a 4K screen. As for glare complaints, this laptop is no worse than the others I have with OLED screens. I agree that a slight matte texture would have made it perfect. The Screen refresh can be set as high at 120hz or 60hz and can go as low as 40hz via dynamic refresh. It drops to 40 Hz for static web pages and ramps up to 120 Hz for fast‑moving games or other content. Specs state a P-3 color gamut and max brightness of 350 NITS. I verified that with my Datacolor Spyder X Pro and the latest 6.4.4 software. It stated 100% P3 and sRGB, and 97% Adobe RGB. Also, 6500K color temp, 2.2 gamma and 400 NITS peak brightness. See photos. Right click and open in new tab to make them bigger. I like that the Webcam has a physical shutter. It’s FHD and gets the job done. Windows Hello works very well. No fingerprint scanner. The 16 core Intel Core Ultra X7 358H is a powerhouse that gives outstanding performance. Then add the onboard Arc B390 GPU that is almost on par with a discrete GPU+ RAM setup and NPU and you get good basic gaming performance and an excellent laptop for edit photos and videos. Especially if you get the 32GB version. The CPU, GPU and NPU all share the system RAM and 16GB is barely enough for that kind of work. Also, it’s soldered on the board and not upgradeable. The Kingston SSD performed well. I ran several benchmarks on it and captured idle and full‑load heat maps (top & bottom) for thermal analysis with my FLIR One Pro thermal camera so you can see where the heat is and isn’t, and how warm it got under load. It handles heat dissipation very well, and the fans were much quieter than all my other laptops at full speed, or any speed. Passmark overall score: 9145 GeekBench: Single Core: 2787 Multi: 15,353 Open GL:52,935 Cinebench R23: 15,704 multi core. Didn’t run single. Puget Benchmark for Adobe: Photoshop 27.6: 7588 LRC15.3: 7337 Didn’t run Premiere Pro due to 16GB of RAM & large video files. The closest thing I have to compare it to CPU wise, is my Acer Predator Helios (core i9-14900HX, 32GB, RTX 4060) that I reviewed in 2024 and Gigabyte A16 (core i7-13620H, 32GB, RTX 5060) last July. They are gaming laptops, but the CPU speed and specs are the closest to this laptop, and it sits middle ways but closer to the Predator Helios for general use and content editing. As for games, the Gigabyte with the newer RTX 5060 took the crown. Using the pen on the “world’s Largest” touch pad / graphics tablet is a mixed bag. For note‑taking and sketching, it’s competent but not pro‑grade. The pen has potential if the software or firmware can be tweaked to make it better. It works like using a pencil on an iPad or Samsung phone or Tablet but isn’t as precise. Very small movements hardly register, if at all and there’s some lag to it once you move it enough to start leaving a mark. Pressure sensitivity must be fixed. In Photoshop using a brush tool and starting with light pressure you get a thin line, as expected, pushing harder makes it thick and it stays thick even when you lighten up. It only resets pressure when you pick it up from the pad. My Wacom tablet, iPad Air M3 and Pencil Pro don’t behave that way. Lighten up and the line thins back up. You must hover the tip close to the pad to see its position, and accidental touches are too easy to make. If you have other touch screen laptops, try using the pen on their screens, as the pen worked on my two Asus touch screen laptops. The pen runs on an included replaceable AAAA battery that can last from 1 year with heavy use to several years with occasional use. All Alkaline batteries will eventually leak, so take the battery out of the pen if you rarely use it. Using the touch pad for intended use does a good job but has a couple of quirks. The haptic feel is pretty cool. It can be set to 4 different levels or turned off. Palm rejection is good, but not perfect. Sometimes it can relocate the cursor when you’re typing. When typing this review in MS Word basic online, I had to adjust the touch so the pad would acknowledge finger touches to relocate the cursor no matter where on the pad you touched it instead of the center only. I concluded that it is a browser text editing quirk in Word in Edge and Google Docs in Chrome only. Audio quality is disappointing for a laptop of this caliber. It sounds boxy, with mids that sound harsh and highs that feel muffled. Using DTS didn’t help and no EQ options. The best audio I ever heard from a laptop is the Asus ZenBook S14 I reviewed last year with 4 H/K tuned speakers. Clean highs and even some bass response, from a smaller unit. Has a headphone out jack. I like the feel of keyboard, that it has a small numpad and the per key lighting that doesn’t bleed as much as the usual back lit keyboard. Letters and numbers are very easy to read with or without back light. The keyboard backlight offers three levels—off, low, and high. There’s a 30 second time-out setting for the back light, but it’s only accessible in the BIOS. You get a choice of a 30 second time-out or always on. It has a handy micro-SD slot, however, it’s USB-2 speed and I only got 29 MBs out of it compared to a couple of USB-3 card readers that were pushing around 100MBs with the same 128 GB SanDisk Extreme Plus card. You can charge it with smaller USB C chargers but will take longer, use the100 watt power supply that’s included for best performance. Battery life can vary a lot depending on settings and use, and I got about 13 hours of light mixed use in light mode with brightness at 25% before it hit 10%. Dark mode would probably get you a little more. I think 24 hours is a stretch. Build quality looks and feels very solid considering how thin it is. Conclusion: I think the OLED screen and its resolution are perfect for the screen size. The Core Ultra X7 is a powerhouse. However, 16GB RAM can hold it back in some situations. Thin, light, and quietly capable. However, the new pen‑pad combo still feels experimental but shows promise. Right click on photos, open in new tab will make them larger.

Trouble learning everything, went from desktop to laptop. Big curve for me. But, I'm learning