Acer on Tuesday introduced two new laptops based on AMD's latest Ryzen 8040-series processors that combine high performance with thin-and-light form-factor. Both Swift Edge 16 and Swift Go 14 laptops have a lot in common, though the former is a 16-inch laptop aimed at a broad audience, whereas the latter is a 14-inch higher-performance machine designed for demanding users with a limited budget.
AMD's Ryzen 8040-series 'Hawk Point' processors are based on the Zen 4 microarchitecture and featuring built-in RDNA 3-based Radeon graphics as well as Ryzen AI neural processing units (NPU) are among the main selling point of the new laptops. The machines also run Windows 11 Home with Copilot support as well as Acer's proprietary Acer PurifiedVoice, Acer PurfiedView, and the new Acer LiveArt photo-editing features.
Acer Swift Edge 16
Acer's Swift Edge 16 comes equipped with a 16-inch OLED monitor featuring a 3200 x 2000 resolution, a 120 Hz refresh rate, and a DisplayHDR True Black 500 badge, which indicates a peak brightness of 500 nits in HDR mode. For a 16-inch laptop, the machine is fairly thin (its z-height is just 12.95 mm/0.51 inches) and light (1.23 kilograms). To make the mobile PC compact and lightweight, Acer used a magnesium alloy chassis and went with a 54 Whr battery, a capacity point that is more common for 13 and 14-inch laptops (though many of 14-inch machines are thicker than the Swift Edge 16).
The Swift Edge 16 laptop packs AMD's six-core Ryzen 5 8640U with built-in Radeon 760M graphics (512 stream processors) accelerated processing unit (APU) or eight-core Ryzen 7 8840U with integrated Radeon 780M graphics (768 stream processors) APU that can be mated with up to 32 GB of onboard LPDDR5 memory as well as an up to 2 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD. To boost security capabilities, the PC comes with Microsoft's Pluton processor.
As for connectivity, the Swift Edge 16 offers a Wi-Fi 6E/7 + Bluetooth adapter, two USB 4 Type-C ports (40 Gbps, DisplayPort, charging, PD), an HDMI 2.1 display output, two USB Type-A ports, and a microSD card slot. Like other model notebooks, this one is also equipped with a 1440p webcam, speakers, and microphone.
Acer's Swift Edge 16 will be available in March in the U.S. starting at $1,299.99 and in Canada starting at $1,799 CAD.
Acer Swift Go 14
As for the Acer Swift Go 14, it is a 14-inch machine that comes with either a 2880 x 1 800 OLED monitor, a 2240 x 1400IPS display, or a 1920×1200 IPS touchscreen. The unit is 14.9 mm/0.59 inches thick, and weighs 1.32 kg/2.91 pounds, which is in line with many others 14-inch class laptops. Depending on configuration, it can be equipped with a 50 WHr or 65 WHr battery, so battery life will vary by model.
From compute and graphics point of view, the Acer Swift Go 14 is a bit more powerful than its 16-inch counterpart as it packs AMD's eight-core Ryzen 9 8945HS/Ryzen 7 8845HS with Radeon 780M or six-core Ryzen 5 8645HS with Radeon 760M. As for memory and storage, the system can pack up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X and an up to 2 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD. Just like its bigger brother, the Swift Go 14 is outfitted with Microsoft's Pluton security processor.
I/O on the Swift Go 14 is similar to the larger laptop and includes a Wi-Fi 6E/7 + Bluetooth adapter, two USB4 ports (40 Gbps, DisplayPort, charging, PD), an HDMI 2.1 display output, two USB Type-A ports, a microSD card slot, a 1440p webcam, speakers, and microphones.
The Acer Swift Go 14 will hit the market in April in the U.S. starting at $699.99, and in Canada starting at $999 CAD.
