Acer’s lineup of Swift laptops are known to be lightweight, premium productivity machines, and the Acer Swift Edge continues the trend. Not only does it retain the series’ lightweight design, it also features an expansive, sharp, and stunning 16-inch 4K OLED panel.

If you need a large 16-inch laptop without the added weight – along with an impressive display – the Swift Edge is one of the best options in the market now. Of course, it does have some shortcomings, but the value proposition of this RM5,299 laptop is hard to beat.

What It Is

There are two variants of the Swift Edge for the Malaysian market. The RM5,299 base model features an AMD Ryzen 5 6600U 6-core processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The model in this review, on the other hand, is the higher-end Ryzen 7 6800U variant with twice the RAM and SSD storage at 16GB and 1TB respectively for RM6,299.

If you need the extra performance, RAM, and SSD storage of the Ryzen 7 Swift Edge, it’s worth paying the extra RM1,000, in my opinion. Beyond these differences, you’re getting the same hardware for both variants, including the sharp 4K OLED panel.

The Good Stuff

Without a doubt the display of the Acer Swift Edge is its most eye-catching hardware. The expansive 16-inch 4K OLED screen offers punchy, vibrant colours with deep, true blacks; inherent advantages of an OLED panel. On top of that, the display can get quite bright as well with a peak brightness of 500 nits.

It’s also worth noting that the Swift Edge’s display features a taller than usual 16:10 aspect ratio, making it ideal for productivity tasks. After all, you’ve got more vertical space to work with, so you won’t have to scroll as much to read through a document, for example.

Besides that, I appreciate that the bezels surrounding the display are quite minimalist, giving the laptop a sleek, modern-looking design.

And then we have the lightweight nature of the Swift Edge. Tipping the scales at only 1.1kg, this is really light for a 16-inch laptop. It may not sound particularly lightweight, but once you’ve held the laptop for yourself, the lack of weight becomes very apparent for a laptop this big.

Complementing the lightweight chassis of the Swift Edge is its slim profile. Measuring 12.95mm thin, I can easily slip this into my backpack without issue. Typically, it would be quite difficult to lug around a 16-inch laptop, but this isn’t particularly bothersome with the Swift Edge, thanks to its slim, lightweight design.

Portability is obviously one of the Swift Edge’s best aspects, and so is its performance. The Ryzen 7 6800U processor can keep up with any productivity tasks I throw at it, including some light photo editing. The integrated AMD Radeon Graphics can even do some light gaming, including Dota 2 and Diablo Immortal.

Battery life of the Swift Edge is not too shabby either. On average, I can get about eight hours of use on a single charge before it runs out of juice; respectable figure for a laptop with such a large display. To achieve this level of battery life, I set the power plan to battery saver with the display dimmed to a comfortable level.

Last but not least is the value proposition of the Swift Edge. With a RM5,299 starting price, the features you’re getting for that kind of money are very compelling, such as the stunning 4K OLED panel and lightweight, slim design. You’d be hard-pressed to find another laptop with a similar feature set at this price point.

The Bad Stuff

But the Swift Edge does have some shortcomings, such as its input devices. The keyboard, for one, isn’t particularly great. The key travel is quite short, which makes for a shallow typing feel. Thankfully, the keyboard does have a rather cushioned bottom out with a good amount of tactile feedback, so it’s not an entirely negative typing experience.

As for the Swift Edge’s trackpad, it is accurate, but it does have a tendency to behave erratically at times. It feels…sluggish at random, though disabling and enabling the trackpad again does solve this odd issue. While this is not a big problem, it does affect the overall polish of the laptop.

My last qualm with the Swift Edge is its glossy display, making it a bit of a challenge to use the laptop under bright sunlight. Yes, the high brightness of the screen does make up for this to an extent, but if the panel had a matte finish instead, it would’ve made for a more pleasant user experience.

Is It Worth It?

Yes, of course. For RM5,299, the Acer Swift Edge offers a bright, vibrant, and expansive 16-inch OLED display packed in a lightweight, thin chassis for easy portability. It also offers a respectable level of performance for a productivity laptop, thanks to the AMD Ryzen 6000 series chips.

The Swift Edge’s input devices and glossy displays are not great, but the overall package of the 16-inch laptop is quite complete. At this price point, there are little to no alternatives that can match its feature set. If the Swift Edge meets your requirements, give it a consideration – I reckon you won’t be disappointed by the lightweight laptop.