Acer Swift X 16 review: excellent performance and display held back by average design

 Designers and creators might be disappointed by the Acer Swift X 16's uninspired design. However, beneath its plain exterior lies a laptop well-equipped for content creation. To begin with, its OLED screen offers excellent performance in terms of colors and contrast. In addition, the 16-inch screen with a resolution of 3.2K is an asset, and its 120Hz refresh rate allows you to watch videos smoothly. Under the hood, a formidable CPU/GPU duo provides ample power to run graphics-intensive applications.

Unfortunately, the Swift X 16's AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU don't help battery life. Normally, a 16-inch laptop is not necessarily suitable for frequent travel or daily commuting, and its relatively short battery life will require you to regularly search for electrical outlets.

The Swift X 14 (smaller) is the best option for on-the-go creators due to its size and battery performance. And for a middle-of-the-road solution that offers a big screen, plenty of power, and all-day battery life, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is right around the middle and remains our recommendation for a laptop for content creation.

The configuration as tested

Price of the model tested	€1,799
Screen size/resolution	16-inch, 3200 x 2000 pixels, 120 Hz, OLED
CPU	4GHz AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS w/ Radeon Graphics
Memory	16 GB DDR5 6400 MHz RAM
Graphics	Nvidia RTX 4050 6GB graphics card
Storage	1TB SSD
Network	IEEE 802.11ax Gigabit Ethernet Bluetooth 5.1
Operating system	Windows Home 22H2

Acer offers two models of the Swift Our $1,799 test system (model SFX16-61G) has a higher-resolution 3,200 x 2,000-pixel OLED display, a more powerful Ryzen 9 processor, and a newer RTX 4050 graphics card. . Between the two, the Ryzen 7 model and its RTX 4050 card.

With a Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU with 8 physical cores, 16 processing threads, a base clock of 4 GHz and a maximum of 5.2 GHz, as well as a GeForce RTX 4050 GPU with 6 GB of dedicated video RAM, our Swift X 16 is a powerhouse for content creation. The entry-level RTX 4050 GPU also offers gaming capabilities.

Matt Elliott/CNET

The Swift Results were all very close to those of the competition on this test.

When it comes to our graphics tests, it finished second behind the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 on Cinebench. However, Dell's has the advantage of using RTX 4060 graphics cards, a step above what's in the Swift X 16.

The Swift X 16 also performed well in our gaming tests, producing playable frame rates at 1080p that will let you use the 120Hz display. It averaged 117 frames per second on our Guardians of the Galaxy test and 119 frames per second on Shadow of the Tomb Raider , which is actually a few frames per second faster than the Dell.

The downside of having a large, high-resolution OLED screen and powerful components is what that combination does to battery life. The Swift X 16 didn't even last five hours in our battery drain test, which is a very poor result. It's possible to get a little longer battery life with good power management (and if you're not constantly watching a YouTube video). But even then, the Swift X 16 won't let you stray too far from a power outlet.

OLED and RTX

For many laptops, poor battery life is a dealbreaker. For the Swift X 16, this is certainly a negative point, but it does not necessarily compromise its purchase. The reason the Swift

Recently, we tested 16-inch content creation laptops that had either of these. For example, the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7630 is a great performer with a Core i7 H-series processor and an RTX 4060 graphics card, but it has an average LCD screen. As for the Acer Swift Go 16, it offers the same high-resolution OLED display as the Swift X 16, but it comes equipped with integrated Intel graphics. Our $1,799 Swift and graphics performance to work.

The 16-inch OLED screen is big, sharp and fast. OLED panels generally have fantastic contrast with brilliant whites and absolute black levels. Color performance is excellent. To confirm this, we used a Spyder X Elite colorimeter to test its color gamut. The Swift X 16 showed excellent coverage. It achieved 100% sRGB and DCI-P3, and 98% AdobeRGB.

Matt Elliott/CNET

The panel is rated for 500 nits brightness, but it fell short of that in the Spyder HDR enabled. The screen is bright enough for indoor use under artificial light, but you may experience difficulty if you plan to use it outdoors. It's definitely not a dark screen, but it's just not as bright as advertised. Battery life is a bigger barrier than screen brightness to using the Swift X 16 outdoors, especially if you need to turn up the brightness to do so.

The 1080p webcam produces sharp, well-balanced images, but it doesn't have a physical shutter or an infrared sensor that would allow you to log in using facial recognition. However, all is not lost on the biometric front. A fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button.

The Swift X 16 is more suited to creating content than consuming content. Many 16-inch laptops have four speakers for fuller sound, but the Swift X 16 only has a standard stereo array and produces disappointing sound. The sound is weak, with little to no bass, which is disappointing for a laptop of this size and price.

Matt Elliott/CNET

The rest of the Swift X 16 is undeniably ordinary. The all-metal chassis is quite stiff, but it's average and doesn't offer an interesting design. The laptop weighs 1.95 kg, which is average for a 16-inch model. If you're willing to forgo RTX graphics, Acer's Swift Go 16 is not only cheaper, but also lighter at 1.6kg. As for the Swift Edge 16 , it weighs only 1.2 kg.

The keyboard is comfortable, but we wonder about the presence of a numeric keypad. With RTX graphics, the laptop is oversized for data entry. We would prefer the keyboard to be centered below the screen and the number pad removed. The touchpad is generously proportioned and proves precise with a firm click response that had a little too much travel for our liking.

Matt Elliott/CNET

There are no glaring omissions in the port selection. You get a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a pair of USB Type-A ports, an HDMI output, a headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. The power connector is located in the middle of the left edge instead of the more common and convenient location near the back of the laptop.

The Acer Swift Without these two things, it's difficult to recommend a laptop to design professionals and enthusiasts. That said, it 's hard to recommend the Swift battery.