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1 week ago
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There are laptops retired determination with powerfulness adapters heavier than this full 16-inch laptop.
Acer is announcing a caller Swift Air 16 astatine IFA 2025, and it’s an implicit featherweight of a 16-inch laptop. Weighing successful astatine 2.18 pounds / 0.99kg with an IPS show oregon 2.43 pounds / 1.1kg with its optional OLED, the Swift Air is lighter than adjacent a 13-inch MacBook Air. It besides packs much ports than the MacBook, and volition commencement astatine a little terms of €999 erstwhile it launches successful November. (North American availability and pricing is inactive TBD.)
It benignant of boggles my caput that the Swift Air 16 fits this overmuch surface into specified a airy package, arsenic it’s adjacent lighter than the LG Gram — a laptop defined by its lightness. But the world checks commencement coming successful erstwhile you announcement immoderate of the Swift’s specs, similar its thickness of 0.63 inches / 15.9mm (0.65 inches / 16.5mm for the OLED version). By contrast, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs are conscionable 0.44 inches and 0.45 inches, respectively.
Also, portion the Swift Air’s AMD Ryzen AI 300-series spot options volition beryllium much than competent for mundane productivity tasks, I’ve seen firsthand that Apple’s M4 spot outperforms them portion maintaining amended artillery life. The Swift Air’s starting config volition travel with a Ryzen AI 5 330 chip, and the top-end mentation uses the Ryzen AI 7 350. I tested the second spot successful the latest Framework Laptop 13 and it’s precise capable, adjacent for a interaction of airy gaming.
But the parts of the Swift Air 16 that springiness maine the biggest intermission are its HDMI spec and artillery size. It’s got a decent larboard enactment with 2 USB-C, 1 USB-A 3.2, and a 3.5mm audio jack, but its video-out larboard is HDMI 1.4. That’s precise outdated for 2025, erstwhile you expect conscionable astir immoderate $1,000-plus laptop to thrust an outer show astatine 4K / 60Hz oregon greater. HDMI 1.4 tin lone bash 4K astatine a sub-par 24 oregon 30Hz.
And portion the Swift’s starting IPS show has a respectable 1920 x 1200 solution astatine 60Hz and the optional OLED sports a 2880 x 1800 solution with 120Hz refresh, the laptop’s artillery is lone 50Wh. That’s a smaller capableness than the 13-inch MacBook Air, and much smaller than the 75Wh artillery successful the Acer Swift 14 AI I tested earlier this year. That 14-inch Swift relative has large artillery beingness for a instrumentality sporting AMD’s much powerfulness bare chips, and the ample artillery was a large crushed why. Acer’s own promotional materials complaint the Swift 14 AI astatine “up to 27 hours artillery life” successful a video playback test. The Swift Air 16’s rated artillery beingness successful akin video playback tests? Just 13 hours — little than half. Ouch.
Oh, and did you announcement the Swift Air’s gapless keyboard?
I’ve already poked plentifulness of holes successful the hull of the Swift Air 16 earlier it’s adjacent taken its maiden voyage. But I’m inactive funny to spot it shove off, and I’m hoping it’ll onshore connected our shores present successful the US. Despite my concerns, it’s an intriguing machine. And I’m each for a institution taking immoderate chances. But naming your laptop “Air” is going to gully the inevitable comparisons.
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