Review Of Acer Swift X 16 OLED (2024)

The Acer Swift X 16 OLED is a great substitute since it is quick, has an excellent OLED screen, and costs less than the major brands. However, be mindful of its drawbacks as well.

Contents

Important Elements Design and keyboard Screen Performance Software Battery

Important Elements

OLED Display
Acer Swift X 16 OLED With its bold, brilliant OLED technology, great gamut coverage, 120Hz refresh rate, and powerful 3200 x 1600 resolution, the 16-inch panel offers a plenty of creative space.

AMD Ryzen Processor
Acer Swift X 16 OLED With eight multi-threaded cores and a maximum speed of 5.1GHz, the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS is a powerful processor. In the US, the laptop is sent with the somewhat faster Ryzen 9 7940HS.

GPU from Nvidia
Acer Swift X 16 OLED With Nvidia Studio drivers, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 operates at maximum performance, easily surpassing any integrated chip for increased creative capability.

The Acer Swift X 16 OLED (SFX16-61G), as its name implies, aims to be the best in two categories: speed and display. With a top-tier AMD CPU and OLED panel, it impresses at first, but power users and creatives will need more than that in 2024, especially considering the laptop’s numerous formidable competitors.

For a price tag in the three figures, the Huawei MateBook D16 2024 sports a top-tier Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, while the Acer Swift X 16 OLED Core i7 edition costs about $1000/£1000.

The Acer Swift X 16 OLED, on the other hand, retails for $1,599/£1,499, however prices regularly drop to $1,199/£1,199. Even with the price reduction, this laptop must be impressive.

Design and keyboard

High-quality construction and good connection

Not very impressive in terms of appearance and proportions

The keyboard is soft but comfy.

Acer Swift X 16 OLED Form and function do not exactly match in this instance. The Swift certainly has great technology inside, but it is not obvious from the appearance.

Although the build quality is superb and it is not unattractive, it does not really stand out. With its tiny screen bezels, dotted speaker grille, and tapered edges, the aluminum shell of the laptop has the same appearance as a hundred other computers.

The Acer Swift X 16 OLED is a good option if you are looking for a subdued device, but the design lacks excitement. In contrast, the Swift is somewhat larger than its competitors due to its 17.9mm shell and 1.9kg weight.

It makes sense to be connected. Two full-size USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, an HDMI output, and a microSD slot are located on the right side, while two USB-C 4 ports and a headphone jack are located on the left. Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E are built in.

On the left side, halfway down, is a power connection. Even though its placement annoys me, it does mean you can charge without needing a USB-C connector.

Other drawbacks include the absence of Thunderbolt due to AMD internals and the lack of a biometric option for the 1080p webcam, despite the power button having a fingerprint reader. The speakers work well, although they are a little tinny and quiet, so they are best used in informal settings.

Although the Acer Swift is comparable in other respects and has Thunderbolt, one of those USB-C connections is required for charging. With just one USB-C connector, a slower USB 2.0 connection, and no card slot, the Huawei lags behind.

The keyboard has large keys, a bright backlight, and a numberpad. In addition, it is comfy, steady, and silent. That being said, those who long for the sharper typing of an Apple MacBook or Dell XPS will not be satisfied because of its soft and rather spongy typing movement.

Meanwhile, there are no problems with the large, precise, and gesture-supporting trackpad.

Screen

The Acer Swift X 16 OLED display has great colors and is large, bright, and bold.

It can handle practically any creative work and produces stunning media.

The pickiest artists will have to pay more elsewhere.

The display performs the reverse if the design disappears into the backdrop. The 16-inch width provides lots of room, the 3200 x 1600 resolution produces crisp images, and the 16:10 aspect ratio offers vertical real estate.

But that is not all. Smooth movement in applications and games is ensured by the 120Hz refresh rate, while the OLED technology behind provides excellent contrast and dark depths.

That is excellent in theory and in reality, but that is all.

Although the panel’s brightness level of 406 nits is sufficient in most circumstances, intense light may cause problems. Although HDR increases the level to 572 nits, this is not an especially good result for HDR.

At 170% volume, the OLED displays 100% of the sRGB gamut, 98.9% of the DCI-P3 color space, and 95.1% of the Adobe RGB space. These are good figures that provide vivid, dramatic colors when used with the OLED screen.

The most exacting creatives want flawless Adobe reproduction, therefore the 95.1% figure in the Adobe RGB space is not quite precise enough to satisfy them. Similarly, the Delta E of 3.12 is appropriate for regular creative workloads but not quite accurate enough for high-end professional workloads. Additionally, there are no possibilities to change to different color profiles.

This Acer Swift X 16 OLED screen is really good; it has great colors and contrast, and it is snappy and bold. It performs far better than the panels inside any competitor and is excellent for the majority of creative jobs; nonetheless, it lacks the brightness and precision necessary for handling all color-based tasks.

Performance

The creative powerhouse that is the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS

Adding encoding, rendering, and gaming capabilities with a discrete GPU

Customers in the US receive an even faster CPU

Ample power Acer Swift X 16 OLED is required for creative work, and the Swift delivers. The AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU features eight multi-threaded cores with a maximum frequency of 5.1GHz. It is paired with a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD and 16GB of dual-channel memory.

The most intriguing feature is the addition of a laptop GPU powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, which uses all 100W of available power. Despite being the most affordable core in this price range, it will outperform any integrated chip.

It received 2,478 and 12,177 points respectively in Geekbench 6’s single- and multi-core runs; the former is higher than any competitor, while the latter is around 33% higher than the alternative Acer and Asus computers I have listed. Though not much, the Huawei’s Core i9-13900H is quicker.

In PC Mark 10, the AMD chip in the Swift outperforms the Intel CPU in the Huawei by around 8%, and in both Cinebench R23 runs, the Ryzen processor performs somewhat better.

The GPU gets off to a fantastic start and keeps up with a Time Spy score of 7657, which is twice as fast as any Intel integrated chip. With read and write speeds of 6,581 MB/s and 4,348 MB/s, respectively, the SSD can easily keep up with demanding applications.

With the Acer Swift X 16 OLED, you can manage picture and video editing, design work, encoding, and light gaming in addition to esports. It will easily handle any daily task. If you press the internals, you will hear fan sounds, but it is never too loud.

The main drawback is that it might become very hot on the underside after extended, intensive use. If the Huawei laptop’s Intel CPU is a better fit for the particular software you need to run, then you should definitely seek elsewhere.

You are in luck if you are purchasing in the US, as the $1,599 price of the Acer really includes a Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU with a little speed improvement.

Software

An uninspired selection of additional apps

Nothing that would thrill artists

Acer Swift X 16 OLED offers many different programs for managing documents, registrations, and audio in addition to the Acer Swift X 16 OLED software, which compiles Windows’ own power, performance, and update choices.

Other than Acer Swift X 16 OLED that, the taskbar has built-in shortcuts to Dropbox and Booking.com, and the McAfee antivirus program is pre-installed and occasionally displays intrusive windows.

You may discover new apps like Evernote, ExpressVPN, and games like Forge of Empires by swiping through the app list.

Although there is nothing particularly interesting for creatives, the Swift’s software loadout is neither horrible nor obtrusive.

Battery

eight and a half hours working with light tasks

If you push the internals, you probably will not receive half a day’s worth of use.

The Acer Swift X 16 OLED lasted eight hours and 33 minutes in an ordinary media playing test with the panel at half brightness, but the Swift only achieved three hours and 28 minutes in a PC Mark 10 work test with the brightness at maximum—a notable decrease.

That media statistic falls hours shy of the Huawei’s twelve-hour endurance, but about on par with the Acer and Asus. Even if the Acer Swift recovered a substantial 37% of its battery life after a 30-minute charge, this laptop will only last you a full day of work provided you are not too rough on the internal components.

You will be lucky to make it to noon if you want to push the envelope with demanding creative work. You will need to shell out more money for a creative powerhouse from Apple or another company if you want to work creatively for the entire day without needing to plug in and utilize a discrete GPU.