Acer’s new Swift Go 14 and Swift Edge 16 laptops sell heavily on their AI prowess, with a claimed 60% improvement in AI power. Can you launch a 2024 product without promising it has underlying AI? It seems not.
Acer’s announced two new laptops coming to the Australian market in the coming months. The Acer Swift Edge 16 and Acer Swift Go 14 are particularly pitched on the integration of AMD’s Ryzen AI platform thanks to utilising AMD Ryzen 8040 Series Processors and GPUs.
Both models sit in the ultra-light category, with (as you’d expect) the Swift Edge 16 featuring a 16 inch display while the Swift Go 14 runs with a 14 inch panel. The Swift Edge 16 ships with a WQXGA (3200×2000) 120Hz OLED panel, where the Swift Go 14 ships with three different display choices.
The top tier runs with a 2880×1800 90hz OLED, while there’s also options for a 2240×1400 90Hz IPS LCD or 1920×1200 90Hz IPS LCD display. While Acer hasn’t released the full spectrum of pricing, that mid-range screen might just be the cheapest of the lot, because the 1920×1200 model is also a touchscreen, and that typically costs extra.
Underneath the display, the Acer Swift Edge 16 runs with an AMD Ryzen 7 8840U or Ryzen 5 H8640U processor and either Radeon 780M or Radeon 760M GPUs. RAM is specified at up to 32GB, while storage tops out at 2TB. There’s support onboard for Wi-Fi 7 – so it’d make the most out of Wi-Fi 7 routers if you’ve already made that jump – as well as support for Microsoft’s Pluton technology for secure encryption. With video conferencing in mind, the Acer Swift Edge 16 incorporates a 1440p webcam.
If the smaller Acer Swift Go 14 is more your style for portability reasons, you’d be looking at either an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, Ryzen™ 7 8845HS or Ryzen 5 8645HS processor with AMD Radeon 780M or 760M GPU.
That’s as per the official spec sheet, mind you, and it’s not clear which variants will actually ship in Australia, so it’s feasible not all choices may be available. Like the bigger Edge 16, RAM tops out at 32GB and storage maxes out at 2TB.
One point of difference here is that while the Acer Swift Go 14 also features a 1440p webcam, only the smaller model has a privacy shutter for the webcam. The Acer Swift Go also features a 180 degree hinge, which would make a lot more sense out of that touchscreen option, as it lets you turn it into an effective tablet device.
Of course, the big pitch here, because it is 2024, is the inclusion of AI features driven by the NPU inside those AMD processors. Acer’s keen to pitch the artistic possibilities here, it seems.
That’s a slick marketing video of course, though I do appreciate that there’s an image that states it’s generating using an “unstable development version” of the software. Given there’s a few months until they land on our shores, it’s a fair bet you won’t see that screen on actual consumer models.
Acer Australia lists pricing for the Acer Swift Edge 16 as being from $2,199, while the Acer Swift Go will run from $1,399 when they land here in Q2 2024.
Alex’s Take
Visually, both seem like decent units for the money, though if I was spending it, I’d probably opt for the smaller Acer Swift Go; I always figure if you’re playing in the ultra-light category it makes sense to opt for a smaller, more portable unit, but that’s just me. Acer’s been swift here (pun very much intended) in terms of announcing new AMD systems, but it’ll certainly not be alone in this category by mid-year, I feel.
On the AI front… look, there’s just going to be more and more of this kind of integration and/or marketing hype around new laptops and other devices from now on, so I can’t exactly call out Acer for doing it. Everyone’s doing it!
While the NPU on the AMD processors will undoubtedly be helping with processing, it’s not entirely clear to me just how much of that is happening on-device – though it’s interesting to see the open source OpenVino toolkit as part of Acer’s solution here.
Acer’s hardware is generally good — I quite enjoyed the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 when I reviewed it last year — and I’m hoping to get my hands on the Acer Swift Go 14 and Acer Swift Edge 16 soon for testing.
