PC's
The Acer Swift Edge 16-inch OLED laptop may be just what we’ve been looking for
Acer’s 16-inch OLED laptop may be perfect and a good option
Keynotes
- Acer’s 16-inch OLED laptop may be perfect.
- Zenbook S 13, powered by AMD, is its strongest showing this year.
- Swift Edge weighs 2.58 pounds despite its huge 3840 x 2400 OLED display (LG’s Gram 16 is a close second).
- The AMD Ryzen processor is the greatest.
There’s a big push to be the first company to release a lightweight, reasonably priced, and durable OLED laptop. At this time, Asus is the industry leader. In addition to a number of tries this year, the Zenbook S 13 powered by AMD represents its best showing to date.
However, Acer is now entering the fray. The new Swift Edge is the lightest 16-inch laptop on the market, weighing in at just 2.58 pounds despite its large 3840 x 2400 OLED display (though LG’s Gram 16 is a close second).
The best part is that it’s equipped with an AMD Ryzen processor. To be more precise, the Ryzen 7 6800U, an eight-core processor also found in the Zenbook S 13, is included in the North American version.
It’s great that OLEDs are getting smaller and cheaper so that more people can use them. While this year has seen the arrival of several promising OLED notebooks like Dell’s XPS 13 Plus and Asus’ Vivobook S, battery life has been an issue for many of these devices. The latter model usually dies after four and a half hours on a charge, whereas the previous model only lasted me five.
In addition to the OLED display, the models all use Intel processors. High-resolution OLED laptops, which are renowned battery hogs, are especially susceptible to the inefficiency of Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs this year.
Zenbook S13
But there is a device that defies this trend and still gives me optimism for this form factor: the Zenbook S 13. That 13.3-inch OLED with a resolution of 2880 by 1800 is also driven by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor. Not only did this laptop display some of the finest performance we’ve ever seen from integrated graphics, but it also lasted almost eight hours on a charge under my workload.
While this is only one data point, it does not come as a surprise given that AMD laptops have generally had greater battery life this year regardless of category. I’d rather buy an AMD-powered OLED laptop than an Intel-powered one at this point in the cycle, so I’m all for this Swift Edge.
It’s would be fantastic if there were a truly portable, powerful, and energy-efficient 16-inch OLED laptop on the market.
