Acer unveiled a pair of AMD Ryzen 8040 series laptops on Tuesday. Unsurprisingly, given its chips' dedicated neural processing units (NPUs), the company is shipping the Acer Swift Edge 16 and Swift Go 14 2024 as ai workhorses. Windows 11 machines support OLED displays, Radeon 780M graphics, and 32GB of RAM.
The Ryzen 8040 series of chips, revealed in December, have a dedicated ai engine that AMD says makes it up to 1.4 times faster than its predecessors in Flame 2 and ai vision model performance. Acer says the Swift Edge 16 and Swift Go 14 will implement the NPU for ai-related tasks like PurifiedVoice (removing background noise in calls and recordings) and PurifiedView (blurring backgrounds in images and correcting eye position in video calls). .
Like most new Windows machines (including Acer models launched at CES 2024), the laptops have a dedicated Microsoft Copilot button on their keyboards for quick ChatGPT-like ai queries. (Copilot accesses Microsoft and OpenAI servers through the cloud instead of using the machines' device NPU.)
The AMD chips in both machines include Microsoft's Pluton security coprocessor. Introduced in 2020 through a partnership with AMD and Intel, it integrates security directly into the processor, helping to protect your credentials, encryption keys, and personal data from hackers.
Acer Swift Edge 16
Acer markets the Acer Swift Edge 16 to optimize performance without sacrificing portability. All variants of the device have a 16-inch OLED panel with WQXGA (3200 x 2000) resolution and a frame rate of 120 Hz with a response time of less than 0.2 ms. It supports 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification for (what should be) accurate and nuanced images.
The laptop's Ryzen 7 8840U processor is joined by AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics. The laptop has up to 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. Depending on your configuration, it supports Wi-Fi 7 or Wi-Fi 6E.
The Swift Edge 16 weighs 2.71 pounds and measures 12.95 mm tall. It is encased in a magnesium-aluminum alloy chassis and has a 54 Wh battery. It includes two USB-C ports (with USB4 speeds of up to 40 Gbps), two USB-A, one HDMI 2.1 and a microSD slot.
Acer Swift Go 14
The smaller of the two, the Acer Swift Go 14, has up to an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS octa-core processor with AMD Radeon 780M graphics. (Cheaper configurations will trade you in for a Ryzen 7 8845HS or Ryzen 5 8645HS.) The machine maxes out at 32GB LPDDR5X RAM and up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.
The top 14-inch variant will have a WQXGA (2880×1800) OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. Another version will swap this for a 1920 x 1200 IPS panel with touchscreen capability. The device's hinge can extend up to 180 degrees and its glass trackpad is 44 percent larger than the previous model. It supports Wi-Fi 6E.
Thanks to its smaller size, Acer markets the Swift Go 14 as the most portable version. However, it is about seven percent heavier than its 16-inch counterpart: it weighs 2.91 pounds. It ships in configurations with a 65 or 50 Wh battery.
Both models have 1440p QHD webcams, although only the Swift Go 14 appears with a privacy shutter. The smaller model is lighter on ports than the 16-inch model, giving up the pair of USB-A connections on the larger one. The Swift Go 14 has two USB-C ports (both supporting USB4 speeds), an HDMI 2.1 connector, and a microSD slot.
Prices and availability
The Swift Edge 16 launches in March in North America, starting at $1,300. Meanwhile, the Swift Go 14 follows in April, starting at $700. Aside from its basic models, Acer has not yet detailed how prices will be divided into the various configurations.
