Acer Swift X 16 (2023) Review: Simple Design, Mighty Display

Laptop manufacturers have the difficult job of balancing performance and portability. This is especially true for content creators or business professionals that need strong performance and a dedicated GPU while remaining thin and light enough to easily carry around. Some manufacturers, like Framework go way outside accepted norms, while most take the more traditional laptop route. The Acer Swift X 16 (SFX16-61G) is a traditional-style laptop that looks to find that delicate balance and check off most needs of those who demand more from their laptops.

The Swift lineup from Acer is designed to deliver top-notch performance in an ultraportable package, allowing this laptop to easily be carried around and deliver that performance when it's needed most. Creators also can benefit from other features, like a color-accurate screen and a large trackpad. The Acer Swift X 16 (SFX16-61G) checks off a lot of much-needed boxes and may just be a creator's best friend.

Acer sent a Swift X 16 (SFX16-61G) for the purposes of this review.

There are two different versions of the Acer Swift X 16 (SFX16-61G) designed with different price points in mind. The first and less expensive model at $1250, comes with an octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor that runs at 3.80GHz, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1TB NVMe hard drive, and a 6GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU. It has a 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 LCD panel with a 165Hz refresh rate.

The second model — the one being reviewed today — is a bit more expensive at $1600 but comes with upgraded internals and a gorgeous 16-inch, 3200 x 2000 OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has an octa-core AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor that runs at 4GHz, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, a 1TB NVMe hard drive, and a 6GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 GPU.

While the main components are different between the two versions, they do have some similarities. Both versions ship with Windows 11 Home, Wi-Fi 6E support, a 76Wh battery, a 135W charger, and a microSD slot.

The Acer Swift X 16 is made from anodized aluminum, which helps this laptop feel well-built. Similar to the Lenovo ThinkPad line, the Swift X 16 has a bland and very generic feel to it. This may sound like a negative but is exactly what's needed in a professional environment. The chassis only comes in one color: Iron (steel gray).

Acer did a fantastic job keeping the overall size of the Swift X 16 to a minimum. At 14.02 x 9.81 x 1.06 inches, the laptop is on the larger size, but not unacceptably so. At 4.25 pounds, it's a bit heavier than it looks, and something you will immediately notice if coming from a lighter laptop. You'll get used to it in time, but you will notice the weight difference, especially when placed in a laptop bag or backpack to carry around.

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Along the left edge of the laptop is a barrel jack for the power adapter, two USB4 Type-C ports, and a headphone jack. The two USB-C ports support file transfer rates up to 40 Gbps and can be used for charging and power delivery up to 60W. The right side of the laptop has a Kensington Lock, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, and a microSD slot.

The 16:10, 3200 x 2000 OLED panel that Acer chose for the Swift X 16 is an absolute beauty. Blacks are inky, colors jump off the screen, and its 120Hz refresh rate makes it all feel silky. This panel's brightness is rated at 400nits and it is Certified Tru Black HDR 500. Creators should be pleased to know that the panel covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, making it remarkably accurate at reproducing colors.

The Acer Swift X 16 is just as pleasing to use when consuming content as when creating it. Movies are astounding to watch on this laptop. A movie like "The Dark Knight" feels particularly moody due to the fantastic color reproduction and the darker colors of the movie really make it clear this device is making full use of the latest OLED tech. The same is true of gaming on this device — visuals pop off the screen and it's easy to become fully immersed in whatever game you happen to be playing.

The Swift X 16 has two built-in stereo speakers and supports DTS X. Sound quality was more than adequate, but bass-heavy music or movies leave a bit to be desired. These speakers can also get quite loud, like room-filling loud. Even at max settings, audio quality never seemed to suffer, although the lack of suitable bass becomes more apparent the louder you set the sound.

For a laptop that has a 16-inch display, it was a bit disappointing to find a keyboard cramped by its number pad. This is effectively a necessary evil for a laptop that has a number pad, of course, but using a laptop with this sort of key arrangement takes some getting used to if you're used to working with one without. 

The keys had plenty of travel and never bottomed out, but they were a bit on the mushy side. At least the typing experience was quiet. A laptop can only take you so far and if you love the tactile feel of a mechanical keyboard then you might want to invest in a dedicated keyboard like the OnePlus Keyboard 81 Pro. The keys are backlit, and you get three different levels of brightness: off, 50%, and full brightness.

The trackpad was a much more pleasant experience. The trackpad is smooth, large, and covered in Ocean Glass. It has more than enough room so you shouldn't have any issues dragging your finger from one side of the screen to the other. It was also very accurate and didn't have any issues tracking gestures.

The review unit came with an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, 16GB of LDDR5 RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX 4050 GPU. With 8 cores and 16 threads, the AMD processor in the Acer Swift X 16 doesn't even begin to break a sweat during general day-to-day use. With over 20 tabs open, and multiple videos playing on YouTube, there wasn't even the faintest hint of stuttering.

Heat was never an issue during testing. When the activity was on the lighter side, such as browsing the web, the laptop never got hot and the fans never got loud. When pushing the laptop during benchmarking, it remained cool thanks to Acer's twin fans and dual D6 copper heat pipes. You can hear the fans ramp up, but never to an unacceptably loud level.

Benchmarking the Swift X 16 confirmed the spectacular performance. In Geekbench 6, this laptop got a single-core score of 2500, a multi-score of 12374, an Open CL score of 81920, and a Vulkan score of 37056. In Cinebench R23, the Swift X 16 managed to get a single-core score of 1780 and a multi-core score of 16795.

The Swift X 16 comes with a 76Wh battery pack that can't quite get you through an entire workday. When performing light-duty tasks, you can expect around 6.5-7 hours of use on Wi-Fi before you'll need to hunt for a power outlet.

The Acer Swift X 16 (2023) (also known as SFX16-61G) is a very capable machine that strikes that fine balance between performance and portability. For $1600 you are getting a well-built, highly capable machine that can handle the rigors of your daily activities.

The Swift X 16 is tailored for content creators, students, or business professionals that want a gorgeous display and a lot of power. The performance of the AMD processor was fantastic and it's nice to see the inclusion of a dedicated GPU. The RTX 4050 won't necessarily allow you to play your favorite game at maxed-out settings, but it's still a very capable piece of hardware.

While this laptop is a tad heavy and can't quite make it through an entire workday without its battery needing a recharge, the performance, build quality, and display are more than enough to make up for any shortcomings. You can get the Acer Swift X 16 (SFX16-61G) directly from Acer or from Best Buy.