Acer sure pulled out all the stops with its new Swift X 16 laptop, announced today during an Acer event. Not only are we pretty darn impressed with the powerful hardware inside, but we also really dig the inclusion of a drop-dead gorgeous OLED display. If you’re a creative professional, you better hold tight to your seats, because this is a designer’s dream laptop.
From improved cooling to a bigger battery, this laptop really has it all. Acer’s new Chromebook Spin 714 also snagged our attention, with its 2K webcam, zippy internals, and convertible form factor. Let’s dig in.
If you’re in the market for a new machine, you should definitely check out our roundup of the best laptops for graphic design.
Acer Swift X 16
Acer
The new Acer Swift X 16 laptop is getting a serious boost in power, which is good news for video editors and graphic designers. It’ll feature the latest AMD Ryzen 9 7940H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU as well as up to 2TB of SSD storage. When it comes to sheer power, that combination is positively deadly and I mean that in the best way possible. It will also have a TwinAir cooling system (larger fans), a bigger battery, and a spacious 16-inch OLED display with a productive 16:10 aspect ratio. The panel boasts a resolution of 3200×2000, a refresh rate of 120Hz, and a peak brightness level of 500 nits. Although we haven’t personally tested this machine yet, based on those specs alone, visuals should be lovely and fluid. Acer truly seems to have designed this machine for hardcore creative pros.
My only nitpick is with the design, which is on the utilitarian side. It’s fine, but nothing about it excites me. It’s just a dark gray square… that’s it. If you’re looking for more flair, you may need to look elsewhere. That said, professionals often prefer to stick to straightforward aesthetics, and the powerful hardware inside of the machine definitely makes up for the boring design. This is a designer’s laptop and if you’re the kind of person that prefers function over form, I suspect you won’t be disappointed in that regard. The chassis measures 17.9 mm and the weight is a little over four pounds. It’s not the lightest laptop we’ve ever seen here at PCWorld, but the additional heft isn’t too surprising given the internal components inside the machine.
The Acer Swift X 16 launches this July with a starting price of $1,249.99.
Acer Chromebook Spin 714
Acer
I’ve been a fan of Chromebooks for a while now. They’re easy to set up and they’re largely virus free. They’re also solid everyday machines due to their low-powered hardware. But Acer aims to change that with the new Chromebook Spin 714. This convertible features a “10 percent performance improvement” over the previous models. It’s packing the latest 13th-gen Intel Core processor, which is a solid boost in performance, as we’ve seen with the laptops we’ve reviewed here at PCWorld. We suspect loading times and web browsing will be zippier and more responsive. The 14-inch display, which can be folded back like a tablet, has an aspect ratio of 16:10 and a resolution of 1920×1200. That’s plenty sharp for office work and day-to-day use.
Here’s a cool factoid for you: The Chromebook Spin 714 is one of the first to include a 2K webcam, which is awesome if you do a lot of videoconferencing. It features temporal noise reduction, which keep things sharp in low-light environments, and a physical privacy shutter. The built-in dual microphones should (hopefully!) provide better audio overall. It also has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
The Acer Chromebook Spin 714 launches this May with a starting price of $699.99.
