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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- The Acer Swift Edge 14 is presently connected sale, with prices starting astatine $1,500
- Its ultrathin design, vibrant 3K display, and soft-touch keyboard are definite to crook heads
- It runs connected a last-gen CPU, which makes the asking terms hard to justify.
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I went into this reappraisal expecting the Acer Swift Edge 14 to beryllium the brand's adjacent top-performing laptop, but that isn't the case. Instead, it's Acer's latest midrange instrumentality -- but a precise bully 1 astatine that. It boasts a standout design, decent performance, and a long-lasting battery.
There's truthful overmuch to similar astir this laptop, truthful let's commencement with what impressed maine the most.
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Why we similar it
The archetypal happening that stood retired to maine was the laptop's design: it's aesthetically striking. This is an ultrathin machine, measuring conscionable 0.65 inches astatine its thickest constituent and weighing 2.18 pounds. My aged assemblage notebooks weighed much than that. The laptop's sleek signifier origin is made chiefly of a magnesium-aluminum alloy, a worldly known for its lightweight properties and durability.
Most of the chassis is finished successful a bright, eye-catching white, portion the backmost has the device's double-arrow logo and institution branding etched successful gold.
The keyboard is conscionable arsenic visually striking. The keycaps lucifer the body's achromatic decorativeness and beryllium somewhat raised, creating a melodramatic opposition with the shadows beneath.
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According to Acer, the Swift Edge 14 is the archetypal of its laptops to person a "soft-touch keyboard". The keys person been covered successful a UV-cured coating that helps the caps defy deterioration and stains, portion besides giving them a unique, velvet-like texture. I've ne'er felt a keyboard this brushed before, and I don't cognize if I tin ever spell back. As a result, typing is some comfy and responsive, allowing for agelong penning sessions without a hint of fatigue. Another large portion of this is the 1.3mm cardinal question distance. Thanks to this, I recovered it casual to benignant rapidly and accurately.
Above the keyboard sits a 14-inch, 3K OLED surface that covers the full DCI-P3 colour gamut and supports VESA DisplayHDR True Black 600. All this tech results successful vibrant, close colour output with heavy contrast. It's thing abbreviated of stunning.
The solid is besides covered successful Corning Gorilla Glass Matte Pro to trim glare and sphere that top-notch colour accuracy. As the cherry connected top, the show runs a maximum refresh complaint of 120Hz and a effect clip of 0.2 to guarantee smooth, fluid visuals for multimedia.
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The main downside of the surface is that it's not precise bright, peaking astatine 400 nits. Even astatine 100% brightness, it's hard to spot the show outside. Under artificial lights, however, it's wholly fine. You'll beryllium capable to spot the surface intelligibly successful astir indoor locations.
Who it's for
The Acer Swift Edge 14 is simply a bully prime for anyone seeking a reliable enactment laptop with coagulated show and an awesome battery. My reappraisal portion was equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM. This CPU is from 2025, not Intel's latest Panther Lake bid released this year, but it's inactive competitive. Because of that, however, I can't truly comparison the Swift Edge to the latest laptops I've tested.
Below is simply a array comparing Acer's laptop benchmarks with the Dell 14 Plus, Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1, and HP OmniBook 7 Aero.
As you tin spot successful the array above, the Acer Swift Edge performs likewise to Dell's and Lenovo's machines. It handles multi-core workloads well, making the laptop a bully prime for tasks similar information analysis, photograph editing, and bundle development. Its single-core show is decent, too, ensuring accelerated app motorboat and creaseless web browsing. Acer's exemplary does autumn somewhat down HP's OmniBook Aero, a smaller instrumentality that we called out for its beardown all-around performance.
What sets the Swift Edge isolated from its rivals, however, is its artillery life. During testing, the laptop lasted implicit 18 hours, astir 19, connected a azygous charge. It recharges quickly, too, reaching 41% successful astir 30 minutes. By comparison, Dell's and Lenovo's models lasted astir 12 hours each during my clip with them, and HP's Aero ran for conscionable 10 hours earlier tapping out.
Who should look elsewhere
This is not a powerhouse workstation laptop, it's a midrange instrumentality that's well-rounded capable for a assortment of mainstream user tasks. While it performs well, its Lunar Lake processor volition conflict to grip peculiarly dense workloads extracurricular of its comfortableness zone.
If you're looking for a much almighty 14-inch laptop, cheque retired the 2026 Asus ExpertBook Ultra. Its Panther Lake processor delivers importantly stronger wide performance. Creative professionals whitethorn privation to see Samsung's Galaxy Book6 Ultra, which offers much powerfulness and a 16-inch 3K show amended suited to video editing, animation, and design.
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Outside of show limitations, there's precise small to criticize. The Swift Edge 14 is an fantabulous enactment laptop, and it excels astatine what it's designed to do.
ZDNET's buying advice
There are 2 versions of the Acer Swift Edge 14 available. As a reminder, my reappraisal portion came with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor and 32GB of RAM, connected merchantability for $1,500. A higher-end exemplary lodging the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V CPY retails for $1,600.
At those prices, the Swift Edge 14 feels a spot pricey, particularly fixed that it relies connected last-gen hardware. If you're unfastened to alternatives, the HP OmniBook 7 Aero mentioned earlier is worthy a look. It delivers stronger wide show astatine a little starting terms of $1,250. HP's notebook is smaller, however, sporting a 13.3-inch screen.
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