Regardless of how cynical you feel about AI, it’s here to stay. From pocket companions to doing your Physics homework for you, it’s truly the era of the AI-ification of everything.

Acer’s newly released Swift Go 16 is part of the first wave of AI PCs. It’s powered by the new Intel Core Ultra chip with AI capabilities; its built-in Intel Arc GPU makes use of AI-accelerated graphics performance; the keyboard sports a dedicated AI Copilot key; the mics use AI noise reduction; the webcam features AI-enabled Temporal Noise Reduction, and a host, more of AI, features inside that carryout tasks you’d typically need a third-party AI model for.

The Swift Go 16 retails at $900 and sports an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, 32GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. It offers a 16-inch multi-touch IPS display and Intel Arc graphics. This is the only configuration Acer’s latest budget laptop is currently available.

 

 

Acer Swift Go 16 Design Light, Compact, and Durable

The Swift Go 16 is best for folks who need productivity. The laptop prides itself on its thin and light form factor. The average weight for non-gaming 16-inch laptops is usually between 4 to 5 lbs. Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro is 4.7 lbs, and Lenovo’s IdeaPad 5i Pro is considered lightweight at 4.1 lbs. At 3.7 lbs, the Swift Go 16 is very easy to lug around. We praised Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold 16, which measures around an inch thick, for its compact and slim design, but the Swift Go 16 tops that with a 0.7-inch total thickness. It’s impressive that it maintains this form factor while sporting a well-made, sturdy build.

Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo Acer Swift Go 16 Keyboard and Trackpad Huge but Shallow Keyboard With a Dedicated Copilot Key.

As expected from a 16-inch laptop, it also sports a humongous keyboard that handles your numeric keypad needs. There’s also a full-function row, backlighting, and a dedicated Copilot key to the right side of the space bar. The key can be triggered to pull up Copilot, the AI companion announced at the end of last year and Microsoft has been touting recently. Upon enabling it, it displays a few prompts as suggestions on what you could ask it and a field at the bottom to type in questions.

Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo

I wasn’t too thrilled about the keyboard. It is incredibly shallow and features insufficient travel to respond with reassuring, satisfactory feedback. I barely got through my two-week-long testing period on its keyboard, and I wished I had a dedicated keyboard connected every time I was engaged in a writing task on it. The trackpad gave me no glaring issues, enough real estate, and a firm, stable feel.

The Swift Go 16’s port selection is excellent for a productivity-focused laptop. I was happy to see a Kensington lock slot, which has almost become extinct on notebooks. There’s also a MicroSD card reader, a 3.5mm jack, two Type-A ports, two Type-C ports, and an HDMI slot.

Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo Acer Swift Go 16 Performance Tops quite a few competitors. 

The Swift Go 16 handles itself quite efficiently in terms of overall performance. It sports the new Intel Core Ultra H-Series processor, the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, to be specific, Intel Arc graphics, 32GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD. It scored 2342 on the Geekbench 6.0 single-core test and 12956 on multi-core. Those impressive figures top the Dell XPS 14, Lenovo ThinkBook X1 Fold, and the Lenovo Slim 7i.

Don’t expect this machine to fulfill your gaming needs. The Predator series already does that. The Swift Go 16 is strictly a productivity laptop. With built-in Intel Arc graphics on this laptop, it’s doubtful a gamer would opt for it anyway unless you’re using streaming services like GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming, which works well, given you have a decent internet connection. 

I liked the Copilot features but wouldn’t buy this machine only for those. Essentially, the Copilot key triggers a chatbot. However, some of its capabilities extend beyond your typical chatbot. You can use it to change your wallpaper, troubleshoot audio issues, or tweak user settings. I found this part helpful in saving me the time and effort it sometimes takes to rummage around in Settings trying to find something.

It was also helpful in situations where I knew where to go, but asking a chatbot to do it for me was much quicker. For instance, I said, “Turn Bluetooth on” to it, and it complied. I followed that with “turn it off” and understood the context. Its ability to have some memory and understand context also impressed me. I was also able to understand and ignore all of my typos. 

Responses were accurate, but some of them had unusually long loading times. I once asked it what the capital of Greece is, and it took 17 seconds to answer that. Image generation requires you to sign in to your Microsoft account, and Copilot takes around 8 seconds just to tell you that. Once you’re signed in, it’s another 10ish seconds for the image to come up. The initial 8 seconds can probably be ignored because you’ll have to be signed in to chat with Copilot anyway. Microsoft blocks your access to it when you reach your chat limit, which would happen as soon as you hit five prompts. But again, I found the chatbot faster in getting things done for me (in Settings, etc.) than looking things up.  

Acer Swift Go 16 Display It’s not OLED, but it’s not bad.

The 16-inch display is a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS panel with a 60Hz refresh rate. The absence of a premium OLED screen and a higher 120Hz refresh rate means it’s not the most suitable for enjoying your intense titles. It also accepts touch input, but I didn’t use that; navigating via the screen on this monstrous machine wasn’t practical. The 350-nit display performed perfectly well on my office desk, illuminated by an enormous window. I set it to 40% during my entire testing period, which was more than sufficient. I had a decent time watching YouTube and Netflix on the Swift Go 16, but I don’t expect it to offer the kind of contrast and vibrance OLEDs do. The blacks could have been blacker and the whites whiter, but overall, there was fair clarity, richness, and detail, which is always a win for a non-OLED.

Photo: Dua Rashid / Gizmodo Acer Swift Go 16 Camera and Mic Pretty Standard Webcam

The 1440p QHD webcam claims to sport AI-enabled TNR or Temporal Noise Reduction. I didn’t feel a perceptible difference in visual noise. I compared it to the Lenovo Slim 7i’s camera without any AI intervention, and they performed quite similarly. The webcam isn’t poor quality; it doesn’t live up to its fancy AI-infused hype.

The mic also uses AI noise reduction. According to my friend, the hum of my tower fan right next to me was significantly quiet. I’m unsure if an advanced AI algorithm was behind this, but I shouldn’t care as long as I’m content with the results.

Acer Swift Go 16 Battery Life Half-as-advertised

I wouldn’t have been as underwhelmed about the battery life on the Swift Go 16 if Acer hadn’t excessively hyped it and made it one of the USPs of the machine. I got around 10 hours out of it, which I would typically be satisfied with on a big, beefy machine like this that I’d probably use on my desk anyway. But with a promised 20-hour life and numerous promises about the laptop being an on-the-go companion, the vast difference between what was promised and what was offered was almost shameful.

The 10 hours average how long the laptop lasted every time I used it on a full charge in my almost two-week testing period. The most outrageous thing is that the battery scores don’t include excessively battery-draining apps. I used it mainly for writing on Google Docs, a lot of web browsing, Gmail, Slack, and very little Photoshop. If you work remotely and prefer to WFH from a new cafe every other day, you might get annoyed by having to check for socket availability or lug around a charger everywhere towards the end of your shift. 

Verdict Score: 3/5

At $900, the Swift Go 16 offers precisely what’s expected from it. It offers efficient performance, a good-looking display, a lot of ports, and an excellent form factor. The battery life is nowhere near what’s promised, but if you ignore the overambitious claims, 10 hours is not bad for a 16-inch machine. You might also have to ignore some overly enthusiastic AI marketing. Currently, “AI PCs” aren’t offering anything out of this world that can be considered entirely separate. It’s best to go for this machine as something that provides a couple of cool AI features rather than “an AI machine.” There isn’t anything else that the Swift Go 16 promised but failed to deliver.