Acer Swift 16 AI review verdict: Brilliant OLED and a great bang for the buck

The most striking feature of the new Acer Swift 16 AI is arguably the 16-inch OLED display. This screen is a real eye-catcher, delivering deep blacks, vibrant colors and a sharp resolution that impresses during creative workflows and media consumption. The more intriguing question is: Does it always have to be the most expensive configuration, or is there a more clever middle ground?

The unit we reviewed sports the potent Core Ultra 9 288V and offers high performance in AI-heavy workloads, but a closer look at the European market reveals a wide range of configurations. The Swift 16 AI OLED laptop is roughly priced between €1,200 and €1,700 as of May 2025 and comes with processors ranging from the Core Ultra 5 226V all the way up to the Core Ultra 9 288V. But there’s good news for price-conscious laptop buyers.

Specifically, the top-end configuration isn't necessarily the most sensible choice. The more affordable model variants belong to the cheapest laptops with Lunar Lake, and in our latest test, it became clear once again that the Core Ultra 9 isn’t that much faster than the Core Ultra 7 258V. We’ve already noted this in our initial analysis of Intel’s Lunar Lake processors.

Therefore, budget-focused shoppers can definitely find their sweet spot. For example, users who don’t need a touchscreen and opt for the Core Ultra 7 258V can order the 16-inch Acer laptop for about €1,350. That’s significantly cheaper than the top-tier models and offers the best value for money, in our opinion. Purchasing a second NVMe SSD to upgrade the internal storage can also be a better financial decision. The flagship model that we reviewed comes with 2 SSDs and a total of 2TB of capacity. Depending on how fast the SSD has to be, corresponding drives can be found for roughly $60 on Amazon.