Acer is announcing a new Swift Air 16 at IFA 2025, and it’s an absolute featherweight of a 16-inch laptop. Weighing in at 2.18 pounds / 0.99kg with an IPS display or 2.43 pounds / 1.1kg with its optional OLED, the Swift Air is lighter than even a 13-inch MacBook Air. It also packs more ports than the MacBook, and will start at a lower price of €999 when it launches in November. (North American availability and pricing is still TBD.)
It kind of boggles my mind that the Swift Air 16 fits this much screen into such a light package, as it’s even lighter than the LG Gram — a laptop defined by its lightness. But the reality checks start coming in once you notice some of the Swift’s specs, like its thickness of 0.63 inches / 15.9mm (0.65 inches / 16.5mm for the OLED version). By contrast, the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs are just 0.44 inches and 0.45 inches, respectively.
Also, while the Swift Air’s AMD Ryzen AI 300-series chip options will be more than competent for everyday productivity tasks, I’ve seen firsthand that Apple’s M4 chip outperforms them while maintaining better battery life. The Swift Air’s starting config will come with a Ryzen AI 5 330 chip, and the top-end version uses the Ryzen AI 7 350. I tested the latter chip in the latest Framework Laptop 13 and it’s very capable, even for a touch of light gaming.
But the parts of the Swift Air 16 that give me the biggest pause are its HDMI spec and battery size. It’s got a decent port selection with two USB-C, one USB-A 3.2, and a 3.5mm audio jack, but its video-out port is HDMI 1.4. That’s very outdated for 2025, when you expect just about any $1,000-plus laptop to drive an external monitor at 4K / 60Hz or greater. HDMI 1.4 can only do 4K at a sub-par 24 or 30Hz.
And while the Swift’s starting IPS display has a respectable 1920 x 1200 resolution at 60Hz and the optional OLED sports a 2880 x 1800 resolution with 120Hz refresh, the laptop’s battery is only 50Wh. That’s a smaller capacity than the 13-inch MacBook Air, and much smaller than the 75Wh battery in the Acer Swift 14 AI I tested earlier this year. That 14-inch Swift cousin has great battery life for a machine sporting AMD’s more power hungry chips, and the large battery was a big reason why. Acer’s own promotional materials rate the Swift 14 AI at “up to 27 hours battery life” in a video playback test. The Swift Air 16’s rated battery life in similar video playback tests? Just 13 hours — less than half. Ouch.
Oh, and did you notice the Swift Air’s gapless keyboard?
I’ve already poked plenty of holes in the hull of the Swift Air 16 before it’s even taken its maiden voyage. But I’m still interested to see it shove off, and I’m hoping it’ll land on our shores here in the US. Despite my concerns, it’s an intriguing machine. And I’m all for a company taking some chances. But naming your laptop “Air” is going to draw the inevitable comparisons.
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