Acer Swift 16 AI (2026) Review: Where Do Your Hands Go?

Acer’s budget laptops are its bread and butter. But the 2026 Acer Swift 16 AI makes a strong case for its high-end options too.

This thing has competitively impressive performance, a gorgeous OLED screen, and the biggest touchpad I’ve ever seen, even on the very best laptops. It's so large that it can double as a drawing tablet with the included stylus. Unfortunately, using this oversized touchpad was more frustrating than useful, which makes this otherwise fast and long-lasting laptop much harder to recommend than it should be.

Sleek but Not Quite Polished

The Acer Swift 16 AI might be the prettiest laptop the company has ever made. It doesn’t have the refined aesthetics of a MacBook Pro or Dell XPS 16, but the dark silver chassis doesn’t look cheap like so many Acer laptops do. That’s important, as this costs $1,550, and it needs to look the part. The build quality left me disappointed, though. There's some give in the keyboard and palm rests, and the lid can bend if you press on the corners. Getting the thing open isn't as smooth as I had hoped, since the lip isn't big enough to easily get my finger in.

It’s certainly portable, though. It’s only 0.58 inch thick—slightly thinner than the MacBook Pro but matching the Dell XPS 16 almost exactly. Throughout this review, you’ll see the XPS 16 come up time and time again, as it’s clearly one of the laptops the Swift 16 has its targets on. Despite how thin it is, Acer managed to squeeze in both an HDMI 2.1 and two USB-A ports. That’s unlike the Dell XPS 16, which only sticks with USB-C.