Acer’s AMD-powered Swift Edge laptop is a gentle reminder of Intel taxation

Acer’s Swift Edge clamshell model, announced today, is a gentle reminder of what’s called the Intel tax. The PC offers a larger screen with more expensive display technology and pixels than an Acer Swift 5 ultralight with similar specs for the same price. The other big difference between the two laptops is that the new Swift Edge prefers. AMD Ryzen 6000 processors, when using Swift 5 Intel 12th Generation CPUs.

Acer is launching the Swift Edge in the US this Friday with a Ryzen 7 6800U that carries eight cores, 4MB of L2 cache, 16MB of L3 cache, and a 2.7GHz clock speed that can go up to 4.7GHz. Coupled with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB of PCIE 4.0 SSD storage, it will have an MSRP of $1,500.

This is the same MSRP that Swift 5 has as it is written and when we reviewed it in July. At this price, you get an Intel Core i7-1260P with four performance cores (2.1-4.7 GHz), eight efficient cores (1.5-3.4 GHz), and 18MB of L3 cache, plus the same RAM and storage as the aforementioned Swift. Edge configuration.

Swift Edge and Swift 5 have similar port selection: two USB-C ports (but Intel PC’s ports Lightning It is certified 4 and works with Swift Edge ports up to 40 Gbps instead of 20 Gbps, two USB-A ports (USB 3.2 Gen 1), an HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5mm jack.

That said, the Swift Edge might have a standout, decent edge when it comes to the screen. 16 inches, 3840×2400 OLED Non-touchscreen compared to the 14-inch, 2560×1600 IPS touchscreen on the Swift 5. The OLED display is equipped with 100 percent DCI-P3 color coverage, up to 500 nits brightness and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. . ours Acer Swift 5 reviewWe recorded 541 nits and 83.1 percent DCI-P3 coverage.

Of course, there’s more to a laptop than a spec sheet; We’d have to take a closer look at things like build quality (the Swift Edge has a magnesium alloy chassis), audio, webcam, and display in action. But an early look at these specs shows that if you’re interested in an AMD CPU rather than Intel, you can upgrade elsewhere.

And there’s good reason to be. Ours Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 review tested a Ryzen 7 Pro 6850U with the same specs (Swift Edge should eventually be available in the US with this CPU as well, certified by an Acer rep Ars Technica) and including overall stronger battery life and integrated Radeon 680M graphics found impressive performance, such as Intel’s 12th Gen mobile chips. The Swift Edge may not be as powerful as the $1,900 business-focused ThinkPad, but the Ryzen 6000 has potential for Acer to tap into.

There is often an OLED tax on battery life, just as there is often a so-called Intel tax on computers. Acer claims the Swift Edge’s 54 Wh battery can last up to 10.5 hours of video playback, eight hours of web browsing, and up to 7.5 hours in the MobileMark 2018 benchmark. These are better numbers than the smaller Swift 5 claims, with its 56 Wh battery (14, 14 and 7.5 hours, respectively).

Acer’s Swift Edge is a new addition to Acer’s Swift lineup of thin and light oyster shells, which includes the Swift 5 flagship ultralight. Fast X AMD and Fast X Intel, both contain dedicated graphics cards. The Swift Edge continues a trend we’ve seen over the past few years as AMD chips are increasingly finding their way into not only more laptop models but higher-end designs. The “Edge” moniker could also help AMD shake off its reputation, which has many consumers seeing its chips as a budget alternative to Intel.

The Swift Edge, as mentioned above (SKU SFA16-41-R7SU), starts this Friday at $1,500. It should eventually start on a Ryzen 5 6600U and go up to 32GB of memory, but an Acer rep told Ars it won’t sell these configurations in the US.