Acer Swift Edge (SFE16-43) review – has a lot of potential but the cooling solution needs a revamp

Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

The laptop is very thin and the cooling looks modest at best. The cooling system is having a hard time taming the 28W Ryzen 7 7840U. The AMD CPU can’t maintain its base clock of 3.3GHz even in light loads. In the long run, the frequency drops below 2.0GHz and the power limit is just 17W. The processor temperature is good no matter the load and that’s the only positive thing in this section.

Comfort during full load

The two fans aren’t loud even in “Performance mode” – yes, you can hear them, but the noise isn’t intrusive. Even in light loads, the center and the left side of the keyboard feel warm which is a result of the thin profile. If the CPU is pounded with heavy stress, the hotspot isn’t too hot for work but it’s on the limit. During normal daily usage, this should not be a problem because the thermals and the noise levels are way lower.

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. Our laptop is equipped with a 54Wh battery pack. It lasts for 6 hours and 40 minutes of Web browsing or 5 hours and 53 minutes of video playback.

Video playback

Brightness: 180 nits; Display Mode: SDR
Time to Full Discharge: Higher is Better

Acer Swift Edge 54Wh, 3-cell

5h 35m

Acer Swift Go 16 53Wh

9h 30m+70.1%

Acer Swift 3 56Wh, 4-cell

9h 46m+74.9%

ASUS VivoBook 16X 50Wh, 3-cell

7h 47m+39.4%

Dell Vostro 5620 54Wh, 4-cell

7h 01m+25.7%

MSI Prestige 15 (A12Ux)

10h 29m+87.8%

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro X 70Wh

9h 30m+70.1%

Web surfing

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

Acer Swift Edge 54Wh, 3-cell

6h 40m

Acer Swift Go 16 53Wh

17h 47m+166.8%

Acer Swift 3 56Wh, 4-cell

15h 25m+131.3%

ASUS VivoBook 16X 50Wh, 3-cell

9h 49m+47.3%

Dell Vostro 5620 54Wh, 4-cell

10h 10m+52.5%

MSI Prestige 15 (A12Ux)

13h 03m+95.8%

Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro X 70Wh

9h 05m+36.3%

Author: Nikolay Palaozov

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.

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Ethan

9 months ago

Thanks! Nice review.

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