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CES comes once a year and with it a choice selection of new laptop launches, all built around the latest mobile chips from Intel and AMD. This year is no different and Acer, as usual, has a host of new laptops to peruse, which I had the chance to get hands on with at sneak peek event in London a few weeks before the big show.
With this latest group of new laptops, the thing I’m most keen to try out are the new Intel Panther Lake chips, complete with 1.8nm manufacturing process technology and what looks to be seriously boosted integrated graphics and the laptop I like the look of most in Acer’s selection is the Acer Swift 16 AI.
Big, lightweight 16in laptops seem to be all the rage right now, but this one is just a little bit special. First up, it has – so Acer claims at least – the “world’s largest haptic touchpad”. Measuring 176 x 110mm it’s a bigger than the MacBook Pro’s 160 x 100mm ForceTouch trackpad and occupies a good chunk of this machine’s wristrest, reaching all the way to the laptop’s front lip.
Not only is it huge, it also features embedded media controls that let you pause/play, skip tracks, mute and adjust volume with a simple tap of the finger, and you can even use an active stylus on it like an digital art pad – up to MPP 2.5 devices are supported.
Other than the massive touchpad – and the 16in 3K 120Hz OLED display (also available with a 16in 1,920 x 1,280 resolution LCD) – the other thing that struck me immediately was the laptop’s light weight. The Swift 16 AI come in at less than 1.55kg, so if you can find a laptop bag to accommodate its generous girth, you won’t feel it too much when it comes to lugging it around from desk to desk or event to event.
Acer’s flagship laptop for early 2026, the Swift 16 AI can be configured with the most powerful of the latest Intel Panther Lake CPUs – the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H – and yet despite all that power and the enormous screen its battery life is up to a claimed 24 hours.
This is backed by up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2TB of SSD storage, a 1080p infrared webcam with physical privacy shutter and plenty of connectivity, including a microSD card reader. The Acer Swift 16 AI will be available from March 2026 with no word as yet on pricing.
Acer Swift Edge 14 and 15 AI
Slightly down the pecking order from the range-topping Swift 16 AI, the Edge 14 and Edge 15 AI models are also lightweight wonders in their own right. In fact, the 16in Swift Edge weighs less than the Swift 16 AI, with its magnesium alloy chassis tipping the scales at a mere 1.25kg and the Swift 14 AI at 0.99kg.
The thing that pushes them down the range is the CPU provision tops out at the Core Ultra 9 386H with built in Intel Graphics, which has considerably less oomph than the Core Ultra X9 388H inside the Swift 16 AI.
Other key specifications include up to 120Hz 3K OLED screens, Full HD Windows Hello-compatible infrared webcams, up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage.
Acer Swift Go 14 and 16 AI, and more…
Finally, bringing up the rear of the new Swift range is a pair of laptops seemingly aimed at the budget premium sector. Oddly, despite the “Go” moniker, however, Acer’s laptops are available with top-spec builds, including the Core Ultra X9 388H processor and Arc B390 graphics, 32GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage, OLED screens with 2K and 3K resolutions.
We’ll find out where exactly they fit when UK prices are unveiled but, for now, I’d expect the Go series laptops to fit in somewhere just below the Swift Edge and Swift 16 AI on price.
Of course, Acer didn’t only launch five slim and light laptops at CES 2026, it also unveiled a host of other kit. There are new Aspire machines for those on a budget, based on new Intel CPUs. There’s also a range of Predator and Nitro gaming laptops to come – including the evergreen Nitro V 16 AI and the ultra-slim Acer Nitro V 16S AI, which looks the bees’ knees for mobile gamers.
Plus, there’s a line-up of gaming monitors, including the ludicrous 27in Acer Predator XB273U with a 1,000Hz refresh rate (at 720p) and a maximum resolution of 2,560 x 1,440.
As mentioned above, there’s no word on UK pricing just yet, but release dates for the laptops will start in March and spread into Q2, depending on the model.
