One of my favorite laptops from last year got a redesign I didn't see coming

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

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ZDNET's key takeaways

• Acer gave the Swift 16 AI a massive haptic trackpad in its 2026 refresh. 
• It targets stylus creators, but might limit traditional office use, requiring some adaptation.
• Panther Lake boosts performance and efficiency with a premium OLED display.

The Acer Swift 16 AI was one of my favorite laptops from 2025. It was a well-rounded, complete package for the price point: thin and light with a minimalist build, a vivid OLED display, and a banger of a battery for an accessible price, earning our Editor's Choice award.

So when I saw the 2026 refresh of the Swift 16 AI with the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" processor, I was excited to take it for a ride and see what Acer had in store.

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My initial reactions were... mixed. 

Football field-sized trackpad 

The first thing to catch my eye? The football field-sized trackpad on the new laptop, occupying nearly half of the bottom of the clamshell.

In fact, it's the world's largest haptic trackpad, Acer says, with a 16:10 aspect ratio that's nearly seven inches in width and 4.3 inches from top to bottom, going right up to the absolute edge of the device.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

It's big. Resting your wrists on the laptop inevitably lands them in contact with the trackpad. In my limited time with it, simply typing was a clumsy experience that had me false-clicking left and right.

Acer's design intention here is to pair the trackpad with an MPP 2.5 stylus. The trackpad itself is a drawable surface, similar to other laptops designed with artists, designers, and animators in mind. When you consider this use case, the seven-inch trackpad makes a lot more sense. Its connectivity backs this up, with two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, one USB-A, an HDMI, and a microSD slot.

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Even better is the fact that the Swift 16 AI comes with the stylus, rounding out the package as a creator-first laptop without nickel and diming the consumer with core components that are actually sold separately.  

Still, last year's device was such a well-rounded laptop, it's notable to see the new design commit to a much more specific use case. The Swift 16 AI was a laptop you could take to the office, then fire up some gaming during after hours. This year's model, however, I might not be so quick to recommend as an office device.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

After spending a little more time with trackpad, I can appreciate its premium construction. Once you get past the size, it's certainly precise and responsive, and the Corning Gorilla Glass, combined with haptic feedback makes for a satisfying user experience. 

Acer also told me the device will come with palm rejection software once it hits retail shelves (I only got to test an early model), which I would say is a requirement for this kind of design. How well it works in a practical sense will be seen once we go hands-on to test it. 

Solid hardware package

Luckily, the rest of the laptop retains its solid hardware package. It's powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 386H "Panther Lake" processor -- Intel's latest new chipset alongside integrated Intel Graphics. It also scales up to 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM and up to 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.

This configuration puts it into a niche segment of creator-minded laptops with better than entry-level builds and specialized features, but don't commit to discrete graphics solutions to keep prices accessible. 

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And the display still looks fantastic: up to a 3K OLED touch screen with a 120Hz refresh rate, making it more than capable for media, some gaming, and creative workloads -- though now, potentially leaning heavier to the latter. It remains a good-looking laptop that feels far more premium than its price would suggest.

The slightly larger 70Wh battery (up from 65Wh) makes room for a little more power thanks to its newfound digital easel, but if it's anything like last year's -- especially paired with the even more power-efficient Intel Panther Lake CPU -- I'd expect the same all-day battery life.

Kyle Kucharski/ZDNET

Its physical form is also a little more sleek, with slightly more rounded edges and a new geometric design on the front cover that looks good, but isn't necessarily better than the ultra-minimal, design-free version from last year. 

All in all, the addition of this massive trackpad imbues the Acer Swift 16 AI with a more specific identity that on one hand, allows it to stand out, but on the other, moves it away from a laptop whose prior strength lied in its well-roundedness. 

Availability

The 2026 Acer Swift 16 AI with the Intel Core Ultra "Panther Lake" series CPU will be available in North America in Q1 2026, and Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia in March 2026. Pricing has not yet been confirmed by Acer.