If you want a balance between cost and performance for general use and appreciate a lightweight, portable laptop with an OLED screen, the Acer Swift Edge 16 is a solid choice. However, if you need a laptop primarily for gaming, 3D rendering, or other performance-intensive tasks and are willing to invest more, the MSI Stealth GS66, with its powerful graphics card and high refresh rate screen, is more suitable despite being heavier and more expensive. The MSI also includes additional features like an RGB keyboard and better port selection, which might be important if connectivity is a priority for you. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Acer Swift Edge 16
Very good for content creation
Very good portability
Good battery life
Advantages of the MSI Stealth GS66
Good for gaming and AI
Very good overall build quality
Very good speakers
Very good keyboard
Key differences
Gaming and AI
6.7/10
7.8/10
4.0/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
7.8/10
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
360Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
8.0/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
7.5/10
The MSI Stealth GS66 is good for gaming and AI, while the Acer Swift Edge 16 is only fair.
The Acer Swift Edge 16, with its AMD Radeon 780M GPU and a screen refresh rate of 120, is suited for gaming and 3D tasks, offering a balance between visual quality and smooth motion. Meanwhile, the MSI Stealth GS66 boasts a more powerful Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU and a higher screen refresh rate of 360, making it an excellent choice for intensive gaming that demands fast and fluid graphics alongside higher computational performance.
Screen Quality
8.8/10
8.1/10
16.0in
SIZE
15.6in
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
120Hz
REFRESH RATE
360Hz
383.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
280.0 nits
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has a better screen than the MSI Stealth GS66 for general use, engineering and design, software development, and content creation, while the MSI Stealth GS66 has a better screen for gaming and AI.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 likely has a higher resolution and brightness which makes its screen more vibrant and easier to view in various lighting conditions, enhancing the experience for general use and detailed work like engineering and design. Its screen may also cover a wider color gamut, offering greater color accuracy crucial for professionals in design fields. However, the MSI Stealth GS66, while still providing decent resolution and color quality, likely prioritizes a higher refresh rate favored by gamers for smoother visual performance, but may fall short in screen brightness and color gamut compared to the Acer, hence not excelling in gaming and 3D.
Battery
7.0 Hours
5.5 Hours
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has 7 hours of battery life. The MSI Stealth GS66 has 5.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Very Good
Good
16.0in
SIZE
15.6in
2.7 lbs
WEIGHT
4.6 lbs
0.5in
THICKNESS
0.7in
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has very good portability, while the MSI Stealth GS66 has good portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.2/10
8.0/10
The MSI Stealth GS66 has very good build quality, while the Acer Swift Edge 16 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$820
$1,799
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
The Acer Swift Edge 16 has a price of $820 and the MSI Stealth GS66 costs $1,799.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 and MSI Stealth GS66 are both good for general use.
The Acer Swift Edge 16 boasts a top-tier CPU and OLED screen, ensuring smooth performance and vivid visuals for general tasks, and its lightweight design and longer battery life make it highly portable. In contrast, the MSI Stealth GS66 offers powerful performance for more intensive applications due to its high-end CPU and GPU, but it is heavier and has a shorter battery life, potentially limiting its mobility for day-to-day use.
Engineering and Design
8.1/10
8.2/10
8.8/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
4.0/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
7.8/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The MSI Stealth GS66 and Acer Swift Edge 16 are both very good for engineering and design.
The MSI Stealth GS66 is very good for engineering and design due to its powerful Intel i7 processor and Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics, making it well-suited for demanding applications, although it's heavier, which affects portability. In contrast, the Acer Swift Edge 16, with its AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and Radeon 780M GPU, offers good performance along with a high-resolution OLED screen, and is lighter, thus easier to carry, but it may not handle intensive tasks as efficiently as the MSI.
Content Creation
8.1/10
7.7/10
8.8/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
OLED
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
Although they have very similar scores, PerfectRec considers Acer Swift Edge 16 to be very good for content creation, while the MSI Stealth GS66 is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.9/10
7.5/10
8.8/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.1/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
3200 x 2000
RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080
6.7/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Acer Swift Edge 16 and MSI Stealth GS66 are both good for software development.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
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How the Acer Swift Edge 16 and the MSI Stealth GS66 compare to other laptops
"The Acer Swift Edge 16 is a solid super thin-and-light that pairs a large, gorgeous 16-inch display with portable design that rivals the weight of LG’s superlight Gram 16. Remarkably, Acer achieves this at a lower price point without sacrificing performance. Boring design and disappointing battery life hold the laptop back from stardom, but its rivals frequently suffer in these areas, too. That makes the Swift Edge 16 an alluring value pick."
"The MSI Stealth GS66 is powerful enough for QHD. The Core i7-12700H and the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti found in the 12UGS model that we tested run all modern games smoothly in the native QHD resolution. The 15-inch display is very fast with its 240 Hz refresh rate, and it also offers a great color space (almost 100% DCI-P3) on top of that, which should please gamers as well as content creators, although we would have still wished for a higher brightness. Case, input devices, and connectivity (Thunderbolt 4) are at a good level. However, among other things, the GS66 loses points due to the high temperature development in 3D mode and its poor webcam."
Get a great deal on the Acer Swift Edge 16 or the MSI Stealth GS66
About Acer
Acer is a prominent Taiwanese electronics brand which makes a wide range of laptops, with multiple product lines catering to personal use, gaming, and business use. They are renowned for having exceptional value for money, as they frequently offer good specifications at a lower price than other manufacturers.
About MSI
MSI, also known as Micro-Star International, is a Taiwanese technology corporation. MSI is known for their wide range of gaming devices. Their series include the entry-level Cyborg/Thin and Sword/Katana series, the mid-range Bravo/Delta and Crosshair/Pulse series, and their high-end Vector, Raider, Stealth, and Titan GT series. At every performance level, MSI offers a variety of devices with varying balances between performance, battery life, weight, and price, making them a solid option to consider at every price point.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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