Acer quietly showed off the Swift 16 AI at IFA 2025 in Berlin, giving attendees an early look at one of the first notebooks built around Intel's next-generation "Panther" Lake processors. The demo unit used a Panther Lake part made on Intel's 18A node, and a placard beside the machine confirmed a 16-inch 3K OLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate, support for up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory, and modern wireless standards including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6. Acer also confirmed that select SKUs will feature two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4, as well as legacy ports such as USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack, and a microSD slot, for all use cases. Storage configurations and full performance details were not disclosed at the show.

The Swift 16 AI brings a notable redesign to accommodate what Acer calls the largest haptic trackpad in its class, and that pad supports active stylus input so you can write or draw directly on the touch surface, a capability that is still uncommon in most mainstream laptops. The larger pad prompted a refreshed keyboard layout and a slightly altered chassis, and Acer indicated some configurations will weigh under 1 kg. Intel's head of consumer CPUs, Jim Johnson, was present at the presentation, highlighting that the partnership is yielding one of the first products based on Intel's best upcoming CPU design. Acer stated that the laptop is expected to arrive towards the end of 2025 and that Panther Lake will be showcased more widely at CES 2026.