The Swift 16 AI is one of the latest Windows laptops featuring Intel's "Panther Lake" processors (Core Ultra Series 3) that balance productivity, power, and efficiency for all-day battery life, plus Acer's stunning OLED touchscreen.

It's already on sale for just $999.99 at Best Buy long before Black Friday, with a hefty $550 discount that knocks 35% off its listing price. With 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, it's a great option for anyone looking to upgrade their everyday laptop without spending the usual ~$1,200+ costs.

Why should you buy this laptop?

Powered by Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" X7 358H processor and integrated Arc B390 graphics, the Swift 16 AI delivers plenty of performance for everyday productivity workloads, including multitasking across dozens of browser tabs, content creation, and even some gaming. That integrated B390 graphics chip is far more powerful than its lower-end variants; in fact, you'll find the same one in high-end gaming handhelds.

Beyond that, Acer boasts a full day of usable battery life in a laptop with a thin chassis and a sharp 3K (2880x1800) OLED touchscreen. That means vibrant colors, strong contrast, and even a super-smooth 120Hz refresh rate as a bump over the usual 60Hz standard you'd find in many others.

You'll get dual USB-C ports alongside two more traditional USB-A ports, HDMI-out for external monitors, and a 3.5mm audio jack for wired headphones, reducing the need for too many dongles when you're traveling. Plenty of peripherals are wireless these days, but it's always nice to have the option for wired alternatives.

Acer's bigger trackpad might not suit everyone, and the speakers were never made for movie-watching, but neither detracts from what is otherwise a well-rounded productivity laptop. Alternatively, an AMD-based Swift 16 AI with a WUXGA (1920x1200) touchscreen is also on sale for $799.99 at Walmart. However, it is sold by a reseller, not Walmart itself, so there's a chance it will disappear much faster.

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In the lead-up to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's release, the developers made the controversial announcement that the console versions would require VRR monitors in order to run at 120Hz in Performance mode.

Players who didn't have or couldn't afford VRR monitors were mad at this last-minute decision, and the developers took notice because, as of today, they have reversed it as part of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's Season 1 update.

According to the Season 1 patch notes, the developers stated, "We have opened up 'Performance Mode (120Hz)' for all PlayStation 5 & XBOX Series X|S players with 120hz displays, regardless of VRR support. For the best experience, VRR is recommended."

So while VRR monitors are still needed to achieve the best frame rate performance possible, at least those who don't have VRR monitors won't be forced to buy one just so they can have smooth, optimal gameplay.

But will this and the rest of Season 1's content be enough to attract more players to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and help offset its worrying 32% sales drop? Only time will tell.

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On October 23, 2026, AMD began rolling out FSR 4.1 for Xbox, starting with beta drivers for Xbox Ally handhelds. Now, AMD has announced that FSR 4.1 is available for Xbox developers working on Series X|S games.

FSR 4.1 is the latest version of AMD's AI-powered upscaling technology, rendering games at lower internal resolutions before reconstructing them to a higher output resolution while preserving detail and improving performance.

It's also part of Microsoft's wider push toward a more unified Xbox ecosystem across consoles, handhelds, and desktop gaming PCs. While the tech has mostly been showcased on Xbox Ally X hardware so far, early beta driver results showed meaningful improvements to image quality and frame rates, at least in supported games.

In our own testing, demanding games such as Cyberpunk 2077, Control Resonance, and Gears of War: E-Day showed more consistent frame rates on the Xbox Ally X with FSR 4.1 enabled, while titles like The Witcher 3 Remaster ran closer to 60 FPS with even more image clarity improvements.

Certain games that previously appeared noticeably soft or blurry in their Quality modes on Xbox Ally X also showed substantial image-quality improvements while maintaining strong performance, even in games that show dozens of enemies on screen at once, like Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

How much of a difference FSR 4.1 makes on Xbox Series X|S will depend on per-developer implementation, and we already know that certain games that rely on ray-traced lighting, like Silent Hill 2, need more work. Still, those early Xbox Ally X results suggest FSR 4.1 could act as a software-driven mid-generation upgrade of sorts, helping developers squeeze more performance out of existing hardware. Good news.

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After months of anticipation, World of Warcraft: Forever, the reimagined take on the World of Warcraft's "classic" era, has finally gone live on PC via the Battle.net store.

Normally, whenever a new MMORPG or expansion for one comes out, its launch is usually riddled with server stability problems or log-in queues so long that it will take players hours to log in (like FFXIV: Endwalker's infamous launch, for example).

However, World of Warcraft: Forever's launch appears to have gone more smoothly than expected, thanks to its "Megaserver" architecture, which handles more players at once than individual "realm" servers in regular World of Warcraft.

Our own Jez Corden tested World of Warcraft: Forever and described it as a "very stable launch", which suffered no lag while spawning dozens of players and monsters at once.

Blizzard's vice president, Holly Longdale, has also made a post on X saying World of Warcraft: Forever's launch is "so far so goodish which is crazy by itself". Judging by the huge wave of replies to that comment, players seem to agree.

People are calling it the best launch World of Warcraft has ever had, with minimal queue times when logging in that last only a couple of minutes, minimal server lag, and no constant disconnects.

Windows Central's take

I myself have briefly logged into World of Warcraft: Forever to mess around with it before heading to work and was surprised by how fast I was able to log in (only a few minutes tops) and how smoothly it ran at max settings.

Granted, I haven't visited one of the major player settlements yet, so that will be when I can truly stress test this game's stability. But right now, I'm looking forward to playing this game when I get off work tonight and see if it can make up for the many gameplay, storytelling, and microtransactional shortcomings World of Warcraft: Midnight has put players through.

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