Slim Lightweight And Stylish The Swift 3 Is An Ideal Laptop For Work Study And Entertainment
Online or offline, people are busy these days looking for laptops either for their own work-related tasks or for their childrens online classes, hastened by the pandemic-related work from home concept. Truth be told, during these uncertain times the purchase options invariably narrow down to the easy-to-purchase segment, that is, laptops that come with the latest technology and will not break the bank too.
Taiwanese PC brand Acers Swift 3 laptop can be a worthy pick in this league. A good combination of speed, efficiency and power, it is powered by the latest 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with 17-hour battery life and 3:2 screen ratio. It is aggressively priced and is well-equipped to handle the needs of a power-user be it the desk-bound office employee , on-the-road sales or marketing professional, even school students who are heavy duty users in the new normal with never-ending assignments.
Co-engineered with Intel as part of the chip makers Project Athena innovation programme, the Acer Swift 3 comes with the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors featuring Intel Iris Plus Graphics. With these powerful technologies integrated inside, powerful performance for both work and entertainment plus power efficiency is a given here.
In short, a good machine for work, study and entertainment. Highly recommended.
Acer Swift 3 Review: Screen And Design
The Acer Swift 3 comes with a 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 screen that looks great the bezels are pleasingly thin, the brightness and contrast are top notch, and it really does look like a premium laptop up close the keyboard backlighting and the grey aluminium and magnesium-alloy chassis help here. In fact the more we think about it, the better we like the design, which is an area that previous Swifts have always impressed in too.
Tipping the scales at 1.19 kg , it’s lovely and light too. Okay, you wouldn’t expect a laptop this size to be heavy exactly, but the Acer Swift 3 can be easily picked up in one hand when you need to carry it around the office or take it from the garden to the kitchen. It even looks like a classy laptop when it’s closed, though it doesn’t quite match the thinness of some of the super-thin laptops on the market .
The Acer Swift 3 also has a decent selection of ports, with two USB-A ports , one USB-C port , and an HDMI port, as well as a headphone jack. You get a couple of downward-firing speakers on either side too, which don’t particularly impress but do the job.
- Take a look at the best laptops under £500 right now
Budget Beauty Is Only Skin Deep
From afar the Acer Swift 3 looks like it could be a sexy, expensive laptop, but ultimately the design is a high-end facade. The budget 14-inch laptop overcompensates with good looks to make up for the fact that it’s otherwise average.
It’s easy to look past the imperfections of a laptop if the price is right — it’s why cheap Chromebooks are so popular for casual use. Depending on what you’re looking for, its good looks may trump its decent performance. If you want a budget-friendly laptop with an all-metal outer design, the Acer Swift 3 is one of the few options that fits that bill.
Don’t Miss: How To Free Up Storage On Hp Laptop
Should You Buy The Acer Swift 3 2020
The Acer Swift 3 is a great ultrabook at an affordable price. It offers similar performance to more premium notebooks such as the Dell XPS 13 and Surface Laptop 3 despite costing a few hundred quid less.
Its not quite the bargain as the Honor MagicBook 14, especially since the Swift features a shorter battery life and slower SSD speeds, but Acer makes up for that by offering a large range of processor and storage options for added flexibility.
If you need an ultra-portable laptop with oodles of storage and a performance competent enough to dabble with content creation, then the Acer Swift 3 2020 is one of the best value options you can currently buy.
Acer Swift 3 Review: An Impressive Mid
The Acer Swift 3 has plenty of appeal
When everything is tallied up, the Acer Swift 3 definitely ends up in credit we do have a few reservations about the laptop, but in general we think it’s one of the best options you’ve got at this size and price point, continuing a strong run of Acer Swift laptops.
All the best features, news, tips and great deals to help you live a better life through technology
Thank you for signing up to T3. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
The Acer Swift 3, new for 2020, is the latest in a long line of Acer Swift laptops to come our way for several years now, these portable, lightweight laptop computers have managed to find an appealing balance between size, portability, cost and internal specifications.
With the 2020 edition of the Swift 3, Acer is looking to continue that tradition. You get a choice of different configurations as usual, but it’s all wrapped up in a laptop chassis that’s easy on the eye and very portable the sort of laptop you can pick up and take anywhere.
There’s a good list of features too, with support for the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard and an HDMI out port, and of course Windows 10 on board. Microsoft’s operating system continues to get more refined and more useful as the years go by.
- Here are the best lightweight laptops you can buy
Recommended Reading: How To Change Your Keyboard Color On Msi Laptop
Design: The Acer Swift X Comes In Two
- The two-tone color schemes make it look pretty, but still unique in colors like Steam Blue, Prodigy Pink, and Safari Gold.
- It weighs in at barely over three pounds, which is super-light given the high-powered internals.
- Theres no USB4 just yet, as thats reserved for newer Ryzen 6000 laptops.
The Acer Swift X comes in three colors: Steam Blue, Prodigy Pink, and Safari Gold. The one that Acer sent me is Safari Gold, although Im kind of jealous of the Steam Blue. They all look pretty great, and they all have silver-colored sides and keyboards, making for a two-tone design. I like the Steam Blue look because the darker color has more of a contrast with the silver.
The Swift X’s two-tone design is unique, yet subtle.
As far as ports go, its a good selection for the time this was made. On the left side, theres an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port. Obviously, theres no Thunderbolt since this is an AMD laptop however, newer AMD-powered laptops with Ryzen 6000 chips come with USB4, which is a Thunderbolt 3 equivalent. Its the difference between 10Gbps data transfer speeds, and potentially 40Gbps.
Also on the left side is a pin charging port, which I never had to use. The USB Type-C port works fine for charging.
On the right side, theres another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, which is good for 5Gbps speeds. Theres also a 3.5mm audio jack and some LED indicators.
Acer Swift 3 Pricing And Configurations
The Acer Swift 3s base configuration starts at $729.99 and has an Intel Core i5-1035G4 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, Intel Iris Plus graphics, and a 13.5-inch, 1080p display.
Our test unit costs $999.99 and features an Intel Core i7-1165G7CPU with 16GB of RAM, a 512GB PCIe SSD, and Intel Iris Xe GPU and comes with a colorful 14-inch IPS 1080p FHD display.
Also Check: How To Connect Pixma Printer To Computer
Battery Life Struggles To Hit Seven Hours
The Acer Swift 3 packs a lot of power, but that, unfortunately, means its left wanting in the battery department.
It only lasted shy of seven hours in our battery benchmark test, which involves turning the brightness down to 150 nits and simulating day-to-day office productivity tasks via PCMark 10.
Such a figure isnt atypical for a modern day ultrabook, but the likes of the Galaxy Book Ion boasts 2x longer battery life and the more affordable Honor MagicBook 14 can last close to nine hours. This proves there are many superior alternatives if long battery life is a priority.
Acer Swift 3 Review: Price And Verdict
There’s a lot that we like about the new Acer Swift 3. Like previous models, it’s really well designed, and the screen looks great. The typing experience is a real pleasure too , and we’d be happy using this as our regular laptop for getting work done on the go. It handles most tasks quickly and responsively, and it’s easy to carry around.
It’s not all positive though, with the battery life and the performance less than stellar. It’s also a relatively expensive laptop when you weigh up how good some of the cheaper options are check the widgets on this page for the latest prices on the Acer Swift 3, but at the time of writing the configuration that we tested was available direct from the Acer website for £899.99.
If you spend all your computing time inside a browser, then you might be tempted to get a Chromebook for much less and save yourself some money . While you could say the Swift 3 finds a nice balance between price and performance, you could also argue that it falls between two stools neither powerful enough at one end or affordable enough at the other.
Also Check: Ark Survival Evolved Low Memory
Acer Swift 3 Review: Design
The Acer Swift 3 features a very simple design, with its metallic silver hood featuring an Acer logo that nearly blends in at the center of the laptop. The machine consists of magnesium and aluminum exterior.
Flipping the laptop open exposed more of the metallic look on the deck — even the keyboards keys were silver and blended in with the surrounding metal. Luckily enough the keyboard does light up allowing me to see the font a bit better, otherwise it would be difficult to tell which key was which. Youll also find a Windows Hello-enabled fingerprint reader on the deck.
Excluding the relatively thick bottom bezel where the silver Acer logo glistens against the black chin, the rest of the bezels are very thin. Between the deck and screen is a very long and narrow hinge which features the word Swift in a light color.
The Acer Swift 3 is super-light, weighing just 2.7 pounds, making it slightly more portable than the HP Envy 13 . The Acer Swift 3 measures 12.7 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches, making it slightly thicker than the HP Envy , which has a slightly larger footprint.
Perfect Product At Great Price
Everything is good about the laptop – bought for engineering work from home and personal use. $999 from Bing Lee was excellent price. Spec: 14 inch screen, 256 SSD Core I7, high definition, 10 hour battery life, NVIDIA GEForce . Use half of that storage and don’t use the cloud. Its super-quick to start up and shutdown, and programs are much quicker with no hesitations. I use a $5 wired mouse from BigW, as my old mouse thought it was a USB device. Microsoft software products take a bit of getting used to and setting up. Gorilla…
Read Also: Can I Screen Record On My Hp Laptop
Acer Swift : What I Like
Compared to previous versions of the Swift 3 that I’ve tested and reviewed model numbers SF314-42-R9YN and SF313-52-78W6 the SF314-511-70TU I’m currently testing has a slightly different build. Instead of one wide hinge portion it’s split into two smaller hinges. They’re tight enough but have smooth movement, and overall it gives the laptop a more modern look. The chassis is still magnesium and aluminum, weighing in at just 2.65 pounds . Not bad for a 14-inch device. The finish is smooth underhand, and the Pure Silver color hides most smudges and fingerprints.
The build is overall quite rigid, with smooth lines and a thinning shape that’s wedged toward the front. Opening the lid lifts the rear of the laptop off the surface on which it’s sitting, providing a slightly more comfortable typing angle. The tradeoff is an exhaust vent positioned between the body and screen. It’s visible at all times and really breaks up the flow that the laptop has going on otherwise.
Embedded into the right palm rest is a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello. It works well, offering snappy logins and an extra layer of security. Combined with the Kensington lock slot, this laptop would be comfortable in an office. Speakers housed on the bottom edges near the front of the laptop are good enough for video calls and listening to music while you work, but they’re not going to wow you with depth or volume. They’re about what’s expected from a mid-range laptop.
Audio Camera And Apps
The Swift 3s audio capabilities are nothing to write home about, with a pair of downwards-facing TrueHarmony speakers providing low to moderate volume and adequate sound at the midrange and high end. Some Acer Swift laptops that Ive reviewed are bolstered somewhat by audio enhancement technologies, such as a utility written for the Realtek audio codec. No such codec was available with our review unit, however, and one didnt seem to be accessible via the Microsoft Store app. Acer provides a SmartAudio 3 utility, provided by Synaptics, thats almost worse than useless: Many of the bare-bones options arent accessible, and the app cant even be maximized like any other app.
Acer includes a technology called Purified.Voice that drives a pair of mics designed to pick your voice out of the aural congestion of a conference room or a house full of kids. With music playing, and then a podcast, I was able to make myself understood reliably while seated at the laptop. Unfortunately, a glitch with Cortanaprobably Microsofts fault, not Acerwouldnt allow the Hey Cortana wake word to work, so I wasnt able to test how the technology works across the room.
The underside of the Acer Swift 3 reveals how the laptop vents heat, pulling air from the generous vents underneath, and out through the hinge.
Privacy wonks, be warned: Theres neither a key nor a switch to disable the mic. Theres no physical shutter over the camera, either.
Keep reading for performance benchmarks.
You May Like: How To Screen Record On A Hp Laptop
Acer Swift : Price Availability And Specs
Acer supplied Windows Central with a review unit of the Acer Swift 3 . It has inside a Core i7-1165G7 CPU, 16GB of LPDDR4x RAM that is soldered, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD that can be upgraded after purchase, and a 14-inch FHD display with 16:9 aspect ratio. This exact model costs about $1,000 at Amazon. You can also find models at Walmart, though prices are a bit higher.
Last year I reviewed the AMD version of the 14-inch Swift 3 and came away mostly impressed, at least with everything but the display and keyboard. This model with AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD is still available at Amazon for about $680.
Following are the exact specs as found in my review unit of the Acer Swift 3 for 2021.
| Category |
|---|
| 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDUpgradeable |
| Two USB-A 3.2 HDMI |
| 12.7 x 8.4 x 0.63 inches |
| Weight |
Acer Swift 3 Keyboard And Touchpad
The backlit chiclet-style keyboard on the 14-inch Acer Swift 3 is not the largest and I was a little apprehensive, thanks to my obnoxiously large hands. However, there is a nice amount of travel between the clicky keys, which helped me while typing.
I took the 10fastfingers.com test and scored 78 words per minute with 86% accuracy, which is very solid when you take into consideration that I have thick hot Italian sausage fingers that can oftentimes be less than nimble.
The 4.2 x 2.7-inch touchpad is responsive when navigating websites or documents. The smooth surface is adept at performing Windows 10 gestures, such as two-finger swipes and three-finger taps. The bottom corners give firm feedback and are very clicky when using the right or left clicks.
Also Check: How To Clean Up A Dell Laptop
Acer Swift 3 Review: Webcam
Im truly impressed with how well the Swift 3’s 720p webcam picked up all of my features and tones. Located in the center of the top bezel, the camera has some haziness , but the picture appeared pretty clear for the most part.
Even though the image’s lighting seemed too bright, and the brightness flickers back and forth too often on video calls, the camera did very well with picking up the rosy tones on my cheeks and lips.
Acer Swift 3 Gaming Wrap Up
The Acer Swift 3 Gaming Laptop gets our seal of approval largely due to its excellent AMD Ryzen 7 processor. It not only works well with its AMD Radeon Graphics to ensure you have a smooth experience with Minecraft, but its 8-core design is a must-have for any doing school work. You need that multitasking potential, but also helps gaming.
You May Like: Keyboard Shortcut To Shutdown Computer
Is Acer Swift 3 A Good Laptop
Jackgold8 said:It depends, are you looking only for a laptop? If so, then probably a very good investment. Another good option would be to make your own desktop, which would only be if you dont care if its a laptop or desktop
Crinch said:not bad at all thats a good processor, it would be great for minecraft, does the laptop have a dedicated GPU at all? If so then this would be a great buy.I would buy some PC parts and build a mid-tier rig with that money but if your looking at a laptop fo rthe portability then this one is good for minecraft
IXXL said:I pretty sure the laptop has a Nvidia GPU, but i’m not sure what model.Thanks for the tips, I am currently looking for a portable device, and this seems like the best one.