Acer Swift 1 Sf114 32 Ssd

Laptop Mag Verdict

Acer's Swift 5 delivers a vivid xiv-inch display and long battery life in an impossibly lightweight chassis.

Pros

+
Colorful fourteen-inch display
+
Featherweight pattern
+
Nifty looks
+
Practiced bombardment life
+
Priced to sell

Cons

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Frustrating keyboard layout
-
Only 8GB of RAM (for now)
-
Weak speakers

Acer Swift five (2020) specs

Price: $999
CPU: Intel Cadre i7-1065G7
GPU: Intel Iris Plus
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 512GB
Display: 14 inches, 1080p
Battery: 9:07
Size: 12.5 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
Weight: 2.two pounds

Acer'due south Swift v is a featherweight champion. At just 2.two pounds, it is 1 of the lightest 14-inch notebooks e'er fabricated. Heck, it's even lighter than the vast bulk of 13-inch laptops on the market. Yet despite its size, the Swift 5 delivers long bombardment life to go along with a vivid 1080p brandish. And at $999 for a model with a Core i7 CPU and 512GB of RAM, this remarkably lightweight machine is priced to sell.

In that location are some kinks to atomic number 26 out. The keyboard, while comfy, has a frustrating layout for anyone who uses the "delete" central. Also, Acer sells the Swift five with only 8GB of RAM right at present and its Cadre i7 CPU isn't the fastest, so power users might want to look elsewhere. Nonetheless, the Swift 5 is a fantastic laptop if portability is a priority.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) price and configuration options

Simply a pair of Swift 5 configurations are available as I write this review. For $899, you can get the base version with a Core i5-1035G1 CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Our $999 upgrades the processor to a Core i7-1065G7 but keeps everything else the aforementioned.

But this isn't the full story. Acer looks prepared to release another version with Nvidia's new MX350 discrete GPU. Nosotros'd dear information technology if a ii.2-pound laptop could play modernistic AAA games, so we'll see if Acer will send us a unit when they go far.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) design

Acer'south Swift 5 was i of few laptops I reviewed terminal twelvemonth that gave me a genuine "wow" moment. That rare feeling happened when I lifted the laptop and felt its remarkably lightweight chassis. Surely, this was a prop — some hollowed-out gag posing as an Acer laptop. Then a magic fob: I lifted the lid and the display turned on.

The latest Swift five gives me the same bizarre feeling that what I'k belongings can't possibly weigh so footling. If anything, the effect is amplified on the new model as Acer downsized the screen from fifteen.vi to 14 inches. As a event, this new Swift 5 dropped in size and weight to merely 12.five ten viii.three x 0.half-dozen inches and 2.ii pounds. That makes this featherweight notebook lighter than the 13.three-inch MacBook Air (0.6 inches, 2.8), the xiii.5-inch Surface Laptop 3 (0.vi inches, ii.9 pounds) and even the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (0.six inches, 2.iv pounds).

If the portability of this magnesium-alloy chassis doesn't grab your attending, its alluring pearlescent hue will. Acer calls it charcoal blue, but call up more indigo with a dab of light-green. If that wasn't eye-catching enough, Acer went with a gold font on the keys; Some might observe the colour combo to exist a tad garish just it works for me.

A gold swivel and chrome Acer logo on the chapeau puts a bow on the elegant design. Other notable elements include a fingerprint sensor on the deck and a notch to make the lid easier to open.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) ports

Port selection on the Swift 5 is decent. On the left side is a Thunderbolt three port, USB 3.1 Blazon-A input and an HDMI connection.

On the right side of the laptop is a 2d USB three.1 port, a headphone/mic jack and a Kensington lock.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) display

The 14-inch, 1080p display on the Swift 5 is colorful and relatively bright. Some screens are either overly reflective or matte to the point of looking washed out. The panel on the Swift 5 strikes a nice rest between the 2.

Wonder Woman'south awesome armor glistened a deep scarlet reddish while her golden whip beamed into my eyes when I watched a trailer for Wonder Woman 1984. Chris Pino's bluish eyes were the same aqua hue as the pristine ocean around Themyscira. It might not be a 4K panel simply the Total-HD screen was so detailed that I could see the tattered edges around Wonder Woman's hand bandages.

Based on our colorimeter readings, the Swift 5'southward brandish covers 120% of the sRGB color gamut, making it more than vivid than screens on the MacBook Air (113%) and the 1080p ThinkPad X1 Carbon (109%). The displays on the Surface Laptop 3 (121%) and the average laptop (122%) are about as colorful as the Swift 5's.

With a peak brightness of 296 nits, the Swift 5 can be easily viewed outside on a bright twenty-four hour period, although the screens on competing laptops go even brighter. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon (336 nits), the MacBook Air (386 nits), the Surface Laptop iii (348 nits) and the category average (356 ntis) all breached the 300-nit mark.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) keyboard and touchpad

Oh, no, not again. This power push thing needs to end. I complained virtually it in my Asus ExpertBook B9450 review, and I'll happily exercise it again. Placing the ability push button next to the delete key and making it the same shape and size is request for people to inadvertently ability off their laptop. It needs to be stock-still in the next model.

With that out of the mode, let's talk about the typing experience. Aureate font aside, there isn't annihilation particularly noteworthy near the keyboard. Information technology feels expert to type on — the keys are clicky and there is a decent amount of travel despite the slim chassis. The arrow keys are small, simply all the other keys are a good size and appropriately spaced out.

I typed at a zippy 121 words per minute with an accuracy of 96% on the 10FastFingers.com typing test. That outpaces my usual 119-wpm and with fewer errors.

The 4.1 x ii.5-inch touchpad on the Swift 5 is fine. It's not the smoothest, so my cursor felt jumpy at times simply I had no issues using Windows ten gestures, like pinch-to-zoom and three-finger swipe to flip between apps. The integrated left- and right-click buttons, however, are stiff and loud.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) audio

Make certain to add a good Bluetooth speaker or wireless earbuds to your online shopping cart when you buy the Swift 5. The bottom-firing speakers on this laptop sounded tinny and sparse when I listened to John Mayer'south "Tiresome Dancing in a Burning Room." Mayer's voice was piercing and the drums had and then picayune depth it sounded similar someone hitting a forest block. Glass Animals' "Your Dear (Déjà Vu)" lacked bass and didn't become loud plenty to fill my small apartment.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) functioning

Armed with an Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU and 8GB of RAM, the Swift five delivered enough power for me to write this review with no fewer than 16 Google Chrome at any given time. I didn't notice any stuttering, even when I launched a scattering of 1080p YouTube videos and a Twitch stream. That said, power users might want to await for a model with 16GB of RAM, particularly since retentivity isn't upgradable.

Our benchmark tests yielded mixed results. The Swift v crushed the MacBook Air (ii,738, Core i5-1030NG7) on the Geekbench 5 test but was decimated by the Surface Laptop 3 (4,801, Core i7-1065G7) by about the same margin. The Acer also fell brusque of the category average (iv,231) and couldn't meridian the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (15,648, Core i5-8265U) on the Geekbench four.one test, landing a score of xv,097.

Intel's 10th Gen Ice Lake fries really struggle on our video-transcoding test, and the Swift v suffers for it. The laptop needed 20 minutes and 5 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution, which is longer than it took the category boilerplate (xix:47) or the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (16:52). The MacBook Air (27:10) and the Surface Laptop 3 (24:55), both of which are equipped with Ice Lake CPUs, needed even more time.

The 512GB Yard.two PCIe SSD in the Swift v delivers slightly below-average speeds. It took the laptop 10 seconds to indistinguishable 4.97GB of multimedia files for a transfer rate of 494.1 megabytes per 2d. In comparing, the storage drives in the Surface Laptop 3 (541.iv MBps), the MacBook Air (1,302 MBps) and the premium laptop average (615.half-dozen MBps) are much speedier.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) graphics

You lot won't be playing AAA games at loftier graphics settings until the MX350 GPU arrives but the Intel Iris Plus graphics in the electric current model do a decent job.

To that indicate, the laptop clocked a 106,849 on the 3DMark IceStorm Unlimited test, crushing the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (81,350) and the premium average (104,237).

On our existent-world examination, the Acer played Clay 3 at 51 frames per second (fps), which revs by the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (31 fps) and the Surface Laptop 3 (47 fps) but falls short short of the category average (60 fps), which is buoyed by gaming laptops with discrete GPUs.

Acer Swift five (2020) battery life

I wasn't expecting the Swift v to final very long in our battery test given its size. Once again, the laptop proved me wrong by enduring for 9 hours and 7 minutes while spider web surfing with the screen set up to 150 nits.

That great result tops the category average (8:42) and is in the same ballpark every bit the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (ix:thirty), the MacBook Air (9:31) and the Surface Laptop 3 (9:17).

Acer Swift five (2020) webcam

I commend Acer for plumbing fixtures the webcam on the height bezel, even if the motion-picture show quality is mediocre. My rosy face up was a pumpkin-orange color in a selfie I snapped in my apartment and there was a lot of visual noise. It volition practice in a pinch, no incertitude, simply an external webcam delivers much better image quality for video conferencing.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) rut

The Swift v kept its absurd in our estrus testing, peaking at 94 degrees Fahrenheit, or a slight breeze below our 95-degree condolement threshold. Parts of the laptop you lot'll actually touch, similar the keyboard (89 degrees) and the touchpad (84 degrees), were fifty-fifty more temperate.

Acer Swift 5 (2020) software and warranty

In typical Acer fashion, the Swift v is pre-loaded with a bunch of unnecessary apps. If there is i you should keep, it's Acer Intendance Middle. This one-stop shop app shows yous system information and gives you quick links to update the latest drivers or melody up your laptop'due south operation.

I just wish other Acer apps — Product Registration and Documents — were incorporated into the Care Center app. Other Acer-branded apps include PhotoDirector for Acer and PowerDirector for Acer, a pair of basic video- and photo-editing programs.

Microsoft also did its part taking away valuable storage space. You lot'll find a handful of Windows 10 Home apps, including Candy Crush Friends, Farm Heroes Saga and Microsoft Solitaire Collection. 3rd-political party apps — arguably the worst of the bunch — include Amazon, Booking, Evernote, ExpressVPN, Norton Security and Hearts Deluxe.

The Swift 5 ships with a 1-twelvemonth hardware warranty. Meet how Acer fared on our Best and worst brands and Tech back up showdown special reports.

Bottom line

There are several laptops and tablets lying effectually my apartment merely I establish myself grabbing the Swift five over the others. That's considering the Swift 5'due south staggeringly lightweight chassis required fiddling effort to carry around and I could reliably count on in that location existence enough battery life remaining. I too really enjoyed watching content on the 14-inch, 1080p display, which is plenty brilliant and blocks reflections.

If Acer tin can redesign the keyboard layout with a new ability push button and tweak the touchpad, then the Swift five could be a serious contender to pricier machines, similar the Dell XPS thirteen and HP Spectre x360 13. Until then, the Swift 5 is an excellent value for anyone on a strict $i,000 budget for a portable laptop. Although, some might desire to wait for upcoming configurations with an MX350 GPU and 16GB of RAM.

Acer Swift v (2020) Specs

Size	12.5 10 eight.3 ten 0.half dozen inches
Brandish	14 inches, 1080p
CPU	Intel Core i7-1065G7
Toll	$999
GPU	Intel Iris Plus
Bombardment	9:07
Weight	2.two pounds
Storage	512GB
RAM	8GB

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Phillip Tracy is the assistant managing editor at Laptop Mag where he reviews laptops, phones and other gadgets while covering the latest industry news. Afterwards graduating with a journalism caste from the University of Texas at Austin, Phillip became a tech reporter at the Daily Dot. There, he wrote reviews for a range of gadgets and covered everything from social media trends to cybersecurity. Prior to that, he wrote for RCR Wireless News roofing 5G and IoT. When he's non tinkering with devices, yous can find Phillip playing video games, reading, traveling or watching soccer.