Acer’s Swift 5 is a Great Portable Laptop That’s Missing a Modern Edge

Acer ’s Swift 5 laptop computer has stood for class as a compelling value pick in the premium ultraportable laptop segment . You could by and large recover one with better specs at the same or a lower price than other flagships like the XPS 13 orLenovo Yoga 9i . The newest Swift 5 , now with an update design and faster components , competes with these models more straight . At $ 1,549 , the Swift 5 is swim alongside the large fish , but this contemporaries manages to keep its head above weewee thanks to some smart updates .

I ca n’t get much fault with this scheme , which is among the fast in its class and pairs that stop number with an attractive anatomy and a useful array of ports . It is n’t perfect , by any mean : the speakers are light , there is lading of bloatware , and a shallow keyboard and stiff touchpad buttons hamper the experience . None of those are mess - breaker , and yet , the Acer Swift 5 is n’t the first laptop I ’d recommend in this price class . That ’s not because it does anything incorrect , but rather , because it does n’t go in any family nor does the figure feel as premium as those of some rival machines . That suppose , if you want a straightforward portable notebook computer , the Swift 5 is an excellent choice .

Acer Swift 5

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

Acer ’s Swift 5 is a top - notch 14 - inch ultra - thin laptop with fast performance , a promising display , and many porthole . Others in this category , however , offer more innovational features .

What is it ?

A 14 - inch portable laptop computer

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

Price ?

$ 1,549

Pros

Acer Swift 5

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

Attractive , portable chassis ; profligate performance ; vivid display ; near port wine selection ; Decent 1080p webcam ; run chill

Cons

infirm speaker , Bloatware , Shallow keyboard , No IR camera , Magnesium alloy bottom palpate plasticky

Acer Swift 5

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

Elegant design, plenty of ports

This is , by far , the most handsome Swift 5 . premature models had a cheap , jejune spirit and lacked some of the elegant plan elements found on laptops like theYoga 9ior HP Spectre x360 14 . Acer made some saucy refinements to an existing platform here , adding anodized gold metal plating along the edge , an speech pattern that gives the Swift 5 a luxurious appearance . I also care the greenish and gold color scheme ( Acer calls it Mist Green ; Steam Blue is also available ) , a unique yet sophisticated pairing that extends from the eyelid to the deck , and even the touchpad and keyboard .

The Swift still does n’t sense quite as robust as others in this course of instruction . That ’s part down to it not having a unibody design like the MacBook Air or Razer Blade 13 , meaning there is a furrow between the bottom panel and deck . The other reason is that the Swift 5 uses a mixture of aerospace - grade aluminium ( top screening ) and Mg alloy ( bottom ) , the latter of which Acer say toughens the chassis . In my opinion , it does so at the expense of have moderately charge card - feeling surfaces . The good news is that the bod quality is great — the tolerances are all tight , the hinge palpate loaded , and there is n’t any creak or snap .

The Swift 5 offer a generous excerption of ports for its size of it . On the right is a USB 3.2 character - A input next to a 3.5 mm headphone tar and a Kensington lock slot . On the opposite side are two Thunderbolt 4 port ( I wish these were split up on each side ) , an HDMI 2.1 , and a second USB Type - A input . Speaking of size , the Swift 5 measure 12.2 x 8.4 x 0.6 inch and weighs 2.7 pound .

Acer Swift 5

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

Bright, high-res display

Acer equips the Swift 5 with a 14 - in , 2560 x 1600 - pixel ( WQXGA ) IPS touchscreen with a 16:10 aspect ratio . The display look great . Text and high - res paradigm are detailed and keen thanks to the strong pixel density .

colour , though not as impressive as what you get on an OLED or mini - LED panel , are punchy and accurate . Helping everything shine is the screen ’s telling 515 nits of maximal brightness , which make it potential to see this very glistening panel on a sunny day .

Some features fall just short

The backlit keyboard is fair standard , the sort of thing you ask from an ultrathin laptop . Key traveling is shallow and not peculiarly tactile . That said , my hands feel right at home on the traditional layout , so my above - fair 114 - parole per minute at a 95 % truth result on a standardised online typewriting test came as no surprisal .

I wish well these samara were springy , and I press Acer to relocate the power release from the top - right corner to keep user from accidentally powering off the system when attain for the “ delete ” key . That power key doubles as a fingermark detector , which rise very authentic in my examination .

Gold prune around the touchpad supply some class to the purpose , and the smooth OceanGlass ( made of ocean - restrict charge card wasteland ) surface sense buttery suave against my fingertips , effectively imitating a substantial glassful Earth’s surface . Erratic swipes were precisely tracked and I did n’t lead into any problem action gestures like three - finger swipe up to exchange windows . My only ill is the inclemency of the remaining and right clickers — they call for a routine too much force to press and make an obnoxiously flashy “ click . ”

Acer Swift 5

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

A quick word on the webcam : Acer uses a 1080p sensor with temporal randomness diminution . The picture quality is pretty in force . Visual noise was kept to a minimum in my pallidly ignite billet and the tv camera captured productive , accurate coloring material . What is n’t so good are the Swift 5 ’s speakers . They sound okay but do n’t get loud enough to pump out room - fill audio . And I ’m not surprised – the Swift has dual , bottom - firing speakers in a world where quad speakers ( often top - facing ) are becoming the norm .

Uncompromised performance

build up with an Intel Core i7 - 1260P CPU and 16 GB of RAM , the Swift 5 did an admirable job of powering my workload . I used the organization for over a week and did n’t run into too many problem ; at least , not after clean this affair of bloatware . Webpages and apps load quickly without a hint of sluggishness . Even my tragically poor tab key direction did n’t pose a challenge for the Swift 5 , which chug along as I opened heaps of Chrome lozenge . There were a few farsighted pauses when open new web Page as others work in the background , and the fan often give out my meditative silence at apparently random intervals . To its credit , the system appease cool throughout my testing .

On the Geekbench 5 overall performance benchmark , the Acer Swift 5 scored an prominent 9,585 , narrowly topping the Yoga 9i ( 9,516 ) , and demolishing theMicrosoft Surface Laptop 4(6,643 ) andSpectre x360 16(4,441).Apple ’s MacBook Airwith an M1 C.P.U. nock a 7,441 and even theMacBook Pro 13with M2 ( 8,603 ) could n’t surpass the Acer .

It took the Swift 5 four minute and 36 seconds to render a 3D image using the Blender app , a metre that puts it ahead of the Yoga 9i ( 6:00 ) on equation with the MacBook Pro 13 ( 4:36 ) , but behind the Asus ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition ( 3:26 ) . Laptops we reviewed with last - gen specs require double - digit time to fulfil this labor .

Acer Swift 5

Acer Swift 5Photo: Phillip Tracy/Gizmodo

Also fairly quick is the Swift 5 ’s 1 TB PCIe SSD , which needed 8 minutes and 56 seconds to convert a 4 M video clip to 1080p using the Handbrake app . While that just edges out the Yoga 9i ( 9:02 ) , it precipitate well short of theSamsung Galaxy Book(6:05 ) . The Surface Laptop 4 ( 8:49 ) and MacBook Air ( 8:52 ) were in a practical sleeper with the Swift .

This being an radical - portable laptop , the Swift rely on integrated graphics and does n’t have the sinew to replace a right gaming rig . When running the Civilization VI bench mark at 1080p , the laptop computer ’s Iris Xe graphics notch 53 frames per second . That ’s playable , and even in the lead of the ZenBook 14X OLED ( 44 fps ) , but prove the Swift to be no equal for more intensive games .

Falling short on battery life

The Swift 5 lasted for 7 hours and 36 minute on our battery test , which necessitate video playback with the screen set to 200 nits . That result is rather disappointing considering the Surface Laptop 4 ( 12:21 ) , Yoga 9i ( 8:41 ) , and Spectre x360 16 ( 8:48 ) stayed power for several additional hour .

The late Swift 5 was laud for its lengthy runtimes , so we ’re currently rerun the barrage fire test and will update this clause if our results modify . When your battery runs out , Acer figure you get four hours of juice from a 30 minutes commission . That is , if the frustratingly short powerfulness electric cord even touch your USB - C charging port .

Should you buy the Acer Swift 5?

As great as this laptop computer is , the answer is n’t a definitive “ yes . ” That ’s because , at $ 1,549 , the Swift 5 plays in the same conference as the excellent Lenovo Yoga 9i , HP Spectre x360 14 , and the new Dell XPS 13 ( not yet review ) . blab about toughened rival .

Would I select the Swift 5 over those model ? belike not . While it does n’t have any major drawbacks , this Acer loses a few point for its sapless loudspeaker system , lob of bloatware , and a pattern that front great but does n’t experience as expensive as others . I ’m also not a huge sports fan of the keyboard and the loud , stiff touchpad clickers cheapen the experience .

If you are n’t bothered by those shortcomings , then the Swift 5 is a authentically big option that delivers great performance and a hopeful , gamy - res display in an elegant chassis .

Acer Swift 5