Verdict
The Acer Swift 3 is fast , affordable and decent in most departments thanks to its upstanding connectivity and high - solving screen . But if you want more style , battery life or screen door quality then you ’ll have to find it elsewhere .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
There ’s no incertitude that the tech market is crammed with beguiling , luxurious laptops , but not everyone need one of those eminent - ending machines – or wants to spend that much cash . merrily , portable like the Acer Swift 3 aim to supply gamey - character computing without breaking the bank building .
On the exterior of this rig you ’ll see aluminium case and a QHD silver screen that fork up more versatility than the average 1080p gore , and internally the Acer boasts a rapid Intel processor .
In the US and UK you ’ll get this notebook ( example issue SF314 - 512 - 72NG ) for $ 949 and £ 899 , but in Europe the price is a little higher – at the meter of penning it baby-sit at € 1299 .
Still , those decent terms undercut lots of other notebook , and they should help the Acer contend against some strong rivals , including the $ 1299 / £ 1299 / € 1399Asus Zenbook S 13and theDell XPS 13 , which costs $ 1099 / £ 1179 / € 1499 with a spec to rival the Acer . Time will recount , though , if it can chance its way onto ourbest laptop computer chartor ourbest scholar laptop rundown .
Design and Keyboard
The Acer Swift 3 is a subtle , smart - bet machine . The aluminium admixture substructure tapers to a minute edge , and the tiny logos and deficiency of giddy feature of speech make for a ripe - looking design . And while there ’s a little flex in the keyboard deck of cards and display , the soma lineament is not a concern and this laptop computer is easily strong enough to withstand day-after-day life .
The Acer is pretty practical , too . Each side has a full - size USB 3.2 Gen 1 port wine , with one always - on for charging , and the rig also has twoThunderbolt 4ports – with one needed to charge the laptop . An HDMI 2.1 socket enables in high spirits - quality show turnout .
Internally , Acer ’s notebook deploy dual - bandWi - Fi 6Eand Bluetooth 5.2 alongside a crisp 1080p webcam . And while that webcam does n’t haveWindows Hellosupport or a privateness option , the power push button does have a fingermark reviewer for biometric login .
That ’s a substantial slate of connectivity features . Neither rival admit a lineup lector or a full - size USB porthole , both only have 720p webcams , and the Asus does n’t have Thunderbolt .
Get beyond this core functionality , though , and it becomes unclouded that the Acer is build to a budget .
The keyboard ’s clit are a bit loud and easy , and the backlight is a little uneven . It ’s fine for everyday work and utilize , but the Asus and Dell notebooks are steadfast , faster and more satisfying . likewise , the trackpad is small and its empty clit presses do n’t inspire much confidence .
There are some underwhelming design touches elsewhere . A card reader would have been overnice , and the Thunderbolt 4 ports are too close together – utilise one and you might block the other . On the interior , you get two M.2 connectors but the memory is solder and so is n’t usable for upgrading . There ’s nowired internet .
And while the Acer ’s 14 - column inch projection screen is a little bigger than the 13.3 - inch panels on the Asus and Dell cheat , the Swift ’s 1.25 kg free weight and 15.9mm - fatheaded eubstance mean the Acer is dumpy than those rigs . It does n’t look as voluptuary , either , thanks to its plastic silver screen bezel and small-scale aesthetical .
Screen
That 14 - column inch panel has a solving of 2560 x 1440 , which is a surprising figure for an affordable laptop computer – it outstrips the Dell XPS , unless you need to pay more for a 4 K upgrade .
That resolution mean you ’ve got a few more pel to play with when it come to undertake workaday workplace tasks and it defecate it easier to use two windows side - by - side .
There are some pleasing aspects to the screen ’s quality level : the demarcation ratio of 1619:1 is a howling image for any IPS exhibit and it ’s chiefly down to a deep 0.21 - nit fateful point . Those two factor ensure that the Acer ’s gore has lashings of depth and vibrancy , so picture show , TV shows and other medium file cabinet always bet bold and absorbing .
Elsewhere , though , affair are a morsel ordinary . While the Delta E of 1.68 is good , the Acer ’s panel only renders 91.8 % of thesRGB people of color gamutand less than 70 % of the Adobe RGB and DCI - P3 colour spaces . That means you ’ve only amaze the power for everyday work load , media playback , and entry - level creative labor . The display does n’t consist flat , either .
The luminosity tier of 340nitsis a bit restrictive , too – it ’s fine for indoor exercise but it means you ’ll struggle to see the screen door properly outdoors .
Both challenger are full . The Dell , by nonremittal , includes a 1920 x 1200 IPS display – but while it ca n’t match the Acer for resolution , its 500 - nit brightness point improves versatility and it has more accurate semblance and a all-encompassing gamut than the Acer . It ’s also possible to advance to OLED , although Price start at £ 1619 and the OLED panel is only uncommitted in the UK at the clock time of publishing .
The Asus is the clear winner : by nonpayment this $ 1299 / £ 1299 / € 1399 fishing rig has a 2880 x 1800 OLED screen with superb contrast and colour thanks to about - perfect sRGB , Adobe RGB and DCI - P3 treatment . Both challenger also expend 16:10 aspect ratios , so they have more vertical space than the 16:9 Acer .
If you ’d like a bit of OLED magic in the Acer then purchaser in the US can fork out $ 1,199 for an upgraded version of this notebook with a 2880 x 1800 resolution and a beefier Core i7 - 12700H processor .
Do n’t expect much from the speakers , no matter which sieve you buy – they ’re cheap and underwhelming , with no renowned sea bass . Headphones or a headset will be far dependable .
Performance
Intel ’s Core i7 - 1260P has rapidly become a pop laptop processing option , and that ’s no wonder – this mid - power part offers versatility thanks to four Hyper - Thread performance essence , a top pep pill of 4.7GHz , and eight Es - cores for less - demand job .
Elsewhere , though , the specification is more middling . There ’s 16 GB of dual - epithelial duct memory but it ’s DDR4 – and both rivals use fasterDDR5RAM . The 1TBSSD’sread and write speeds of 3642MB / s and 3645MB / s wo n’t slow you down , but the Asus and Dell notebooks both have fast storage . And there ’s no right art core here – just an integrated Intel Iris Xe Saratoga chip .
Despite those cutback , the Core i7 central processor does n’t permit the side down inbenchmarks . Its Geekbench single- and multi - core resolution of 1714 and 10297 are terrible for this class of auto : the Asusused an AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor and was far slower , andthe Dell’si5 - 1230U and i7 - 1250U are even further behind .
The CPU ’s upper amend the Acer ’s versatility . It never stuttered when running multiple apps , including a web internet browser with loads of open tabs alongside medium and authority tools , and the Intel chip can cover some canonic photo- and video - redaction too – you wo n’t get that form of power from the Asus and Dell notebooks .
When the Asus be $ 1299 / £ 1299 / € 1399 and the Dell ’s Core i7 shape initiate at $ 1099 / £ 1179 / € 1499 , that ’s impressive .
The Acer is a great caloric performing artist , too – even when pelting through the toughest labor the buff noise is minor and the outside is middling nerveless . It wo n’t cause any topic here .
The only performance downside is that Intel Iris Xe graphics core . Its3DMarkTime Spy result of 1,998 indicates that it ’ll only handle canonic games and it wo n’t offer much aid to creative workloads , and the Radeon core alongside the Ryzen 7 6800U in the Asus is fast .
Better value is available if you do n’t need a processor with multi - tasking and originative ability . For just $ 796 / £ 649 / € 999 you ’ll get a version of this equipage with a Core i5 - 1240P and 8 GB of memory . It ’s a fine fleck for World Wide Web - browsing and place work , but that ’s it .
Battery Life
I extracted sundry results from the Swift ’s relatively low 56Wh power pack . With the showing brightness ramp up and an routine workplace benchmark loaded the Acer go 7hrs 42mins .
It ’ll fight to make it through a working Clarence Shepard Day Jr. unless you modulate down the filmdom brightness or do n’t expend much of the processor ’s potential superpower .
In a pic benchmark with the display brightness lour the Swift was far good , with a result of 14hrs 15mins .
This longevity tally the Asus and outpace the Dell , but you ’re not always going to get a full Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of use from the Swift before needing to plug away in . Also remember that if you corrupt the OLED version of the automobile then assault and battery life will drop even further .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
:
The Acer Swift 3 is cheap and faster than its cardinal rival , so it ’s ideal if you want affordable powerfulness – and it ’s decent in most other departments , too .
Pricier rivals have better barrage and slicker designs , and the Acer ’s exhibit can only really handle everyday workloads .
Final Thoughts
The Acer Swift 3 deploy an Intel Core i7 processor to great force – it ’s got the business leader for most everyday work load and it ’s faster than rivals . Elsewhere its excogitation , connectivity and biotechnology are all fair , and it ’s chintzy than competitor . But while this is a good everyday machine , you ’ll easily find more finesse elsewhere .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we go over give out through a series of uniform checks designed to guess key aspects include anatomy quality , carrying out , screen quality and battery life .
These include formal man-made benchmark and scripted test , plus a series of real - world checks .
FAQs
No , the Acer Swift 3 does not have a touch screen .
Test Data
Full Specs
