The Acer Swift 3 offers amazing performance and battery life for a cheap price
Tom’s Guide Verdict
The Acer Swift 3 features amazing performance and great battery life, but its display could be brighter.
Pros
- Amazing battery life
- Powerful performance
- Affordable
- Lightweight
Cons
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Price: 649.99 CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U GPU: AMD Radeon graphics RAM: 8GB Storage: 512GB SSD Display: 14-inch, 1080p Battery: 11:09 Size: 12.7 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches Weight: 2.65 pounds
The Acer Swift 3 may be the affordable laptop that gives you the best bang for your buck, that you’re looking for. It offers incredible battery life that will last you for most of your day, whether it be at work or school. It also offers great performance thanks to the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU. Not to mention it’s extremely light and compact, making it easy to carry around with you. How much? Just 649 — relatively affordable. You can get an even lower price by using one of our Acer promo codes.
However, this Acer Swift 3 review will show why it’s display isn’t exactly perfect for streaming Netflix or Disney Plus. And with the speakers being located on the bottom of the laptop, you can an audio experience that you can’t call immersive. But, when you consider the great performance and battery life, the Acer Swift 3 is definitely one of the best laptops.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD): Price, release date and configuration options
The Acer Swift 3 unit I tested was released earlier this year and costs 630 at Amazon right now, discounted from 679. It comes with a 14-inch, 1080p display, a 2-GHz AMD Ryzen 7 4700U octa-core processor, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and an AMD Radeon GPU.
If you’re looking to save a little bit of money, you may be able to find the base model, which starts at 619 and comes with a 14-inch, 1080p display, a 2.3 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 4500U hexa-core processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD and an AMD Radeon GPU. This specific model is offered in two different colors: Silver and Pink.
The AMD-based Acer Swift 3 came out on April 27, 2020.
If you happen to be in the market for something more powerful than our review model, there’s the 949 version. You get some of the same specs as our model, like the 14-inch, 1080p display, a 2-GHz AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, octa-core processor and AMD Radeon GPU, but you’ll upgrade to16GB of RAM and a 1TB of SSD.
There is also an Intel variant that you can purchase, which costs 699, and comes with a 14-inch, 1080p display, an Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor, 8GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and an Intel UHD GPU.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) 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 keyboard’s 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. You’ll 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 (both AMD and Intel versions) is super-light, weighing just 2.7 pounds, making it slightly more portable than the HP Envy 13 (2.8 pounds). The Acer Swift 3 measures 12.7 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches, making it slightly thicker than the HP Envy (12.9 x 8.9 x 0.5 inches), which has a slightly larger footprint.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Ports
There are a decent number of ports included with the Acer Swift 3.
On the right side there is a Kensington lock slot, a USB Type-A 2.0 port and headphone jack. It also features a battery charge indicator. Meanwhile, the left side has the DC jack, one USB Type-C port, an HDMI port and one USB Type-A 3.2 port. Below the keyboard on the right side is a small rectangle, which is the fingerprint reader.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Display
The Acer Swift 3 has a 14-inch, 1080p display that’s incredibly dim and flat. I could tell by just looking at the desktop that the colors wouldn’t be as bold as they should have been.
While watching a trailer for The Broken Heart Gallery, I noted that the picture was very crisp and clear, and it would have been enjoyable to watch, but the dullness of the color really took away from the whole experience. In a scene showing off an urban landscape, the faded appearance of the light and color distracted me from what I was seeing. Considering that the whole movie is supposed to be about art, it’s hard to enjoy when the color is so bland.
At just 251 nits of brightness, the Acer Swift 3 fell short compared to the 285-nit mainstream laptop average and the 387-nit HP Envy 13. However, it did surpass the Intel version of the Swift 3, which peaked at 224 nits.
As what may have been expected, the color production wasn’t great for the Acer Swift 3. According to our colorimeter, the Acer Swift 3 produced 62% of the sRGB color gamut, falling short of the Intel Swift 3’s 66%, and falling below the HP Envy 13’s 99%. It doesn’t even come close to the category average of 91%.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Keyboard and touchpad
The Acer Swift 3 has a nice sized keyboard that’s decent for typing, but it doesn’t come with a numpad and its palm rest is on the small side (an issue for those with larger hands). Clicking the keys, however, provided an extremely enjoyable typing experience, with each press delivering soft, quiet clicks, which is perfect for a work or school setting.
When taking a typing test on 10fastfingers.com, I managed to hit 48 words per minute, which is not far off from my 53 wpm average. But while it was easy to type on the laptop, the palm rest area was tiny, which led to my accidentally brushing against the touchpad.
Visually, the keys all blend in with the metallic deck, and it didn’t help that the font of the keys is in a dark gray, which made it blend a bit into all of the grey/silver. The lack of contrast would be easier if the keys had more than one backlight brightness option.
As I navigated Windows 10, I found that the Swift 3’s silver 4.2 x 2.6-inch touchpad offers extremely precise scrolling and cursor control. Visually, you might not even notice it’s there, were it not for the indentation around it.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Audio
The Acer Swift 3 speakers, which are located on the bottom sides of the laptop, provides sound that is simply mediocre. While listening to “Hate Me” by Blue October, I noticed that guitars sounded clear and bold, including the bass that came through accurately. However, the vocals sounded so low, almost like someone was covering their mouth while trying to sing to me. Even with the volume at 100%, the speakers didn’t play any music very loud, which can be chalked up to the Swift 3 being designed with bottom-firing speakers.
Acer includes the DTS Audio Processing app, which provides some sound settings for customization. Its main sound modes are music, gaming, movies and custom audio (where you manually balance treble, vocals and bass). However, I preferred the sound with the app turned off, as there was a better balance to the vocals and instruments over the other modes.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Performance
This Acer Swift 3, running on the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processor with 8GB of RAM, provided serious speed for multitasking. At one point, I had five YouTube videos going simultaneously while juggling well over 50 Google Chrome tabs, without showing signs of slow down.
On the Geekbench 4.3 overall performance test, the Acer Swift 3 scored an amazing 19,163. Not impressed yet? The AMD Swift 3 surpassed the measly 14,641 score from Intel Swift 3 (10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1U processor with 8GB of RAM), which scored a, and the 15,738 from the HP Envy 13(Intel Core i7-8565U CPU and 16GB of RAM), and even beat the category average of 14,197.
The Swift 3 took 11 minutes to transcode a 4K video to 1080p on our HandBrake test. Though that sounds like a long while, it outperformed the mainstream laptop average of 20 minutes and 33 seconds. The Intel Swift 3 took 21 minutes and 26 seconds, while the HP Envy 13 took 23 minutes and 38 seconds.
In our file transfer test, the Acer Swift 3 copied 5GB of files at a rate of 462.7 megabytes per second, for a total of 11 seconds, which just barely makes it past the category average of 409.6 MBps. Once again, this crushed the HP Envy 13, which has a rate of 363.5 MBps.
The Acer Swift 3 comes with an AMD Radeon graphics card, which averaged at 79 frames per second on the Dirt 3 racing game benchmark. This surpasses the mainstream laptop average of 47 frames per second, and the Intel Swift 3, which produced 44 frames per second (yikes). However, the HP Envy got a win here, averaging at 92 frames per second.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Battery life
The Acer Swift 3 will absolutely wow you with how long it lasts on a single charge. While continuously browsing the web at 150 nits of brightness, the Swift 3 lasted 11 hours and 9 minutes. It will definitely last you your whole work day and then some. It also offers fast charging, so for 30 minutes of charge you can get 4 hours of use.
The AMD Acer Swift 3 flew by the Intel model (7:31), as well as the 7:56 category average. Meanwhile, the HP Envy 13 (11:11) just barely beat the Acer Swift 3 by two minutes.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Webcam
I’m 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 (standard for most laptop webcams), 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 (AMD) review: Heat
The Acer Swift 3 stayed pretty cool after we streamed a 15-minute, fullscreen 1080p video on it. The underside of the laptop reached 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit, staying way below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard reached 80.5 degrees while the touchpad stayed at 76.5 degrees. The laptop’s hottest point was located on the underside, to the left of the vents, and even then it stayed below our 95-degree comfort threshold, only getting to 87.5 degrees.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Software and warranty
The Acer Swift 3 comes with Windows 10 Home, which isn’t a surprise since it’s not a business laptop. Acer includes some preinstalled apps such as the Care Center, Quick Access, Acer Collections S and App Explorer. Care Center and Quick Access offer unique functions, like checking your warranty and enabling quick settings for blue light and such. Meanwhile the latter two apps are platforms that Acer uses to aggregate third-party software you can download.
Acer also preinstalled different apps that could be considered bloatware, including Norton, ExpressVPN, Skype, Simple Mahjong, Spades, Spotify, among others. Acer also provides some quick links to different websites, like Amazon and Booking.com.
The Acer Swift 3 comes with a one-year limited time warranty.
Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Verdict
The Acer Swift 3 offers amazing performance for its mid-range price, with its AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU, long battery life and a lightweight chassis. However, the display isn’t as bright as it should be and its speakers could use more pep as well.
If you’re looking for something with a brighter, more colorful display and some powerful speakers, you might want to check out the HP Envy 13, which runs for 799. Otherwise, this Acer Swift 3 review shows that it can provide you with a great laptop experience, and it would be especially good for those who are looking to use this more for work and school.
Acer Swift 3 (SF314-57-57BN) review: Thin, light, affordable, and Ice Lake, with Thunderbolt 3 to boot
Weighing less than three pounds and boasting a 10th-gen Intel Ice Lake CPU, the Acer Swift 3 packs in plenty of functionality and power given its 700 sticker price.
Best Today: Acer Swift 3 SF314-57-57BN
With its slim profile and featherweight form factor, the Acer Swift 3 deftly balances size, power, functionality and price. Retailing for 700 and weighing in at about two and a half pounds, the Swift 3 is an enticingly affordable quad-core laptop. While its Ice Lake performance is decidedly middle of the road, it stands toe-to-toe with its competitors without the usual roar of cooling fans. The inclusion of a Thunderbolt 3 port is a nice bonus given the Swift 3’s price range, although the IPS display is on the dim side.
Configuration
Acer offers a wide variety of Swift 3 laptops in 15.6-inch, 14-inch, and 13.3-inch configurations, along with Core i3, i5, and i7 models ranging from 8th-gen Kaby Lake all the way to 10th-gen Ice Lake (not to mention a single AMD Ryzen 5 version). At the lower end of the Swift 3 spectrum you’ll find a 14-inch Core i3 Kaby Lake configuration with a stingy 4GB of RAM and 128GB of solid-state storage for 480. On the upper end sits a 14-inch Core i7 Whiskey Lake system with 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and dedicated Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics for 1,000.
The 700 (or 650 at your local MicroCenter Remove non-product link ) Ice Lake model we’re reviewing sits in the upper third of the Swift 3 range:
- CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i5-1035G1U Ice Lake processor
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR4 RAM
- GPU: Intel UHD Graphics G1
- Display: 14-inch 1920×1080 full-HP IPS non-touch
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Networking: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) with 2×2 MU-MIMO
- Dimensions: 12.58 x 8.54 x 0.63 inches
- Weight: 2.51 pounds (without power brick), 3.46 pounds (with power brick)
This looks like a solid configuration at first glance, with that bright and shiny 10th-gen Ice Lake CPU certainly getting our attention. We’re also enticed by the roomy solid-state drive, while the Wi-Fi 6 radio means that this Swift 3 will be ready the moment you upgrade to a speedier, cutting-edge wireless router. The 8GB of low-power DDR4 RAM is fairly standard for a laptop in this price range (although 16GB would have been a nice bonus). The integrated UHD Graphics G1 core represents (as we’ll soon see) a substantial step up from Whiskey Lake’s integrated UHD 620 graphics, while still falling short of full-on discrete graphics performance.
As far as the Swift 3’s Ice Lake processor goes, you’ll have to temper your expectations. In our initial Ice Lake tests, we saw the CPU scoring high marks when it came to video encoding and other CPU-intensive tasks, but that’ll only happen if the manufacturer gives the chip free rein. A relatively thin, light, and inexpensive laptop like the Swift 3 won’t have the same cooling prowess as, say, a 1,500 or 2,000 laptop, so we’d expect Acer to dial down the performance of the Swift’s Ice Lake chip somewhat as a heat-management measure.
Design
As far as looks go, our steel-gray Swift 3 review unit is, well, a bit on the dull side, with a perfectly flat and featureless aluminum lid (save for the Acer logo in the middle), a sturdy hinge with the “Swift” brand engraved in the middle (subtle but stylish), and a pair of rear vents that are only exposed when the lid is open. In other words, nothing about the Swift 3 would particularly stand out on the shelf of your favorite big-box store.
That said, you’ll probably forgive the Swift 3’s pedestrian design once you pick it up and feel how light it is. Weighing just a hair over two and a half pounds (or nearly three and a half pounds if you count the power brick) and measuring a svelte 0.63 inches thick, the Swift 3 felt great in my hands. Toting it around in my pack for the day didn’t throw my back out of joint.
Beyond that, the only other design element of the Swift 3 worth mentioning (besides its display bezels, which we’ll cover momentarily) is the wide notch on the front edge of the laptop, which makes the lid a little easier to pry open.
Display
The Acer Swift 3’s full-HD 14-inch display gets off on the right foot thanks to its pleasingly thin 0.17-mm side bezels, with a bottom bezel that’s somewhat thicker (about three-quarters of an inch). The screen itself boasts solid viewing angles thanks to its IPS (in-plane switching) display technology, which means the screen brightness doesn’t seem to fade until you’re looking from the side at an angle greater than 45 degrees.
As with many budget laptops, however, the screen on the Acer Swift 3 is a bit on the dim side, measuring just 235 nits (or candelas) according to our readings. That’s a little less than our usual low-water mark of 250 nits, but it’s still pretty much in the standard brightness range that we’ve seen from laptops in the Swift 3’s sub-1,000 price range. During my testing, I found the Swift 3’s display reasonably easy on my eyes while indoors, although you might find yourself squinting at the screen if it’s in direct sunlight.
Keyboard, trackpad, speakers, and extras
The Acer Swift 3’s backlit keyboard felt pretty solid as far as bargain laptops go. Travel (or the distance that a given key moves when it’s struck) was a bit on the shallow side, but I liked the solid, tactile bump in the middle of the keystrokes as well as the refreshingly springy rebound. The keyboard is also relatively quiet given the Swift 3’s price range. (I’ve typed on quieter keyboards, but they generally come in laptops costing hundreds more than this one.)
I didn’t have any issues with the Acer Swift 3’s trackpad, which is centered more or less directly beneath the space bar. Generally speaking, my palms didn’t brush against the trackpad as I typed, but even when I dragged my palms on the trackpad deliberately, I had a hard time getting the cursor to jitter around.
The Acer Swift 3’s built-in stereo speakers actually aren’t horrible, and that’s saying something when it comes to the generally dull, tinny world of laptop speakers. Paired with Acer’s TrueHarmony sound processing, the two down-firing drivers deliver reasonably detailed sound, though occasionally thin and with hardly any bass response. (Hey, I didn’t say these speakers sounded great.) Needless to say, you’ll get much better sound if you plug in a pair of headphones or external speakers, but the Swift 3’s integrated speakers will do in a pinch.
Sitting just below the keyboard in the right corner is a Windows Hello-enabled fingerprint reader, handy for unlocking Windows and logging into compatible apps with a swipe of your finger. I used the fingerprint reader to log into my Windows account during most of my testing. The reader almost always recognized my fingerprint on the first try, then proceeded to unlock Windows in a few fractions of a second.
Ports
Let’s cut to the chase here: Thunderbolt 3, baby. It’s not often we see a Thunderbolt 3 port—perfect for power delivery, connecting a 4K or 5K display, or transferring data at up to 40Gbps—on a laptop in this price range, so we’re definitely jazzed about that.
Next to the Thunderbolt 3 port, which sits on the left edge of the Acer Swift 3, is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, as well as a full-size HDMI port and a barrel-shaped charging port.
On the right side, you get a USB 2.0 Type-A port, a combo audio jack, and a laptop security slot.
Missing from the port party: a media card reader. We’re seeing that less and less often on laptops, and you may not care if you’ve ditched your digital camera. On the other hand, we still use SD and microSD cards for phone and dash cam storage. It may be time to get a USB hub to fill out your connectivity needs.
General performance
Looks can be deceiving, and that’s particularly true when it comes to the Acer Swift 3’s benchmark results. True, the Swift 3’s scores tend to sit in the middle of the pack or lower, but the Swift is achieving these numbers without running up the high temperatures that many of its similarly priced competitors do. And yes, you’ll find better performing laptops with the Swift 3’s form factor, but not in its 700-ish price range.
PCMark 8
Our first benchmark, PCMark 8, measures how a laptop’s CPU handles such day-to-day tasks as web browsing, spreadsheet crunching, online shopping, and video chat. Given that most of the chores simulated by PCMark 8 work just fine on a single processor core, laptops with four CPU cores or more won’t necessarily get a leg up compared to cheaper, dual-core systems. Even the latest Ice Lake laptops may find themselves neck-and-neck with a dual-core Whiskey-Lake-powered system.
A PCMark 8 result of greater than 2,000 generally points to buttery-smooth Office performance, and the quad-core Acer Swift 3 easily crushes that score, along with all of the other laptops in our comparison chart. It’s worth noting that the cheaper, dual-core Acer Aspire 5, while coming in second-to-last in our PCMark 8 chart, pretty much sits with its pricier competitors in the 3,000-plus club.
HandBrake
Our processor-intensive HandBrake benchmark involves encoding a 30GB MKV video into a file format suitable for Android tablets. It’s a test that pushes laptop CPUs to the limit, as well as one in which the system with the most processor cores generally wins.
Looking at our results, the quad-core Acer Swift 3 turned in a satisfactory, if not exactly set-your-hair-on-fire performance. Its place near the bottom of the list is a bit deceiving, given how close it came to the four quad-core i5 laptops that finished the test (slightly) sooner. Indeed, instead of saying that the Swift 3 landed in fifth place, I’d call it more of a four-way tie for second. Up top is a Lenovo IdeaPad that’s thicker and heavier, and thus easier to cool, while lagging way behind is the dual-core Acer Aspire 5.
It’s worth noting that as opposed to what we usually see—and hear—during our HandBrake benchmark, the Swift’s cooling fans never roared to life during the test, namely because they didn’t have to. Indeed, the Swift’s processor clock speed never rose above 2.87GHz, which is well below the Core i5-1035G1’s maximum 3.6GHz boost clock. For the majority of the test (which can take up to an hour or more), the Swift’s CPU downshifted to about 2.0 GHz.
Of course, there’s a glass-half-full way of looking at the Swift 3’s OK-but-not-amazing HandBrake score, which is that the Swift managed to match the performance of several other quad-core laptops in our chart closely without breaking a sweat—and trust me, the cooling fans on the those competing laptops sounded like jet engines while they were running HandBrake. In other words, the Ice Lake-powered Swift 3 may not have been faster than its quad-core Whiskey Lake counterparts, but it’s probably way more efficient in terms of handling thermals.
Cinebench
Another CPU-intensive test, our Cinebench benchmark measures a laptop’s performance as it renders a 3D image in real time. Given that it only takes a few minutes to complete, versus an hour or so for HandBrake, Cinebench does a nice job of showing us how a laptop handles short bursts of activity under a heavy load.
Again, the Acer Swift 3 turns in a so-so performance, essentially tied with other quad-core Core i5 laptops (although that quad-core Whiskey Lake Lenovo Ideapad is looking pretty sharp up there in second place), while the quad-core Core i7 HP Envy 13 sits at the top of the chart. Coming in dead last is (unsurprisingly) the dual-core Acer Aspire 5.
As with the HandBrake benchmark, the Acer Swift 3 kept its cool with Cinebench, with its processor clock hovering around 2.3GHz and its cooling fans keeping quiet. Checking out its single-thread Cinebench performance, the Swift 3 actually steps up to third place, which speaks to the laptop’s single-core efficiency. So again, not the fastest, but quite possibly the coolest.
DMark Sky Diver 1.0
While its integrated Intel UHD Graphics G1 core is a step up from Intel’s earlier-gen UHD Graphics 620 GPU, the Acer Swift 3 is no gaming laptop. That said, we still wanted to take it for a spin with our 3DMark Sky Diver benchmark, which measures a laptop’s gaming and graphics prowess.
To our surprise, the Swift 3 managed to notch a fairly impressive Sky Diver score. It falls somewhat short of the Envy 13’s score, with its discrete GPU, but it’s still a significant jump over what we normally see from laptops with Intel’s integrated UHD Graphics 620 core. Mind you, don’t expect to see smooth visuals from Fortnite even at its lowest graphics preset (I tried, and the frame rate regularly dipped into the teens), but the Swift’s impressive Sky Diver score bodes well for pro video users needing to do a little work in Adobe Premiere.
Battery life
We test battery life by looping a 4K video using the stock Windows Movies TV player, with screen brightness set to about 250 nits (which meant dialing the brightness all the way up in the case of the Swift 3) and volume set to 50 percent, with earbuds connected.
The Acer Swift 3’s last-place standing in our battery drain chart looks worse than it is. With its 47 watt-hour battery, the Swift 3 has one of the smallest capacities of the laptops in our roundup, which is one way it manages to achieves its light weight for such a low price. The other laptops in our chart either have larger batteries but heavier shells (like the chart-topping Acer Aspire 5), or much larger price tags (like the HP Envy 13). A notable exception is the HP Pavilion x360, a 2-in-1 system that beats the Swift 3 by about 20 minutes with a smaller 40 watt-hour battery. That said, the Pavilion weights about a pound more than the Swift 3.
Bottom line
With its slim and light design, efficient (if not barn-burning) quad-core performance, and such extras as a Thunderbolt 3 port and support for the speedy new Wi-Fi 6 standard, the affordably priced Acer Swift 3 is a Smart choice for budget-minded productivity mavens who don’t want to be weighed down. We have our quibbles, such as the dim display and middling battery life, but those seem like reasonable compromises given this laptop’s svelte form factor and 700 price tag.
Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ
Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ is a Windows 10 Home laptop with a 14.00-inch display that has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. It is powered by a Core i5 processor and it comes with 8GB of RAM. The Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ packs 256GB of SSD storage.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 ac and it comes with 1 USB ports, HDMI Port ports.
As of 29th May 2023, Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ price in India starts at Rs. 59,990.
Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ Price in India
| Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ Laptop (Windows 11, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Intel Core i5-1240P, 12th Gen, Silver, 14.0 Inch) | ₹ 59,990 |
| Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ Laptop (Windows 10 Home, 8GB RAM, 256GB HDD, Intel Core i5, White, 14.0 Inch) | ₹ 127,276 |
Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ price in India starts from ₹ 59,990. The lowest price of Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ is ₹ 59,990 at Amazon on 29th May 2023.
Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ Full Specifications
| Brand | Acer |
| Model | Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ |
| Price in India | ₹59,990 |
| Model Number | 3 SF314-52G-55WQ |
| Series | Swift |
| Dimensions (mm) | 338.00 x 234.00 x 45.72 |
| Weight (kg) | 1.7 |
| Colours | White |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Home |
| Battery Cell | 4 |
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Acer Swift 3 SF314-52G-55WQ User Review and Ratings
After some in-depth review, I decided that this laptop would suit my needs. I’ve owned it for over a month and so far I can’t say a bad word about it. I do fairly heavy web development and moderate gaming and this can handle both quite well. It works to play newer games on low-med settings, but it’s never loud. just warm enough that it shouldn’t be on your lap for extended periods of time. Startup and loading programs is lightening quick.I generally run Eclipse, mysql, a few other dev tools, and a game simultaneously. No complaints so far!
Received it yesterday. Nice and lightweight, easy to tote around in my laptop shoulder bag. Beautiful glossy screen (comes with ‘gorilla glass’). Excellent specs for the price. I’ll be using it for school work, but the specs appear suitable for light gaming as well. I highly recommend the laptop.
Acer Swift 3 (2022) Review: A solid mainstream laptop, but it needs a bigger battery
The Acer Swift 3 for 2022 is faster than ever and has a sharper display, but those upgrades comes at the expense of battery life.
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The Acer Swift 3 is one of the mainstays in the company’s laptop lineup, and the 2022 model brings some very welcome improvements that make this a great laptop for most people. It’s got plenty of performance with Intel’s P series, up to a Quad HD display, and. potentially my favorite aspect. a very good webcam that makes it ideal for remote learning or work.
It’s not without its flaws, with battery life being one of the downsides of having such a powerful CPU and a sharp display, but if you don’t need to be away from an outlet for too long, it’s a great device. I also would have loved to see Windows Hello facial recognition support, but that’s far from a necessity.
For what it offers, the Acer Swift 3 is competitively priced, and it does come in a sleek package that makes it a laptop you can take anywhere and not get any weird looks. It’s not a laptop that will blow your mind in any specific way, but it covers all the basic needs you’d expect and it does it very well.
Acer Swift 3 (2022)
The Acer Swift 3 is a mainstream laptop with high-performance Intel processors and up to a Quad HD display.
Acer Swift 3: Pricing and availability
Acer announced the Swift 3 (2022) in March, but it took a few months for it to launch, with an official launch in June. Officially, the laptop starts at 849.99, but you can actually find some models for lower than that if you look around. Some models are available from Acer directly, but mostly you’ll find it at Amazon and other retailers as well.
The model Acer provided for this review is a high-end configuration (see the spec sheet below), and it’s officially priced at 999.99. You can save some money by going with a smaller 512GB SSD, which is still plenty of storage space.
Acer Swift 3: Specs
Intel Core i7-1260P (12 cores, 16 threads, up to 4.7GHz, 18MB cache)
Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics (96 EUs)
14-inch IPS, Quad HD (2560 x 1440), 210 DPI, 100% sRGB, up to 300 nits, Acer ComfyView
321 x 210.8 x 15.9 mm, 1.25kg
- 2 x Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C ports (40Gbps)
- 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (one always on for charging)
- 1 x HDMI 2.1
- 1 x microSD card reader
Dual stereo speakers with DTS Audio, Acer TrueHarmony Dual array microphones with Acer Purified.Voice
Killer Wi-Fi 6E AX1675i Bluetooth 5.2
1080p Full HD MIPI webcam with Temporal Noise Reduction
Design: The Acer Swift 3 looks like a laptop
As far as looks go, the Acer Swift 3 is an incredibly mundane product, at least in the variant that I got. Acer announced it to be coming in three colorways, but silver is really the only one I’ve been able to find, and it certainly seems to be the more widespread option. It makes sense, because silver laptops are the most popular, but it just doesn’t stand out at all, which is something I find myself wishing more laptops would do.
But just because it doesn’t look unique, that doesn’t mean it’s bad at all. The laptop is made from aluminum, which gives it a very premium feeling all around. While it’s subdued, it looks clean and sleek. The only thing that gives it away as a cheaper device is the plastic bezel around the display. And while the laptop is mostly made of metal, it still feels very light, weighing around 2.75lbs and measuring just 15.9mm thin. Picking up the laptop feels effortless, and I can easily imagine carrying this around in a backpack without much of an issue.
Aside from being somewhat generic in terms of how it looks, the only thing I can really point out with this design is that the hinge is just a little bit too stiff, and opening the lid with one hand is difficult. That’s far from a huge deal, though, and I suspect part of why that happens is that the laptop is designed to lift the base when you open the hinge, putting the keyboard at a more comfortable angle and improving airflow. That’s a fine compromise in my opinion.
Taking a look around the laptop, you’ll find two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side, along with one USB Type-A port and one HDMI port. I do wish these ports were a bit more spread out, as you might have some trouble plugging in peripherals with both Thunderbolt ports at the same time since they’re so close together. This is a side note, but my review unit was bumped before getting to me, so that’s why it looks like the lid is curving on the right side of the picture above.
The left side only has one USB Type-A port, a headphone jack, and a Kensington lock slot. I just feel like one of the Thunderbolt ports could have been on this side to even things out a bit more, but it’s not a big deal.
Display and webcam: 1080p webcams are finally standard
The Acer Swift 3 comes with a 14-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is pretty standard for the series. Of course, a taller display would be nice, but in this price range, this isn’t unexpected, and 16:9 displays still do the job just fine.
The 2022 model comes with a big upgrade, which is the inclusion of a Quad HD panel for the first time. You can still opt for the Full HD display and I think you’ll be just fine, but if you want something a little sharper, it’s nice to know you have the option now. I do think you have to weigh that against the cost in battery life that comes from the higher resolution. While it is sharper, I don’t think most people will notice a difference, and the Full HD display will use less power, which is probably something you need to consider with this laptop, as we’ll discuss later.
Aside from the resolution, the two panel options are similar. They reach up to 300 nits of brightness (according to Acer), which is more than enough for indoor use, though you might have some trouble working under direct sunlight. Acer also claims the display cover 100% of the sRGB color space, and based on our testing, that seems to hold up. It also covers 70% of NTSC, and 76% of Adobe RGB and DCI-P3.
I actually felt the display may have been a little warm during my usage, but our testing actually shows it’s a little on the cool side. The white point stays fairly consistent at different brightness levels, and the contrast ratio peaked at 1420:1, which is a pretty solid score. Plus, our testing actually shows that brightness can go up to just over 340 nits, which is noticeably higher than Acer’s claims and definitely nice to see.
It’s great to have a webcam this good.
For sound, Acer is using a pair of stereo down-firing speakers, which is fairly standard for this price range. They sound alright and they can get decently loud, though they don’t particularly stand out for their amazing quality. They’ll do the job fine, but they could also be better.
One of my favorite things about this laptop is right above that display. The laptop now has a 1080p webcam, and out of all the upgrades Acer could have made with this year’s iteration, I’m glad this was it. I’m always really happy to see high-quality webcams in a laptop, and I seem to be one of the few people that felt that way well before the past two years forced a lot more people to work remotely. I’m on video calls almost every day, and it’s great to have a webcam this good built-in. You can see a sample in the photo below.
Of course, it’s still a laptop webcam, so you shouldn’t expect the world from it, and it definitely looks very soft. But in good lighting conditions, you’re going to look pretty good with this camera, and at worst, it’s still solid compared to most webcams of the past. I even prefer it to the 1080p webcam on the Lenovo Yoga 6 I reviewed recently, and that was already pretty good.
Keyboard and touchpad: It gets the job done just fine
Talking about keyboards is something where the least you have to say, the better it generally is. The Acer Swift 3 is totally fine to type on, and I would say that’s enough praise, but it’s not the best keyboard out there. It took some getting used to coming from my desktop keyboard (of course), but I didn’t really have any major issues after a couple of hours. However, when testing this alongside the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s Gen 4 (that’s another review I have coming soon), it definitely became noticeable how much more comfortable Lenovo’s laptop feels to type on. The keys just feel more comfortable to press, while the Acer Swift 3 can feel a bit more shallow and it feels harder when it bottoms out.
But like I said, the keyboard on the Acer Swift 3 is totally fine, and it’s backlit, too, which is certainly welcome if you often work in dark environments. I will say, however, that the backlight is a little uneven, and because it’s so similar in color to the keys themselves, it can sometimes be hard to make out certain symbols on some of the keys, particularly during the day. You can work around that by just turning off the backlight, which also saves you a bit of battery, so it’s not a huge deal. An ambient light sensor might have helped here, turning off the backlight when there’s more light around you.
One thing I appreciate is the power button blends with the keyboard itself and Acer built the fingerprint sensor into it. That’s one of the big upgrades from past models, which had a fingerprint sensor near the touchpad which frankly looked kind of ugly. Now, it looks great, and the fingerprint sensor reads your fingerprint as soon as you press the power button, so it can sign you in to Windows right away when you get to the lock screen.
The touchpad itself is also about as good as you could want it to be. I can confirm that the annoying clicking noise I heard with my initial hands-on unit was just a result of pre-production hardware, and everything works great here, and it feels good to use. Again, this is the kind of thing where the least you say, the better it generally is, and I really have nothing negative to point out in this regard.
Performance: Intel 28W processors are fast, but battery life isn’t great
While I did go hands-on with the Acer Swift 3 and Swift 5 earlier this year, this is the first time I’m really coming to grips with testing performance and battery life on a device with Intel’s P-series processors. These new processors have a 28W TDP, and they’re clearly in existence to give Intel a performance advantage over the Apple M1 and M2. After all, Intel used to make 28W processors exclusively for specific MacBook models, so now that Apple has moved on, it makes sense for them to be available on Windows machines.
Acer Swift 3 (2022) Intel Core i7-1260P
Surface Pro 8 Intel Core i7-1185G7
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 Intel Core i7-1260P
My unit comes with an Intel Core i7-1260P, and that means it has 12 cores and 16 threads, making for a very fast laptop across the board. Looking at the graphs below, you can see there’s a big leap in performance compared to laptops with last-gen Intel processors with 15W, and it also seems to perform better than some other laptops with the same processor. It’s all about cooling, because a lot of laptops that have been upgraded to 28W processors didn’t necessarily make enough changes to keep those CPUs running cool. They generate a lot more heat than 15W models, so using the same thermal design doesn’t really work.
Intel P-series burns through battery much more quickly.
This aligns with my personal experience, as I never found myself wanting more performance. Everything runs as smoothly as you could want it to, and multi-tasking isn’t a problem at all, at least with 16GB of RAM. 8GB should still be fine for most people, but if you like having a lot of browser tabs open, that’s one thing you’ll want to consider.
The problem is that with nearly double the TDP, the Intel P-series burns through battery much more quickly. If a laptop like the Acer Swift 3 gets these new processors and there isn’t an accompanying increase in battery size (which there isn’t), battery life is going to suffer. It’s varied a bit for me, but usually, battery life on the Acer Swift 3 hangs around 3 and a half hours, which is barely enough to last me through a morning at work. At best, during a lighter day, I got 4 hours and 11 minutes out of it, and at worst, just around 3 hours when I left the brightness set to 100% for an extended period. It’s really not great if you need to be away from an outlet all day.
