Acer Swift 3
$1,298 | WWW.ACER.COM Don’t be deceived — this affordable ultraportable laptop is better than it looks.
The Swift 3 is the latest affordable ultraportable laptop from Acer, whose most notable contributions to the PC space this year have included a US$9,000 (not officially available Down Under) gaming laptop and the world’s thinnest ultrabook.
For that reason, you may have expected the company to go big or go home with its next project. If the Swift 7 was Acer’s flagship, the Swift 3 is, well, just a cheaper version of that. This laptop is intended for frugal shoppers. Making the best of a 14-inch, 1080p Full HD display, a 18mm thick frame and 1.6kg of muscle mass, there’s no denying that the Swift 3 is fairly generic at first glance. But take a look inside and you’ll discover a set of burly components that are equally at home within the allaluminium chassis of the Swift 7.
Like most laptops, the Swift 3 comes in a number of different configurations, each with its own unique specs, from the entry-level Ultrabook with an Intel Core i3-7100U CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, up to the top-end model, which takes advantage of an Intel Core i7 CPU, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD. The model we were sent for review includes an Intel Core i5-7200U, 8GB of SDRAM and a 256GB SSD. There’s no getting away from the 1080p screen, so if you’re after a 4K display, look elsewhere.
To be frank, the Swift 3’s looks are its weakest point. Although it can be had in a sleeker gold or black finish, or even a pink one, the unit we were sent for review appears to be the most drab of the bunch. Then again, what it lacks in coffee shop appeal, it more than makes up for in comfort and practicality. The first thing we noticed when propping it up alongside a MacBook was just how roomy the trackpad is. The keyboard feels way better than Apple’s 12-inch clamshell of yesteryear, and is complemented by backlighting of which there are four levels. Beneath the directional keys is a pintsized fingerprint reader, designed to be used with Windows Hello. Although it didn’t work flawlessly on the first go, it’s a worthwhile addition once you get used to how its rectangular shape doesn’t quite match up with that of your digits.
One of the more commendable choices Acer has made is the inclusion of legacy ports, the most notable of which are two USB 3.0 connections and an SD card slot. You get a single USB 3.1 Type-C port, too.
Performance-wise, it isn’t too far off the Surface Laptop or even the ASUS ZenBook UX310UA. Despite coming up short when it comes to screen resolution, its specs are eerily similar to both of these devices. In the DirectX 11 Sky Diver benchmark, the Swift 3 even achieved 1,870 points more than the ZenBook. It’s also worth noting that the Acer attained nearly double the frame rate of the ZenBook in the Cinebench OpenGL test, claiming 42fps against the ZenBook’s 21.69, making it the winner for light gaming and other media-focused tasks.
However, the speakers are on the bottom of the machine, making the audio extremely muffled. Still, at least there’s a headphone jack and Bluetooth. In our PCMark 8 battery life test, the Swift 3 lasted 4 hours and 18 mins, besting the ZenBook by five minutes. That’s not a huge difference, but it goes to show that you don’t need to shell out for sufficient performance matched with an unwavering battery life.