Acer Swiftt 3 Ryzen
Fast while it lasts
Psychologists talk about thehe ‘curse of choice’, where youou have so many options that instead of giving you the chance to make the very best decision,sion, it confuses you into picking the wrong thing. They might want to study the PC market, wherere even after settling on a pleasant-looking mid-range laptop such as Acer’s Swift 3, you arrive at the manufacturer’s web page ( www. snipca.com/29422) and find 13 different configurations to choose from.
The one we’re testing here is actually a 14th, with a 15.6in screen and the only AMD Ryzen processor option in the range, featuring built-in Vega 8 graphics. Although Acer doesn’t currently list it, it’s in the shops for about the same price as the Intel i5-8250 option with the same 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD. Like the £500 i3-7130u specification that we tested earlier in the year (see Issue 527), however, it has a slightly different design from the other models – it’s a little bulkier and has a wider bezel around the screen.
Weighing 2.1kg, this is definitely a full-size laptop, and well made, with a pretty good backlit keyboard and large touchpad. The big screen is Full HD – not doubling up pixels for extra sharpness, but completely adequate at this size – and its Gorilla Glass front is prone to reflections, not helped by limited brightness. Colour is a weak point, covering just 57 per cent of SRGB with very poor accuracy. It’s acceptable for general Windows work and watching Youtube, but not for photo editing.
That’s a shame, because our tests confirmed the Ryzen 5 2500U chip puts the Swift 3 firmly in i5 territory and then brings an advantage with the Vega graphics card, which managed smooth frame rates where Intel rivals couldn’t.
The SSD wasn’t especially fast, but comfortably quicker than a hard drive, the Achilles’ heel of Acer’s next model up, which adds an MX 150 graphics card for a very reasonable £50 extra. Although none of the ports is faster than USB 3.0, you get both A and C varieties, plus a full-size SD card slot and HDMI. There’s also a fingerprint reader, which we found generally quick and reliable. Battery life, though, was just 3 hours 15 minutes in our video-playback test.
It’s frustrating that the other components don’t do justice to the Ryzen processor, and that it’s bigger and heavier than the eighth-generation Intel-based models. What could have been an affordable hit turns out to be a near miss.
SPECIFICATIONS
Strong processor and graphics are let down by a poor screen and battery life
2GHZ AMD Ryzen 5 2500U quad-core processor • 8GB memory • 256GB SSD • 15.6in 1920x1080-pixel screen • Webcam • 802.11ac Wi-fi • SD card slot • 2x USB 3.0 ports • USB 2.0 port • USB Type-c port • HDMI port • Windows 10 Home • 18.9x371x255mm (HXWXD) • 2.1kg • One-year warranty www.snipca.com/29426 VERDICT With limitations that aren’t unusual in this price bracket, the Swift 3 Ryzen is certainly flawed but still worth considering
★★★ ★★
ALTERNATIVE RNATIVE Acer Aspireire 5 £630 Thithis i5 model looksooksoo basic and lacks thee Vega graphics butut has three times the battery lifefe