Acer Swift 1 review: A cheap, thin laptop that looks good and lasts all day
Acer’s Swift 1 shows not all low-cost laptops need to be thick, clunky or bad on battery life.
Mục Lục
The Good
The Acer Swift 1 is a thin, lightweight budget-friendly laptop that has a few higher-end features that make it a more attractive deal than competing systems at its $329 price. Battery life is good at more than 9 hours.
The Bad
Its low-end components mean it can’t do much beyond basics and its limited storage will likely require some external option.
The Bottom Line
The Swift 1 is cheap, looks nice and has a good battery — just don’t give it anything more difficult to do than web browsing.
Priced at $329, the 13.3-inch laptop is thin at 0.7 inches (14.95 mm), and weighs a trim 2.9 pounds (1.3 kg) with a body that’s finished in metal for a more premium appearance. It has a few other nice touches like a full-HD IPS display, a fingerprint reader and a fair amount of ports and more than 9 hours of battery life.
Don’t let the system’s looks fool you, however: There isn’t much going on inside this thing. Despite the “quad-core” processor it just doesn’t have a lot of power for anything more than basics. But if that’s all you need, the total package is more than fair for the price.
Acer Swift 1 (SF113-31-P5CK)
Price as reviewed $329 Display size/resolution 13.3-inch 1,920×1,080 displayCPU 1.1GHz Intel Pentium N4200Memory 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Graphics 128MB Intel HD Graphics 505Storage 64GB flash storage Networking 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0 Operating system Window 10 Home (64-bit)
Acer makes a Swift 3, which also looks more expensive than it is, but is configured with more capable components. Oddly, though, a couple of the design choices Acer made with the Swift 3, namely its chamfered edges and anti-glare display, are a turn-off compared with the Swift 1’s nicer rounded edges and matte display.
The 1,920×1,080-resolution display is also an IPS panel with better off-angle viewing than you’d get with a cheaper TN panel you typically find on budget systems. The matte finish cuts reflections, too, which is good because the display just doesn’t get bright enough to fight bright lighting.
The Swift 1 has plenty of ports.
If you’re considering a laptop to use part-time with external peripherals, the Swift 1 should handle most of your needs. There’s an HDMI output for a display, a combo jack for speakers or headphones, one USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, and one USB-C 3.1 (gen 1) port. There’s also an SD card slot, but no Ethernet jack so you’ll need an adapter if you don’t want to rely on the 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
One thing that is particularly below average on the Swift 1 is the keyboard. It’s spacious enough and there’s no oddly sized or poorly placed keys given the laptop’s size. There isn’t much travel to the keys, though, so if you tend to strike your keys with force, you might find it uncomfortable after awhile. Putting a decent keyboard in something this thin would no doubt add to the cost, but if typing comfort is a priority, you might want to see about trying this one out before you buy.
The precision touchpad, on the other hand, was not bad at all. Performance was smooth and while it picked up the occasional palm drag, you can dial back the sensitivity if it bothers you, as well as configure multitouch gestures. To the right of the pad is a fingerprint reader that supports Windows Hello, so you can sign in with a touch.
Under the front edge are two downward-firing speakers. They’re passable for watching a quick YouTube video, but they’re not enjoyable for extended listening. Invest in an inexpensive set of desktop speakers or a good set of headphones.
Best for beginners and basics
With its entry-level processor and integrated graphics, 4GB of memory and paltry 64GB of storage (a chunk of which is already loaded up), the Swift 1 is far from a powerhouse and not good for multitasking. But you shouldn’t expect those from something this inexpensive.
Like its similarly priced Google Chromebook counterparts, it can run a browser window or two without getting sluggish or run web apps and stream movies and music. Just don’t try and do all of those things all at once. Plus, if you need to run Word or iTunes or some other simple software you can do that, too, and that’s something that can’t be done with a Chromebook.
Battery life was very good, though, coming it at 9 hours, 16 minutes in our streaming video test. For web surfing or word processing, you should be able to get in most of a day’s work without thinking about plugging in.
Basically, the Acer Swift 1 is sufficient for undemanding home office tasks done one at a time or for students who need access to web apps and little else.
Multimedia Multitasking test 3.0
Lenovo ThinkPad 13
666
Microsoft Surface 3
1585
Lenovo Ideapad 110S
2780
Acer Swift 1
3097
HP Stream 14
3134
HP Stream 11
4756
Note: Shorter bars indicate better performance (in seconds)
Geekbench 3 (Multi-Core)
Lenovo ThinkPad 13
5192
Acer Swift 1
4312
Microsoft Surface 3
3432
HP Stream 14
1833
Lenovo Ideapad 110S
1829
HP Stream 11
1610
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance
Streaming video playback battery drain test
Acer Swift 1
556
HP Stream 14
476
HP Stream 11
403
Microsoft Surface 3
402
Lenovo ThinkPad 13
388
Lenovo Ideapad 110S
373
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance (in minutes)
System Configurations
Acer Swift 1 Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.1GHz Intel Pentium N4200; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM; 128MB Intel HD Graphics 505; 64GB storage Lenovo Ideapad 110S Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3060; 2GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB dedicated Intel HD Graphics 400; 32GB eMMCHP Stream 14 Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3060; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; Intel HD Graphics 400; 32GB eMMC storageHP Stream 11 Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3050; 2GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 144MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics; 32GB SSDLenovo ThinkPad 13 Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core i3-6100U; 4GB DDR4 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 520; 128GB SSDMicrosoft Surface 3 Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z8700; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 32MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics; 128GB SSD
