(Pocket-lint) – The Acer Swift 5 makes a fantastic first impression, with an well-considered design and a stable luxurious really feel. It has a twelfth Gen Intel i7 onboard, so it needs to be fairly the performer, too.
Nevertheless, with its substantial price ticket comes some critical competitors from the likes of the Dell XPS 13 and Apple MacBook Air.
Can this swanky little Acer machine sustain with among the market’s bestsellers? We put it to the check, and this is what we came upon.
Our fast take
The Acer Swift 5 is a superb all-rounder with a surprising design. Should you’re trying to get work completed on the go with out sacrificing type or connectivity, this could possibly be the machine for you.
The efficiency is great throughout the board, it is beautiful to kind on and the webcam is nice.
Battery life is first rate and the speedy and compact charger makes it very simple to reside with.
There are just a few weak factors, notably the speaker efficiency and the quantity of bloatware, however these will matter extra to some customers than others.
At this value level, there are many nice choices to select from, however none look fairly as luxurious because the Swift 5.
Acer Swift 5 (2022)
4.5 stars – Pocket-lint really helpful
For
- Beautiful design
- Wonderful keyboard
- Compact and transportable
- Nice number of ports
- Strong efficiency
In opposition to
- Annoying bloatware
- Pretty costly
- Audio system could possibly be improved
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Design
- Dimensions: 309.8 x 213.36 x 14.98mm
- Weight: 1.2kg
- Aerospace-grade aluminium casing
The Acer Swift 5 stands out from the group with its brushed golden trim and distinctive darkish bluish colourway. It appears to be like extraordinarily luxurious, and it feels it, too. The chassis is made out of aluminium and is cool to the contact, whereas the show is roofed with Corning Gorilla Glass.
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It is compact and pretty light-weight, so it is appropriate for frequent travellers, nevertheless it’s a contact thicker than most premium ultrabooks in 2022. On the plus facet, this added girth leaves room for some substantial IO, which we have been very glad to see. On the left-hand facet, you get a USB-A, full-sized HDMI and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. On the precise, you may discover one other USB-A together with a 3.5mm headphone/microphone socket and a Kensington lock port.
The keyboard appears to be like pretty unremarkable, nevertheless it’s good to kind on, with a stiff lattice and loads of key journey. The color-matched lettering appears to be like fairly engaging, nevertheless it’s difficult to see in low-light conditions, and the backlighting would not assist issues a lot. It appears to spill extra mild in the direction of the trackpad than by way of the important thing legends.
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There is a fingerprint scanner situated on the ability button and it really works reliably, although we should admit it took us a second to search out it on preliminary setup. We’re not large followers of the ability button placement, as it may be simple to by chance hit if you’re aiming for the delete key, nevertheless it’s a minor (and customary) gripe.
The trackpad is made out of recycled ocean-bound plastics and feels nearly precisely like a glass trackpad. It glides properly and is reasonably sized. The clicking requires a bit extra pressure than we’re used to however, typically talking, it is fairly nice.
Show, audio system and webcam
- 14-inch IPS touchscreen, 2560 x 1600 decision
- 16:10 side ratio, 425 nits, 100 per cent sRGB
- Twin downward-firing stereo audio system
- 1080p 60 fps webcam with noise discount
The show has a 16:10 ratio with good slim bezels. At this value level, it might have been good to see an OLED panel, however since that might scale back battery life, the IPS show stands out as the wiser selection. Regardless, we weren’t left wanting in the case of picture high quality, the show has loads of distinction, full sRGB protection and good vibrant colors.
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Being a touchscreen, it is glass-fronted, which aids the distinction ranges and provides to the premium appear and feel. Nevertheless, reflections is usually a little distracting every so often and the 425 nits peak brightness can wrestle to compete outside on a sunny day.
The audio system have some first rate readability and stereo separation however they lack low-end, as we discover with quite a lot of laptops. They can not get very loud, both, so you may wrestle to listen to issues correctly in a loud surroundings. They’re positioned in a downward-firing orientation, however fortunately they do not get muffled when utilizing the Swift 5 in your lap.
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We have been impressed with the 1080p webcam and suppose it outperforms quite a lot of its rivals. It has loads of element and pure colors, making it greater than appropriate for video conferencing with out the necessity for added tools. It additionally handles backlighting properly and has a shocking quantity of dynamic vary. We have been a bit upset on the lack of Home windows Hi there facial recognition, however the fingerprint reader is fast sufficient, as long as you do not forget that you must use it.
Efficiency and battery
- Intel Core i7 1260P, 12 cores, as much as 4.7GHz
- 16GB LPDDR5 and 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
- 56 Wh battery, 65W USB-C charger included
In day-to-day use the Acer Swift 5 is a stable performer, and we by no means bumped into any points with our typical work duties, video playback or Photoshop use. We even managed to edit some 4K 120fps footage in Adobe Premiere Professional and have been impressed by the playback smoothness and rendering velocity.
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The Swift 5 is not designed for gaming, however when you fancy a little bit of gaming session on the facet, it’s going to deal with most video games at decrease settings. We discovered that GTA V was playable at 1080P low settings, albeit solely at 30fps. Much less demanding titles, like CSGO, ran very properly on the machine.
One factor we did not like in regards to the Swift 5 was the quantity of bloatware that got here preinstalled. The whole lot from Norton Antivirus and CyberLink software program to Spotify and Firefox comes loaded onto the laptop. It is easy sufficient to take away the software program that you don’t need, however on a premium machine like this, you should not need to go to the difficulty.
Battery life is respectable and when you’re simply browsing the net and doing mild productivity-based duties then you’ll be able to anticipate someplace within the area of 9-10 hours on a cost. In fact, that determine might be a lot decrease when you’re doing something intense like video modifying or gaming.
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We’re at all times glad to see USB-C charging, and even happier to see a pleasant compact charger included within the field. It is a 65W quick charger, and it will web you round 4 hours of additional battery life in a 30-minute cost. Plus, you should utilize it to quick cost your cellphone in a pinch.
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To recap
If you would like a gorgeous-looking laptop that’ll deal with some critical work, then the Acer Swift 5 could possibly be the laptop for you. It is compact, well-built and simple to reside with. There are just a few shortcomings, nevertheless it’s a stable all-rounder in most regards.
Writing by Luke Baker. Modifying by Verity Burns.
