Acer Swift 3 Laptop (SF314-42-R9YN) Review

Finding the perfect laptop that fulfills all your desires and doesn’t cross the four digit price tag can be a trivial task. If you are looking for a laptop that provides a FHD display, with an abundance of storage space, processor that can carry out day to day tasks and a battery capable of lasting over 10 hours, then you are in luck the Acer swift 3 ticks all the boxes in that description list and the best part its available under the 700 dollar mark.

Pros & Cons

Design

The simple yet elegant aesthetics and the premium feel shows why the Acer Swift 3 made a spot on the best laptop under $700 list. Portability is a big plus point for this model, with only 0.63 inches thick and a weight of 2.65 pounds, it can easily fit in any bag, whether it be an office or a school bag and light enough that you wouldn’t feel any extra weight on your shoulders.

Acer made use of aluminum for this model, which just goes to show that it isn’t a budget laptop. Aluminum helps to give the device a premium look and assists in weight reduction, provides durability and protection against corrosion. In addition the laptop features a stunning metallic silver color that is bound to turn some heads.

Connectivity

The device offers a plethora of ports including one USB Type-C port USB 3.2 Gen 2.0 (allowing a transfer rate of up to 10 Gbps), one USB 3.2 Gen 1 port (which can charge your device even when the laptop is powered off), one USB 2.0 port, one HDMI port and a kensington lock for added protection and when coupled with the fact that the Acer swift 3 has a fingerprint sensor and Windows offer password protection as well as face unlock, the laptop becomes as secure as a device can be.

In addition the laptop offers wireless connection to the internet via Wifi 6, which allows a top speed of 9.6 gigabits per second and bluetooth capability, in order to transfer files without using the internet.

Display

Talking about the display, the Acer swift 3 has a 14″ FHD (1920x1080p) widescreen IPS display. IPS panels provide some amazing features, over its competitors, such as quicker response time, extensive viewing angles, better contrast and amazing color accuracy and screen consistency. Unfortunately IPS panels do have more motion blur than the TN panel, so this laptop might not give you the best experience when it comes to fast paced games.

The device has an aspect ratio of 16:9 (which is pretty average), but the brightness levels are above average and peak at 250 nits.

The screen has 0.21” narrow bezels, which aren’t exactly nonexistent, you might notice them but they don’t become a hindrance in your viewing experience in any way shape or form.

Additionally the display has a Matte finish, which offers better eye protection and glare handling, so working in a well lit room or outside in the sunlight won’t be a problem at all, but all of this comes at a cost. There is a reduction in the color vibrancy and contrast, the screen becomes difficult to clean and the possibility of reduction in the sharpness.

Sadly, this model isn’t a 2 in 1 laptop so the display lid can only be pushed back 180 degrees.

Speakers

The speakers aren’t the strongest suit of the swift 3. Two built-in front facing stereo speakers are used and they surprisingly are a bit quiet so you might need external speakers or headphones for the best sound experience.

Keyboard and Mousepad

The Acer swift 3 has an excellent keyboard with well-spaced keys and a comfortable feel to them, which makes you want to press the key but sadly, the thing that ruined the whole keyboard is the placement of the power button. The power button is integrated on the keyboard and placed right next to the delete button, which quite often leads to accidental press of the power button, when you intend on pressing the delete key, which as one might imagine is extremely infuriating.

The mousepad is fairly responsive and nearly center, which helps to avoid coming in contact with the touchpad while typing. The mousepad has a good smooth feel to it and (not coming as a surprise) Acer has used integrated buttons for this model. Integrated buttons, which do help to boost the looks of the mousepad, also lead to unintended presses.

Webcam

In today’s day and age, webcams on a laptop have become a necessity, whether it be for meetings, online classes or just talking to family or friends over the internet and for these reasons Acer has added a HD webcam (1280 x 720p)along with two built-in microphones, which make sure that the communication is crystal clear and help to filter out any typing noise.

Performance wise, the webcam is merely adequate, the webcam will no doubt get the job done when it comes to online classes and informal online meetings, but it is advised to use at least a 1080p (FHD) webcam during professional meetings.

Wishlist

Shockingly there is no SD card Reader included in this model, which does limit your storage upgrading options but surprisingly a fingerprint sensor is present (maybe it was a swap deal, the SD card reader was excluded to add in the fingerprint sensor). The fingerprint sensor massively boosts the overall security of your device and helps secure your device against hacking.

The operating system for this laptop is Microsoft’s Windows 10 Home, which gets you access to features which are not present in the simple Windows 10. Moreover a built in virtual assistant is also added, who can be used to carry out tasks or searches without having to even press a single button. The virtual assistant can be uninstalled if you are not a huge fan of such features.

Storage

When it comes to storage space Acer swift 3 offers 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD and 8GB LPDDR4 RAM to go along with it.

SSD, having no moving parts, is quite thin and light weight which helps to reduce the overall weight of the device, furthermore given that there are no moving parts to cause any sort of friction, so a SSD dissipates less heat. In addition the SSD is faster than an HDD when it comes to fetching and writing data, so your laptop essentially boots up quicker and there are no intervals during data retrieval. On the other hand it should be kept in mind that upgrading a SSD can be an expensive task.

The 8GB LPDDR4 RAM is enough for day to day tasks and light multi-tasking. Unfortunately you won’t be able to run games or software that require more than 8 GB’s of RAM because of the fact that LPDDR4 RAM’s are usually soldered on the motherboard and there is regretfully no way to upgrade them.

Performance

The Acer swift 3 houses the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Octa-Core Mobile Processor (Up to 4.1 GHz).The processor when tested ranked ahead of Intel’s Core i7-10710U Comet Lake U (but it was a very close competition and the Ryzen 7 4700U barely made it ahead)

The processor can easily run light softwares and can handle light multi-tasking as well. For day to day use(checking emails, browsing the internet) the processor is nothing short of being perfect

In terms of graphics card, this model uses the integrated Radeon Graphics, which considering the price, it doesn;t come as a surprise that it can’t handle running heavy games , but on the other hand, it is more than capable enough to run games like Minecraft, Roblox, CS:GO etc.

The laptop does regretfully heat up, when the pressure starts to pile up on the processor, however the cooling fan does effectively counter the heat and thankfully the fan is super quiet, to the point you might forget it’s there in the first place.

Battery Life

Acer claims that the Lithium ion battery in the Acer swift 3 can last 11.5 hours, which is more than enough to easily get you through your work day. Although it is strongly advised to pack the charger as well if you plan on taking your device on a long trip.

It should however be noted that the battery life purely depends on the tasks you intend on carrying out on the device, if they are processor intensive then your battery life might not even last 5 hours and vice versa.

Buy it if

You are looking for a laptop for school for office work, as the processor is capable of carrying out tasks, and simple light multitasking. Furthermore the laptop is light in weight and quite thin so portability won’t be an issue and when coupled with the battery life this model has to offer, makes the device a perfect companion for long trips.

Don’t buy it if

You are looking for a laptop that can carry out processor intensive task or run processor intensive softwares. The swift 3 is made for menial day to day tasks and is incapable of running heavy softwares and given the fact that it isn’t a gaming laptop, running heavy games like Valorant, Call of Duty or GTA V is out of the question