The new Acer Swift 3 is a thin and light mid-tier laptop capable of demolishing
top-tier brands like the MacBook Pro and Dell XPS 13 in both performance and
battery life. So, how is that even possible? Well the answer is a monster 8-core
AMD Ryzen processor operating at only 15 watt thermal envelope. Acer Swift 3 is
powered by Ryzen 7 4700U processor. At the time of making this video, this
laptop was selling for an insane price.
So, does this laptop mark the end of Intel’s domination in laptop space? Let's
find out?
👉 Buy Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U 8-Core laptop
👉 Buy recommended PCIe NVMe SSD upgrades
👉 Buy Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U 8-Core laptop
👉 Buy recommended PCIe NVMe SSD upgrades
Disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
👉 Buy Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U 8-Core laptop
CPU
I think Acer Swift 3 is a big deal because for the first time, we are seeing
an “8-core processor” in a budget thin and light laptop. Swift 3 is rocking
Ryzen 7 4700U processor which is the first laptop-focused CPU from AMD with
their “Zen 2” cores. Designed hand-in-hand with TSMC's 7nm process technology,
the Zen 2 architecture boasts impressive performance across both IPC and clock
speeds. IPC stands for instructions per clock and it represents how much work
a CPU can do in 1 clock cycle. This CPU has a base clock speed of 2.0 GHz and
max boost clock speed of 4.1 GHz. This high clock speed coupled with improved
IPC means significantly improved performance over previous generation chips.
The fact that AMD has managed to cram in 8 cores in a thin and light laptop is
no joke. That’s twice the number of cores that you will find in Intel’s latest
10th-gen Icelake chips. So let's compare these 2 processors. As you can see
Ryzen 7 4700U beats intel in every category while still maintaining the 15
watt thermal envelope. In Passmark CPU benchmark, Ryzen 7 4700U scored 13,348
points while the latest Intel Core-i7 managed to score only 9,057 points.
So that means this Ryzen chip is 47.38% faster than the competing Intel chip.
This is what happens when you bring a gun to a knife fight. In order to get 8
cores in an intel laptop, you will have to jump to a Core i9 laptop like the
Dell XPS 15. These laptops are big and heavy and cost thousands of dollars. So
long story short, AMD has absolutely decimated Intel with this chip. You will
have no trouble running any application on Swift 3. Whether you are planning
to use this laptop for internet surfing or casual gaming, or productivity work
like word processing, spreadsheet or running intense applications like video
editing & photoshop, this laptop will breeze through all these tasks
without any hiccups.
Build-Quality
Swift 3’s design ethos gives this laptop a refined and polished look. It
features an all metal design using premium materials like magnesium and
aluminum alloy. When I held this laptop in my hands, it felt more like a 1500
dollar laptop than a 650. Swift 3 takes a utilitarian approach when it comes
to visual design. It is encased in gray aluminum/magnesium shell with no
outside detailing, aside from a reflective silver Acer logo at the center of
the top lid.
Opening the laptop reveals a 14 inch screen surrounded by textured plastic
bezel and a reflective Acer logo along the bottom. Swift 3 has tapered sides
allowing this laptop to remain thin while still offering plenty of ports.
Despite its thin design, Swift 3’s aluminum chassis feels very solid in hand.
There is little to no flex regardless of how you pick up this laptop. At 2.65
lbs, this 14-inch laptop is extremely portable, and more compact than Surface
laptop 3 which weighs 3.4 pounds. Overall, I think Acer has hit the ball out
of the park when its comes to build quality with Swift 3
Keyboard & Trackpad
Let's talk about the keyboard. Swift 3 comes with an island style keyboard
with silver keys and white backlighting. This gives the keyboard an attractive
frosty vibe which I really like. The keyboard provides good typing experience.
There is plenty of key travel which means the keyboard does not feel mushy.
The individual keys offer a springy feedback and you get a satisfying, audible
click with each keystroke. These keys have a nice bottoming-out action and the
layout feels comfortable. Acer has also included a fingerprint reader under
the arrow keys on the right, which is great for passwordless login. It unlocks
the device in well under a second even if the display is off.
One thing that I don't like about this keyboard layout is the power button.
The power button is situated right next to the delete key, and is prone to
accidental presses. So you may find yourself accidentally turning off the
laptop while trying to delete something. Moving on to the trackpad, its wide
and silver colored measuring 4.2 by 2.6 inches. The trackpad is made of
plastic but it feels pretty smooth. Swift 3 laptop comes with windows
precision drivers and supports all windows 10 gestures. So stuff like pinch
and zoom, double tap for right click and customizable 3 finger gestures all
work without issue. Overall this is a pretty good trackpad with larger than
average size and snappy performance.
Display
Swift 3 comes with a 14 inch Full HD widescreen display. It's an LED backlit
IPS panel with a maximum brightness of 250 nits. This makes it a great laptop
for indoor use. You should have no trouble using this laptop in a bright
classroom or office space. But this display will struggle outdoors. If you are
planning to use this laptop on a beach in bright sunlight, you will be
disappointed. When it comes to color reproduction, the screen does a fairly
decent job. Pictures and videos look bright and colorful. While the color
gamut is limited to 64%, it's good enough for day to day activity like web
surfing, gaming, watching videos on youtube and checking out pictures on
Instagram.
But If you are a content creator who color grades videos & pictures, then
consider using a more color accurate external monitor. OK let's quickly talk
about the screen bezels. The side bezels measure 0.21 inches giving this
laptop an impressive 82.7% screen-to-body ratio. The top bezel is wide enough
to house a 720p webcam which is adequate for zoom video calls. One thing to
note about this display is that it is not touch enabled. Touch is a nice to
have feature but it's not a necessity in my opinion. If you are looking for a
touchscreen laptop, I would recommend checking out my 2-in-1 laptop review
playlist linked in the video description below. This playlist contains
detailed reviews of my pick of 2-in-1 laptops from Dell, Acer and Lenovo.
Purchase links to all these laptops can be found in the video description
below
GPU
Swift 3 comes with an integrated GPU based on Vega graphics. It's a newer
configuration derived from AMDs’s 2000 and 3000 series APUs. Thanks to the new
7nm process technology, AMD has been able to crank up the GPU frequency. This
GPU comprises of 7 Vega-architecture Compute Units (CUs), with a maximum clock
speed of 1.6 GHz. As a result, the overall performance of this GPU is
significantly better than the previous generation.
I was able to play 4k videos on youtube without any dropped frames or
stuttering. I also played fortnite at low settings and got an average frame
rate of about 60 fps, pretty good for a smooth gaming session. In 3DMark Fire
Strike benchmark, Swift 3 bested far more expensive Microsoft Surface Laptop 3
running on 10th generation intel core-i7 processor. Considering that this
laptop is less than half the price of Surface laptop 3, I am simply blown away
by the performance of this laptop
RAM & SSD
Now let's talk about the system memory and on board SSD storage. Acer Swift 3 comes with 8GB system RAM and 512 GB of fast PCIe NVMe SSD. While Acer is using a fast and power efficient LPDDR4 RAM, it's soldered to the motherboard which means you cannot upgrade it. But at least there is 8GB RAM which should be fine for most folks. I was able to run over 20 chrome browser tabs and switch seamlessly between them without any issues. The laptop always felt very snappy when running productivity apps like microsoft word and excel sheet. When it comes to SSD storage, the good news is that the PCIe NVMe SSD is user upgradeable. It can be accessed by opening the back of the laptop. If you are interested in replacing this SSD with a bigger one, checkout links to compatible PCIe NVMe SSD in the video description below
👉 Buy recommended PCIe NVMe SSD upgrades
👉 Buy M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter
👉 Macrium reflect free for SSD cloning
Battery & thermals
Let's talk about the battery life. Acer Swift 3 ships with a 48 Wh battery,
which for a 14 inch laptop is average capacity. Historically when it comes to
battery life, Ryzen CPUs always trail behind their Intel counterparts. But
Swift 3 is different. It is powered by Ryzen 7 4700U, which has a brand new
Zen 2 architecture and is built using the latest 7 nm process technology. This
improved processor helps Swift 3 deliver some of the best battery life that I
have seen on any AMD laptop. In my battery test where I kept the screen at
200nits of brightness, I got over 10 hours of battery life while doing
light-weight internet browsing.
During continuous 1080p video playback, Swift 3 ran for ten straight hours
before the battery died. Acer includes a generous 65-Watt A/C adapter which is
able to charge the laptop from 0 to full in under 2 hours. It also supports
fast charging, going from 0 to 40% in under 30 minutes. Pretty impressive. BTW
you can also charge this laptop via the USB Type-C connector which is an added
bonus. Regarding thermal heat dissipation, Swift 3 uses one heat-pipe and 1
fan to keep both the CPU, and integrated GPU cool. I would have preferred a 2
fan setup for extra cooling, but the single fan does an OK job. Under heavy
use, this fan does get moderately loud making 45 decibel sound. Overall, for a
thin and light laptop, I am pretty happy with both the battery life and the
thermal performance of Swift 3.
Audio and webcam
Let's talk about audio. Acer Swift 3 comes with stereo front-facing speakers
featuring DTS Audio. Even though the speakers are forward facing, they are
located on the bottom of the notebook. Sound quality is quite good, with
reasonable bottom end response for a laptop of this size. The speakers are
reasonably loud measuring around 75 decibels and I didnt notice any
distortion. Obviously for gaming or watching long videos and movies, I would
prefer a nice pair of headphones. Luckily this laptop comes with a headphone
jack and also supports bluetooth headphones.
Ok, now let's talk about the webcam. Swift 3 comes with a 720p webcam mounted
at the center of the top bezel. I think the placement of this webcam is
perfect for making zoom video calls. As long as you have good lighting, the
video quality looks fine. Acer has put two built-in microphones to capture
good quality audio while simultaneously reducing background noises such as
typing sound. I think this is a great laptop for folks working from home who
are constantly on zoom video calls. I would recommend getting a led light to
brighten your face during zoom calls if you want to look good. I will drop a
link to an led light with builtin tripod stand in the video description below
Ports
For a thin and light laptop, Swift 3 offers a good selection of ports. There
is a USB 3.2 Gen-2 Type-C port which supports data, power delivery and
displayport. So that means you can not only charge your laptop via this port,
you can also hook up an external monitor via USB to HDMI dongle. There is no
thunderbolt 3 support which means you cannot connect an external GPU to this
laptop. You get 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 port featuring power-off charging. You also
get a USB 2.0 port for connecting all USB peripheral devices. There is also an
HDMI port which means you can hook up 2 external monitors to this laptop, one
via HDMI port and one via USB TypeC to HDMI dongle.
This can be really useful for folks working from home, who would like to take
advantage of dual screen setup to boost their productivity. Swift 3 supports
the latest WiFi 6 standard which gives the fastest and most robust wireless
internet connection, assuming you have a compatible router. It also supports
Bluetooth 5.0 which allows connecting multiple bluetooth devices to this
laptop. One thing missing is an SD card slot which sucks for folks like me who
routinely transfer pictures and videos from their cameras. But overall I think
Acer has done a good job with port selection. Companies selling expensive
laptops with 1 or 2 ports should learn something from Acer. You can design a
powerful thin and light laptop and yet provide all the ports
Conclusion
OK, so what do I think of this laptop? I think with Swift 3 Acer has created a compact thin and light laptop with great design and premium construction giving it a very modern feel. You could easily mistake it for a far more expensive laptop costing 1000s of dollars. Considering that Swift 3 costs only $649, comes with 8 GB LPDDR4 RAM, 512 GB NVMe SSD, and has a processor that totally smokes the competition, I think this is the laptop to buy in 2020. So what do you guys think of Acer Swift 3? Please let me know in the comment section below.Purchase Links
👉 Buy Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U 8-Core laptop
👉 Buy recommended PCIe NVMe SSD upgrades
👉 Buy 1080p webcam
👉 Buy 3TB USB HDD
👉 Buy M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure Adapter
👉 Macrium reflect free for SSD cloning
Disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases