Acer Swift 3 Thin & Light Laptop, 14" Full HD IPS, AMD Ryzen 7 4700U Octa-Core with Radeon Graphics, 8GB LPDDR4, 512GB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Backlit KB, Fingerprint Reader, Alexa Built-in

So I just got this laptop. I have been playing with it for 2 days. Im comparing it with a Lenovo Idealpad 7 slim. I like the weight on this machine and it actually seems snappier than the Lenovo. There has been a lot of talk about the screen. I didnt think it was that bad. I went outside on a bright sunny day and both the Lenovo and this one were equally hard to see. The lighted keyboard turns off quick but I saw a setting in bios that might fix that. I didnt try it. What I didnt like is the battery life. I was playing with the laptop watching videos and benchmarking the CPU, after 2.5 hours the battery was weak and i needed to plug it in. The lenovo is still going. I need this laptop for work. The weight is an awesome thing but the battery life kills it for me so I will probably be returning it. But if you are on a budget I think this is totally worth it as the Lenovo is $200 more even with a coupon. I had a Swift 13.3 for 2 years and no issues so I am happy with Acer quality.

I try really hard not to do same-day delivery reviews, no matter how great I think the product is because you can never tell on that first day what might go wrong later. However, I am actually confident and happy enough with this one to go for it. If I make amendments later, they won't likely be anything that changes this rating. (updated 6/19/20 - one week, using it for work in web design and content creation, still love it) I needed a business-appropriate laptop. My requirements for this were pretty simple: something with a sharp but conservative appearance, MOBILE (not heavy or bulky), but also just as powerful (or capable of being just as powerful) as my much larger personal laptop. It came down to this and the Lenovo Flex. I chose this because the design was all metal, and I liked Macbook Airs when working as an Apple systems manager for their durability, style, and mobility. It's just a shame the RAM is not upgradeable (it's soldered). The RAM on the Lenovo Flex is not upgradeable either, though. It also comes with a weaker processor (Ryzen 5, which isn't quite on the i7's level). I doubt anyone will need more than 8 to 16GB of RAM in the lifetimes of these laptops. I knew that if I got a Ryzen 5 that would just make me want the Ryzen 7 processor more (you can never upgrade processors in a laptop). So, despite toting less RAM, Swift still came out as the winner both in design and performance when I compared it up close to the Flex online. I worried a bit when I read a review that complained about the screen and graphics on Swift being almost unusable. But I clearly had nothing to worry about. Those professional reviewers sometimes can get so snobby with hardware, they set the bar higher than anyone in the real world would ever set it. The screen is semi-matte. I have very sensitive eyes, sensitive enough that I often have to wear blue light blocking glasses to deal with sunlight, bright indoor lights, or computer light. Even the slightest flicker is noticeable to me in a very uncomfortable, painful kind of way that strains my eyes. There's the tiniest amount of flicker in this display. It is NOTHING like the reviews have been describing, which made me afraid I wouldn't be able to use this laptop. It's VERY easy on my eyes after switching the AMD Radeon settings to Enhanced and High Res (which simultaneously smoothes and sharpens up the text, making it more legible). It also does NOT have a glossy, highly reflective screen. The screen is semi-matte at the worst (honestly, it's not even that much), and it's full matte once it's turned on. Evidently Acer has switched displays after the complaints (they tend to be good about doing things like that). It gets super bright, and the colors are close to true as far as I can tell - only publishing something is going to reveal the truth there, which I haven't done yet. But again, I can't believe what a close call it is to a Macbook Air. The graphics performance: It's not a gaming laptop, though I'm sure it is good enough to play most games on medium and would be PERFECT for a student. It's definitely strong enough to perform smoothly for graphic artists, photographers, and anyone that tends to keep a ton of tabs open in their browser. Smooth scrolling and rendering, no lag or glitching. I cannot compliment the Ryzen 7 processor enough. I am moving from an 8th gen i7 and the Ryzen 7 is WAY more responsive and less prone to freezing or errors. I can very easily believe it maxes out at 4ghz. Those eight cores handle multitasking like a true champ. I was worried the RAM would give me some issues with work because it's only 8gb and it's also underpowered to help boost battery performance. So far, I've been surprised to find that this low-powered RAM actually keeps up with me despite my issues with never exiting or closing windows, lol. The keyboard is extremely comfortable if you have small to medium-sized hands. There is some time to adjust to the smaller form factor. Large handed people will immediately hate the keyboard because it's compact. This being said, it IS a large keyboard as far as COMPACT keyboards go, and it is 100% identical to the keyboard on the Macbook Air. Same feel and everything. Backlit keys, which you can switch on or off. Something SUPER cool is that Acer figured out how to include a Numlock and number keypad on it by marking some of the letter keys with numbers, then adding a Numlock. (check my pictures) If you turn on the manual equalizer in the audio settings and crank it up, the speakers actually get really loud, and they're nice that way too (no rattle, no stress on the drivers). By default though, I can easily see tons of folks complaining about the speakers not getting loud. They don't get loud at all by default. With the equalizer maxed out, I would compare them to a mini Bluetooth speaker. In short, don't buy this for audio unless you're planning on connecting it to different speakers. For normal casual usage, like watching YouTube videos or streaming movies, the built-in speakers should be just fine. The lid is very well hinged. The screen is reinforced as well. Dropping it may cause some cosmetic damage, but it should hold up in most cases. At the worst, you'll be looking at a little cosmetic damage (scratches, dings) and a busted screen. Which is better than what you could face with the typical plastic body. I once dropped a plastic body laptop off the back of my car (I was an idiot and left it on the hood). It totally destroyed the body... the laptop still worked, but there was bare PCB board everywhere. It was ugly, lol. Now, there are complaints about battery life on this, but I haven't had any problems. I also didn't go with default settings in some key areas, though. I changed the Radeon settings to focus more on battery life than performance. Then I changed the power settings to best battery life. Now, I don't consider this to be much, especially with my huge collection of background apps, but considering complaints saying the battery wouldn't last more than an hour... hmmm. I'm not seeing it. I've been on battery for an hour now, and have 12h 46m remaining after charging to 98%. I'm guessing the expected battery life will hang somewhere between 4.5h and 6h on medium. Overall, it's a great machine and an awesome value in my book. I have no idea why the pro reviewers thought so poorly of it (though they did give it respect as a budget laptop). Maybe they were comparing it to more expensive laptops instead of comparing it to other models in this price range....? Or maybe the older version of this was really that bad. Whatever. I'm sticking with this because IT WORKS. Update: Two months later... it's still running like the day I got it. I'm actually shocked that it continues to perform so well on 8GB of energy saving RAM. I am guessing the difference lies in a combo of using a better processor and using a solid state drive. My other laptop has an A12, which is quad core and goes up to 3ghz - this Ryzen 7 is octacore and goes up to 4ghz. The Care Center app has a function in it to make the battery only change to 80% when it's plugged in (saves the battery cells from being burned out). So despite using it plugged in all the time, I have not lost any battery health. It still goes for six hours or more off battery.

Taking a look at the specs of this laptop, you would expect it to be incredible, especially for this price point. Taking a look at the online reviews shows that the screen isn't the best, and it takes a few more hits, but even so it looks like an amazing deal. After using it, in my opinion it's worth the money, but not as fantastic as it appears. TLDR: Look at what you want in a laptop before buying this one. For me it works fine but there are a few key drawbacks that might affect different tasks you would want to use this laptop for. The PRO's + Build Quality is fantastic, with sturdy metal and a keyboard I surprisingly quite enjoy using. + Big PRO: The Ryzen 4700U processor is a beast, and the snappiest processor I've used. Productivity use such as coding, taking notes in class, running other professional programs like the Microsoft suite or Zoom are handled easily and perfectly. + Big PRO: A 512GB SSD for this price is incredible! And it's even a really good SSD at that. The CON's - The screen is as bad as they say, even after calibration. It's only slightly better than my old laptop I bought for $350 a few years ago. However, as someone who doesn't use the laptop for video editing, it's not a big issue for me, but everything does look more green/blue than it should. - I've had software problems with this laptop that I would not have expected from a pre-built laptop, especially from a company like Acer. I have problems with apps being fuzzy (not scaling to the display properly), problems with Cortana and the Windows Start menu, and problems with the screen not immediately waking from sleep. These problems are rare and/or not too impactful, but still annoying. - The BIGGEST CON by far is the thermals. The laptop has amazing specs as I mentioned above, but it can't use them to their full potential because the components get too hot and have to cut back on speed. The fans are noisy and run at full speed often. I regularly experience temps of 70°+ while web browsing, and 90°+ while (light) gaming or other more intensive tasks. To me that is a huge letdown, as this laptop does not perform heavy tasks like it should. The processor is limited by the cooling of the laptop and can't really do all that it's has the potential to do. Overall, I am disappointed by the low upper limit of the hardware, but for my needs as a tech-savvy college student looking for a good laptop for classes, it's perfect. It's light and portable, sturdy, fast, and cheap. Even the gaming/heavy use cases are.... acceptable, even if they aren't what they could be. I recommend this laptop to many people, but it's not for everyone.

this is a well-made computer overall. the keyboard is chunkey enough for big hands too. key illumination is good. the keyboard is quiet and feels nice. I have $1400 Lenovo yoga laptop and this $600 has better keyboard feeling. when you shake the laptop keys dont make any sound. even space bar is tight. keys illuminate with letter and the box of the key too. not just the letter. no key brightness level adjustment. but it is okay with me. finger print reader is very fast. very fast. so convenient for starting the computer. put the finger and it opens windows. wifi6 is the thing really rocks. it also picks up the wifi signal from far away. it picks the signal better than 5.0ghz apple products. it has not good color accuracy but at least it is an IPS display. not like a cheap narrow view angle screen. so if you watch a movie or youtube it is fine. color accuracy 38% or 33% sRGB is for pros not for normal people. Gosh!.. do you even notice the difference bewteen your iphone's sRGB 98% and 100%? if you really need sRGB 100% for hollywood movie-making, just get a nice external monitor. It does have full size HDMI. and you can use the color calibration tool from windows or buy pro color calibrator like spyder. but I definitely recommend windows color calibration. the performance is just wow. you can't get anything like for this price. I got Ryzen 7 and I am a video editor. it is really fast. for normal tasks for office users? I think ryzen 5 is enough. if you want more RAM, upgrade yourself. Ryzen 7 supports upto 64GB I guess. or 32GB. it has one single RAM slot. so you got to buy one single unit DDR4 RAM. people complain about brightness you cannot see well in sunlight. and that is honestly a worst stupid review. it has anti reflex screen for out side. I tried out side with full brightness and it was okay. glossy screen is your worst enemy people not brighness. and also not too too bright screen gives better battery life. I could last about 8 hours outside. I charge in the morning and I dont usually bring the cable with me, if I really need, I use my phone USB type C cable to charge it. YES this computer can be charged by phone charger. or from a power bank! conclution: performance is awesome. keyboard is nice, brightness is not bad, please do color calibration, phone cable charging. Very light. no SD card reader like macbook air, but it's got usb 3.1. fingerprint work very well. good for average setting game. good battery life. I am a professional video editor, so I I find any major issue, I will update this review later.

I've had this laptop for about a week and I have to say that for this price point this is a difficult machine to beat. Super snappy processor. Solid build quality. I actually quite like the keyboard, which has a light but satisfying "click" to keystrokes. The fingerprint reader is a nice feature as well. This thing runs pretty quiet, which is a new thing for me. I've been using a custom-built PC for quite a while, which is filled with fans and sounds like it. This thing barely feels like it's on while I'm using it. This laptop has handled everything I've thrown at it with absolute ease. I even booted up an older game and while it did get a little toasty, it didn't miss a beat. I wouldn't call this a "good" gaming option, but, it'll certainly allow you to play some older games if the mood strikes you. I will say that playing this game for about an hour definitely drained the battery pretty quickly. Just something to keep in mind. I haven't tried using the speakers extensively, but they seem fine. I use headphones 99% of the time anyways, and I had zero issues hooking up my bluetooth headphones. I haven't tried the webcam either, but I'd be curious how much it drains the battery and puts strain on this machine. For 90% of generic computer users, this laptop will absolutely fit your needs. It's not going to change your life. It's not going to knock your socks off. It will handle everything that an average user will throw at it, however. For the price point, I couldn't be more satisfied. Here are my only gripes: Is the screen the best thing I've ever seen? No. But I'm perfectly fine with that tradeoff. I'm not a graphic artist and I'm not doing image editing on this laptop. I'm using this to do web browsing, occasional coding, and watching the videos. For these use-cases, I couldn't be happier with the performance. The bloatware is a pain. You will probably need to take a solid 30-45 minutes after first boot just cleaning out the trash that Acer puts on the machine. Is it really that big of a deal? No. But it's annoying. Watching lots of video or using resource-intensive software (eg. games) can drain the battery pretty quickly, from what I've observed. Casual web browsing, word processing, etc. doesn't seem to put a dent in battery life though. If I wanted a gaming laptop, I would have gotten a gaming laptop. That's not what this is, and I'm fine with that. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the on/off key in the spot of the delete key should be thoroughly ridiculed. Infuriating to keep putting the laptop into sleep when trying to delete something.

PURCHASED JULY 0F 2021 - THIS WEEK MARKS THE THIRD TIME I HAVE HAD TO "RESTORE" THIS COMPUTER - WHAT A HASSLE AND A WASTE OF TIME. THE TOUCH PAD DID NOT COME BACK WITH THE LATEST "RESTORE" Start all over with Bookmarks, Accounts and PW. THE BELOW WAS WRITTEN IN OCTOBER: The freeze has returned - and the warbly sound since my factory reset in October. ACER offered to take a look at the actual unit to see if they could fix the problem. Have to do without a computer for up to 10 days. WIll have to pull out the old reliable HP - that I should have replaced with another HP - but decided to give ACER a try. Recently - the computer has been freezing up. Nothing I can do, but hold the OFF button 10-15 seconds until it shuts down. Laptop speaker seems to be distorting as well. Hoping this is not a trend so short off return expiration. I used American Express so I may try to slip in under an extended warranty. This is what I wrote prior to the freezing issue. 3 times in the last four days. ONE YEAR AND 4 MONTHS LATER - I would NOT say that Overall I am very pleased with this computer. Each of the things that I don't like are my fault for not being more thorough in my research. I miss the numeric keyboard - even though this has a function that can be used within the qwerty keys. I also miss having a scandisk slot. I have ordered an attachment to go into the USB C slot. On the positive side, the backlit keyboard is excellent. The speed is excellent. The resolution of the screen is excellent. I have appreciated the fingerprint recognition. The unit is lightweight and very compact. Good value for the price. I was worried about this being an off-brand, but ACER seems to be a good alternative to Dell or HP.

This is a great laptop. I was worried about the screen when reading reviews, but watched several online videos and reviews and liked what I saw. I have zero issues with the screen. It is bright enough and plenty clear. I personally think mention of the screen as a negative are based more on reviewing the tech specs and having to come up with a negative for this machine. Because let's face it, at this price point, you have to come up with something negative to say. This is a truly great piece of technology. Probably, the best laptop I have ever used; either for work or for personal use. Boot up is extremely fast. Battery life will last all day. Screen is sufficiently bright even in a well lit room with several large windows in the middle of a summer day. I am not a power user, but I do use Adobe xD and Figma and work with photos, no issues or concerns there. Keyboard feels great and is quick. Touch pad is solid. Build quality is high. Lightweight and a joy to use. My biggest gripes are: bloatware, but that is easy to remove and the stickers--which were also easy to remove. Is it a MacBook Pro? No, but it's also not $2000 and honestly, I have my doubts that a Mac would offer a better experience for a majority of users. At this point, I have zero regrets purchasing this computer. Acer and AMD did something very impressive with this machine.

Purchased this laptop as an upgrade and I must say, I’m thoroughly impressed! The keys are so smooth to type on, coming from a writer who’s on her laptop for 5+ hours a day, and the battery life on this laptop is incredible. The screen is so bright, clear, and neat. The thin bezels add onto the clean sleek look, and the overall build quality feels premium. I watched a movie on it, three to be exact, and the sound quality and volume is great, acceptable some would call it. It’s enough for you and a small group of friends to enjoy either a movie, a show, or even a YouTube video together. I also game a little bit on this laptop, placing it at best performance mode and tweaking around with the graphics settling for the ultimate gameplay, and it runs smoothly! I played League of Legends for like 2 hours the other day and only experienced a small bit of heat, but I blame that on the heatwave my city was going through. The game ran smoothly for me, no lag and no awkward graphics on it. Very smooth gameplay compared to my previous laptop. Do I recommend this laptop for anyone looking for quality on a budget? Hell yeah! This laptop will not disappoint!