If you’re in the market for a new ultrabook for some light work and general use, but doesn’t weigh a ton, the best ultrabook might be the Acer Swift 5. With an ultra-light chassis and incredibly thin profile, this laptop is best described as a jack-of-all-trades; it does a bit of everything, but masters none. If you want a bigger computer, take a look at our Samsung ATIV 7 all in one windows 8 PC review too.
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Why We Like It – Acer Swift 5
The Acer Swift 5 serves well as an entry-level laptop for anyone who wants to work, but also enjoys various media, and even a bit of gaming thanks to a long battery life. With a thin profile, you’ll be able to carry this anywhere without realizing you have it on you.
- Very nice color display
- Thin and lightweight
- Long battery life
- Poor speakers
- Keyboard feels cramped
Performance
Given the Acer Swift 5’s small form factor, it does surprisingly well when putting it to work. Having 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and an Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU—faster than the Intel Core i5-1035G1 and Intel Core i5-8265u—is enough for general use, but slightly slower than the Lenova Yoga 720 with Intel i7-7700HQ.
With over a dozen tabs of Chrome running and YouTube running 1080p videos, there was very little chugging, if any at all. A battery test revealed you can get a solid seven to nine hours, so about on par with Microsoft’s Surface laptop, the Surface Laptop 2.
It isn’t until you push it towards gaming that it suffers a bit. With Intel Iris Plus graphics you’re getting significantly better performance than Intel UHD graphics. However, you won’t be running the latest and greatest video games on the Acer Swift 5, but something like League of Legends with medium settings will give you an enjoyable experience. And that’s thanks to its 120% sRGB color gamut, much higher than the ThinkPad X1 Carbon’s 109%. If you want something more suited for gaming, look to the Asus Zenbook 14.
Related: If you’re a gamer and want an Ultrabook with power then you’ll find our Razer Blade Stealth 13 review more to your liking.
Design
Acer moved away from a plastic look with the Swift 5 and instead went with an ultra-light magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminum metal chassis. It’s surprising how little it weighs, only 2.2 pounds, making it much lighter than the Macbook Air. The card reader being removed is part of the reason it’s a light laptop. Combine that with its ultra-thin profile, and you won’t even know it’s in your backpack.
Aesthetically speaking, it looks sleek; gold lettering against its charcoal blue coloring is quite pleasing to the eyes. The click of the keys is satisfying, but the keyboard itself feels cramped. It isn’t the best design for someone with large hands.
See also: Our Asus Expertbook B9450 review for a powerful yet light business laptop.
Value
Given how flexible the Acer Swift 5 is in terms of use, on a 14” screen and enough battery life to last a normal workday, we can definitely recommend this machine. This is especially true if you are looking for something that can surf the web, do some light editing, and even a bit of lightweight gaming. Its color quality is particularly colorful, making it a great choice to binge watch your favorite TV shows or surf YouTube.
This is still true when matching the Acer Swift 5 with the Dell XPS and the Spectre X360, both of which perform on par with one another.
Acer Swift 5 Wrap Up
The Acer Swift 5 is a thin, and lightweight jack-of-all-trades laptop. It does well at handling several tabs of browsing while simultaneously streaming YouTube and Twitch. Furthermore, it has plenty of power to do some light editing and gaming, provided you get used to the cramped keyboard, nor are you going to get great sound effects with its poor speakers. However, the Acer Swift 5 still does exceptionally well as an all-purpose laptop that’ll last you at least a third of the day.
