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The Swift 3’s IPS display was pretty good for working and unwinding with some content on Prime Video and Disney+. Colours are decent and the viewing angles are marvellous. An aspect ratio of 16:9 is also rather standard, and some may argue it’s a little behind the curve as modern ultrabooks are using a squarer 16:10 ratio for newer-style apps and browsing. READ NEXT: The best laptops you can buy right now Acer Swift 3 SF314-57 (2020) review: What you need to know USB Type-C port supporting:USB 3.2 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps), DisplayPort over USB-C, USB charging 5 V; 3 A, DC-in port 20 V; 65 W
The Aspire does an excellent job of dissipating heat. I popped open 30 tabs in Google Chrome, all playing various Full HD YouTube videos while working on a document and there was no discernible rise in temperature. The speaker system can’t quite match the display for quality, though, despite carrying DTS certification. To start with there’s not a lot of volume on offer: at 1m distance, I measured an average of 71dB from a pink noise source and 72dB with peaks of 79dB from a music source. That’s pretty average. There’s not much in the way of bass, either, although the definition is good and there’s no break-up even at maximum volume. The Swift 3 took 11 minutes to transcode a 4K video to 1080p on our HandBrake test. Though that sounds like a long while, it outperformed the mainstream laptop average of 20 minutes and 33 seconds. The Intel Swift 3 took 21 minutes and 26 seconds, while the HP Envy 13 took 23 minutes and 38 seconds. The downward-firing stereo speakers sound okay for the price; they’re a little thin overall, but do feature some decent bass. Measuring 12.7 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches and weighing 2.6 pounds, the Swift 3 is slightly lighter than the MacBook Air(2.8 pounds and 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches). Both being much lighter than the HP Envy x360 15which comes in at 4.42 pounds, 14.1 x 9.6 x 0.74 inches. Our lightweight champion is the Microsoft SurfaceBook Pro 7+, which came in at (11.5 x 7.9 x 033 weighing a waifish 1.8 pounds. Acer Swift 3 portsGetting the bottom off the Swift 3 is easy enough but pretty pointless. All you can do is switch out the Intel AX201 wireless card and the Micron 2280 SSD. While I’m on the subject, the AX201 gives you full Wi-Fi 6 connectivity as well as Bluetooth 5.0, while the Gen 4 512GB SSD recorded perfectly decent (for the price) sequential read and write speeds of 2,026MB/sec and 1,085MB/sec respectively. The Acer Swift 3 speakers, which are located on the bottom sides of the laptop, provides sound that is simply mediocre. While listening to “Hate Me” by Blue October, I noticed that guitars sounded clear and bold, including the bass that came through accurately. However, the vocals sounded so low, almost like someone was covering their mouth while trying to sing to me. Even with the volume at 100%, the speakers didn’t play any music very loud, which can be chalked up to the Swift 3 being designed with bottom-firing speakers. Acer does go a bit beyond the brief with its software, but not in a good way. We get some officious software, Acer Jumpstart, popping up notifications here and there. If they were notifications for ways it can improve the system performance, maybe we shrug it off. But, when it’s a large promo for Forge of Empires, we’re inclined to uninstall the software on the spot.
READ NEXT: Our favourite laptops for every budget Acer Swift 3 review: Performance and battery life The Acer Swift 3 stayed pretty cool after we streamed a 15-minute, fullscreen 1080p video on it. The underside of the laptop reached 84.5 degrees Fahrenheit, staying way below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard reached 80.5 degrees while the touchpad stayed at 76.5 degrees. The laptop’s hottest point was located on the underside, to the left of the vents, and even then it stayed below our 95-degree comfort threshold, only getting to 87.5 degrees. Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Software and warranty
However, the story of 2020 and 2021 continues as the Acer Swift 3 (2021) is yet another Windows 10 Ultrabook that falls behind the M1 MacBook Air in performance, and that device has considerably more impressive looks, though isn’t quite up to snuff on port variety. In day-to-day use, both models feel snappy in use. They power on rapidly, boot up games without issue and seem comfortable running dozens of Chrome tabs at once. However, the Intel review unit did let out a persistent humming noise, even when the CPU wasn’t being taxed that heavily.
At just 251 nits of brightness, the Acer Swift 3 fell short compared to the 285-nit mainstream laptop average and the 387-nit HP Envy 13. However, it did surpass the Intel version of the Swift 3, which peaked at 224 nits.In our file transfer test, the Acer Swift 3 copied 5GB of files at a rate of 462.7 megabytes per second, for a total of 11 seconds, which just barely makes it past the category average of 409.6 MBps. Once again, this crushed the HP Envy 13, which has a rate of 363.5 MBps. The Acer Swift 720p webcam is standard and performs well. Like most webcams, the color is a little off in tone and the details are grainy, especially if the lighting isn’t right. If you need better quality, I suggest purchasing an external webcam. However, the Swift 3's camera will be sufficient for Zoom and Google Meet calls. Acer Swift 3 software and warranty Like all Intel’s H-series 13th Gen processors it has some legs on it and is capable of giving modern laptops a level of performance that would have been unthinkable just two years ago.
The Acer Swift 3 (2021) may be making up for its looks with its performance. That upward-facing exhaust vent that we find unsightly may be the very thing that helps it come out ahead of similarly specced Ultrabooks that go for a more impressive build, like the Dell XPS 13 (Late 2020). In fact, the Acer Swift 3 beat that laptop in every single one of our performance benchmarks while both were running on the same processor.
The Acer Swift 3 offers amazing performance for its mid-range price, with its AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU, long battery life and a lightweight chassis. However, the display isn't as bright as it should be and its speakers could use more pep as well. There’s no doubt that the Swift 3 is a smart-looking laptop, with an all-silver outer shell helping to provide some business-class looks. It’s also nicely built and doesn’t feel cheap in the slightest, being comprised of some high-quality metal and plastics with a smooth finish. According to Acer’s internal lab data, when comparing 2021 Swift 3 (SF314-511) and 2022 Swift 3 (SF314-511) under performance mode and using Cinebench R20 to test. CPU performance (11 th Gen Intel ® Core™ i7-1165G7 vs latest 12 th Gen Intel ® Core™ i7-1260P) improved by up to 1.98x. Actual score may vary considerably by specifications, depending on product model, configuration, applications, power management settings, operating conditions, and features utilized. Performance variation also arises based on components in use, which includes but is not limited to the processor, RAM capacity, storage, display and resolution, etc. Yes, it looks a little plain next to the Asus Zenbook 14X and the OLED display could be more colour-accurate but the former is a matter of taste and the latter can be improved by some judicious recalibration. I like this laptop; I like it a lot. Wi-Fi 6E-compatible devices are required to reach the stated speeds/benefits of Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax).
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