Acer has always proven to offer great premium lightweight laptops with good performance. We take a look at the new Acer Swift 5 (SF514-56T) and here are our thoughts about the new laptop.
Design
When it comes to the design aspect, the new Acer Swift 5 features a premium aerospace-grade aluminum chassis. And thanks to the CNC machinery, the laptop is 14.95 mm thick and weighs only 1.2kg. The edges of the laptop are also anodized twice with an anodic luxury gold treatment to resist corrosion and wear, along with a golden hue that gives a premium look.
The touchscreen display is a 14-inch IPS panel with a 16:10 as its aspect ratio. The screen resolution is 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA) which produces sharp-looking text and images. The touchscreen also comes with Corning Gorilla Glass with an antimicrobial coating to resist accidental scratches and also keep the screen clean from spreading infections. The viewing angles of the display are great, the white appears to be cool, and the colors appear to be vivid.
The Acer Swift 5 offers a series of connectivity options. On the left, there are two USB Type-C ports that have support for 40Gbps transfers, Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, USB charging at 5V, and fast charge at 65W. Other ports on the left include an HDMI 2.1 port and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port. Looking from the right, there is another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, one headphone jack, and indicators for battery and power.
Acer calls the color of the chassis as Mist Green. The edges of the laptop feature a precision diamond cut that is made with a tolerance of +/-0.05 mm and over 10,000 seconds of precise CNC machining. When the lid is opened, the position of the working area and the keyboard is elevated upward so it’s easier for users to use the keyboard.
The backlit keyboard is one of the best I’ve used in a laptop and the typing experience is pleasant. The power button on the top right of the keyboard also doubles as a fingerprint scanner. The laptop also uses a large and eco-friendly OceanGlass touchpad that has a smooth surface. There are also air vents between the screen and the working space.
The bottom panel of the Swift 5 also comes with air vents. Acer mentions that the laptop uses its TwinAir cooling system to keep the temperatures under control. There are also dual speakers located on the bottom that produces loud audio and deeper bass.
Specs & Performance
The Acer Swift 5 comes powered by the Intel Evo series 12th generation i7-1260P, a dodeca-core (12-core) processor with a base core speed of 2.1 GHz and boost speeds of 4.7 GHz. The iGPU is Intel Iris Graphics with 96 EUs.The processor is backed by 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and a fast PCIe 4.0 1TB Micron MTFDKBA1T0QFM SSD with Windows 11 Home installed.
The performance of the device is fast and snappy while we used the laptop for our editorial work, editing excel sheets, surfing the web, watching YouTube, and more. We ran some benchmarks such as Cinebench R23, Geekbench 5, PC Mark 10, 3D Mark, FireStrike and TimeSpy, and CrystalDiskMark. Check out the scores below.
The laptop also comes with a WiFi-6E 1675i model and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. The front camera of the laptop makes use of Acer TNR technology that produces high-quality FHD video in low-light conditions. And to improve audio in video calls, the laptop also comes with Acer PurifiedVoice with AI Noise Reduction technology. The Swift 5 also comes with a 3-cell Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) battery with 65W of fast charge support. We ran the PC Mark 10 Modern Office battery test and the Swift 5 lasted for 6 hours and 52 minutes.
Verdict
Acer continues to make great premium thin and light laptops and the new Swift 5 is one of the best they have. The display is a 14-inch touchscreen with WQXGA resolution, along with antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The laptop features a premium aerospace-grade aluminum chassis, along with an anodic luxury gold treatment and the device weighs only 1.2kg.
The backlit keyboard offers a good typing experience and the trackpad is made of eco-friendly OceanGlass surface. The fingerprint scanner is embedded within the power button. There are two USB-C ports with support for Thunderbolt 4 and power delivery, along with HDMI 2.1 port and USB 3.2 Type-A port. The device runs on the latest 12th generation i7-1260P processor, along with 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB PCIe 4 SSD. And the Swift 5 can run for almost a day of use, along with support for 65W fast charge.
