Acer Swift 1 (SF114-34) Review: Slim But Slow

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The Acer Swift 1 SF114-34 combines the logo’s well-known accessibility with a light-weight ‘Extremely-Skinny’ design that hints at way more top rate pc marques. With pricing that levels from £350 to £550, it’s a mass-market pc that doesn’t skimp at the stylish accoutrements.

On the decrease finish of that value scale, the most recent Swift 1 is competing with the likes of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i 14, however the height type I’m trying out bumps into the likes of the HP Pavilion 14 and the Microsoft Floor Pc Pass. It’s selecting fights far and wide, however it doesn’t relatively have the engine vital to reason any upsets.

I’m trying out the highest specification right here, however the functionality point doesn’t range all that wildly around the vary. The principle distinction turns out to narrate to interior garage capability, which levels from 64GB appropriate as much as a 512GB SSD.

Whichever variation of the Acer Swift 1 SF114-34 you select, you’re getting the similar fundamental formulation – a pc that’s constructed to accomplish fundamental duties in taste. There’s no high-performance possibility as such, which is fairly ironic given the Swift title.

Design & Construct

  • Top rate design
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Stiff hinge

Acer’s Swift laptops position portability entrance and centre, and the Swift 1 is firmly on message. Whilst we’ve observed thinner laptops on the height finish of the marketplace, the Swift 1 SF114-34 cuts down significantly at the chunky dimensions of the Aspire 1 line.

Acer Swift 1 design

You’re having a look at a mild (1.30kg), slender (14.95mm) device with a tight high quality aluminium chassis. The Swift 1 feels reassuringly cast within the hand, and it stays firmly planted whilst you open it up.

It’s now not the perfect pc to get into, then again. There’s the standard cheap-Acer stiff hinge, because of this you need to bodily prize the 2 halves in part with each fingers. But that hinge additionally beneficial properties an additional point of bodily resistance when it nears the halfway-open level.

At this juncture, two elbows bodily raise the rear of the bottom off the skin. It makes for a pleasant, subtly angled typing attitude, however it additionally feels ever so relatively over-engineered. At the plus aspect, that stiffness and the truth that the show is bodily anchored implies that it’s extraordinarily strong, regardless of the viewing attitude, and it doesn’t inhibit the use of the Swift 1 in your lap both.

The plastic display bezels are fairly slender, in particular to the aspect, with a claimed 84% screen-to-body ratio. The brand-bearing chin bezel is the chunky section right here, despite the fact that it partly disappears at the back of the again of the bottom as a part of that footing gadget. There may be relatively numerous flex to the display, however it’s to be anticipated at this finish of the marketplace.

Acer Swift 1 hinge

Some other notable design inclusion – for an ostensibly inexpensive pc line, a minimum of – is a fingerprint reader. Slightly under the arrow keys doesn’t really feel like probably the most herbal place, however I didn’t in finding it getting into the best way of the typing revel in in any respect.

Extra problematic used to be its super-squat dimensions allied to a shockingly deep mooring. The latter implies that it’s simple sufficient to find through really feel, however the former implies that I didn’t all the time align my finger accurately on the first try.

When it comes to the are compatible and end, my take a look at type is available in vintage MacBook-Silver (now not its respectable title), however there also are extra thrilling Red, Gold, and Blue choices available on the market. All in all, it’s a good-looking device, in particular in the event you’re buying groceries at one of the crucial less expensive value issues.

Keyboard & Trackpad

  • Backlit keyboard
  • Fundamental trackpad

This overview used to be researched and written at the very pc it opinions, and there’s a explanation why for this past being meta. Tapping thru a few thousand phrases in Phrase, unexpectedly scrolling up and down for more than a few edits, and periodically flipping between a couple of open internet tabs is an effective way to place any keyboard and trackpad combo thru its paces.

The Acer Swift 1 handed this overview take a look at, and certainly each different typing and navigating activity, with flying colors. The keyboard is the standard MacBook-inspired chiclet affair and a beautiful cast instance of the shape at that. As with the new Acer Aspire 1, flitting between this and my MacBook Professional 2019 brought about no psychological quick circuits by any means, outdoor of the standard Home windows/MacOS shortcut divide.

Acer Swift 1 keyboard and trackpad

Certainly, the Swift 1 will get even nearer to Apple’s hallowed turf, because of the presence of backlighting, which makes typing in low ambient lights extra possible. I nonetheless don’t take care of the best way the Web page Up and Web page Down keys had been squeezed appropriate as much as the left and appropriate arrow keys, despite the fact that. It results in some distance an excessive amount of leaping round whilst you’re merely having a look to fine-tune cursor placement.

This isn’t probably the most fluid instance of a touchpad you’ll stumble upon, both. It’s sufficiently responsive to touch, however the buttons have a stiff, relatively awkward really feel. The world-specific activation and excessive point of commute led me to briefly undertake the touch-tap manner of variety relatively than the standard left-and-right click on way once I wasn’t merely plugging in a mouse.

It’s now not an enormous problem relative to different inexpensive laptops, however as soon as once more, the overall point of are compatible and end in other places led me to pray for (if now not relatively be expecting) a bit of higher.

Display screen & Audio system

  • IPS panel
  • ComfyView coating
  • Mediocre color

The Acer Swift 1 packs in a 14-inch Complete HD show with a ComfyView coating. The latter has a matte end that does neatly in dampening glare.

Acer has used an IPS panel relatively than the less expensive TN usual, because of this that you just received’t in finding your self continuously twiddling with the perspective of the show with the intention to see obviously.

The opposite merit to Acer now not cheaping out at the Swift 1’s show is a tight most brightness of 301 nits, which used to be recorded the use of an iDisplay Studio. Which means, in contrast to with sure different reasonably-priced laptops, it received’t essentially spend its entire operating existence with the brightness cranked as much as 100%.

Acer Swift 1 webcam

For normal daylight hours indoors utilization, I discovered that between part and two-thirds brightness point would suffice. When the ambient lights were given significantly brighter, in fact, there used to be scope to move upper.

Color copy is not anything particular, then again, with a trifling 60% sRGB, 42% Adobe RGB, and 43% DCI P3. It could be shiny and transparent, however it’s now not particularly colourful. Suffice to mention, whilst I put maximum of this overview in combination at the Swift 1, the photographs had been reviewed on a extra top rate device.

The pc’s sound output is treated through a couple of downward-firing stereo audio system, situated slightly below the nearside corners. They’re loud sufficient, with affordable stereo separation, however they’re additionally skinny and reedy, and so they badly lack low-end grunt.

That’s effective in a £350 pc, however it’s possible you’ll simply in finding your self beginning to be expecting extra for £550, as this height type prices. For instance, the HP Pavilion 14 discussed on the height has first rate Bang & Olufsen audio system.

Specifications & Efficiency

  • Intel Pentium or Celeron
  • 4-8GB RAM
  • 64-512GB garage

The Acer Swift 1 height type I examined runs of a 1.10GHz quad-core Intel Pentium Silver N6000 CPU. Decrease fashions make the most of a small unfold of choices, together with the Pentium N5030, the Pentium N5000, and the Celeron N4500.

None of those processors is what you’d name a celebrity performer. Even this height type scored a modest 1737 within the Geekbench 5 multi-core take a look at, which is not up to the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (1940), however a bit of upper than the Asus E410 (1606).

As you’ll see from the next GPU-focused benchmark effects, the Acer Swift 1 falls neatly at the back of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3i with regards to pushing graphics round, too.

Usually phrases, the Acer Swift 1 plays completely adequately for the sunshine duties it’s constructed for. Flitting between paperwork, internet browsers, and e mail by no means brought about any nice hitches for me, nor did firing up video content material. Picture and video editors needn’t observe, then again, nor the rest greater than informal avid gamers.

The Acer Swift 1 lots with Home windows 10 in S Mode because the default, which limits you to apps put in without delay from the Home windows Retailer. This doesn’t look like the type of factor somebody spending £500+ on a pc would need, so I deactivated it from the off for the entire Home windows 10 revel in.

It didn’t endure for the transfer, however I did in finding the Swift 1 to be annoyingly slow to wake from sleep. Apparently, I didn’t really feel this point of annoyance from the Acer Aspire 1, which packs the similar processor.  In all probability the upper value and extra top rate development of this height type sub-consciously raised my expectancies or a minimum of diminished my willingness to forgive and omit.

This top-spec comes with 8GB of DDR4 RAM, however less expensive fashions decrease that to 4GB. When it comes to garage, the highest type provides you with a wholesome 512GB SSD, however spending much less would possibly get you 256GB, 128GB, and even 64GB.

Acer Swift 1 ports

The Swift 1 surely isn’t missing for ports. But even so two USB 3.2 Kind-A ports, you additionally get a unmarried USB Kind-C port and an HDMI port. The suitable edge additionally homes a three.5mm headphone jack and a Kensington lock slot. There’s no ethernet connection, which is somewhat of a disgrace (in all probability a casualty of that Extremely-Skinny chassis), however the most recent Wi-Fi 6 usual (11ax) is supported.

Battery Existence

  • Above reasonable functionality
  • Barrel taste charging port

Acer claims a 15-hour battery existence for the Swift 1, and that’s in keeping with my very own findings. I used to be in a position to get thru a complete operating day involving heavy Phrase, internet, and Mail utilization, in addition to staring at a few YouTube movies and listening to a couple tune, with sufficient left to begin a 2nd day with.

In our usual looping video take a look at at 120 nits brightness, the pc lasted 15 hours 12 mins prior to it kicked the bucket. It’s a very good end result, soundly beating the Asus E410 on 12:48, the Lenovo IdeaPad S340 on 14:26, and much more dear laptops just like the Honor MagicBook 14 on 11:35.

Acer Swift 1 laptop

When it got here time to recharge this 45W triple-cell, the Swift 1 controlled to regain 39% in half-hour the use of the bundled cable. Acer claims that this will likely equate to 4 hours of utilization, and I’m now not susceptible to dispute that.

You’ll want to depend solely at the conventional barrel taste plug, despite the fact that. Whilst there’s a USB-C port right here, it’s now not able to sporting a fee.

Worth

The Acer Swift 1 prices £549.99 at the respectable Acer storefront for our take a look at type’s height configuration, however costs get started a lot decrease at £349.99. That can get you a extra modest Celeron N4500 CPU, part the RAM (4 GB), and a trifling fraction of the garage (64GB), despite the fact that with the similar exterior providing.

Sat in between the ones two spec bookends are a handful of diversifications at the theme, with an collection of humble processors, RAM allotments, and garage capacities. For instance, there’s a £399.99 type with a Pentium N5030 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Those center fashions really feel like they hit the candy spot of value and specifications to me, keeping off one of the crucial larger fish at both extremity.

You’ll be able to additionally purchase it from AO, John Lewis, Amazon and Laptops Direct. It is not to be had in the United States. 

If you happen to’re now not fussed through the Swift 1’s fingerprint sensor, haven’t any want for a USB-C port, and don’t thoughts a extra prosaic design, then it’s possible you’ll need to imagine the Acer Aspire 1 A114-33. It’s £50 less expensive than the entry-level Swift 1 type, but it packs this upper type’s Pentium N6000 processor.

On the reverse finish of the marketplace, £550 gets you the HP Pavilion 14 or the entry-level Microsoft Floor Pc Pass, either one of which offer every other point of functionality.

Take a look at our best possible price range laptops chart for extra choices.

Acer Swift 1

Verdict

In case your main pc priorities are excessive portability, sterling battery existence, and a low ticket, then the Acer Swift 1 is relatively a troublesome package deal to overcome. It sports activities a tidy, compact design, will closing a longer work-day on a unmarried fee, and costs get started from a very fair £350.

Connectivity is robust too, with USB-C and HDMI ports incorporated, in addition to a fingerprint reader and Wi-Fi 6 strengthen.

Whilst functionality is completely cast on the access and mid-point of the pricing vary, it’s possible you’ll in finding it a bit of short of in the event you had been to splash out an additional £200 at the height type lined right here. The contest will get much more severe whilst you pass that £500 threshold.

Equipped you stick to the mid-spec fashions, then again, the Acer Swift 1 is a superb moveable select.

Specifications

Acer Swift 1 (SF114-34): Specifications

  • Home windows 10 House in S Mode
  • 14in Complete HD (1920×1080) IPS LCD panel
  • Intel Pentium Silver N6000 processor (4 Cores/4 threads 1.10GHz, as much as 3.30GHz Turbo Spice up)
  • 8GB 2933MHz DDR4 RAM
  • 512GB M.2 SSD
  • HDMI port
  • USB 3.2 (Gen 1) Kind-C
  • 2x USB 3.2 (Gen 1) Kind-A
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • 2 x Audio system
  • 720p webcam
  • Intel Wi-fi Wi-Fi 6 AX201 (802.11ax)
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • Fingerprint reader
  • 45Wh 3-cell Li-ion battery
  • 322.8 x 212.2 x 14.95mm
  • 1.30kg

(*1*)

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