Acer Swift X 14 review: Portable, muscular, and OLED charm

Price When Reviewed

$1,499

Best Prices Today: Acer Swift X 14

Acer’s Swift X lineup, which guarantees huge laptop computer efficiency in a extra compact 14-inch footprint, is now a number of years outdated. The lineup was worth from the beginning however confronted rising pains. The new Acer Swift X 14 is a wonderful enchancment on the system with spectacular CPU grunt, however battery life stays a priority.

Looking for extra choices? Be positive to take a look at PCWorld’s roundup of the best ultraportable laptops accessible right this moment.

Acer Swift X 14: Specs and options

The Acer Swift X 14 is highly effective for a laptop computer of its dimension. It packs Intel’s Core i7-13700H processor, a 14-core CPU that’s typically a lot faster than the Core i7-1360P extra generally present in laptops of comparable dimension. It pairs that with Nvidia’s RTX 4050, which holds promise for respectable 3D productiveness and gaming efficiency.

• CPU: Intel Core i7-13700H
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4050
• Display: 14.5-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED non-touch
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 
• Connectivity:  2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 with Power Delivery, DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 2x USB-A, HDMI 2.0, MicroSD card slot, 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capability: 76 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.7 x 9 x .7 inches
• Weight: 3.31 kilos
• MSRP: $1,499

There’s at present only one incarnation of the brand new Acer Swift X 14 accessible, and it sells at a retail value of $1,499. It’s dearer than the Lenovo Slim Pro 7, which begins at $1,199, however delivers faster {hardware}. Gigabyte’s Aero 14 OLED, one other comparable laptop computer PC World has but to check, retails for $1,599. 

Acer Swift X 14: Design and construct high quality

The Acer Swift X 14 doesn’t stand out at a look, although that’s to not say it’s unattractive. It has a easy gunmetal exterior with a contact of sparkle to its end, however the laptop computer’s boxy, generic profile is unremarkable. Don’t purchase this laptop computer in order for you your pals to note your new rig. 

A combo of plastic and materials traces the Swift X 14’s exterior and, as soon as once more, proves satisfactory however unexceptional. The laptop computer’s decrease half feels rock-solid when dealt with and the show permits minimal flex whereas it’s opened or closed, however the supplies used don’t have the thick, sturdy really feel discovered with Apple’s MacBook Pro or Lenovo Slim Pro 7. 

However, the Swift X 14 is somewhat compact for a laptop computer with its specs. It’s simply 12.9 inches vast and .7 inches thick, which makes it roughly related in dimension to a MacBook Pro 14 or Lenovo Slim Pro 7, and it’s lighter than each at simply 3.31 kilos. That’s excellent news in order for you a laptop computer with highly effective {hardware} that continues to be simple to throw in a bag for a fast journey throughout city.

Acer Swift X 14: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Matthew Smith

Acer gives a spacious, snug keyboard for the Swift X 14. It has a traditional structure with area to offer massive keys throughout a lot of the keyboard, although the left-side Ctrl and Alt keys are maybe a tad small. The keyboard is center-aligned and positioned effectively again within the laptop computer, which gives ample area in your palms. 

Key really feel is stable, too, with lengthy key journey and a crisp bottoming motion. There is room to additional enhance key really feel, because the rebound motion feels a bit obscure to my fingers, however it is a nitpick. The keyboard feels nice whereas touch-typing and proved snug. The Swift X 14 faces robust competitors from options just like the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 and MacBook Air 13/15, which even have wonderful keyboards (and I do barely desire these options), however Acer retains itself within the operating. 

I may fortunately report that Acer’s new Swift X 14 fixes a private pet peeve I’ve remarked on with some current Acer laptops: the keyboard is black, somewhat than silver or grey. The distinction of a black key end in opposition to a silver or gunmetal chassis gives a premium look, so I’m glad to see Acer make this variation. 

The spacious touchpad is one other energy. It measures roughly 5 and a half inches vast by three inches deep, offering loads of area for Windows’ multi-touch gestures. Acer additionally serves up a snug, luxurious, and responsive glass end that feels fantastic to make use of. As true of the keyboard, the Swift X 14 doesn’t defeat its hardest opponents, however it’s an excellent expertise for the worth. 

Acer Swift X 14: Display, audio

IDG / Matthew Smith

Every Acer Swift X 14 with Nvidia RTX 4050 graphics has a 14.5-inch, 2,880 x 1,800 OLED show with a most refresh charge of 120Hz. It’s a superb show that appears nice irrespective of the content material you throw at it.

Contrast is a conventional energy of OLED panels, the Acer Swift X 14’s show is not any completely different. It gives an successfully infinite distinction ratio and achieves a minimal luminance of zero nits in darkish content material. It gives wonderful element in darkish, shadowy scenes, and an outstanding sense of depth to brighter, extra dynamic content material. This makes it nice for motion pictures, streaming reveals, and video games. This is a energy of the Acer Swift X 14 over the bottom Dell XPS 13, Lenovo Slim Pro 7, and Acer MacBook Air 13/15, all of which have much less contrast-rich IPS LCD shows.

Color efficiency is great, too, because the show’s shade gamut spans 100 p.c of DCI-P3 and 94 p.c AdobeRGB. These outcomes are typical for an OLED panel in a contemporary laptop computer, however nonetheless nice, and usually higher than the perfect LCD IPS laptop computer shows. Colorful content material seems to be vibrant, and the show’s shade accuracy is appropriate for picture and video enhancing. 

Brightness is a weak level, although, because the show reaches a peak brightness of 365 nits and has a shiny show coat. The show is usable even in a brightly lit room, or close to a sunlit window, however glare can show distracting if a lightweight supply is instantly behind you. HDR can improve this to 522 nits which, though not as excessive because the 700 nits accessible from a Mini-LED laptop computer just like the Razer Blade 16, is substantial and delivers punch in HDR content material. 

The show’s most decision of 120Hz, in addition to OLED’s low pixel response occasions, makes for nice movement readability in video games. Fast-moving objects present good element and fast digicam pans resist changing into a smudgy mess. Small, fast-moving textual content or tiny, detailed objects will nonetheless appear a bit obscure, however that’s true of all shows south of 240Hz.

While the show is great, the audio system are simply okay. They present good quantity at their most and are positioned above the keyboard, which implies they received’t sound muffled when the laptop computer is used in your laptop computer. However, they provide a slender soundstage and might turn out to be muddied when bass creeps right into a monitor. The audio system are broadly akin to most 14-inch laptops accessible right this moment however a step behind the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 and a leap behind the MacBook Pro 14 or Lenovo Yoga 9i. 

Acer Swift X 14: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

Acer packs a 1080p webcam into the Swift X 14’s slim high bezel. It gives a powerful, crisp with good shade replica and is usually a pleasant improve over any laptop computer with a 720p webcam. It’s not the perfect 1080p webcam I’ve tried (as soon as once more, options from Lenovo and Apple are typically higher), however it’s nice for Zoom, Google Chat, Teams, and different video conferencing apps. 

A dual-microphone array is supplied alongside the digicam. Its efficiency is a bit much less exceptional, as audio recordings aren’t the strongest or clearist I’ve heard, however it stays positive for video and audio conferencing. Your voice shall be clear and most background noises shall be obscured, although any that occur to be in the identical room as you might be prone to come by means of.

Acer doesn’t help biometric login on the Swift X 14. That’s a minor knock in opposition to it, as lots of the laptop computer’s opponents will provide both a fingerprint reader, facial recognition login, or each. 

Acer Swift X 14: Connectivity

IDG / Matthew Smith

The Acer Swift X 14 gives a superb combine of contemporary and legacy connectivity that’s typically superior to a lot of its opponents.

A pair of two USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 ports have trendy peripherals and devices lined. Both help DisplayPort Alternate Mode and supply sufficient USB Power Delivery to match the utmost supplied by the laptop computer’s energy brick (which is 100 watts). That means each ports may be related to an exterior monitor or cost the laptop computer. 

Older peripherals are supported by two USB-A ports, one HDMI, and one 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone audio jack. There’s additionally a MicroSD card reader, which is helpful if you happen to personal a tool (like a handheld gaming gadget or digicam) that makes use of MicroSD playing cards. 

There’s only one factor Acer may deal with higher, and that’s the placement of the ports. The Acer Swift X 14 positions its ports close to the center of the laptop computer, somewhat than in the direction of the rear, so wired connections could look a bit awkward and take up extreme desk area. 

Still, the Swift X 14’s connectivity is great. Many opponents present USB4 / Thunderbolt 4, however most don’t pair that with each USB-A and HDMI, and Acer throws in MicroSD as a bonus.

Acer Swift X 14: Performance 

Acer’s Swift X 14 isn’t a big laptop computer, however it packs a punch. It equips Intel’s Core i7-13700H processor, which has a complete of 14 cores (six efficiency cores and eight environment friendly cores) alongside Nvidia’s RTX 4050 graphics. A 1TB stable state drive and 16GB of DDR5 reminiscence come commonplace, as effectively.

IDG / Matthew Smith

PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, places the Acer Swift X 14 off to a powerful begin. It achieves a rating of 6,805, which beats each the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 and, extra surprisingly, the bigger Dell XPS 15, although the Samsung Galaxy Book Ultra3 zooms forward with a rating of 7,111.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15 gives one other robust end result for the Acer Swift X 14, the place it goes toe-to-toe with different Core i7-13700H laptops. While the Acer doesn’t beat the common, it’s price remembering the Slim X 14 is extra related in dimension to the Lenovo Slim Pro 7, so its relative efficiency is spectacular.

IDG / Matthew Smith

And that continues to be true in Handbrake. While the Acer Swift X 14 slides a bit behind its Core i7-13700H brethren right here, it nonetheless lands effectively forward of the Lenovo Slim Pro 7. That’s an excellent end result. I lauded the Slim 7 Pro for its CPU efficiency once I examined it, because it defeats many 13-inch and 14-inch laptops, so it’s fantastic to see the Acer Swift X 14 give it a thumping.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Now we transfer on to 3D efficiency, the place the Nvidia RTX 4050 turns into extra related. It’s price mentioning that Acer’s implementation of the RTX 4050 has a most graphics energy of 50 watts, which is in the direction of the low aspect of what’s potential (the utmost per Nvidia’s specs is 115 watts).

Even so, 3DMark Time Spy gives a fairly optimistic results of 5,644. That’s a lot better than older Nvidia RTX 3050 laptops, and never too far behind some laptops with Nvidia RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 graphics. However, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, which has an RTX 4050 with a most graphics energy of 60 watts, pulls out a big win. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a recreation which represents the reducing fringe of graphics within the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One period of console video games, returns a playable however modest common of 73 frames per second at 1080p decision and Highest element settings. That’s not unhealthy, however it’s a step behind laptops with extra watts accessible to the GPU.

IDG / Matthew Smith

I wasn’t anticipating rather a lot from our excessively tasking Metro Exodus benchmark. Launching the benchmark at 1080p decision and Extreme element ends in a mere 26 frames per second, even with out ray tracing enabled. That’s not likely playable, but additionally not too far behind different laptops with RTX 4060 and 4070 {hardware}. Knocking down the sport to its still-beautiful High element is a lot better, nevertheless, with a mean of 56 frames per second. 

I additionally fired up Cyberpunk 2077, a notoriously demanding recreation that continues to be taxing for a lot of laptops. The recreation averaged a good 53 frames per second at 1080p and Ultra element and ray tracing off, however solely achieved 15 frames per second with Ultra ray tracing turned on. However, Nvidia’s DLSS 3 body technology saves the day, boosting efficiency again as much as a playable 46 FPS. That’s not akin to a bigger gaming laptop computer, after all, however it’s end result for a 14-inch laptop computer.

Acer Swift X 14: Battery life

The Acer Swift X 14’s 76 watt-hour battery appears suited to its process, because it’s related in dimension to the battery present in Lenovo’s Slim Pro 7, the Dell XPS 13 Plus, and the Apple MacBook Pro 14. Unfortunately, real-world outcomes fall brief. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Blame the Nvidia RTX 4050 or, to be extra exact, the best way Acer implements it.

Laptops with Nvidia discrete graphics can obtain wonderful battery life when Nvidia Optimus is used to disable the GPU when its efficiency isn’t required. Lenovo’s Slim 7 Pro is an instance of this in motion. The Acer Swift X 14 doesn’t help Optimus, nevertheless, so it continues to empty the battery even when searching the online or writing in Word.

The influence on battery life is somewhat dire. The Acer Swift X 14 doesn’t exceed 5 hours of battery life in our commonplace battery benchmark, which loops a 4K file of the brief movie Tears of Steel. 

It’s the identical story when searching the online or utilizing primary productiveness apps like Word and Excel. The laptop computer chewed by means of the battery at a charge of roughly 25 p.c per hour, leaving it flat in about 4 hours. That’s not nice.

Acer Swift X 14: Should you purchase it?

Acer’s Swift X 14 is a stable alternative for anybody seeking to buy a compact, highly effective laptop computer at an affordable value. It gives robust CPU and GPU efficiency, a spacious stable state drive, wonderful OLED show, and even has a pleasing keyboard and touchpad. Battery life is the one significant issue (and, make no mistake, it’s a drawback). Still, the Swift X 14 may very well be an alluring worth in case your journeys take you to an area espresso store as a substitute of the airport.