Acer swift 5 air edition review

Acer says the Swift 5's battery lasts for up to 9.5 hours on the MobileMark 2018 benchmark and up to 14 hours during web browsing or video playback with the screen set to 50 percent brightness.

For comparison, the Yoga 9i we tested had a power-hungry OLED screen to deal with, resulting in a battery life of 10.5 hours on Mobile Mark 2018 and 14 hours with 1080p video playback, each with the screen set to 150 nits. The estimates drop to 13 and 23 hours, respectively, for non-OLED configurations.

Meanwhile, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme lasted for 8:23 on the PCMark Modern Office test when we set the screen to 200 nits and used the laptop's middle-grade balanced mode. Finally, the MSI 2-in-1 claims up to 20 hours of battery life while using its power-saving mode.

According to Acer, you can get up to 4.5 hours of battery from 30 minutes of charging with the Swift 5's 65 W USB-C adapter.

Display

Scharon Harding

Acer upped the resolution and height of the Swift 5's screen compared to the 2021 Acer Swift to help it better compete with laptops in its price range. The 14-inch glossy IPS LED touchscreen is now 16:10 and 2560 x 1600 (versus 16:9 and 1920 x 1080 last year).

The taller aspect ratio fits a trend dominating laptop releases this year. Interestingly, this is a true 16:10 screen, making it slightly taller than the Yoga 9i's display, which is closer to 16:10.5. Notably, Lenovo offers the Yoga 9i with an IPS OLED, 90 Hz display, compared to the Swift 5's 60 Hz.

My review unit's screen averaged 540.6 nits, which made it bright enough to use outside, even on a sunny summer day. There were decently strong reflections, but I was still able to see my work. Those reflections were a nuisance when watching movies, though, especially considering the thicker black bars on 16:9 films. Colors appeared on-point but not exceptionally vivid or saturated. I recorded 83.1 percent DCI-P3 coverage on the display, and Acer claims a contrast ratio of 1,200:1.

The Yoga 9i's OLED screen tested notably dimmer but is also more colorful. We recorded a max brightness of 378 nits on the machine and 123.2 percent DCI-P3 combined with theoretically infinite contrast.

Meanwhile, the ThinkPad showed similar color coverage (81.5 percent P3) to the Swift 5 and was slightly dimmer (443 nits) with slightly higher contrast (1,391:1) during testing, while the MSI claims 500 nits, 100 percent P3 coverage, and 1,000:1 contrast.

Like with the prior Swift 5 and other Acer laptops, the screen here uses Corning Gorilla Glass, which is supposed to make it tougher and scratch-resistant. The display is also antimicrobial. Acer claims the screen fights bacteria by incorporating an agent made with silver ions, which years of research suggest can fight bacteria by absorbing enough biomolecules, like DNA and enzymes, to stop bacteria from functioning. It's nice to have on a touchscreen.

Audio and webcam

The Swift 5 has a pair of front-facing stereo speakers under the left and right bottom corners of the deck, and they should be more bass-heavy than the speakers on the 2021 Swift 5. Occasionally, audio sounded muffled, and I sometimes wished for a little more volume. But in a quiet environment, the speakers sounded decently full for laptop speakers.

The laptop comes with DTS Audio, and although the software's preset profiles didn't prove useful, some of the options, like treble enhance, vocal boost, bass boost, and the graphics EQ can help improve default audio a bit.

Upgraded webcam

Acer upgraded last year's 720p webcam to 1080p. The company says the camera uses temporal noise reduction to boost image quality when the camera is used in low lighting.

I found the webcam's color to be quite vivid, even in low lighting conditions, though it occasionally made my skin tone look a little blown out. The image was pretty sharp and color-accurate for a laptop shooter.

To accompany web calls and other verbal communication, the laptop has two 33 mm far-field microphones on either side of the webcam; Acer says they use AI-based noise reduction and adaptive beam forming.

You can probably do better

Acer's Swift 5 is a few hundred dollars cheaper than rival ultralight laptops featuring current or last-gen Intel CPUs and/or less storage. But if you're willing to pay extra, you can do better. Design shortcomings, like a wobbly touchpad and plastic-like chassis, make the laptop feel noticeably cheaper than some alternatives, such as the shiny Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1.

The Swift 5 stands out with a pleasing color scheme and comfortable keyboard. Plus, it doesn't skimp on ports, and the display is comparable to competitors. But if you prioritize performance, it may be worth it to spend a little more on another laptop. It's all about what type of compromises you're willing to make.

Is the Acer Swift 5 a good laptop?

The Acer Swift 5 is an excellent entry in the midrange market, with a solid battery life, great sound quality, and clear 1080p touchscreen. It's surprisingly good as a casual gaming laptop too, but it comes at a steeper price.

How long does an Acer Swift laptop last?

Keep the brightness low and only run low-intensity tasks such as media players or office apps, and you'll get a lifespan of around 13 or 14 hours from the Acer. That's only moderate battery life. The laptop won't make it through a full day of work or lectures unless you're careful about brightness levels and app use.

Which is best Acer Swift or Acer Aspire?

Display: The Acer Swift 14 (2023) has a better screen It has a newer 16:10 aspect ratio display that gives you more vertical room to stack windows, whereas the Acer Aspire 5 has an old-school 16:9 aspect ratio screen. The Swift 14 also has slimmer bezels for a more modern look. There's also the bump in resolution.

Which Acer Swift is better?

Our Verdict. The Acer Swift 14 (2023) is slightly better than the Acer Swift 3 14 (2022) for most uses. The Swift 14 has longer battery life and faster Intel 13th Gen. CPUs.