Acer Swift 14 (2023) Review (2024)

Form Factor

The Acer Swift 14 has a simple and sleek design. The bezels are incredibly thin, making the whole laptop feel more like a 13-inch than a 14-inch model. The finish is a dark olive green color with copper accents on the sides, although the green can look more like dark gray under some lighting. On the bottom, you can find the speakers near the front and air vents near the back. There are also air vents on the back of the laptop. The hinge design allows the bottom of the display to lift the back of the device when opened, providing better airflow. The keyboard's backlight is white, but the key legends are a darker yellow, matching the copper accents on the sides.

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The build quality is great. Its metal chassis feels high-quality and sturdy, exhibiting only a small amount of flex in the display and keyboard deck. However, it doesn't quite have the solidity and heftiness of more premium models like the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2022). The finish doesn't scratch or pick up fingerprints easily, and the feet feel solid and stick firmly to the bottom.

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Range

Stability

One Finger Lift

The hinge is okay. It feels smooth when opening and closing the lid and is very stable. There's only a little wobble when moving the laptop or typing aggressively. Unfortunately, you can't open the lid with one hand because the laptop's base is too light.

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Size

Thickness

Width

Depth

Volume

Weight

Charger Size

Charger Weight

The Acer Swift laptop and its power adapter are very compact and lightweight.

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Ease Of Access

RAM Slots

Storage Slots

Replaceable Battery

Replaceable Wireless Adapter

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Resolution

Aspect Ratio

Pixel Density

Panel Type

Touch Screen

Screen-To-Body Ratio

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Refresh Rate

Variable Refresh Rate

This laptop is only available with 60Hz displays. The QHD+ panel has a slow response time causing noticeable ghosting, so it isn't ideal for viewing fast-moving content and gaming. The FHD+ (1920 x 1200) panel will likely perform similarly.

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Native Contrast

The contrast ratio is great for an IPS panel, but it's still relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. Blacks look gray in dim settings. The FHD+ display likely has a similar contrast ratio. If you want a similar productivity laptop with an OLED display, check out the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (2024).

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Maximum Brightness

Minimum Brightness

The QHD+ display gets very bright, enough to provide good visibility outdoors in broad daylight. It also gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which is great for dark room viewing as it causes less eye strain. The FHD+ display will likely perform similarly.

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Screen Finish

Total Reflections

Indirect Reflections

Calculated Direct Reflections

The reflection handling is sub-par. Its glossy finish doesn't do much to reduce the intensity of bright reflections. It's best to avoid having light sources directly behind you, like a lamp or open window during the day. The reflections make it hard to see dark-color content and are visible even when viewing light-color content with the display at maximum brightness.

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Uniformity (Std. Dev.)

The display's black uniformity is mediocre. There's clouding in a few places, and some backlight bleed around the corners of the screen. These issues are only visible when viewing dark content in a dim setting, though.

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Color Washout From Left

Color Washout From Right

Color Shift From Left

Color Shift From Right

Brightness Loss From Left

Brightness Loss From Right

Black Level Raise From Left

Black Level Raise From Right

Gamma Shift From Left

Gamma Shift From Right

The horizontal viewing angle is passable. The image dims and washes out fairly quickly as you move to the side. You need to be more or less in front of the screen to see an accurate image.

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Color Washout From Below

Color Washout From Above

Color Shift From Below

Color Shift From Above

Brightness Loss From Below

Brightness Loss From Above

Black Level Raise From Below

Black Level Raise From Above

Gamma Shift From Below

Gamma Shift From Above

The vertical viewing angle is passable. Like the horizontal viewing angle, the image dims and washes out when viewing the display from above or below. You need to look at the screen almost straight on to get an accurate image, which can be hard in places where you don't have much space to tilt the screen, like a bus or airplane.

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Avg. White Balance dE

Avg. Gamma

Avg. Color dE

Avg. Color Temperature

The display accuracy is decent out of the box. Most color and white balance inaccuracies are minor. The default color profile targets a slightly wider color space than pure sRGB, oversaturating greens and reds. The color temperature is warmer than the standard 6500K target, although the difference is too small to be noticeable. The gamma doesn't follow the sRGB curve; most scenes look too bright, while dark scenes look too dark.

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sRGB xy

sRGB uv

Adobe RGB xy

Adobe RGB uv

DCI P3 xy

DCI P3 uv

Rec. 2020 xy

Rec. 2020 uv

The QHD+ panel's color gamut is outstanding. It has full sRGB coverage, the color space used in most content. Its Adobe RGB and DCI P3 coverage is excellent but isn't enough for professional print photography or viewing and producing HDR content. The FHD+ display's color gamut is likely similar.

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Flicker-Free

Flicker Frequency

Flicker Active Below

The backlight is entirely flicker-free, which helps reduce eye strain.

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Typing Quality

Numpad

Backlighting

Operating Force

Actuation Force

Pre-Travel

Total Travel

The Acer Swift 14 laptop has a decent keyboard. The layout is fairly standard and doesn't take long to get used to, although the spacing feels a little tight. The keycap material is okay; it doesn't feel particularly premium or cheap. The keys are stable and feel tactile; however, they require a fair amount of force to actuate, which can be tiring over an extended period. Also, you may find the travel too short, especially if you're used to mechanical keyboards. Typing noise is relatively low and isn't bothersome in quiet settings.

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Tracking Quality

Size

Material

Dedicated Buttons

The touchpad is decent. It feels smooth and tracks all movements and gestures well. However, its small size makes actions like dragging and dropping over a long distance hard. There are no issues with palm rejection. The clicking mechanism feels relatively satisfying but is loud, and you can only click in the bottom portion of the touchpad. Check out the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED UX3404 (2023) if you want a similar laptop with a better touchpad.

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Max Volume

Standard Error @ Normal Vol. (65 dB)

Slope @ Normal Vol. (65 dB)

Bass Extension (Low-Frequency Ext.)

Treble Extension (High-Frequency Ext.)

Dynamic Range Compression @ Max Vol.

The speakers are passable. Though clear, they sound slightly tinny, with no bass at all. They aren't sibilant, but the treble is a little sharp and can be fatiguing over time. On the upside, they get very loud with minimal dynamic compression artifacts at max volume.

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Video Quality

Resolution

Position

Privacy Cover

Face Unlock

The Acer Swift's webcam is excellent. The image looks detailed and well-exposed, with natural-looking colors. The only complaint is that there's a little bit of noise in the darker areas. Voices come across loud and clear over the microphone with almost no background noise.

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USB-A Ports

USB-C Ports

Thunderbolt

USB-C Charging

USB-C Display Out

HDMI

DisplayPort

3.5mm Jack

Card Reader

Ethernet

Proprietary Port

Security Lock

The Acer Swift's port selection is excellent. The two USB-A ports support USB 3.2 Gen. 1 data transfer speed (up to 5 Gbps). You can use the left USB-A port to charge a mobile device even when the laptop is in sleep mode. Both USB-Cs support Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps data transfer speed and two 4k displays at 60Hz) and can charge mobile devices at a maximum power output of 15W.

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Wi-Fi

Bluetooth

The wireless adapter is an Intel Killer Wi-Fi AX1675i. Wi-Fi 6E has faster speeds, lower latency, and less signal interference than previous Wi-Fi standards. However, you need a router that supports Wi-Fi 6E to benefit from these features.

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Brand

Model

Core Count

Thread Count

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Brand

Model

Dedicated/Integrated

VRAM Size

The Acer Swift 14 laptop is only available with Intel Iris Xe graphics. This integrated GPU can only handle light tasks like web browsing and video playback, not demanding workloads like video editing or 3D graphics. You can play some older or puzzle-like games, but you'll likely have to play with low settings to get smooth gameplay. If you need a thin, light laptop with a discrete GPU, check out the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 14 (2023).

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Capacity

Modules

Type

Speed

You can configure this laptop with 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of memory. The RAM modules are soldered onto the motherboard and aren't user-replaceable.

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Advertised Capacity

Usable Capacity

Drive 1

Drive 1 Type SSD

Drive 2

Drive 2 Type No 2nd Drive

You can configure this laptop with 512GB or 1TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable; the slot supports an M.2 2280 PCIe Gen. 4 NVMe SSD.

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CPU Single-Thread

CPU Multi-Thread

GPU Compute

The Acer Swift has an outstanding overall score in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. The Intel Core i7-13700H has exceptional single- and multi-thread performance, making it suitable for nearly every type of workload, including demanding tasks like 3D graphics and video editing. The Core i5-13500H is slower but still fast enough to handle intensive tasks. Unfortunately, the Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU performs poorly and isn't suitable for demanding jobs.

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Single-Thread

Multi-Thread

The Acer Swift performs exceptionally well in the Cinebench R23 benchmarks, making it suitable for 3D graphics rendering and other related workloads. The Core i5-13500H is slower but still adequate for professional-level work.

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CPU Render Time

GPU Render Time

GPU Render Time (Optix)

The performance in Blender is great; however, if you need to render images professionally, it's best to get a laptop with a discrete GPU. Even an entry-level GPU, like an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, can render images much faster than the CPU, saving you time.

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Overall Score

The Acer Swift performs poorly in the Basemark GPU benchmark. Intel's Iris Xe isn't bad for integrated graphics, but it still isn't fast enough to provide smooth gameplay in graphically demanding games. It can only handle simple, puzzle-like games or older titles at 1080p, and even then, you'll have to play at a lower resolution or with low graphics settings to get playable frame rates.

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Sequential Write Speed

Sequential Read Speed

Random Write Speed

Random Read Speed

The SSD's performance is outstanding. Its fast read and write speeds allow the system to quickly boot up, launch apps, and transfer files.

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Capacity

Battery Life (Web Browsing)

Battery Life (Video Playback)

Battery Life (Gaming)

Charge Time

The Acer Swift's battery life is decent. You can get through a typical work or school day on a full charge, but it's close, so depending on your usage, you may have to plug it in for a quick charge. Models with an FHD+ display will have slightly longer battery life.

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Avg. FPS

1% Low

0.1% Low

1% Low Delta

0.1% Low Delta

Avg. FPS On Very Low

Borderlands 3 isn't playable on the Acer Swift. The gameplay is extremely choppy, even with low settings. The Intel Iris Xe integrated GPU can't handle such a graphically demanding game. You can expect the same performance in other similar titles.

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Avg. FPS

1% Low

0.1% Low

1% Low Delta

0.1% Low Delta

Avg. FPS On Minimum

Avg. Turn Time

Civilization VI is a little choppy at 1080p with high settings because the average frame rate is too low, but you can get much smoother gameplay if you lower a couple of graphical settings. The average turn time is decent and within the expected range for an Intel 13th Gen. H-series processor. The turn time is likely longer on a model with a Core i5, albeit only marginally.

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Avg. FPS

1% Low

0.1% Low

1% Low Delta

0.1% Low Delta

Avg. FPS On Low

CS:GO runs poorly at 1080p with high settings. Although the average frame rate is good, the game stutters a lot due to frame drops. It runs more smoothly with low settings, but there are still noticeable stutters. The Core i5 will perform slightly worse.

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Avg. FPS

1% Low

0.1% Low

1% Low Delta

0.1% Low Delta

Avg. FPS On Lowest

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn't playable at 1080p with high settings. The gameplay is choppy, even with low graphical settings. You have to lower the resolution to 720p to get playable frame rates in this and other similarly demanding games.

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Keyboard Temp While Idle

Keyboard Temp Under Load

Fan Noise While Idle

Fan Noise Under Load

Power & Fan Control App

The Acer Swift has good thermal and noise handling. The keyboard is cool at idle, and the fans are completely silent. The keyboard gets much hotter under load, but it doesn't cause any discomfort as the hot spots are closer to the top of the deck, away from where most people rest their hands. As for the fans, although they're audible at full speed, the noise isn't annoying.

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CPU Temp (Cinebench)

CPU Perf. Loss (Cinebench)

GPU Temp (Heaven)

GPU Perf. Loss (Heaven)

The Acer Swift's performance over time is great. Only the CPU throttles under load. The performance loss is small but still noticeable, especially in long, sustained workloads.

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Operating System

Additional Software

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RGB Illumination

Touch Pen

Secondary Display

Biometrics

The Acer Swift has a fingerprint sensor built into the power button. You can use it to log into Windows, authorize Windows Store purchases, and auto-fill saved passwords on supported websites.

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