One of the standout features we loved about the Acer Swift 3 is its sleek all-aluminum body, as someone who’s used Apple Macs for years, we can’t help but love a laptop made with a solid all-aluminum design. The Acer Swift 3 has this and much more!
We went hands-on with the Acer 14-inch Swift 3 and this is our quick review to deliver our first impressions. The model in this review has an Intel Core i5 Processor for delivering speed and 8GB of RAM, which aids in multitasking, also the 256GB SSD storage keeps everything moving fast with good performance thanks to flash memory.
UK Retailer: Tesco Sells the Acer Swift 3 Laptop
Acer pack their laptops very well and the Swift 3 is very snug in a well packaged box, below you can see everything that comes inside that box, in terms of setup instructions, cards, power charger and laptop.
Very Thin Laptop
Not all laptops are made equal and not only is the Acer Swift 3 made from a solid feeling all-aluminum body, it’s also thin, measuring 17.9mm thin and weighing only 1.5kg.
For us, these are two important factors when purchasing a laptop and this model nails both to deliver a stunning design you can admire before even turning the laptop on!
Solid Battery, Watch Apps Running In Background
This Acer Swift 3 laptop is capable of lasting just about all day, with up to 10 hours of battery life, so with the lightweight construction it’s perfect if you are always on the go!
There’s some downsides that we noticed, at first we didn’t get anywhere near this battery life, showing more like 4 hours, but later discovered some of the apps that load with Windows 10 were draining the battery.
Be warned, this is more a Windows 10 issue and not the Acer Swift 3 laptop. Make sure all unneeded apps and software are not running in the background to drain your juice, 10 hours is very possible with minimum brightness but this isn’t practice.
Backlit Keyboard
Not all laptops have this feature, but we love a backlit keyboard and once you’ve had one, you will forever miss it when in low light conditions. While some of us know where all keys are after using laptops for hours each day, it’s still great to see every key in almost all environments.
Glass Front Panel To The Screen
You can see Acer are aiming at quality in almost every feature with the Swift 3, for example there’s a glass front panel to the screen, which adds a more quality feel and design, although the downside to this is more reflection when compared to having a plastic front panel to the screen. We guess it’s finding that balance of delivering quality versus what’s practical.
The Finer Details, Going The Extra Mile
Another simple feature of the Swift 3 shows how Acer has gone that extra mile in design, this is the unbroken strip of rubber running around the screen edge to protect when you close the lid. We’ve seen other laptops featuring small bits of rubber in each corner, which looks nowhere near as nice as this.
Plenty Of Ports For Connectivity
There’s a full-sized HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, a very welcomed USB Type-C, and headphone jack can be found on the left side of the laptop. You’ll find another USB port (2.0), SD card reader, and power indicator lights on the right.
As you’d expect, there’s a webcam in the normal spot above the screen that’s capable of 720p/30fps, built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 4.0 Bluetooth.
SSD Storage The Way To Go
Performance is so much better when comparing SSD storage to normal, mostly larger, hard drives. While you won’t get the 2,000 GB storage options, 256GB SSD combined with backing up to SD and Cloud is a far better solution.
It means your laptop keeps its fast (like-new) performance a year later and doesn’t see the slowdowns associated with traditional hard drives.
If you want a faster boot-up time and all round quicker performance, go SSD!
Finger Print Reader
When you first turn your Acer laptop on, you’ll need to go through a number of setup guides to get everything perfect for you. One of these will be setting up the finger print reader, which can be used in a number of ways throughout your use of the Acer Swift 3, also this is a great feature for additional security.
So, we’d recommend you get your finger print recognised and setup for the reader right away. It’s much easier when logging into your laptop too!
Main Acer Swift 3 Specs
- 14-inch IPS LED Full HD 1920 x 1080 Pixel Display
- Intel Core i5 Processor
- 8GB of RAM
- 256GB SSD storage uses flash memory for better speed and performance
- Up to 10 hours Battery Life
- SD Memory Card Slot
- Sleek all-aluminum body
- Measuring 17.9mm thin and weighing only 1.5kg
- Microsoft Windows 10 Home OS
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 4.0 Bluetooth
- Backlit keyboard
- 720p Webcam capable of 30fps
- Ports Include: HDMI, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB 2.0 and 1 x USB Type C
- Finger Print Reader – Great For Additional Security
Bottom-Line
The Acer Swift 3 is a quality all-metal design and the backlit keyboard is very handy in low light conditions, and there’s a great size touchpad to give you much needed extra room. The battery life might drain fast if you don’t fine-tune start-up and background apps running, although overall we’re impressed with the Acer Swift 3 built quality, specs and performance. (We’d give this laptop an overall score of 4/5).
Where To Buy The Acer Swift 3 Laptop
We purchased this laptop at Tesco, you can see full specs and the Acer Swift 3 product page here on Tesco. This retailer also offer laptop eCoupons from time-to-time for an extra discount, so keep watch for these deals.
