Acer Swift 3 (2020), review with opinion and specifications

Acer Swift 3 (2020) SF314-57, Datasheet

Let's see all the features of this Acer Swift 3 and thus get an idea of what to expect in the rest of the review, Although we may find ourselves with the occasional surprise, it is something that you never know until you test a device well.

Display: 14-inch IPS panel with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels.
Processor: Intel Core i3-1005G1 (Core i5 and Core i7 available).
RAM memory: 4 GB or 8 GB.
Graphics Card: Intel UHD Graphics.
Storage: 128GB M.2 PCIe x2 SSD (256GB and 512GB available).
Webcam: HD Camera.
Connectivity: WiFi 6 (Intel AX201) and Bluetooth 5.0.
Ports and sensors: 1 x USB-A 3.1, 1 x USB-A 2.0, 1 x USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack and charging port.
Battery: 48 Wh with 45 W charger.
Operating system: Windows 10.
Price: from 699 euros.

Basic but sturdy design

Acer Swift 3 (2020), review with opinion and specifications

The brand has used magnesium as the main material in the construction of the Acer Swift 3, managing to contain the weight and place it at only 1.2 kilograms.

As soon as you hold it in your hands for a while, the feeling of lightness and how compact it is is evident, evidencing the excellent work in this sense that has been made by the brand.

The magnesium used does not feel as good to the touch as aluminum, but it is also true that it feels better than if they had used plastic. The whole set has a good sturdy feel, with a lid that doesn't easily get fingerprints on it, which is always good news.

The perceived quality of the laptop is higher than what we had in previous generations and it can seem that we are dealing with a laptop made of a material nobler than it really is.

On the right side of the ultrabook we have a connector 3.5 mm jack for headphones, a USB-A and two LEDs to indicate that the computer is on and charging.

On the left side we have a charging port, another USB-A, a port HDMI and one USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 support.

On the front we have a notch to facilitate the opening of the lid, something that is missing in some laptops and which is extremely practical.

The touchpad can be greatly improved

The Acer Swift 3's keyboard is in a pretty good position, with some good-sized keys, butexcessively sensitive to touch It is a keyboard that does not give margin for error because at the slightest press we already have the letter or symbol marked, which leads to making many mistakes when writing, Unless you're a typist.

One key that we didn't like is the "enter" which, being attached to the top key, has given us many failure to press it.

Although there are other models of this Swift 3 line that have a backlight on the keyboard, this is not the case and we have a normal keyboard in this sense.

We didn't like the touchpad because the touch is too plastic, with a rather annoying vibration, even when our touch is not too strong. In addition, it makes a metallic sound that is heard every time we press and is not pleasant.

However, it is a fairly accurate touchpad, in this sense we have not experienced any problems with the two buttons typical of hidden mice under the metal plate that it brings, something that is not to our taste either since we consider that these two buttons should be visible to differentiate them and use them more comfortably.

In addition, Acer has implemented a fingerprint sensor which is located on the right side, just below the keyboard. It is a sensor that has behaved correctly and quite precisely, although we do not consider its shape to be the most appropriate since it is excessively narrow, something that causes some than another specific error when using it.

Sufficient screen

The Acer Swift 3's panel is a 14-inch IPS panel (Chi Mei CMN141D4) with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

The maximum brightness of this screen is around 220 nits with sRGB coverage of 65%, which means that the screen responds well indoors or outdoors with poor lighting. The problem comes when we use the laptop outside with a lot of sun, since the screen doesn't look good in such situations and we notice a lack of brightness quite evident.

The colors on the screen are within parameters that we could consider correct, although don't expect them to be spectacular or very vivid, because this is not the case.

The black and white balance is also quite correct. We blacks can even consider that they are well achieved, always knowing that we are not dealing with a top ultrabook, obviously.

For the vast majority of users of this new Acer model, this screen is more than enough since, despite not having a powerful brightness and offering simply correct colors, it will be enough for users who They are not very demanding in this sense either, especially considering that we are not dealing with a laptop on which we are going to play spectacular graphic games continuously.

As far as sound is concerned, the placement and spacing of the speakers do not bode well. They are very small and also the sound comes out downwards, something that does not help.

The sound is of low quality, it has no body, the bass is conspicuous by its absence and the maximum volume of 70 dB is not very high. In this sense, the new edition of the Swift 3 has involuted.

As for the HD camera that sits above the screen, surrounded by microphones, we have mixed feelings. While the quality of the image is not entirely good, with dull colors and no sharpness, the microphones that we told you about before they do a great job and the sound on video calls is really good.

In any case, the camera-microphone set will be sufficient for most users of this Acer Swift 3.

In performance we have heads and tails

The numbers inside the Acer Swift 3 will give us an idea of how this laptop will behave in terms of its performance is concerned. We have:

Intel Core i3-1005G1 Processor.
4 GB LDDR4x RAM memory.
Intel UHD Graphics as graphics card.
128 GB M.2 PCIe x2 SSD internal storage.

These are the specifications of our review unit, the most basic variant, but we have to consider that the Acer Swift 3 (2020) is sold in other more powerful versions, with 10th generation Intel Core i5 or i7 chips, 8 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of SSD storage.

The performance of the Swift 3 in daily tasks is good, without problems and with enough power to be able to execute all those that we can perform on a daily basis, either surfing, sending the occasional email and some office automation with Word or Excel.

At the time when we required him to use a photo processing or video editing program, we have been pleasantly surprised by his good performance in this type of task, taking into account that it is not an excessively powerful laptop.

That is to say, it is not the fastest in the world nor does it exhibit enormous ease, but it can execute those types of situations, taking into account that the times will be quite long, especially if we talk about render a video in 1080p, for example.

But despite the fact that it takes a long time, it succeeds in the end and that is praiseworthy since other laptops with similar powers succumb in the attempt. Our 3DMark test corroborates all this with scores of:

Home: 3,564 points.
Creative: 4,471 points.
Work: 4,446 points.

Of course, when we run games with powerful graphic content, the Swift 3 suffers a lot At that moment it shows its shortcomings, in particular its GPU, although the processor is also forced since the fan jumps excessively fast and the processes become lazy and very slow, especially if we compare it with processors like the Ryzen 3500U, which we were able to recently test on the Huawei MateBook D 15.

This does not mean that from time to time you cannot play a game, but if the idea when purchasing this ultrabook is to play continuously, it seems to us that the user would be confused when acquiring theAcer Swift 3.

But if what you want is to use it for office automation issues and less aggressive things with the graphics, the laptop will respond satisfactorily, always taking into account the range in which we move.

The Fire Strike test, specialized in graphics cards, corroborates our feelings with a score of 1,431 points.

The SSD has achieved higher speeds than we originally expected, standing at 1,488 MB/s for reading and in a good ones 491, 7 MB/s for writing.

One of the most positive things we've noticed is how quiet the fan is, barely noticeable even when in a room alone. Of course, it is a fan that usually jumps quite quickly in certain tasks, for example, with games as we have indicated before, although it is not annoying and remains between 36 and 38 dB.

We have also not noticed that this is a laptop that gets too hot in normal operation. When we demand power, it is evident that its heating is greater, but without ever reaching amounts that seem annoying or excessive to us.

Regarding connectivity we have WiFi 6 thanks to the Intel AX200 module, with a signal that was stable throughout moment even if we changed rooms, which shows the good work of Acer in this regard.

As for the software, it has Windows 10 as the operating system. Regarding software, the main addition to the Acer Swift 3 is Acer Collection S, a suite that we have already been able to test in other reviews, such as the Acer Swift 5 (2020).

In this suite we have several options, such as a selection of programs that Acer gives us, a selection of games, some programs for entertainment, a software kit that they give us to install on the laptop or a list of programs depending on how we use the ultrabook.

Battery too tight

We have a 48 Wh battery inside this ultrabook, an amount that is more or less what devices of this type usually have and of this size.

As usual, we did several durability tests on the Acer Swift 3's battery, with results much fairer than we expected.

With screen brightness at 80%, watching YouTube videos at 1080p, WiFi enabled, and browsing occasionally, it never exceeded 5 hours and average autonomy.

In the case of forcing it more with the same level of brightness (80%), but with the maximum performance mode and working with programs of different kinds, it has not managed to reach practically4 hours of operation.

The charger that comes with the laptop is 45 W, which manages to charge from 0 to 100% this ultrabook after2 hours approximately.

Conclusions

It is evident that we are before a computer where the lightness and maneuverability has been sought since the zero minute. But they have also sought to give a greater visual sensation of quality, something they have achieved in general terms.

Important aspects in an ultrabook such as the keyboard and touchpad can be improved, especially the latter, to which we must add a low quality audioThe screen and, in part, its behavior partially make up for it, since the autonomy is not very outstanding either.

We think the Acer Swift 3 (2020) is a good ultrabook for the average user looking for a competitively priced device that It will serve you to use it from time to time or for office automation, without the need for great fanfare.