The Acer Swift 5 is one of the best laptops this year. It checks all the boxes for a thin-and-light notebook. Slim and portable, its best feature is its excellent battery life, which clocks in at an incredible 11 hours in my video playback test.
Quick specs
- 14-inch Full-HD touchscreen
- Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor with 16GB system memory
- 56 watt-hour battery
- 1.04kg
But the first thing you'll notice about the Swift 5 is its weight. At just over 1kg, this 14-inch notebook is very handy. And while the lid exhibits some flex, this is entirely normal for a laptop built using magnesium alloy. The chassis itself feels sturdy enough to withstand the rigours of the daily commute. And despite its slim build, the Swift 5 has a good mix of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, two USB Type-A ports and HDMI.
Looks-wise, the Swift 5 does not break any new ground. In fact, it looks very similar to older Acer ultrabooks. But Acer has tried to jazz it up. For instance, the Acer logo and the keyboard letterings are in gold. The screen bezels around the 14-inch touchscreen are also suitably narrow, though Acer manages to fit a Web camera at the top.
The Full-HD display (rated at 340 nits) itself could be brighter, but it is a step up from other Acer laptops in terms of richness and colour accuracy. Minor gripe: As usual, Acer has bloated the Swift 5 with a ton of unnecessary third-party apps and shortcuts. Be prepared to remove links from the likes of Agoda and Amazon.
The Swift 5 is an Intel Evo laptop, a new breed of premium ultrabooks that are responsive, have long battery life and offer the latest connectivity options (Wi-Fi 6 and Thunderbolt 4). It certainly feels fast for everyday computing tasks like Web browsing and file transfers. More importantly, the bottom of the laptop stayed mostly cool during operation. There was also very little fan noise. At S$2,098 on Lazada or Shopee, the Swift 5 is slightly more expensive than the typical Acer laptop. But its battery stamina, portability and all-round competence make it a great choice for mobile workers.
Note: Review set provided by Acer.
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