Acer Swift 7 Review: A Slim and Lightweight Wonder

Acer Swift 7: At First Glance

In a bid to provide luxury, portability, and elegance, Acer went all out in the design of the Acer Swift 7. At the time of its release, the Acer Swift 7 happened to top its category as the thinnest laptop in the world.

Moreso, the Acer Swift 7 is not just slim. When the laptop was first released officially, many editors tagged it as a “portable and elegant beauty to behold”.

However, the Acer Swift 7‘s price tag is a bit on the high side as it costs $679.99 (as of October 2021). This price tag is one of those things that will make many people second-guess their decision to buy the Acer Swift 7.

Wondering if it’s still a laptop worth considering? Read on to find out.

Acer Swift 7: Design, Dimension & Weight

On sighting the Acer swift 7, the ambiance of the laptop screamed luxury and convenience. I thought to myself, “this is a laptop worth acquiring”.

The Acer Swift 7 is not just extremely slim, but also unique due to its color specification. Unlike the traditional single color choice for most laptops, the unusual style of combining two colors looks good on this laptop.

On the exterior, the Acer Swift 7 features a smooth black matte paint on its lid. This fine aluminum lid has an Acer logo boldly inscribed at the midsection.

At first glance, one would assume that the Acer Swift 7 to be fragile. However, that is not the case with this laptop.

The Acer Swift 7 is sturdier than it looks. It would take a whole lot of effort to damage any of its parts.

Moving on to the interior, the first feature you can’t but notice is its beautiful glossy 13.3-inch display. The Acer Swift 7’s 13.3-inch display is built with a native IPS panel.

This IPS panel makes the screen accurate and enjoyable when viewing content from every angle.

Additionally, this 13.3″ display is protected by corning gorilla glass. Briefly, corning gorilla glass is a type of glass that prevents the screen of a display from withholding stains and scratches on its surface.

Still on the display, the Acer Swift 7 has its display surrounded by slightly thick bezels on all sides. Although the bottom bezel appears to be slightly thicker than the other bezels, it does not alter the beauty of the laptop.

Rather, it adds to its overall uniqueness.

At the laptop’s top bezel, there’s an HD webcam centrally positioned. As always, the customary Acer logo is also neatly printed at the bottom bezel

Moving on to the deck, Acer’s color blend becomes more appealing. The laptop’s anodized aluminum chassis is colored in fine accents of gold.

On the keyboard area, the blend of gold base and black keys seemed too flashy but still exciting. The matte black keys with their white lettering give a subtle glowy look when rays of the screen’s brightness shine on them.

Although the keyboard is slightly lower towards the palm rest than usual, the keys are averagely spaced to accommodate all hand types – big or small.  

Unfortunately, the keyboard is not backlit. In my opinion, this is not much of a bad side since the color blend is already showy enough.

Furthermore, Acer decided to go all out on the trackpad as they made it quite wide. This touchpad measures 5.5 x 2.6 inches.

The width and sensitivity of the trackpad comfortably enable multi-touch gestures.

Now to the sides of the laptop, the Acer Swift 7’s sharp curved edges makes it almost impossible to open the laptop with one hand when closed. 

This is so because the hinges hold the lid and the base tightly together.

On another note, Acer was unable to provide multiple port options around the side of the Acer Swift 7. You will only see two USB 3.1 Type C ports and a combo audio jack at the upper right side of the laptop.

However, the two USB 3.1 offers multiple options. They can serve as a charging port using a power adapter.

Likewise, if you need to attach other devices you can use the USB 3.1 port.

Although the Swift 7 is extremely slim, it still weighs slightly more than some laptops in its category.

Comparatively, the HP Spectre 360 measures 306.8 x 194.5 x 17.0 mm, and weighs 1270g. The Acer Swift 7, on the other hand, measures 324.6 x 229.6 x 9.96 mm and weighs 1130g.

In conclusion, the Acer Swift 7 is beautiful and sleek in terms of its overall design. Therefore, I will be giving it a nine in this review design review.

Acer Swift 7: Processor (CPU) Performance

The Acer Swift 7 features a 7th Generation Intel Core i57Y54 processor. This Intel Core i5 processor is quite durable and efficient, most suitable for tablets and partially cooled notebooks. 

Furthermore, the Intel Core i5Y54 processor offers a base frequency of 1.20 GHz and a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. 

Based on the model of the Acer Swift 7, Acer was not wrong for choosing the intel core i5. According to the kaby lake architecture, processors in this category are designed to handle a variety of tasks excellently.

Moreso, the Intel Core i5 is a dual-core power-efficient processor. This CPU supports hyperthreading which allows it to process up to four threads simultaneously.

To this effect, the Acer Swift 7 handles office tasks like web surfing, emailing, streaming, and most computing tasks very well.

However, tasks like video editing should be avoided. This is due to the fact that the CPU might not be able to work efficiently under these circumstances without lagging.

For the benchmark test, the Cinebench R15 test tool proved resourceful.

Briefly, the Cinebench R15 benchmark test tool is used to test a laptop’s single-core and multi-core CPU performance.

In the above test, the Acer Swift 7 scored 111 points, while the Acer spin 7 also scored 111 points in the single-core test.

However, in the multi-core test, the Acer Swift 7 with 207 points performed a little better than the Acer spin 7 with a score of 205 points.

In conclusion, the results gotten from this test show that the intel core i5Y54 is obviously not a bad pick for the Acer Swift 7. Therefore I will rate the laptop an eight in this processor performance review.

Acer Swift 7: Memory (RAM) Performance

The Acer Swift 7 comes with an 8 GB LPDDR3 memory. The RAM offers a single memory slot that supports a standard capacity of 4 GB and a maximum capacity of 8 GB.

Quickly, the LPDDR3 also known as low power double data rate is a type of SDRAM that is durable and consumes less power.

This type of SDRAM is mostly suitable for mobile computers. Since the Acer Swift 7 is an on-the-go lifestyle laptop, this memory choice is just right.

Furthermore, the LPPDR3 compared to its predecessor, LPDDR2, offers a higher data transfer rate and more bandwidth.

Additionally, the Acer Swift 7 also offers good power efficiency and a higher memory density.

Regrettably, the single-slot option depicts that the RAM cannot be expanded beyond the maximum memory supported as stated earlier.

However, this is not much of a concern as the laptop is simply a business laptop. Hence the available memory is just as good enough to carry out various business operations. 

For the real-life performance test, up to fifteen tabs were opened, two YouTube channels and an online application were also running. In the course of this action, the Acer Swift 7 showed remarkable performance and also facilitated multitasking gestures efficiently.

Furthermore, a benchmark test was carried out using the PCMark 8. The PCMark 8 is a benchmark test tool used to test for PC memory performance.

In the above test, Acer Swift 7 did excellently well with a score of 3064 points. Meanwhile, the Acer Spin 7 scored 2979 points.

Overall, the results from the real-life performance and benchmark test speak volumes of the Acer Swift 7’s memory abilities. 

Therefore, Acer Swift 7 gets a rating of nine in this section of the review.

Acer Swift 7: Storage Options & Performance

For every laptop, one of the major components is its storage. The type and amount of storage allocated to a laptop determine the quantity of content it can take from the user.

Multiple storage options proffer large storage space and vice versa.

Following that, the Acer Swift 7 comes with 256 GB SATA SSD storage. This storage option should be adequate for most of your basic storage needs.

Considering the fact that the Acer Swift 7 is a business laptop, the storage option is more than enough. The storage drive is also efficient enough to improve the performance speed of the Acer Swift 7.

Also, the SSD (Solid State Drive), unlike other storage types offers quicker access time and lower latency. However, it is expensive so most laptops that come with this SSD are expensive and the Acer Swift 7 seems to be one of such.

Looking on the bright side, the transfer rate of the SSD is very fast. Hence, this feature makes it the overall best storage option.

To further validate this statement, a benchmark test was carried out using the CrystalDiskMark test tool.

The CrystalDiskMark 3.0 is a benchmark test tool most adequate in measuring a laptop’s sequential read and write speeds.

In the above test, Acer Swift 7 offered 431.2 MBps sequential read speed, and 401 MBps sequential write speed. These speed rates are slightly below the Acer Spin 7‘s rates.

Specifically, the Acer Spin 7 recorded a 472.6 MBps sequential read speed and 407.7 MBps sequential write speed.

In my opinion, the storage performance of Acer Swift 7 is definitely not a bad result for a laptop in its category. Therefore, I will rate the Acer Swift 7 a nine in this storage performance review.

Acer Swift 7: Graphics Card Performance

The Acer Swift 7 comes with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 615 graphics card. This integrated Intel HD Graphic offers a base frequency of 300 MHz and a maximum boost frequency of 950 MHz.

The term integrated mentioned above means that this Intel HD Graphics shares the system memory with the CPU.

Meanwhile, the Intel HD Graphics is a low-end graphic unit that is most common with the Y- series of the Kaby Lake processors. Hence, it is most suitable for thin and passively cooled laptops or notebooks. 

It is no wonder Acer used this GPU integrated into the Intel Core i57Y54 processor in Swift 7.

Moving on to the graphics performance of this laptop, its sleek and sturdy build would suggest that it can easily pass for a gaming laptop. However, that is not the case. 

This is so because the Integrated Intel HD Graphic does not have a dedicated VRAM. If you’re womdering, a VRAM is a type of RAM that facilitates graphics display processing. 

Having a VRAM would have been a major plus for the Acer Swift 7. Nevertheless, Intel HD Graphics can also facilitate simple games like solitaire and candy crush.

To further test the GPU performance of the Acer Swift 7, the 3DMark 11 benchmark test tool would come in handy.

For clarity, the 3DMark is a benchmark tool that measures the gaming performance of a laptop.

The Acer Swift 7 scored 1143 points in this test as its overall score. Meanwhile, the  Acer Spin 7 scored 1032 points. 

Following that, we can say the Acer Spin 7 did better than the Acer Spin 7. Hence, I will rate the laptop a seven out of ten in this graphics performance review.

Acer Swift 7: Battery Life & Performance

Over the years Acer has proven to be quite relentless when it comes to picking the right battery for their laptop. In this regard, the Acer Swift 7 employs a 4-cell 2770 mAh lithium-polymer battery.

Acer advertised the Acer Swift 7 battery to last up to 9hours on a full charge.

However, based on research carried out, the laptop lasted up to 13 hours when left idle at minimum brightness without an internet connection.

However, when the laptop is used surfing the web at maximum display brightness, it only lasted for 7 hours 18 mins.

Although the Acer Swift 7’s battery didn’t do so well in this test, it surpassed the Acer Spin 7 which lasted only 6 hours 31 mins on full-time web surfing at maximum brightness.

With this performance result, I will be rating the Acer Swift 7 an eight in this section of the review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

The Acer Swift 7 tops its category charts in terms of looks and many more. You can say the laptop has it all.

It has a good CPU, RAM, and battery life performance. What more can you possibly ask for in a laptop.

Hence, the Acer Swift 7 is worth every penny. However, if you are looking for a budget-friendly laptop, then this Acer Swift 7 is not for you.

I hope you found this Acer Swift 7 review helpful. If you did, kindly click Yes to “Was this page Helpful?” below.

You could also share your thoughts with the “Leave a Comment” form found at the end of this page.

Finally, for more laptop reviews, visit our Laptop Reviews page. You may also find our Laptop Specs page very helpful