Like Lenovo, Acer used IFA 2019 as the platform to showcase its breadth of products. From thin and light notebooks, to sexy workshorses; from Chromebooks to a gaming throne. A regular show stealer is the brand’s Swift range, and this time there are two: the Swift 5 and Swift 3, both ultra-thin and ultra-light notebooks featuring 10th Gen Intel Core “Ice Lake” processors and optional discrete graphics.
Swift 5
The Swift 5, still the lightest 14-inch notebook in the world, thanks to its magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminium alloy chassis, weighs just 990g.
Aesthetically, it’s a pleasing design if unremarkable, and is offered in a blue and gold, as well as white colourway.
The 14-inch Full HD IPS LCD panel is bright and crisp with thin bezels on the side and top.
Typical on notebooks these days is a fingerprint scanner with Windows Hello support.
The keyboard feels typical of a Swift keyboard—it offers acceptable travel and snappy response, if a little spongy in feel.
The Swift 5 gets the 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor and up to the powerful Core i7-1065G7, coupled with Intel Iris Plus graphics. There’s an optional discrete graphics option with the NVIDIA GeForce MX250. Base memory is either 8GB or 16GB LPDDR4X RAM, with up to 512GB PCIe Gen 3×4 storage.
In terms of ports, the notebook comes with USB-C 3.1 with Thunderbolt 3, HDMI, 2x USB Type-A ports, and a Kensington lock slot. Connectivity-wise, it features dual-band Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax).
Acer says the Swift 5 will deliver up to 12.5 hours of battery life on a single charge. It also supports fast charging, able to deliver up to 4.5 hours of use on a 30-minute charge.
Swift 3
The Acer Swift 3 tips the scales at just 1.1kg, and features a 14-inch Full HD IPS display housed in a 15.95mm thin chassis. Offered in steel gray and millennial pink, the Swift 3 is powered by up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7 processor with Intel Iris Plus.
For those who need more graphics power can opt for a discrete NVIDIA GeForce MX250 GPU. Memory and storage are similar to the Swift 5–up to 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 512GB PCIe Gen 3×4 SSD storage. Similarly, there’s also a Thunderbolt 3 port, dual-band Intel Wi-Fi 6, and 12.5 hours of battery life.
Pricing and Availability
The Acer Swift 5 will be available in EMEA in September starting at EUR899; in North America in November, starting at USD899.99; and in China in Q3 starting at RMB7,499.
The Acer Swift 3 will be available in EMEA in September starting at EUR599; in North America in November, starting at USD699.99; and in China in Q3, starting at RMB4,999.
No details on Malaysian pricing or availability yet.
