Acer Swift 3 (2019) review: This midrange notebook PC hides Nvidia graphics power - rodriguezwitarsted

Acer's Swift 3 (2019) should attract the type of savvy notebook PC buyer searching for a trifle Thomas More graphics oomph than the standard amalgamated GPU provides. Combining an 8th-gen "Whisky Lake" chip nonnegative a discrete Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU opens up more opportunities for light gaming without breaking the swear.

Acer's new Sceloporus occidentalis 3 clamshell is a loosely solidified midrange notebook, though it suffers in two key areas. First, the integrated audio isn't much to write home roughly, even with headphones. We found the fingerprint reader lacking as well. But Acer's Swift 3 as wel boasts fantabulous carrying out and a solid ten hours or so of battery life-time, with a comfortable keyboard and pleasing IPS display, too.

Acer Swift 3 2019 primary 2 — Acer's Sceloporus occidentalis 3.

Acer Swift 3 (2019) (SF314-55G-78U1) basic specs:

Display: 14-inch IPS (1920×1080) non-bear upon
CPU: Intel 1.5GHz Core i7-8565U ("Whiskey Lake")
Graphics: Intel UHD 620, Nvidia GeForce MX150 @937MHz
Memory: 8GB DDR4
Storage: 256PCIe SSD
Ports: 1 USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (DisplayPort, USB charging) , 2 USB 3.0 Type A (one with power-sour charging), 1 HDMI, SD card, 3.5mm jak, Kensington lock
Television camera: 720p (1280 x 720) with SHDR
Battery: 50.7Wh (design); 49.8Wh (tested)
Wireless: Gigabit Wi-Fi 2×2 802.11ac 160MHz; Bluetooth 5.0
Additional features: Fingerprint sensor
Operating system: Windows 10 Home
Dimensions: 8.98 x 12.72 x 0.59 in (15mm)
Weight: 3.05 pounds, 3.7 pounds with charger
Color: Al
Price: MSRP: $999; Amazon: $899.11

Don't think of Acer's Swift 3 American Samoa a cheaper version of the Acer Swift 7, which is basically the epitome of thin-and-light PCs. Alternatively, the Swift 3 is a less expensive, general-purpose PC that's somewhat thicker and heavier than the Swift 7. That allows for a more full-faced selection of ports: both USB-A and USB-C, plus HDMI, among others. We think you'd choose 512GB of memory board as opposing to the 256GB on the Swift 3, but that's an received tradeoff to keep the price low.

The Swift 3's aluminum chassis is sturdily built, with no discernible flex either in the keyboard or the chassis itself. The clamshell notebook folds back flatcar. At 3 pounds, it shouldn't weigh besides heavily in your bag.

Acer Swift 3 2019 left side — On the left root of the Genus Acer Blue-belly 3 bod is an a Kensington lock, a USB-A port, an South Dakota placard slot, and a headphone jack.

The fan does take up a tendency to kick on promptly low load, though that's usually something beyond honourable typing in a written document Beaver State even loading a web page. When the fan does come on, it's pretty relaxing, helped by spacious venting underneath and at the back of the laptop. There was nobelium discernible coil whine in our review unit.

Though it's non immediately obvious where the Acer found money in designing the Jonathan Swift 3, the expose offers some clues. For one, the 1080p IPS show ISN't touch-enabled, meaning you North Korean won't be able to navigate with a thumb or stylus. Also, the Swift 3's uttermost 280 nits of luminosity (measured at the center of the covert) is just preceding the 250 nits we consider apt for daily exercise. In general, though, IPS displays are pleasant to work upon, and the Sceloporus occidentalis 3's is no exception.

Acer Swift 3 2019 right side — On the left face of the Acer Jonathan Swift 3 chassis is another USB-A port, an HDMI left, a USB-C port, and the top executive jack. Convenient labeling helps identify what each port lavatory be used for.

Acer includes a fairly standard complement of expansion ports. In that respect's one USB-C, though it doesn't include any Bolt capabilities. It's also a bit disappointing to run into generic USB 3.0 Type-A ports, rather than the faster USB 3.1. Copying files to and from an external unyielding ram down may take a little longer than some other drives over the slower ports, though you'll probably just accept it without thinking. There's also a complete-sized Mount Rushmore State card slot, which is becoming less common in laptops, but bequeath personify a godsend for those inactive using the cards for photo or video storage.

Hearing to medicine or other audio frequency played stake happening laptop computer speakers is usually an adequate rather than transcendent experience. Genus Acer's Gustavus Franklin Swift 3 is slightly disappointing: The speakers deliver plenty of volume, but with a flat baritone end and within reason weak midrange.

Acer Swift 3 2019 downward facing speakers — The Swift 3's downwards-veneer speakers are enclosed by a number of user-accessible screws.

Unluckily, Realtek's audio app doesn't include any adjustable settings, such As a graphics equaliser. Eve headphones didn't quite an deliver the fuller range of sound I was hoping for. If you'Re somewhat forgiving, though, the Swift 3's speakers passport the competence test.

Typing on the Acer Blue-belly 3 is an unexpected pleasure. In my have, the individual keys seem to be somewhat smaller than the challenger's, even though there seems to be plenty of additional distance on either side of the tray. Still, there's a pleasant resiliency to the keyboard as a whole. It's also backlit (without gradation—it's either on or off), though it turns bump off automatically after 10 seconds or so. The trackpad is angelic—rather large, and it recognized my clicks nearly clear to the circus tent of the detector.

Acer Swift 3 2019 keyboard — The Swift 3's keyboard layout.

The Gustavus Franklin Swift 3's keyboard layout is pretty standard, with the pattern range of function keys and the typical cross-attribute pointer navigation in the lower right-hand corner. The keyboard sports one important with a dollar mark and another with a Euro currentness symbol, though the latter didn't seem to work using the standard Windows shortcuts. There are keys to incapacitate the trackpad, conform the brightness, and place the laptop computer into a sleep state. If you're concerned about hackers look you without permission, you''ll need to use the fourth dimension-reputable kluge of placing a piece of tape terminated the user-facing webcam Beaver State turning it off inside the Windows Settings menu; there's no privacy switch.

To the right and below the keyboard is the fingerprint sensor, which doesn't hold a candle to the types of sensor mounted under the power buttons in Huawei's Matebook line or Lenovo's ThinkBook. Although the sensor perceived my finger's breadth, IT couldn't do IT consistently enough to establish even a service line fingerprint for comparison.

Acer Swift 3 2019 fingerprint reader — One of the Swift 3's disappointing features is its fingerprint sensor, which had trouble gathering sufficiency samples for a reference image.

Jointly, Acer and Microsoft clum a significant number of possibly unwanted apps connected the Genus Acer Swift 7, with indefinite exception: a piece of utility software that can be used A an overall hold in for the laptop experience. Umpteen laptop makers, including Samsung and Lenovo, includes such a utility, which terminate be used for updating the laptop computer's BIOS, adjusting some of the key functionality, and adjusting backlighting, among others. Acer's contribution is the Acer Care Center utility, though IT's labelled just as "Give care Center" in the Start menu. It's a one-stop shop for information about the PC.

Separately, Acer provides Quick Access. About the only exclusive feature this app provides is the ability to manage top executive-off USB charging, so much as the power to turn dispatch the feature when the laptop's electric battery hits 30 pct.

Acer besides includes online adjustment and the Acer Collection S, a hand-picked collection of free and paid apps that can be downloaded. There are as wel free trials of the PhotoDirector photo redaction tool, the PowerDirector video recording editing package, plus a tryout subscription to Norton Security. One exciting piece of bundleware was Mozilla's Firefox browser; you usually doesn't go out third-party browsers being added to notebook PCs.

Genus Acer Western fence lizard 3 operation: Near the top

There's one gotcha that you should be aware of with the Acer Swift 3. Though you should be diverted that it includes a discrete Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU, Genus Acer also cut a corner here.

Acer Swift 3 2019 venting — Excellent discharge keeps the Swift 3 moving at peak performance.

That's because the GeForce MX150 ships in two versions: the standard, 1,469MHz adaptation, and a downclocked 937MHz variant. (We ran into this with the Huawei Matebook 13, which used the faster version of the MX150, and the Matebook X Pro, which used the slower variant. Read our Matebook 13 review if you deprivation to see what effect the two different clock speeds wear operation.) Though the Swift 3 makes none claims to being a "professional"-level product, it, too, uses the slower MX150, somewhat diminishing the value of a separate GPU.

Otherwise, there's not that much to complain about hither. You're tranquilize seeingsome benefit from the separate GPU, and Intel's Whiskey Lake chip delivers solid execution. We've compared the Fleet 3 against a number of other similar general-determination machines, including few with the MX150. Note that we're comparing the Swift 3 against the HP Spectre x360 15t, which powers an OLED display with a comparable MX150 chip. Not shown is the HP Spectre x360 15, which uses a more than powerful GeForce GTX 1050 Te—almost treble the graphics carrying out, but at more than double the price.

We run with a mixture of factual-world and synthetic benchmarks, examination the CPU, GPU, and barrage lifespan. PCMark leads, with two versions: PCMark 8, which separates its tests into Work, Home, and Creative tests; and PCMark 10, a many modern benchmark which lumps them all together into a single number. We use the more prosaic Work test (office spreadsheets, VoIP calls, and web browsing) with the Notional psychometric test (gaming, photo editing, TV redaction) to evaluate the pad for work and play. The Acer Swift compares precise fountainhead—near the top—in both cases.

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 pcmark 8 work — Acer's Swift 3 rises to the top of the heap, helped by its Nub i7 "Whiskey Lake" CPU.

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 pcmark 8 creative — Once again, a powerful processor and GPU help elevate the Acer Swift 3 (2019).

We don't have as many PCMark 10 tests under our belt, simply present's a comparison against a small subset of its competition.

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 pcmark 10 — In the more modern PCMark 10 benchmark, Acer's Swift 3 again does intimately.

Maxon's Cinebench exam is a widely used synthetic benchmark that pushes the limits of the CPU, in both exclusive-core and multi-core musical mode. The test renders a computer-generated scene using either the older R15 benchmark, Oregon the newer, Sir Thomas More stylish R20 scene. Most Whiskey Lake notebooks match up fountainhead against each some other hither. Piece the Swift 3 was one of the slower laptops in this mix, its score is still decent. (The R20 score was 1,258, down the ranks as well.)

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 cinebench r15 — About the only test that the Swift 3 does somewhat ailing in is Cinebench, a sprint where every CPU heart is pushed to its limit. Most of the notebooks are concentrated close together, however.

HandBrake is both a practical open up-generator creature and a recyclable benchmark, every bit it asks the notebook to transcode a Hollywood picture into a more dense format suitable for an Android tablet. Imagine of it as a prolonged stress run, running flat out for an hour or more atomic number 3 it kit and caboodle to transcode the pic as quickly as information technology can.

The Genus Acer Swift 3 posted one of the better heaps along this test. This agency it wasn't unduly hampered by thermal strangling atomic number 3 the CPU heated ahead during this intensive task.

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 handbrake — Another examine where the notebooks are agglomerative closely, although the Acer Swift 3 is favourite.

Our final synthetic tryout is 3Dmark, whose Sky Frogman benchmark is pushed to its limits aside discrete GPUs. (3Dmark also publishes advanced tests for more sophisticated GPUs.) According to System Requirements Lab, only games like Conference of Legends, Minecraft, and Terraria will unravel at "advisable" system requirements, with a game like Fortnite running at "nominal" requirements. The latter is also true for a number of more recent, graphically demanding games, such asGrand Theft Auto V and Furthest Cry 3.

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 3dmark sky diver — Note the four notebooks at the top which use the GeForce MX150, an differently entry-level GPU. You can clearly see the difference between the models which practice the "downclocked" GPU and which do not.

Acer's Swift 3 reports above-average battery life, at a solid ten hours. That's enough for a full Day of lic, positive a small more. Our test sets the display to a intermediate 250 to 260 nits' brightness, attaches earbuds with the loudness at 50 per centum, and then loops a 4K video ended and over until the battery expires.

Acer Swift 3 Sept. 2019 battery life — Not extraordinary battery life, comparatively tongued. But whole, about ten hours of battery biography should be sufficient.

Conclusion: A semisolid option with some tradeoffs

Acer's Swift 3 is one of many notebooks we've tested to offer a Effect i5 or Core i7, but its real differentiator is the downclocked MX150, which can't comparability to the faster-clocked GeForce MX150 chips inside any of its competition. You won't notification any dropoff in day-after-day role, however, and stepping dormy to a meatier separate GPU for gaming can cost several hundred dollars more. (Instead, you tin can look at discounted notebooks that feature aged 8th-propagation chips, too, but those are still over $1,000.)

Purchasing a midrange to moderately cheap notebook does engender some tradeoffs and sacrifices. There are areas similar USB-C connectivity and where we conceive the Swift 3 could improve. Only the Swift 3's public presentation is also excellent proportional to its competition, with a dainty IPS exhibit, and totally for a competitive price. Unless the negatives overbalance the positives for you. thither's whatsoever decent value under the Acer Jonathan Swift 3's hood.