Acer Swift X 14 (2023) Review: Portable Yet Capable OLED Laptop

Worth When Reviewed

$1,499.99

Greatest Costs As we speak: Acer Swift X 14

$1407.12

$1499.99

Acer’s Swift X lineup, which guarantees huge laptop computer efficiency in a extra compact 14-inch footprint, is now a number of years outdated. It was good worth from the beginning however confronted rising pains. The brand new Acer Swift X 14 is a superb enchancment on the method with spectacular CPU grunt, however battery life stays a priority.

Design & construct

The Acer Swift X 14 doesn’t stand out at a look, although that’s to not say it’s unattractive. It has a easy gunmetal exterior with a contact of sparkle to its end, however the laptop computer’s boxy, generic profile is unremarkable. Don’t purchase this laptop computer if you need your pals to note your new rig. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

A combo of plastic and metallic strains the Swift X 14’s exterior and, as soon as once more, proves enough however unexceptional. The laptop computer’s decrease half feels rock-solid when dealt with and the show permits minimal flex whereas it’s opened or closed, however the supplies used don’t have the thick, sturdy really feel discovered on Apple’s MacBook Professional units.

Nevertheless, the Swift X 14 is slightly compact for a laptop computer with its specs. It’s simply 12.9-inches large and 0.7 inches thick, and it’s comparatively mild for a 14.5in laptop computer at 1.5kg. That’s excellent news if you need a laptop computer with highly effective {hardware} that is still simple to throw in a bag for a fast journey throughout city.

Keyboard & trackpad

Acer offers a spacious, comfy keyboard for the Swift X 14. It has a standard format, with area for big keys throughout many of the keyboard, although the left-side Ctrl and Alt keys are a tad small. The keyboard is centre-aligned and positioned nicely again within the laptop computer, providing ample area on your palms. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Key really feel is stable, too, with lengthy journey and a crisp bottoming motion. There may be room to additional enhance key really feel, because the rebound motion feels a bit obscure to my fingers, however that is nitpicking. The keyboard feels nice whereas touch-typing and proved comfy.

I may fortunately report that Acer’s new Swift X 14 fixes a private pet peeve I’ve remarked on with some current Acer laptops: the keyboard is black, slightly than silver or gray. The distinction of a black key end in opposition to a silver or gunmetal chassis offers a premium look, so I’m pleased to see Acer make this modification. 

The spacious touchpad is one other energy. It measures roughly 5 and a half inches large by three inches deep, offering loads of area for Home windows 11’s multi-touch gestures. Acer additionally serves up a cushty, luxurious, and responsive glass end that feels fantastic to make use of. As true of the keyboard, the Swift X 14 doesn’t defeat its hardest opponents, however it’s a fantastic expertise for the value. 

Show & audio

Each Acer Swift X 14 with Nvidia RTX 4050 graphics has a 14.5-inch, 2,880 x 1,800 OLED show with a most refresh charge of 120Hz. It’s a superb scree that appears nice, regardless of the content material you throw at it.

Distinction is a conventional energy of OLED panels, the Swift X 14’s show is not any completely different. It offers an successfully infinite distinction ratio and may go all the way in which right down to zero nits of brightness for darkish content material. It offers glorious element in darkish, shadowy scenes, and an outstanding sense of depth to brighter, extra dynamic content material. This makes it nice for films, streaming reveals, and video games. This can be a energy of the Acer Swift X 14 over units with much less contrast-rich IPS LCD shows.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Color efficiency is superb, too, because the show’s color gamut spans 100% of DCI-P3 and 94% of AdobeRGB. These outcomes are typical for an OLED panel in a contemporary laptop computer, however nonetheless nice, and customarily higher than the most effective IPS LCD laptop computer shows. Vibrant content material seems vibrant, and the show’s color accuracy is appropriate for photograph and video enhancing. 

Brightness is a weak level, although, because the show reaches a peak brightness of 365 nits and has a shiny show coat. The show is usable even in a brightly lit room, or close to a sunlit window, however glare can show distracting if a lightweight supply is instantly behind you. HDR can improve this to 522 nits which, though not as excessive because the 700 nits obtainable from a Mini-LED laptop computer just like the Razer Blade 16, is substantial and delivers punch in HDR content material. 

The show’s most refresh charge of 120Hz, in addition to OLED’s low pixel response occasions, makes for nice movement readability in video games. Quick-moving objects present good element and fast digital camera pans resist turning into a smudgy mess. Small, fast-moving textual content or tiny, detailed objects will nonetheless appear a bit obscure, however that’s true of all shows beneath 240Hz.

Whereas the show is superb, the audio system are simply okay. They supply good quantity at their most and are positioned above the keyboard, which suggests they received’t sound muffled when the laptop computer is used in your laptop computer. Nevertheless, they provide a slender soundstage and may grow to be muddied when bass creeps right into a monitor. The audio system are broadly akin to most 14-inch laptops obtainable right this moment however a step behind the most effective in school.

Webcam, microphones & biometrics

Acer packs a 1080p webcam into the Swift X 14’s slim prime bezel. It offers a powerful, crisp picture with good color copy, making it a pleasant improve over virtually laptop computer with a 720p webcam. It’s not the most effective 1080p webcam I’ve tried (alternate options from Lenovo and Apple are typically higher), however it’s nice for Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Groups, and different video conferencing apps. 

A dual-microphone array is supplied alongside the digital camera. Its efficiency is a bit much less outstanding, as audio recordings aren’t the strongest or clearest I’ve heard, however it stays effective for video and audio conferencing. Your voice might be simple audible and most background noises might be obscured, although any that occur to be in the identical room as you’re more likely to come by.

Acer doesn’t assist biometric login on the Swift X 14. That’s a minor knock in opposition to it, as most of the laptop computer’s opponents will supply both a fingerprint reader, facial recognition login, or each. 

Connectivity

The Acer Swift X 14 offers a superb combine of contemporary and legacy connectivity that’s typically superior to lots of its opponents.

A pair of two USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 ports have fashionable peripherals and devices coated. Each assist DisplayPort Alternate Mode and supply sufficient USB Energy Supply to match the utmost supplied by the laptop computer’s energy brick (100W). Which means each ports may be linked to an exterior monitor or cost the laptop computer. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Older peripherals are supported by two USB-A ports, one HDMI, and one 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone audio jack. There’s additionally a MicroSD card reader, which is useful when you personal a tool (like a handheld gaming system or digital camera) that makes use of them. 

There’s only one factor Acer might deal with higher, and that’s the situation of the ports. The Acer Swift X 14 positions its ports close to the center of the laptop computer, slightly than in direction of the rear, so wired connections could look a bit awkward and take up extreme desk area. 

Nonetheless, the Swift X 14’s connectivity is superb. Many opponents present USB4 / Thunderbolt 4, however most don’t pair that with each USB-A and HDMI, and Acer throws in MicroSD as a bonus.

Efficiency

Acer’s Swift X 14 isn’t a big laptop computer, however it packs a punch. It equips Intel’s Core i7-13700H processor, which has a complete of 14 cores (six efficiency cores and eight environment friendly cores) alongside Nvidia’s RTX 4050 graphics. A 1TB stable state drive and 16GB of DDR5 reminiscence come customary as nicely.

IDG / Matthew Smith

PCMark 10, a holistic system benchmark, places the Acer Swift X 14 off to a powerful begin. It achieves a rating of 6,805, which beats each the Lenovo Slim Professional 7 and, extra surprisingly, the bigger Dell XPS 15, although the Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Extremely zooms forward with a rating of seven,111.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Cinebench R15 offers one other robust outcome for the Acer Swift X 14, the place it goes toe-to-toe with different Core i7-13700H laptops. Whereas the Acer doesn’t beat the typical, it’s value remembering the Slim X 14 is extra comparable in measurement to the Lenovo Slim Professional 7, so its relative efficiency is spectacular.

IDG / Matthew Smith

And that is still true in Handbrake. Whereas the Acer Swift X 14 slides a bit behind its Core i7-13700H brethren right here, it nonetheless lands nicely forward of the Lenovo Slim Professional 7. That’s a fantastic outcome. I lauded the Slim 7 Professional for its CPU efficiency after I examined it, because it defeats many 13-inch and 14-inch laptops, so it’s fantastic to see the Acer Swift X 14 give it a thumping.

IDG / Matthew Smith

Now we transfer on to 3D efficiency, the place the Nvidia RTX 4050 turns into extra related. It’s value mentioning that Acer’s implementation of the RTX 4050 has a most graphics energy of fifty watts, which is in direction of the low facet of what’s doable (the utmost per Nvidia’s specs is 115 watts).

Even so, 3DMark Time Spy offers a fairly optimistic results of 5,644. That’s significantly better than older Nvidia RTX 3050 laptops, and never too far behind some laptops with Nvidia RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 graphics. Nevertheless, the Samsung Galaxy E-book 3 Extremely, which has an RTX 4050 with a most graphics energy of 60 watts, pulls out a big win. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a sport which represents the chopping fringe of graphics within the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One period of console video games, returns a playable however modest common of 73 frames per second at 1080p decision and Highest element settings. That’s not dangerous, however it’s a step behind laptops with extra watts obtainable to the GPU.

IDG / Matthew Smith

I wasn’t anticipating rather a lot from our excessively taxing Metro Exodus benchmark. Launching the benchmark at 1080p decision and Excessive element ends in a mere 26 frames per second, even with out ray tracing enabled. That’s probably not playable, but additionally not too far behind different laptops with RTX 4060 and 4070 {hardware}. Flattening the sport to its still-beautiful Excessive element is significantly better, nonetheless, with a median of 56 frames per second. 

I additionally fired up Cyberpunk 2077, a notoriously demanding sport that is still taxing for a lot of laptops. The sport averaged a good 53 frames per second at 1080p and with Extremely element and ray tracing off, however solely achieved 15 frames per second with Extremely ray tracing turned on. Nevertheless, Nvidia’s DLSS 3 body era saves the day, boosting efficiency again as much as a playable 46 FPS. That’s not akin to a bigger gaming laptop computer, in fact, however it’s outcome for a 14-inch laptop computer.

Battery life

The Acer Swift X 14’s 76 watt-hour battery appears suited to its activity, because it’s comparable in measurement to the battery present in Lenovo’s Slim Professional 7, the Dell XPS 13 Plus, and the Apple MacBook Professional 14. Sadly, real-world outcomes fall quick. 

IDG / Matthew Smith

Blame the Nvidia RTX 4050 or, to be extra exact, the way in which Acer implements it.

Laptops with Nvidia discrete graphics can obtain glorious battery life when Nvidia Optimus is used to disable the GPU when its efficiency isn’t required. Lenovo’s Slim 7 Professional is an instance of this in motion. The Acer Swift X 14 doesn’t assist Optimus, nonetheless, so it continues to empty the battery even when looking the online or writing in Phrase.

The affect on battery life is slightly dire. The Acer Swift X 14 doesn’t exceed 5 hours of battery life in our customary battery benchmark, which loops a 4K file of the quick movie Tears of Metal. 

It’s the identical story when looking the online or utilizing primary productiveness apps similar to Phrase and Excel. The laptop computer chewed by the battery at a charge of roughly 25% per hour, leaving it flat in about 4 hours. That’s not nice.

Verdict

Acer’s Swift X 14 is a stable selection for anybody trying to buy a compact, highly effective laptop computer at an affordable worth.

It offers robust CPU and GPU efficiency, a spacious stable state drive, glorious OLED show, and even has a nice keyboard and touchpad.

Battery life is the one significant issue, however make no mistake, it’s a big one.

Nonetheless, the Swift X 14 might be good worth in case your journey normally take you to a neighborhood espresso store as an alternative of the airport. 

Specs

• Mannequin: SFX16-61G
• CPU: Intel Core i7-13700H
• Reminiscence: 16GB LPDDR5
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 4050
• Show: 14.5-inch 2,880 x 1,800 OLED non-touch
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 
• Connectivity:  2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 with Energy Supply, DisplayPort Alternate Mode, 2x USB-A, HDMI 2.0, MicroSD card slot, 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capability: 76 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.7 x 9 x .7 inches
• Weight: 1.5kg

This evaluate was initially revealed on PCWorld.