24 JANUARY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE383
14inLAPTOPSSIMPLYdon’t comeeesmaller
than the Acer Swift 7. At 10mm thinnn,it’s
almost as slim as asmartphone,andddit’s
noticeably short, too: just 192mmfrrrom
fronttoback. That’s not to mentionnnits
feathery weight of just 890g.
Unsurprisingly,however, some extreme
slimming has some knock-on effects. Take
the ultra-slim bezels: these look smart and
help keep the totaldimensionslow, but
because theydon’t leave room foraaawebcam,
this has to be shunted on to the bassse. The
Swift 7’scamera thus has apretty neat
pop-up design, allowing forprivacy when not
in use,but the low angle shows more of the
user’s chest than their face.
We’re also slightly concerned about how
the base flexes slightly when picked up from
acorner.Abit of bendiness is common on
ultra-thin laptops, but that mainly occurs
around the screen, not the base.That’s not
to saythe Swift 7ispoorlymade,asit
comfortably endured multiple commutes,
but its slimness does contributetoa
certain lack of soliditttty.
More positively,AAAAcer has foundroom
forafast and reliable fingerprint sensor.
This is integrated inttttothe power button,
which sits just to theeeeleftofthe keyboard.
SMALLTIME
This keyboard, admittedly,takes some
ggggettinggggusedto. The keyyyysare backlit and
most are adecent siiiize,but there are
some major exceptioooons. Atilde key, for
example,iscrammeddddbetween Caps Lock
andthe Akey,makinnnngthe former
infuriatingly undersized and difficult to
land when touch-typppping. Backspace also
loses achunk of itseeeelf to aDeletekey,
while Enter has beennnnbisected to make
room foraBackslashhhhkey.
IIIIttttttttooooooookkkkuuuussssddddaaaayyyyssssttttooooooooaaaacccccccclllliiiimmmmaaaattttiiiisssseeeettttoooo
these quirks, and whhhhile it’s true that we
eventually did, this issssstill acaseofthe
Swift 7’sdownsizing having an adverse
side effect. The toucccchpad,which is
exceedingly wide but very short, also
initially seemed in daaaanger of asimilar
fate.Thankfully,whillllewesometimes
brushed afingeragaaaainst thetop edge,
this isn’t anywherennnnear as offputting
aaaasssstttthhhheeeekkkkeeeeyyyybbbbooooaaaarrrrdddd’ssssmmmmiiiisssssssshhhhaaaappppeeeennnnkkkkeeeeyyyyssss.
The smooth surface and dependable
ACER Swift7
★★★★★
£1,749•From http://www.currys.co.uk
WINDOWS 10 LAPTOP
responsiveness of this touchpad makes it
perfectly fine as aprimary input, even if it is
somewhat squat.
The 1,920x1,080 touchscreenalso meets a
very high standard. The IPS panel confers
both wide viewingggangggles and vibrant,,,yyyet
accurate, colours: sRGB coverage is closer to
good than great, at 93.4%, but we measured
an average delta-E of just 1.42, so the colours
you see are being reproduced faithfully.
Arespectable peak brightness of
329.6cd/m^2 also helps alleviatethe reflective
effect of the screen’s glossy finish, andthe
1,502:1 contrast ratio isn’t bad either.There’s
really nothing to complain about, display-wise.
SLOWLYDOES IT
Intttternally,the Swift 7packs an Intel Core
i7----8500Y CPU, 16GB of RAM and a512GB
SSSSSD. To be blunt, £1,749 is anaaaalmost galling
ammmmount to ask forsomethingwwwwith adual-core
Y----series processor,but then weeeesuspect the
Swwwwift 7issothin that anythinggggmore powerful
–inother words, anything thattttwould require
addddditional cooling –wouldn’tfifififit.
Either way, don’t expect to cruise through
deeeemandinggggpppproductivityyyysoftwaaaare.The Swift 7
managed apassable 65 in our 4444 Kbenchmarks’
immmmage test, but scores of 35 in the video test
annnndapaltry 9inthe multitasking test brought
itssssoverall score down to 27.Thhhhat represents a
mere fraction of the performannnnce offered by
Inttttel U-series ultraportables suuuuch as the Dell
XPPPPS13(Shopper376) and AsussssssZZZZeeeennnnBBBBooooooookkkk 11114444
UXXXX433FA(Shopper379).
It’s hard to recommend runnnnning anything
mmmmoooorrrreeeeddddeeeemmmmaaaannnnddddiiiinnnnggggtttthhhhaaaannnnbbbbrrrroooowwwwsssseeeerrrrrrsand basic
offiffiffiffice applications, as multithreeeeaded
appppplications will slow the Swiftftftft7right down.
ThhhheintegratedIntel UHD Graphics 615 can’t
coooope with games, either,onlyaaaaveraging 15fps
in Dirt Showdown, even at 72 0000 p, with only
thhhheHigh quality preset.
The 512GB SSD is also unreeeemarkable by
modern NVMe standards. Itsccccapacity may
beeeereasonable,but we only recorded
sssseeeeeeqqqquuuueeeennnnttttiiiiaaaallllrrrreeeeaaaaddddaaaannnnddddwwwwrrrriiiitttteeeessssppppeeeeeeeeeeds of
1,350MB/s and 687MB/s respeeeectively.
Battery lifeisatleast adequate. The Swift 7
lasted for9h17m in our video playback test.
We noticed it draining alot quicker when
used at full brightness –our benchmark runs
at 170cd/m^2 –soturn it down and you’ll be
able to eke out afew extra hours.
Another drawback of the skinny frame is
the lack of connections: you only get two USB
Type-C ports and a3.5mm audio jack. To
Acer’s credit, both USB-C ports support
Thunderbolt 3, so you’ve got video output
capability,and there’s also alittle hub bundled
in that includes aUSB3 port, another USB-C
port and afull-size HDMI output all in one.
Still, there’s also the matter of the power
cable connecting via one of those very same
USB-C ports, so you’ll always be down one
when recharging.
SLIMAGAINSTTHETIDE
Once the initial thrill of using asub-900g
laptop wears off,it’s clear that the Swift 7
mainly suits avery specific type of user: one
who will only be performing relatively basic
tasks, but still wants something as thin and
light as it’s possible to get without massively
reducing the displaysize.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting
that, and by extension there’s nothing
wrong with catering forit. Forthis much
money, unfortunately,it’s fair to expect
more power and more connectivity than
the Swift 7delivers.
JamesArcher
VERDICT
Formbeats function on the latest SSSwift 7,
an amazingly portable yet underpooowered
Windows laptop
SPECIFICATIONS
Windowsoverall
Multitasking
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 84 forperformancedetails
PROCESSORDual-core 1.5GHz IntelCorei7-8500Y•RAM
16GB•DIMENSIONS192x317x10mm•WEIGHT890g•
SCREEN SIZE14in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,920x1,080•
GRAPHICSADAPTORIntelUHD Graphics615•TOTAL
STORAGE512GBSSD•OPERATING SYSTEMWindows 10
Home•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.acer.
com•PART CODESF714-52T
9h 17m
9
27
