PC World - USA (2021-01)

42 PCWorld JANUARY 2021

REVIEWS ACER SWIFT 5 (2020)

All this can be removed, of course, but

getting nagged when you’re trying to work is

not a positive experience and doesn’t help

the software companies involved.

PERFORMANCE

With all that out of the way, we get to the

heart of the matter: The Acer Swift 5, despite

its size and weight, is a remarkably mighty

laptop, with vast gains in performance and

battery life over last year’s model (go.

pcworld.com/sw19).

Let’s jump right into our HandBrake

benchmark, which tests multi-core performance

over time by encoding a large video file. Intel’s

11th-generation “Tiger Lake” processor yields

some major performance gains over the

previous generation—compare the new Swift 5,

for instance, to its predecessor from late 2019—

and edges out Dell’s convertible XPS 2-in-1,

which has the same Core i7-1165G7 CPU.

The results were even more favorable in

Cinebench, which tests a CPU’s

ability to handle quick bursts of

activity. We’re used to seeing small,

ultralight laptops hover around the

600 to 800 range for the multi-

threaded version of this test and fall

below 200 for the single-thread

test, but that’s starting to change

with Tiger Lake. Again, the Acer

Swift 5 turned in better scores than

Dell’s XPS 2-in-1 with the same chip.

Given the above results, it’s no

surprise that the Swift 5 also did well in

PCMark 8’s Work 2.0 benchmark, which

simulates a gamut of productivity tasks such

as spreadsheet editing, video chatting, and

web browsing. While most premium laptops

can handle these tasks without issue, it’s nice

to see the Swift 5 land a clear step ahead of

The Acer Swift 5 encoded our test video file

in less than 55 minutes—not bad for a small,

lightweight laptop.

HandBrake Encode

(Android Tablet)

Seconds

Acer Swift 5 (late 2020)Core i7-1165G7

Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 9310Core i7-1165G7

Razer Blade Stealth (2020)Core i7-1065G7

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 14IIL05Core i5-1035G1

Acer Swift 5 (late 2019)Core i7-1065G7

Asus ZenBook Flip S UX371ECore i7-1165G7

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

3,267

4,027

3,336

3,287

4,489

3,942

Notification ads are not a good look, Acer.