When Acer announced the Swift 7 last Q3 2016, they slapped the PC industry by making it the thinnest laptop in the world at only 9.98cm think. For such a thin and light device that now incorporates only USB-Type C ports, what power and productivity it can give to you?
But first here are the specifications of the Acer Swift 7
![Acer Swift 7 (20)](https://hungrygeeks.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Acer-Swift-7-20-1030x580.jpg)
Design
![Acer Swift 7 (6)](https://hungrygeeks.com.ph/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Acer-Swift-7-6-1030x580.jpg)
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Screen and Speakers
The 13.3″ IPS Full HD panel is bright, it’s vivid enough for indoor usage and a bit fair for outdoor usage. Colors are accurate and no visible ghosting or any stuttering was experienced during our test. The screen is ideal for work, entertainment and casual gaming on the side.
The speakers, on the other hand, are really good, the dual speakers powered by Dolby Digital is one of the loudest and clear sounding speakers we have heard on a laptop. By the size of the Swift 7, we were amazed by the volume it produced even playing games like LOL or Dota 2 was enough for personal entertainment. It sound was just right, it wasn’t trying to be a boom box but rather a professional stereo for 2-3 persons near the laptop.
Performance
The Swift 7 is using a fan-less Intel Core i5-7Y54 at 1.2Ghz with 8GB RAM and 256GB SATA III SSD. For our everyday tasks of writing articles, playing light Dota 2 or LOL, Microsoft Office, surfing the web with average 10-15 tabs and casual Photoshop was pretty ample enough to be accommodated by the system.
Although, when it loads big applications like Dota 2, Photoshop and even Adobe premiere, it starts to struggle on the graphics side making everything slow to load. Especially when Google Chrome’s RAM eating browser is running in the background, we have to close it first before proceeding with any games.
Now we kinda expected this especially with the fanless Intel Core i5 processor, but it seems the processing power is okay but lacking more of graphics processing. Unfortunately, the Swift 7 doesn’t have any external graphics as a solution so you’re left with what you have.
As the system is also in hard-work, you’ll notice the right portion of the laptop heating up around the keys J-L or 7-0 rows in the keyboard. Due to this, placing the laptop in your lap will lead to uncomfortable heat and sometimes the sensation of mild burns. So when you are doing intense applications, we suggest you do it on a table.
Just remember that we are in the Philippines, a tropical country that is exposed to more heat exposure and not to mention moisture and humidity. So those “Cooling” technology of laptop manufacturers aren’t designed for tropical countries like ours.
World of dongles
The Swift 7 has two USB Type-C dongles for HDMI and USB Female for regular USB devices, fortunately, we are glad there are two USB Type-C ports as compared to one port in other similar thin laptops.
Although, Acer’s implementation of the USB Type-C dongles could have still improved by making it a multi-hub. The point of customers to transition to such a thin laptop is for the portability, Acer could have at least went to the extra mile by providing a hub bundled with all the ports missed out like USB, HDMI and SD Card Reader.
In our experience, our USB Type-C adapter was always used either for transferring files or using the gaming mouse we have. But you can only choose one, so we use the trackpad when transferring files which are quite inconvenient.
Other mentions
With the premium branding of the Swift 7, an effort to improve the power brick would have also been a nice gesture. We just felt that Acer made a beautiful laptop and ignored everything else. We aren’t being complainers here, but for a laptop more than 60k and experiencing Apple…it’s hard not to compare.
Battery Life
Acer endorses the Swift 7 up to 9 hours of battery life. In our experience, we were able to max out 6 hours of battery life with moderate brightness on the screen doing office, blogging and video playback via Youtube. Perhaps the 9 hours was achieved through video watching (internal memory) and minimal screen brightness, but still 6 hours is a good battery life for a laptop today.
Conclusion
The Acer Swift 7 is indeed a premium laptop that is ideal for anyone that needs an everyday device for casual work, browsing, light graphics editing and good looks on the side. But any further than what is mentioned, you might need to look for another device that can cater to your demands.
For Php64,990 the Swift 7’s 256GB SSD is ample enough for several apps and storing your files. If you don’t mind the multiple dongle setups to use your current devices, then we suggest the Acer Swift 7. Yes, as a first generation device we need to do some compromises but it’s still good that Acer approached a more affordable method as even as it might be the thinnest, it is not the most expensive.
Our suggestion is to buy a sleeve for the laptop and why not include a Bluetooth mouse as well so you don’t have to use the USB Type-C adapter for a mouse.
What we love
- Sleed and super thin design
- 2 USB Type-C Ports with Dongle
- Relatively long battery life
What we don’t like
- Charger and Dongles could improve more
- No backlit for keyboard
- Body has sharp edges