Touchscreen-equipped, super lightweight, and a solid performer, the ACER Swift 5 is not to be underestimated, but don’t be too dazzled either.
The ACER Swift 5 notebook is hailed as the world’s lightest 15-inch notebook PC. The design of the Swift was intended for discerning customers looking for an elegant and innovative device.
It features:
- A full HD 1920×1080 IPS1 touchscreen with ultra-narrow bezels
- The latest 8th Gen Intel Core processors
- Built-in 4G LTE2 connectivity
- Top and bottom covers that are constructed from magnesium-lithium alloy
Design
The laptop’s total weight comes in at just 0.97kg, or around 990g, by far one of the lightest Ultrabooks on the market right now. This is attributed to the magnesium-lithium cover that makes it ultralight and sleek. This lightweight design makes it very travel-friendly as you’ll hardly even notice it resting in your bag as you go about your day-to-day.
Equipped with a full high-definition IPS touchscreen display, the ACER Swift 5 offers stunning visuals and an added element of interactivity with the touchscreen. The screen can also bend back at a 180-degree angle, allowing for a wider array of positions and angles to be used at.
Despite being featherlight, the ACER Swift 5 doesn’t feel flimsy. The magnesium alloy chassis makes it feel very solid, but I wouldn’t be too rough with it. Magnesium is also stronger than and not as cool to the touch as aluminium, but because it looks a little bit like plastic on first glance it’s not quite as popular as aluminium.
Performance
Powered by the latest Intel Core i7-8565U and Core i5-8265U processors, the Swift 5 is powered to deliver a responsive performance. It also boasts up to 16 GB of DDR4 SDRAM and up to a 1 TB NVMe PCIe SSD for speedy boot times and file access.
Editing videos with a ton of elements could get a little bit slow, but most games were decently playable with the specs on the lower side of the spectrum. This would be a totally comfortable user experience for the average person. The laptop also runs quietly when the workload it’s handling isn’t too intense, but the fan does turn on quite early and it gets progressively worse the harder the device has to work.
Battery
The ACER Swift 5’s battery is a 36Wh unit, much smaller than the previous model’s 53.9Wh unit. This is a detail that could have been sacrificed to achieve its light weight. The Swift 5 can run on up to 10 hours of battery life with light to moderate use. Heavier, consistent use on the brightest screen level can bring that down to 6 hours.
Price*
The ACER Swift 5 retails from:
R16,179 at Takelot
R15,879.95 at Weable
R22,799.08 at Bid or Buy
* Prices correct as of 31 August 2018
Conclusion
The ACER Swift 5 is both stylish and practical. The magnesium-lithium alloy cover is really sleek and beautiful to look at, but its weight is the real star of the show. It is a perfectly portable device with more than enough processing power for everyday work like working on documents and checking emails. You could push it as far as editing photos or videos and maybe even play a few games don’t eat up all of your computer’s processing power, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t push it too far. Clicking on the trackpad felt a little stiff and during heavy typing sessions, the keyboard felt a little bit clacky, but those are details that can be easily overlooked. The same can be said for the finger scanner that can be quite finicky about detecting your finger, sometimes requiring a few attempts before it works. The fan could get annoying as well.
The ACER Swift 5 is a good device for everyday use. It’s pretty, it’s powerful enough for basic processes and it’s on the more affordable side of the latest Ultrabooks.
By Daniëlle Kruger
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