Acer Swift X 14 Evaluation: Staid however Speedy OLED Ultraportable

8.6

Acer Swift X 14

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Like
Highly effective but ultraportable

Beautiful OLED show

Robust efficiency from newest Intel and Nvidia tech

A lot of ports
Do not like
Boring design

Some flex to all-metal chassis

Keyboard and touchpad are meh

Horrible audio system

Beneath a compact and admittedly mundane exterior hides a strong, OLED ultraportable for content material creators. The Acer Swift X 14 is endowed with a stunning 14.5-inch OLED show and powered by the newest Intel and Nvidia silicon within the type of a Thirteenth-gen Core i7 CPU and an RTX 4050 GPU. We often discover such a duo in a bigger machine; content material creation laptops usually function 16- or 17-inch shows to provide creators extra room to work. Just like the Lenovo Slim Professional 7, the Swift X 14 offers the wanted muscle for demanding graphics work however in a extra moveable package deal.

Our $1,500 Swift X 14 evaluate system prices $300 greater than the Lenovo Slim Professional 7 I lately reviewed, and I feel it is cash effectively spent. Each laptops function drab exteriors, however the Swift X 14 will get you an OLED show that is clearly superior to the Slim Professional 7’s plain-Jane IPS panel. Colours are extra vivid, the distinction ratio is vastly higher with true black ranges, the decision is barely larger, and it is even a bit sooner with a 120Hz refresh fee. The transfer from IPS to an OLED panel is well worth the added price alone, however the Swift X 14 sweetens the deal additional by supplying newer RTX graphics and higher efficiency together with a bigger SSD. For inventive professionals and college students who not often work on the similar desk on consecutive days, the Swift X 14 deserves sturdy consideration.

Acer Swift X 14

Geekbox Acer Swift X 14 Value as reviewed $1,500Display dimension/decision 14.5-inch 2,880×1,800 OLED displayCPU 2.4GHz Intel Core i7-13700HMemory 16GB LP-DDR5 6,400MHzGraphics 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GraphicsStorage 1TB NVMe SSDNetworking 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6E); Bluetooth 5.1Operating system Home windows 11 Dwelling 22H2

Acer sells two fashions of the Swift X 14. The baseline mannequin prices $1,100 and contains a Core 5-13500H CPU, 16GB of RAM, previous-gen RTX 3050 graphics and a 512GB SSD. You aren’t getting an OLED panel with this baseline mannequin however a typical LED-backlit LCD with a 2.5K (2,560×1,600 pixels) decision and 120Hz refresh fee. The step-up mannequin that we reviewed prices $1,500 and contains a Core i7-13700H CPU, RTX 4050 graphics and a 1TB SSD together with an OLED panel with a 2.8K (2,880×1,800 pixels) decision. On the time of this writing, this mannequin (SFX14-71G-76LC) is $100 off at Amazon and promoting for $1,400. Each fashions can be found in Australia for AU$2,699 and AU$2,999. Within the UK, solely AMD-based Swift X fashions with previous-gen RTX graphics can be found.

Generic and grey

With an inoffensive however not terribly fascinating darkish grey enclosure, the Swift X 14 seems to be no totally different from any variety of laptops in the marketplace proper now. Acer goes for a minimalist design with no color-contrasting accents and solely a small Acer brand on the highest of the lid and a tiny Swift wordmark on the correct facet of the wrist relaxation. With out these clues, it might be tough to know if this was a laptop computer from Acer or Lenovo or Dell or HP. It’s an all-aluminum chassis, which is significantly preferable to a plastic shell, however it’s not terribly rugged. The lid feels a bit flimsy, and there is some flex within the keyboard deck. The Swift X 14 lacks the MIL-STD ruggedness of the Lenovo Slim Professional 7 and does not really feel almost as inflexible.

Matt Elliott/CNET

The Swift X 14 is a tad lighter than competing 14-inch laptops at 3.4 kilos. That is lighter than the three.6-pound Slim Professional 7 and three.5-pound MacBook Professional 14. It is even a hair lighter than one of many lightest 14-inch laptops we reviewed this 12 months, the HP Dragonfly Professional.

Each the Slim Professional 7 and Dragonfly Professional function a keyboard flanked by speaker grilles and discover room for 4 audio system. Sadly, the Swift X 14 options solely a pair of audio system, they usually fireplace downward from beneath the laptop computer. They don’t seem to be muffled as a lot as they might have been on the very backside panel and as an alternative are positioned on the perimeters of the underside panel that slope up diagonally. Nonetheless, they produced muddy audio with a definite lack of bass response. I had hoped the 2 speaker grilles on the underside edges would have two woofers behind them with two tweeters behind what seems to be like a speaker grille above the keyboard. Sadly, the latter is merely venting for the cooling system. There may be extra venting on the again edge, too, and on the underside panel.

With each USB-C ports on the left facet, charging is much less versatile than if Acer had put one on all sides.

Matt Elliott/CNET

Whether or not for area constraints or adherence to a minimalist aesthetic, many ultraportables forgo ports and provide solely a naked minimal. That isn’t the case with the Swift X 14. It provides a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a pair of USB Sort-A ports, an HDMI out, a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. Most are positioned on the left edge, with solely one of many USB-A ports and the microSD card slot on the correct.

The keyboard itself is among the quietest keyboards on which I’ve typed in current reminiscence. Typing is sort of silent, however does come on the expense of a barely mushy really feel to the keys. I most well-liked the firmer chassis and snappier suggestions of the keyboards on each the Slim Professional 7 and Dragonfly Professional. The Swift X 14 keyboard provides two-level backlighting, which is at all times appreciated. And the ability button doubles as a fingerprint reader for simple, safe log-ins.

Matt Elliott/CNET

The touchpad felt clean and correct when swiping and pinching, however the journey of the press response felt a bit too deep. The results of this deep journey is a free feeling when clicking.

However that display although

So, to summarize: the design is uninspired, the all-metal chassis is not probably the most inflexible, the keyboard and touchpad go away one thing to be desired and the audio system are subpar. Given all that, I nonetheless would advocate the Swift X 14 to sure customers. And the reason being its 14.5-inch OLED show and the efficiency behind it.

The Swift X 14’s 14.5-inch OLED panel boasts a 2.8K (2,880×1,800 pixels) decision with a 16:10 facet ratio and a 120Hz refresh fee. The two.8K decision is finer than the two.5K decision (2,560×1,600 pixels) of the Slim Professional 7 and much superior to the HP Dragonfly Professional’s full-HD (1,920×1,200 pixels) panel. Not solely are textual content and edges of pictures crisper, significantly when seen in opposition to the Dragonfly Professional, however the distinction can be so significantly better it isn’t even a contest. The Swift X 14’s OLED panel produces absolute black ranges and vivid whites, and the colours look vivid and correct. The Swift X 14’s show is rated for 400 nits of brightness and helps 100% of the DCI-P3 coloration gamut.

Matt Elliott/CNET

Content material creators will respect the show’s stellar distinction and coloration accuracy, and video editors will benefit from the 120Hz refresh fee that ends in smoother motion. The Swift X 14’s 120Hz panel is twice as quick because the Dragonfly Professional’s normal 60Hz show and sooner than the Slim Professional 7’s 90Hz show. Not like these two competing fashions, nonetheless, the Swift X 14 doesn’t supply contact help.

And now we get to the Swift X 14’s efficiency. It was almost a clear sweep in labs testing in opposition to the 2 AMD-based fashions, the HP Dragonfly Professional and Lenovo Slim Professional 7, and two Intel-based laptops, the Asus ROG Move Z13 and Dell XPS 15 9520. The HP depends on built-in AMD Radeon Graphics, however the remaining function both RTX 3050 or 3050 Ti graphics, that are a technology behind the Swift X 14’s RTX 4050 GPU. The Swift X 14 was clearly tops on our Geekbench and Cinebench assessments, in addition to in our trio of 3D graphics and gaming assessments. It completed second to the Core i9-based Asus ROG Move Z13 on PCMark 10 and was merely common on our battery drain take a look at with a runtime of almost 7.5 hours. Battery life is absolutely the one concern with choosing OLED over LCD.

The Swift X 14’s sturdy efficiency and its unbelievable 14.5-inch OLED show outweigh the negatives we discovered with the laptop computer’s design. Not one of the negatives are deal breakers, and we have not seen a greater show on an ultraportable exterior of the 14-inch MacBook Professional. For content material creators who do not wish to be weighed by an enormous Home windows laptop computer, the Swift X 14 provides unmatched ultraportable efficiency together with an OLED panel that delivers the show constancy wanted for detailed graphics work.

The evaluate course of for laptops, desktops, tablets and different computer-like gadgets consists of two components: efficiency testing below managed situations within the CNET Labs and intensive hands-on use by our knowledgeable reviewers. This consists of evaluating a tool’s aesthetics, ergonomics and options. A ultimate evaluate verdict is a mix of each goal and subjective judgments.

The listing of benchmarking software program we use adjustments over time because the gadgets we take a look at evolve. Crucial core assessments we’re at present working on each appropriate pc embrace: Primate Labs Geekbench 5, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10 and 3DMark Fireplace Strike Extremely.

A extra detailed description of every benchmark and the way we use it may be present in our How We Check Computer systems web page.

Geekbench 5 (multicore)

Acer Swift X 14 13,225Asus ROG Move Z13 11,629Dell XPS 15 9520 11,138HP Dragonfly Professional 9,146Lenovo Slim Professional 7 9,053