Acer Swift 1 laptop: unbeatable value for money

Construction

Acer continues to improve the design of its Swift PCs and this Swift 1, despite its low price, is not put aside. The all-metal chassis is therefore very well made and looks solid, while the different colors available (gray, gold, light green, pink) offer more choices. Whatever the color chosen, the mat treatment on the hood allows fingerprints to be repelled properly. The overall finish is in any case very good and the build quality is there. The plastic frame around the screen, however, somewhat betrays the pricing positioning, but the hinge is however well integrated and seems solid.

The Swift 1 incorporates a backlit chiclet keyboard - something rare at this price - which is comfortable to use, but not perfect. If we appreciate the long enough stroke and the striking return present, the keys are quite small and it takes time to adapt to manage to type text without making a shell. The touchpad is almost flawless. Rather wide, it responds well and the fingers slide pleasantly over it. Other good news, the presence of a fingerprint sensor on the right of the touchpad, which also works very well.

Connectivity side, the Swift 1 does not deserve, since it integrates two USB 3 Type-A ports, a USB 2 port, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, an HDMI output, a combo jack, as well as a reader SD card.

Let's finish this part of the test on another good point to distribute to Swift 1: its very good management of heat and noise, which is however not surprising given its modest configuration. After an hour of benchmarking under Unigine Heaven, the PC did not exceed 38 ° C at the front at the keyboard, and 43 ° C under the chassis. The processor is also passively cooled, so it makes absolutely no noise.

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Screen

The Swift 1 has a 14-inch matte IPS screen in Full HD definition. The reflections are therefore limited. The display is well highlighted by very thin edges on the sides, which achieves an occupancy rate of 79%.

Good news, here we are dealing with a very neat slab which displays only few defects. The only real black spot is thus to be found on the side of the Delta E (difference between the actual colors and the colors displayed, considered to be excellent below 3) which rises to 6 and which reflects the lack of color fidelity. The color temperature, set at 6,100 K, on the other hand is very good, because close to the standard at 6,500 K. The gray gradient is therefore balanced and does not draw towards red or blue.

contrast 1450: 1 Delta E 6 temperature 6060 K

If the maximum brightness, measured at 300 cd / m², could have been a little higher, we appreciate the excellent contrast ratio of 1450: 1, as well as a very stable gamma curve. Again, for a € 400 laptop, the results are particularly positive. Finally, note a remanence time of 21 ms, which remains high, but classic for a laptop dedicated to office automation.

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Performances

The Swift 1 has an Intel Pentium Silver N500 processor (4 cores, frequencies ranging from 1.1 to 2.7 GHz), 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage in eMMC. A modest configuration, which suggests limited performance and strictly office use.

In practice, no miracle, the Swift 1 is not very powerful, but quite usable for a certain number of simple tasks (surfing the web, word processing, spreadsheet, without too much force on the formulas, watching videos. ..). The difference in performance compared to last year's Swift 1 - equipped with a Pentium N4200 - is however significant.

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Mobility / Autonomy

Without being the most compact ultraportable on the market, the Swift 1 remains particularly transportable thanks to a very good job of optimizing the chassis. It only weighs 1.3 kg and does not exceed 1.5 cm thick. In addition, its charger is small. It is therefore easily slipped into a medium size bag.

But it is on the side of autonomy that the Swift 1 is really strong and is positioned as a real champion in this price range. Our usual test for streaming video playback (Netflix in Chrome, screen brightness at 200 cd / m², headphones plugged in and keyboard backlight off) ran for 11:49. An excellent time, which places this PC in the leading pack in terms of endurance.

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Audio

The audio part of Swift 1 is in the average of this type of PC, no more, no less. The headphone output is thus quite good, offering a low distortion rate and a correct output power, without reaching the heights. The crosstalk - which acts as an indicator of good separation of the stereo channels - is meanwhile good.

The speakers, located on either side under the chassis, properly fulfill their role for very occasional listening. The sound is quite metallic and clearly lacks bass, but the sound power remains good.

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Conclusion

If you are looking for an ultraportable at a very low price, the Acer Swift 1 is, at the moment, the best possible choice. The PC of the Taiwanese manufacturer surprises indeed on many points: excellent autonomy, good quality screen, impeccable finish, complete connectivity ... Only its processor limits it to fairly basic office automation and surfing the web. The price / quality ratio is in any case impressive.

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