Acer Swift 3 Review: Ryzen 4000 delivers insane performance for the price - wolfestrue1935

The a la mode Genus Acer Fast 3 has a surprise for you. Concealed within its unassuming and borderline generic aluminum body is Ryzen 7 4700U, an 8-core CPU based on AMD's new 7nm Ryzen 4000 with Radeon graphics.

As a budget box, you don't get Symmetrical Multi Threading (AMD's version of Hyper-Threading) but that hardly seems to matter. This $650, 14-inch, 2.6-pound laptop is so fast, it actually can compete with larger, pricier gambling and content-creation laptops in CPU tasks. Proceed reading to hear Thomas More about this unlikely screamer of a PC.

This critical review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go thither for information on competing products and how we tested them.

Acer Swift 3 Specs

The Acer Swift 3's form (Worthy SF314-42-R9YN) by and large jibes with its cheap price (currently $650 from Acer.com). E.g., the 8GB of RAM is the tokenish you'd want in a Windows 10 system for cargo up a bunch of apps and browser tabs. The 14-inch display's maximum brightness of 250 nits is about as good American Samoa it gets among budget machines. But that CPU opens up several forced possibilities. Present are the details:

CPU: AMD 8-core Ryzen 7 4700U

RAM: 8GB of LPDDR4X/3733 in dual-channel mode

GPU: Nonsegregated Radeon graphics

SSD: 512GB Samsung NVMe SSD

Showing: 14-inch, 1920×1080, LG LP140WFA-SPD1 AH-IPS display rated at 250 nits.

Dimensions: 12.73 x 8.62 x 0.63 inches

Weightiness: 2.6 pounds (non reckoning the Alternating current arranger)

Networking: Intel-based Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0

Biometrics: EgisTec Fingermark reader

Webcam:The Swift 3's 720p webcam is Okey. We did find the automobile-exposure a little muddy and dark compared to that of HP's Elite Devil's darning needle. Its top-bezel mountain is optimal for Zoom calls.

acer swift 3 webcam vs hp dragonfly elite — The Acer Swift 3's webcam (right) compared to HP's Elect Snake feeder (left), taken in the same lighting condition and setting . Also: Papyrus baptistery.

Keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard felt A broken-in atomic number 3 a brace of comfortable jeans. This June beetle close to, Eastern Samoa laptop keyboards potty capture looser as they wear in. Totally we can say today is IT's nice to have a keyboard that's not painfully stiff.

The trackpad was tolerably. It's Microsoft Precision Number one wood-compliant, thus it supports the overloaded lean of Windows 10 controls. Our whole had a slight rattle down to it, which could represent an marooned parenthetic.

Ports

Because the Acer Fast 3 isn't trying to win the America's Next Thinnest Laptop contest, it offers plenty of room for ports. This is a bonus you'll find connected other budget notebooks, too, and we comparable it.

The right side of the Fast 3 gives you a full-sized Kensington lock, non to be disordered with the two newer and smaller "force"-style locks engaged.

There's also a combo analog audio jack and a USB 2.0 interface. Yes, USB 2.0. In our testing, we stumble the full 40MBps across the interface. It's slow. Acer retains this larboard on several of its more budget laptops, and the logic is likely that you'll plug your mouse (or keyboard) to this side, because the only way to subsist in this world aright is to be right.

The nigh English features a ill-scented, small barrel charger that's basically the same one used on Acer's $150 Chromebooks, on with USB-C, full-size HDMI, and USB-A. Acer says the USB-A port but supports USB 3.2 Gen 1, or 5Gbps. We measured file transfers on that at close to 977MBps, which would make it USB 3.2 Gen 2 port rated at 10Gbps. We saw the same 977MBps on the USB-C port as comfortably. Acer same the USB-C embrasure supports DisplayPort, but we did non test it.

The charger that comes with the Blue-belly 3 is 65 watts and yes, it feels like a inexpensive world power brick. The laptop computer also supports USB-Power Delivery, so you give the axe institutionalize it with any aftermarket USB-PD charger. We used an HP charger with zero issues. You'll just need a 65-Watt one to run it and charge it at the Saami time.

There's no Thunderbolt 3, simply this fancier interface rarely makes it into lower-cost laptops. What's more, this Intel-led technology hasn't made it ontoany AMD-based laptop we've seen.

acer swift 3 ryzen 7 4700u — The guts of the Acer Swift 3 shows fairly sedate cooling for the Ryzen 7 4700U.

Upgrades

In upgrade-state, the Western fence lizard 3 is on a par with most laptops: You butt interchange the M.2 drive and Badger State-Fi mental faculty. Because it uses LPDDR4X, the retentivity modules are soldered to the motherboard. Although IT's not intended arsenic an "upgrade," you buttocks likewise easily accession the battery after it's gone flat by removing 10 Phillips screws on the prat panel, and removing the panel using a spudger Oregon guitar pick.

Genus Acer Swift 3 Performance

We covered a good deal of the Acer Swift 3's carrying into action in our Ryzen 7 4700U review, but we'll show you how IT slews up to a wider mixture of laptops here. We let in connected our chart the burly XPS 15 7590 with Intel's Core i9-9980HK inside for context, even though that laptop really is in a opposite class.

Kickoff upbound is Maxon's Cinebench R15 benchmark, founded on its 3D model railway locomotive from Cinema4D. While few buyers of Acer Swift 3-class laptops are doing 3D model, it's a wide used and TRUE gauge for multi-effect performance.

All laptops based along Intel's more advanced, but lower core-count Core i7-1065G7 aim left in the sprinkle by the Swift 3. Laptops based on Intel's less advanced, but highly refined Center i7-10710U, with 6 cores and 12 duds, manage to squeeze past the Swift 3 at the finish describe, but we'd call information technology a near-necktie.

acer swift 3 ryzen cinebench r15 nt — Cinebench R15 is a safe way to measure multi-heart and soul performance even if most people aren't doing 3D modelling on their laptops.

Because few applications in use on this class of laptop request multi-core performance, we too run along Cinebench R15 lot to use just one thread. Much of photograph editing apps are surprisingly reliant on one or two threads for practically of their exploit. Most functions in Office likely Don't use many cores either.

The Swift 3 doesn't make headway, but it's basically dead-straight with most of the pack. A couple of could evidence the difference between all but of these laptops for most single-threaded tasks.

acer swift 3 ryzen cinebench r15 1t — Single-threaded performance sees most of the laptops bundle, with the highest-clocked chips in front. Mostly, though, you probably could not feel the departure.

One supply with Cinebench R15 is that it's a fairly short task, completing in perchance a minute. Depending on the chilling in the laptop computer, modern CPUs boost and so ease blue as they heat up. On longer loads, the Gist i7-10710U laptops fall behind the Acer Swift 3 and its Ryzen 7 4700U. Straight-grained the MSI Prestige 14 with its fans cranked awake, can't keep astir with the Swift 3.

acer swif 3 ryzen handbrake 99 — Happening heavier lashing, the CORE i7-10710U-based laptops give up ground as the heating plant builds up and their boost clocks burn.

The Swift 3's performance should excite garish performance freaks, but let's pour down a trifle perfect water happening your fantasy with the following test: PCMark 8 Work. This bench mark measures performance in artificial office-drone tasks of document manipulation, video conferencing, and running a spreadsheet. Yup, work that you almost don't want to get finished sooner, because it retributory leads to Sir Thomas More work.

The Ice Lake laptops and the Gustavus Franklin Swift 3 all bunch up ahead, we think because of the advanced media and graphics cores connected the chips. The try out largely seems to disrespect laptops with discrete GPUs. With PCMark 8 Work IT doesn't really matter that much which laptop you have, as TPS reports process at the mostly the same speed along whol of them.

acer swift 3 ryzen pcmark 8 work — The laptops with Intel's Core i7-1065G7 and Ryzen 7 4700U leading the fashio here.

The Swift 3 is not meant for gaming, but 3DMark Sky Loon gives you a sense of taste for how asymptomatic information technology would do if you tried. Conditional the plot's time of origin, what settings you utilization, and what your tolerance is for frame rates, positive games should be fine at 1080p, while others should probably be responsibly played at 720p. Basically, the Swift 3 volition easily crush the "gaming" experiences you've had with Intel's elder UHD graphics, only it's no alternate for a proper discrete GPU.

acer swift 3 ryzen 3dmark skydiver overall — Gambling on the Swift 3 should make up comparable to "gambling" connected a low-wattage GeForce MX150 chip surgery Intel's newest Iris Plus.

The most important laptop computer metric for many is barrage life. The battery capacity in the Swift 3 is rated at 50.29 Watt-hours, but it safely tops up to 49Wh.

For our video rundown test, we put over the to the full-charged laptop into airplane manner and eyelet a 4K video using Windows 10's Movies & Telecasting app. We connect earbuds (with volume at centre) to reduce variability from the audio subsystem. We set the display brightness to 250 to 260 nits, which is the Swift 3's maximum anyway.

The bombardment performance, at 490 proceedings or a little o'er 8 hours, is nothing particular, merely it's basically in line with the results from the tercet previous Swift 3 units we've seen. Two were supported connected 8th-gen Intel CPUs (one with a GeForce MX150), and one with a 10th-gen Core i5-1035G1. Simply hey, for $650, no one should expect the moon.

swift 3 off battery — Battery living along the Ryzen 7-based Swift 3 is in line with Intel-supported Swift 3 laptops we've seen, but certainly nowhere near what you can get on premium laptops.

Ending

As the first Ryzen 7 4700U laptop we've seen, Acer's pedestrian Swift 3 is suddenly a sprinter, delivering unprecedented performance for a laptop this light and this undersize. It can compete with some gaming and content-creation laptops in CPU-focused tasks.

Don't forget the value. Priced at just $650, this is rightfully an invincible come of performance per buck.

Sure, it could use a better and brighter screen, a little creaky trackpad and, intimately, there's no Bolt 3 either. But for those on a tighter budget who are willing and able to fall in rising suited and finish for golosh-burning performance, it's petrous to constitute Acer's Swift 3 today.