What’s one technique to cost greater than $1,000 for a laptop computer this present day? Slap an “AI” sticker on it. Acer just isn’t the one offender— you, Microsoft, forcing your Copilot key onto keyboards—however the firm has enthusiastically boarded the bandwagon with the Swift 14 AI AMD (begins at $1,199.99; $1,299.99 as examined), a pocket book with a squiggly image on the touchpad that lights up whenever you use an AI app. Synthetic hoopla apart, the Swift is a succesful ultraportable laptop computer. Nevertheless, it fails to unseat the Editors’ Selection-award-winning Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Contact (UM3406), which is not as quick however has a superior display screen and prices tons of much less.Configurations and Design: Overlaying All of the CPU Bases The Swift 14 AI AMD—you may discover Intel and Arm variations, too—begins at $1,199.99 with 16GB of RAM, which is on sale for $999 on the time of publishing. Nevertheless, this check unit (mannequin SF14-61T-R3U1) doubles the reminiscence for an additional $100. It additionally carries a 10-core AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor with Radeon 880M built-in graphics, a 1TB NVMe solid-state drive, and a 14-inch, 1,920-by-1,200-pixel IPS contact display screen.
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(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The system’s net web page on Acer.com trumpets two non-touch show choices with larger 3K decision—one IPS with a 120Hz refresh charge and one OLED with 90Hz—however Acer disappointingly confirms they are not out there within the U.S. On the constructive facet, the Swift lands proper on our ultraportable weight line at 3.0 kilos, in contrast with 3.47 kilos for the HP OmniBook Extremely 14. Measuring 0.74 by 12.3 by 8.8 inches, it is a fraction trimmer than that laptop computer as properly. Its anodized aluminum chassis has handed MIL-STD 810H exams for durability, however you may nonetheless really feel a little bit of flex for those who grasp the display screen corners or press the keyboard deck.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Slim bezels encompass the display screen, which opens 180 levels and has a prime lip to ease one-handed opening. The 1440p webcam centered above has a sliding privateness shutter and IR face recognition, becoming a member of a fingerprint reader embedded within the energy button to offer you two methods to skip passwords with Home windows Good day. The laptop computer’s left facet holds two USB4 Sort-C ports, both appropriate for the AC adapter, together with an always-on USB 3.2 Sort-A port and an HDMI monitor port. One other USB-A port joins an audio jack on the proper. Together with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth, this can be a passable array of connections. Nevertheless, I’d be happier with USB-C ports on each side (so the AC adapter twine cannot intervene with exterior mouse customers) and an possibility for cell broadband.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Utilizing the Acer Swift 14 AI AMD: Ai-Yi-Yi, It is AI Together with the same old shortcuts for display screen brightness, audio quantity, and airplane mode, the highest row has a key to launch AcerSense, a utility that mixes system information and updates, diagnostics, energy/cooling settings, and three Home windows Retailer apps. These are LiveArt, which creates AI-filtered stickers out of your photographs; AlterView, which gives adjustable animated wallpapers; and GIMP, the sturdy however much less consumer-friendly rival to Adobe Photoshop. A function referred to as Acer Person Sensing faucets the IR webcam to log you in whenever you strategy and dim the display screen or lock the system whenever you transfer away, in addition to nagging you to take common display screen breaks and never get too near the show. Acer QuickPanel pops up throughout video calls to offer AI-enhanced PurifiedView picture and PurifiedVoice audio enhancements. And as at all times with Acer PCs, you may see just a few bloatware advertisements for issues just like the Forge of Empires recreation.PurifiedView largely duplicates Home windows Digicam’s not too long ago added auto framing, background blur, and video fine-tuning for the webcam. The digital camera captures photos which can be brighter and sharper than common, with quadruple the decision of cheapo 720p cams. Sound from the bottom-mounted audio system is reasonably loud however considerably scratchy and hole; you may hear little bass, however you can also make out overlapping tracks. DTS:X Extremely software program presents music, film, gaming, and different audio presets (my ears could not detect a lot distinction) plus an equalizer.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
The keyboard commits two widespread laptop computer sins: teaming the cursor arrow and Fn keys as an alternative of offering devoted Dwelling, Finish, Web page Up, and Web page Down keys and arranging these arrows in a slipshod row (with half-size up and down stacked between full-size left and proper) as an alternative of an inverted T. Its typing really feel is decidedly shallow and flat, uncomfortable for lengthy classes. The sizable, buttonless touchpad glides and faucets easily and takes medium strain for a snug click on. I may want for larger decision, however the 16:10-aspect-ratio contact display screen is sufficiently brilliant, with clear as an alternative of dingy white backgrounds and broad viewing angles. Its colours do not pop like poster paints however are wealthy and well-saturated, with respectable distinction. The display screen’s finer particulars are crisp, and you may see no pixelation across the edges of letters.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)
Testing the Acer Swift 14 AI AMD: Close to the Head of the ClassYou’ll discover no scarcity of different 14-inch ultraportables to check the Swift AI 14 with—or wanna-be ultraportables, I ought to say—since a number of edge over our three-pound restrict. The Dell XPS 14 and Asus Zenbook S 14 have Intel Core Extremely 7 energy. So does our check unit’s extra pricey cousin, the Acer Swift X 14, whose Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 as an alternative of built-in graphics makes it the champion of our GPU benchmarks. The HP OmniBook Extremely 14 has an AMD Ryzen AI 9 processor like our Acer’s.
Productiveness and Content material Creation Assessments Our major general benchmark, UL’s PCMark 10, exams a system in productiveness apps starting from net searching to phrase processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC’s storage throughput. Three extra exams are CPU-centric or processor-intensive. Maxon’s Cinebench 2024 makes use of that firm’s Cinema 4D engine to render a posh scene; Primate Labs’ Geekbench 6.3 Professional simulates widespread apps starting from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine studying; and we see how lengthy it takes the video modifying instrument HandBrake 1.8 to transform a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p decision. Lastly, workstation maker Puget Programs’ PugetBench for Creators charges a PC’s picture modifying prowess with quite a lot of automated operations in Adobe Photoshop 25.
In contrast with bigger desktop alternative notebooks, the ultraportable efficiency baseline is normally respectable workflow with on a regular basis apps like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace—say, 4,000 to five,000 factors in PCMark 10’s most important occasion. The Swift 14 AI AMD raises the bar, becoming a member of HP’s OmniBook (which has a barely higher-rated Ryzen AI chip) in crushing our processing exams. It is actually appropriate for content material creation in addition to routine productiveness. Graphics Assessments We problem laptops’ graphics with a quartet of animations or gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark check suite. Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Excessive (4K) use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. Metal Nomad’s common and Mild subtests give attention to APIs extra generally used for recreation growth, like Metallic and DirectX 12, to evaluate gaming geometry and particle results. A fifth check, Photo voltaic Bay, emphasizes ray-tracing efficiency.
AMD’s built-in graphics weren’t fairly a match for Intel’s, which in flip have been no match for the Dell’s entry-level discrete GPU, not to mention the two-steps-higher RTX 4070 contained in the Swift X. Most ultraportables are positive for solitaire video games and video streaming, not taking part in the most recent fast-twitch titles.Battery and Show Assessments We check every laptop computer’s battery life by taking part in a domestically saved 720p video file (the open-source Blender film Tears of Metal) with show brightness at 50% and audio quantity at 100%. We ensure the battery is totally charged earlier than the check, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. To gauge show efficiency, we additionally use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and Home windows software program to measure a laptop computer display screen’s colour saturation—what proportion of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 colour gamuts or palettes the show can present—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per sq. meter).
The Acer AI AMD did about in addition to an IPS- somewhat than OLED-screened slimline can in these exams, combining prolonged battery life and display screen brightness with respectable colour copy. Nevertheless, I nonetheless want Acer would promote the 3K OLED show as an possibility right here within the States.Verdict: Embrace the Hype? We’ve got a maybe stereotypical view of most Acer prospects as non-tech-expert customers somewhat than energy customers, so we’re not shocked the Swift 14 AI AMD does all the pieces however put a cereal- or detergent-style “Now with AI!” decal on the field. These trying contained in the field, nonetheless, will discover distinctive processing energy and webcam high quality. The stiff, flat keyboard dampens the expertise, and different 14-inch ultraportables, just like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Contact, embody prettier OLED screens, however this Acer ought to fulfill many.
The Backside Line
An AMD Ryzen AI 9 chip provides Acer’s newest Swift 14 ultraportable laptop computer spectacular efficiency, however we want the corporate had sanded off one or two tough edges.
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About Eric Grevstad
Contributing Editor
I used to be picked to write down PCMag’s fortieth Anniversary “Most Influential PCs” function as a result of I am the geezer who remembers all of them—I labored on TRS-80 and Apple II monthlies beginning in 1982 and served as editor of Pc Shopper when it was a 700-page month-to-month rivaled solely by Brides as America’s fattest journal. I used to be later the editor in chief of Dwelling Workplace Computing, {a magazine} about utilizing tech to make money working from home twenty years earlier than a pandemic made it commonplace follow. Even in semi-retirement, I can not cease taking part in with toys and telling individuals what gear to purchase.
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