Acer Swift 5 (2024) Review

The Acer Swift 5 (2024) builds upon the success of its predecessors, delivering a premium ultrabook experience with a lightweight design, strong performance, and solid battery life. This model is geared toward professionals, students, and users who need a sleek, portable laptop without sacrificing power. The 2024 update brings enhanced specs, a refined design, and the latest Intel processors to ensure it remains competitive in the ever-evolving ultrabook market.

Design and Build Quality

The Acer Swift 5 (2024) continues the tradition of being one of the lightest laptops in its class. It features an all-metal chassis made from aerospace-grade aluminum, giving it a premium, sturdy feel while weighing in at just 2.31 pounds (1.05 kg). The sleek profile, measuring 14.95mm thick, ensures it’s ultra-portable and ideal for users who need a device for travel, commuting, or working from various locations.

The laptop comes in an elegant Mist Green and Safari Gold colorway, offering a distinct, modern look. Its clean design is complemented by chamfered edges around the touchpad and keyboard, giving it a stylish, high-end appearance.

The hinge is designed to slightly elevate the keyboard when opened, improving the typing angle and airflow for better cooling. The thin bezels around the display also give the laptop a more modern and immersive look, maximizing screen real estate without increasing the overall footprint.

Display

The 14-inch FHD or QHD touchscreen display is one of the standout features of the Acer Swift 5. It uses an IPS panel with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 for the FHD model and 2560 x 1440 for the QHD version. Both versions offer vibrant colors, excellent sharpness, and wide viewing angles, making the display suitable for content consumption, productivity, and light creative tasks.

The screen supports up to 100% sRGB color gamut, ensuring accurate colors, which is great for tasks like photo editing and video conferencing. It also offers up to 425 nits of brightness, making it usable in bright environments or outdoors.

Touchscreen responsiveness is smooth, though the device does not include a stylus. The Antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass offers extra protection against scratches and germs, a useful feature for users concerned about hygiene.

Performance

The Acer Swift 5 (2024) is powered by Intel’s 14th Gen Core i5 and i7 processors, built on the Evo platform, which promises a balance of performance and battery efficiency. Paired with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, the Swift 5 is ideal for handling day-to-day tasks, such as web browsing, document editing, media consumption, and light content creation.

It comes with options for 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD storage configurations. The combination of a fast SSD and ample memory ensures quick boot times, smooth multitasking, and fast file transfers.

While the Acer Swift 5 isn’t intended for heavy gaming or resource-intensive creative applications, it handles productivity tasks and moderate workloads with ease. It’s particularly well-suited for business professionals or students who need a reliable laptop for office tasks, video calls, and light media work.

Battery Life

Battery life is a key strength of the Swift 5. Acer claims up to 15 hours of battery life, and real-world usage typically sees about 10-12 hours on a single charge, depending on your workflow. This is impressive for such a lightweight and portable laptop, making it a great choice for users who need all-day battery life without frequent recharging.

The Swift 5 also supports fast charging, giving you up to 4 hours of use from just a 30-minute charge, which is convenient for users who need to top up quickly between meetings or during travel.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard on the Acer Swift 5 provides a comfortable typing experience with good key travel and feedback. The layout is well-spaced, and the backlit keys make it easier to type in low-light conditions. It’s a solid keyboard overall, suited for long typing sessions whether you’re writing documents, emails, or working on spreadsheets.

The touchpad is large and responsive, made from precision glass. It offers smooth scrolling and supports Windows Precision drivers for multi-touch gestures like three-finger swipes and pinches, making navigation efficient and intuitive.

Connectivity

For a thin and light laptop, the Acer Swift 5 (2024) offers a decent selection of ports:

2 x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C)

1 x USB-A 3.2

1 x HDMI 2.1

3.5mm audio jack

Kensington lock slot

The inclusion of Thunderbolt 4 is a highlight, allowing for faster data transfer, external displays, and even external GPUs. The HDMI 2.1 port is also useful for connecting to external monitors or projectors, making it suitable for presentations and multitasking.

Audio and Webcam

The stereo speakers on the Acer Swift 5 are decent for a laptop of this size, offering clear audio with moderate volume. They are enhanced with DTS Audio, which helps improve sound quality during media playback or video calls, but they may lack the deep bass and richness expected for immersive entertainment.

The 1080p webcam is a notable improvement, providing clear and crisp video quality for virtual meetings and online classes. Coupled with dual far-field microphones, it ensures good voice clarity even in noisy environments. The device also includes AI noise reduction to further enhance audio during calls.

Software and Features

The Acer Swift 5 runs Windows 11, which is optimized for touchscreen use and offers improved multitasking with features like Snap Layouts. The operating system is fluid and intuitive, particularly with gesture-based navigation on the touchpad.

The laptop also supports Windows Hello with a fingerprint reader integrated into the power button, allowing for secure and quick logins without the need for a password.

Acer has also included some pre-installed software, such as Acer Care Center for diagnostics and system updates, and Acer PurifiedVoice, which enhances microphone performance during calls.

Price and Value

The Acer Swift 5 (2024) starts at around $1,099 for the base model with an Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. Higher-end configurations, especially with a Core i7 processor and 1TB of storage, can go up to $1,500 or more.

While the Swift 5 isn’t the cheapest ultrabook, its premium design, excellent display, and strong battery life make it a great value for professionals and students who need a reliable, portable, and powerful laptop.

Conclusion

The Acer Swift 5 (2024) is a top-tier ultrabook that excels in portability, performance, and design. With its lightweight build, stunning display, and long battery life, it’s an excellent choice for users who need a reliable device for work, school, or general productivity on the go.

Its inclusion of Thunderbolt 4, fast charging, and a solid selection of ports further enhance its value in the competitive ultrabook market. While it may not be ideal for heavy gaming or professional creative work, it delivers everything most users need in a stylish, portable package.

Overall, the Acer Swift 5 is one of the best ultrabooks available in 2024, offering a great balance between portability, power, and features.