Acer Swift 14 AI redefines what’s possible from a Windows laptop with 24-hour battery life
The Acer Swift 14 AI delivers solid performance and jaw-dropping battery life thanks to Qualcomm's 10-core X Plus chipset
Pros
- Epic battery life
- Good performance
- Excellent webcam
Cons
- Not particularly stylish
- No HDMI port
- Ordinary display
The Acer Swift 14 AI is a Qualcomm Snapdragon-based compact laptop. However, unlike the other Windows-on-Arm laptops released so far this year, this one is built around the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus processor rather than the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite.
The loss of two cores has minimal impact on CPU performance and since all the Snapdragon machines use the same Adreno 741 GPU, graphics performance is very similar. The reduced core count reduces power drain as well, which when combined with a large-for-its-class 75Wh battery capacity gives the Swift 14 AI unrivalled battery life.
Acer Swift 14 AI: What you need to know
Microsoft has to be congratulated for managing to launch, or rather, re-launch, Windows on ARM without dredging up memories of the horror that was Windows RT. Some of this is down to the new Prism Windows x64 emulation software being rather good and some to a much improved range of ARM64 native apps.
So good is support for current Windows programmes on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X platform that it’s easier to point out the one significant app that doesn’t work; Google Drive’s desktop sync. Given how badly Google stuffed up making the Chrome browser ARM64 native a few years ago this should surprise nobody. Don’t hold your breath for a Google fix.
Microsoft has also done good work associating the ARM platform with all things AI. Indeed, currently, only ARM laptops can carry the Copilot Plus branding thanks to their Neural Processors being capable of delivering more than 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second), which is the baseline for Copilot Plus. That’s set to change soon, though, with the imminent arrival of laptops based on the new Intel Core Ultra 200V CPUs.
How big of a deal is local AI processing capability at the moment? That’s a matter for debate but it’s likely to become ever more significant as we go forward.
Acer Swift 14 AI review: Price and competition
Configuration tested: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 CPU, Qualcomm Adreno 714 iGPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 14.5in, 120Hz, 2,560 x 1,600 IPS display. Price when reviewed: £1,199 inc VAT
The Swift 14 is available in one model and one model only in the UK and will set you back £1,199. For that, you get a 2.5K display, a 1TB SSD, 16GB of RAM and a 1440p webcam. That’s a pretty decent specification for the money.
So far this year we’ve looked at three other Windows Snapdragon laptops and when reviewing a laptop like this, you can’t overlook the other major ARM-based compact laptop, the Apple MacBook Air:
- The Samsung GalaxyBook 4 Edge comes with a superb 16in 2.8K OLED display but the slow eUFS storage has no place in a £1,399 laptop and the battery, while good, can’t match the competition.
- The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 is available in both 15in and 13.8in guises with prices ranging from £1,049 to £2,149 with all the trimmings. It’s a lovely-looking machine with great battery life. The only negative point is that the 15in model is a bit heavy.
- The Asus Vivobook S15 is arguably the most well-rounded ARM machine so far thanks to its superb OLED screen, solid performance and long battery life if not quite as long as the Surface 7.
- The Apple MacBook Air is the doyen of super-light slim laptops. Even though the Windows competition is closing in on Apple’s skinny boy, it’s still a supremely capable and desirable laptop and good value, starting at £950
Acer Swift 14 AI review: Design and build quality
- Well-made but anonymous
- Good selection of ports
- Minimal upgrade opportunities
Visually, the Acer Swift 14 AI is a rather anonymous affair, something I could say — and indeed, have said — of most Acer laptops I’ve tested recently. Only the Acer name and new AI icon on the touchpad and lid give you a visual hint whose kit you are using.
[/vc_column_text]The more I look at the Swift 14 AI I can’t help but think that Acer should be trying harder than it is when it comes to design. The Microsoft Surface 7 and Asus Vivobook S15 both look and feel like more upmarket devices despite their similar asking prices.
The basic build quality is good, though. The aluminium body and lid have a reassuring sense of solidity, and at 1.24kg the Swift 14 AI compares well to the 1.23kg MacBook Air. Perhaps most importantly the matte grey finish doesn’t show greasy fingerprints readily.
The Acer Swift 14 AI has a decent selection of ports, too, with two 40Gbits/sec USB-C and a pair of 5Gbits/sec USB-A ports. The former both support DisplayPort video output and Acer bundles a USB-C to HDMI adapter to compensate for the fact that the Swift 14 AI doesn’t have one built-in.
Both USB-C ports and one USB-A are situated on the left with the larger port towards the rear, which doesn’t strike me as the ideal layout given that you need to use one of the USB-Cs to charge. On the right-hand side you’ll find the second USB-A and a 3.5mm audio jack. There’s nothing in the way of a memory card reader.
Wireless communications are bang up to date with the Qualcomm modem supporting Bluetooth 5.4 and 6GHz Wi-Fi 7, and getting inside the Swift 14 AI is simple, too, as long as you have the relevant Torx screwdriver. All you can do is clean the fans and swap out the 2280 M.2 SSD, though – everything else is soldered in place.
Acer Swift 14 AI review: Keyboard, touchpad and webcam
- Excellent 1440p webcam
- Fancy AI Activity indicator
- Facial recognition and a fingerprint scanner
The Swift 14 AI’s keyboard is thankfully missing an irritation that often spoils Acer laptops, namely the absence of a keyboard Fn lock. To be fair, the 14 AI still lacks one, but the default setting for the Fn keys here is as media keys, so there was no need for me to go rummaging in the BIOS to change the default settings.
Every other feature of the keyboard is up to scratch. The keycap graphics are simple and clear, there’s a two-stage white backlight for use in dim or dark rooms, and the typing action is sharp and precise thanks to a generous degree of travel and a solid end-stop. The deck is reasonably solid with just a little give in the centre under heavy pressure.
The touchpad is covered with a sheet of Corning Gorilla Glass which makes for a supremely smooth feel. At 125 x 75mm, it’s large enough to support the most florid gestures while the click action is firm, clean and quiet.
The pattern you see etched into the top right corner is Acer’s AI Lighting Effect icon, which lights up when the neural processor starts to work, for instance, every time you press the CoPilot key. This serves no real purpose other than looking rather funky and it can be disabled in the Acer Sense control panel.
The Swift 14’s webcam is a 1440p affair and it comes with a more useful selection of AI features – Windows’ Studio AI special effects – and Image quality is excellent, even in less-than-ideal light. The webcam also supports Windows Hello facial recognition, too, along with the fingerprint scanner, giving the Swift 14 AI a full house of biometric security options.
Acer Swift 14 AI review: Display and audio
- 120Hz refresh rate 2.5K IPS
- Mediocre gamut coverage
- Unremarkable speakers
There’s nothing particularly special about the Swift 14 AI’s display and it comes across as rather vin ordinaire compared to what’s on offer from Asus (3K OLED) or Apple and Microsoft (brighter, more colourful IPS). It doesn’t even support touch.
Still, the 2,560 x 1,600 IPS panel has all the basics reasonably well covered. The maximum brightness is a workmanlike 386cd/m2, the contrast ratio a healthy 1,584:1 and it covers 106% of the sRGB gamut, although that equates to a mere 75% of DCI-P3.
The Delta E colour accuracy came back as 1.53 vs the sRGB profile – again a good result rather than a great one, while the 120Hz refresh rate gives proceedings a pleasing fluidity. There’s no HDR support though.
As for audio, that’s middling. The laptop’s 2 x 2W speaker system may boast DTS X Ultra branding and a decent maximum volume output of 76.5dBA, but the soundscape is congested and confined and there’s not much bass in evidence.
I’m writing this listening to the new album from Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, In Lieu of Flowers and the Swift 14 AI really is not doing it much justice. For the money, I’d expect better, which the Surface Laptop 7, for one, delivers.
Acer Swift 14 AI review: Performance and battery life
- Gives little away to the Snapdragon Elite machines
- Outstanding battery life
- Fast SSD
ARM-native benchmark tests are still few and far between for Windows but the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 made a decent showing of itself in the Geekbench 6 multi-core test, scoring 13,426 against the Asus Vivobook S15’s 14,313.
It also beat the M3-powered MacBook Air which scored 12,071. For wider reference, the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 scores are also similar to those from an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU.
In the Geekbench OpenCL graphics test, the new Acer scored 20,585 points, which surprisingly was better than the Asus Vivobook S15’s 18,838 but a long way behind the MacBook Air’s 30,529.
To get a better idea of the Adreno 714’s true potential I ran the ARM-native 3DMark Night Spy test. The Acer scored 24,485, close to the 26,230 result I got running the x64 version running on a Ryzen 7 8840HS CPU with the Radeon 780M integrated GPU, and that chip is no slouch.
In the real world, the Swift 14 AI can run some serious games. At the lowest detail settings, at Full HD resolution and with AMD’s FidelityFX SuperResolution upscaling set to Ultra Performance, Cyberpunk 2077 ran at 33.5fps. That’s genuinely playable and a remarkable achievement of a laptop with an integrated GPU, especially one running the game in x64 guise under emulation.
Since these new Snapdragon machines are not being pitched as gaming platforms how many games will start to be released in ARM native versions is anyone’s guess but the potential certainly seems to be there.
The Swift 14 AI’s Western Digital 1TB SSD performed well too, returning sequential read and write speeds of 4,886MB/sec and 4,653MB/sec respectively. That’s a superb showing, obliterating all its immediate rivals.
The laptop’s most impressive showing in our tests, however, was in the battery test. Playing an SD video using VLC with the display brightness set to 170cd/m2, flight mode enabled and the laptop disconnected from the mains, the Acer Swift 14 AI lasted 24hrs 2mins. That’s an outstanding result, and with the brightness turned down as far as it would go, to 140cd/m2, that figure stretched to just shy of 27 hours.
The Swift 14 AI’s stellar run time should raise a few eyebrows at Apple HQ; It’s not just a bit better than the MacBook Air but a staggering nine hours or around 60% longer.
Acer Swift 14 AI review: Verdict
Given the current asking price, I think the Swift 14 AI is just a little expensive when for less you can buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, MacBook Air or Asus Vivobook S15, which all have superior displays. The speaker system should be better too.
Where the Swift 14 AI strikes back is with that truly epic 24-hour battery life – a real feather in the Acer Swift 14 AI’s cap and a vitally important selling point. After all, who cares how great your laptop’s display is or how nice it looks if the battery is flat?
My advice, then, is to wait a month or two until the Swift 14 AI starts to appear on offer for under £1,000. At that price, it’s going to be an easy five-star recommendation.
