A lot of power for a three-pound laptop | Media Pyro

One of the things that Acer always seems to nail down with its products is value, and it’s done that once again with the Swift X (SFX14-41G-R1S6). It comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor, RTX 3050 Ti graphics, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD, all for $1,099.99. On top of that, it lives up to the Swift name by coming in a package that weighs barely over three pounds.

The biggest drawback, as is the case with any AMD Ryzen laptop, is that performance takes a hit when it’s not connected to power. It’s enough of a hit that you’ll notice the difference. That’s not Acer’s fault; that’s all AMD. On the other hand, AMD’s Ryzen processors are inexpensive enough that allows for these high-performance parts in less expensive packages. The other big con, of course, is the 720p webcam. That’s not even getting started on the bloatware that Acer installs, but at least that’s easy to get rid of.

But overall, the Swift X is pretty great. It’s got a stylish design, it’s light, it’s powerful, and it feels good to use. We actually called it our favorite Acer laptop in our roundup.

Acer Swift X
  • The Acer Swift X starts at $949.99 and is available now.

The Acer Swift X was released in the second half of 2021. It starts at $949.99, packing an AMD Ryzen 5 5600U, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The model that Acer sent us for review is $1,099.99, upgrading the Ryzen 5 to a Ryzen 7 5800U, the RTX 3050 to a 3050 Ti, and upgrading 8GB RAM to 16GB. It’s a notable upgrade for $150 more.

Standard across all models is the 14-inch FHD display. In fact, there really aren’t a lot of configurations available for the Swift X.

Design: The Acer Swift X comes in two-tone Safari Gold

  • The two-tone color schemes make it look pretty, but still unique in colors like Steam Blue, Prodigy Pink, and Safari Gold.
  • It weighs in at barely over three pounds, which is super-light given the high-powered internals.
  • There’s no USB4 just yet, as that’s reserved for newer Ryzen 6000 laptops.

The Acer Swift X (SFX14-41G) comes in three colors: Steam Blue, Prodigy Pink, and Safari Gold. The one that Acer sent me is Safari Gold, although I’m kind of jealous of the Steam Blue. They all look pretty great, and they all have silver-colored sides and keyboards, making for a two-tone design. I like the Steam Blue look because the darker color has more of a contrast with the silver.

The Swift X’s two-tone design is unique, yet subtle.

Acer says that the chassis is made out of aluminum, which is really impressive given that this thing barely weighs over three pounds. Keep in mind that that weight includes an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU. I’d have expected it to be made out a magnesium alloy that feels less premium, but this is quite nice.

As far as ports go, it’s a good selection for the time this was made. On the left side, there’s an HDMI 2.0 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port. Obviously, there’s no Thunderbolt since this is an AMD laptop; however, newer AMD-powered laptops with Ryzen 6000 chips come with USB4, which is a Thunderbolt 3 equivalent. It’s the difference between 10Gbps data transfer speeds, and potentially 40Gbps.

Also on the left side is a pin charging port, which I never had to use. The USB Type-C port works fine for charging.

On the right side, there’s another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, which is good for 5Gbps speeds. There’s also a 3.5mm audio jack and some LED indicators.

Ultimately, I really like the design of the Acer Swift X, and this isn’t the first Acer laptop that I’ve really loved. I’ve reviewed Swift 5 units in deep blues, or a forest green with gold accents. The ConceptD series is a completely different design language, but it’s still sleek, clean, and stylish. Acer is good at design; there’s no doubt about that.

Display: The matte screen makes up for the low brightness

  • The color gamut tests come back pretty average, but it does a good job of blocking glare.
  • Unfortunately, the webcam is still 720p.

The screen on the Acer Swift X is 14 inches with a 1,920×1,080 resolution, so there’s nothing crazy going on here. It’s still 16:9, so it’s not using any of the newer aspect ratios we’re seeing a lot, like 16:10 or 3:2. It’s 300-nit, anti-glare, and FHD.

It does have an excellent viewing angle, as is noted in the spec sheet. That means you can look at it from any angle and there’s no visible color distortion. There are also narrow bezels on all sides. Personally, I really like the display on this machine.

In testing, we once again find that the display is mostly average for a premium PC. It supports 97% sRGB, 69% NTSC, 74% Adobe RGB, and 73% P3.

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