The world of affordable ultrabooks has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of AMD’s resurgence and its increasingly fierce competition with Intel. Performance, autonomy, and reasonable price are already maximized in laptops that choose configurations based on Ryzen processors.
The recent Acer Swift 3 in its 2022 version is one of the clearest examples as it is presented on the market with Ryzen 5 processors in a very balanced technical sheet that perfectly complements the design and portability of the equipment. We have already analyzed it.
Connectivity adjusted to the laptop
The thickness of just over 1.5 cm leaves room for correct connectivity for the laptop we are talking about. As the air vents have been placed exclusively under the chassis and in the middle of the hinge in the screen area, the sides are entirely free to house ports.
Although the laptop supports charging via USB-C, having only one of these ports, it does not hurt that the Acer Swift 3 also includes a proprietary charging port.
On the right side, we have a single USB-A port in addition to the Kensington-type security lock and the 3.5mm port for headphones and microphones. In this area, we also find power and battery LEDs.
If we turn to the opposite side, the bulk of the advanced connectivity is concentrated there, with an HDMI port, a USB-A, a proprietary charging port, and a USB-C that supports charging the equipment. We miss at least one other USB-C.
In wireless connectivity, it should be noted that with this laptop, we can take advantage of our Wifi 6 router if we already have it.
A matte screen to be away from home all-day
The 14-inch diagonal of the Acer Swift 3 panel is a balanced choice to offer a laptop that we are not too lazy to take out of the house while not being inconvenient when working or enjoying some leisure time with it.
The screen has a matte finish, which detracts from its striking appearance (although it maintains a good contrast) but gains visibility in challenging environmental conditions. Its 1080p resolution follows the same maximum optimization as the brightness, which is 300 nits.
Screen
The panel is not touched, which sometimes occurs in this type of equipment, and does not have a color profile or fidelity for creative tasks. But in its price range and primary purpose, we face a screen that complies without problems.
The sound section and webcam section are just as compliant without further ado. In the first aspect, the equipment is somewhat penalized by the location of the speakers, which are placed in the lower part of the case. It only manages to offer us a standard volume without the presence of bass or the necessary sharpness to enjoy content with satisfaction. Better to use headphones. The speakers, by the way, are DTS certified.
The webcam, with 720p resolution, suffers in low light, but I liked that it includes the notification LED with good visibility.
One of the decisions that must be made in the laptop market in which brands have done their homework well is to choose Intel or AMD processors. As we have said more than once, on the same base model, they give the option to choose; it only brings joy to the user.
The configuration that we have analyzed of this recent Acer Swift 3 bets on a reasonably balanced card based on the Ryzen 5 5500U with its six cores (and 12 threads) at 2.1 GHz and a maximum of 4 GHz. It has a 3 MB cache and TDP default 15W.
In our usual tests with Cinebench, in the R23 version, this Acer Swift 3 reaches 8375 points in the multicore test and 1258 points in the Single. In Cinebench R20, it gets a score of 3463, once again demonstrating that betting on AMD in this price range, especially for consumer equipment, is a sage decision.
However, integrated Radeon graphics remains AMD’s unfinished business in this range of notebooks, and we can’t recommend them for more than the general consumer segment.
In any case, in the 3DMark tests, this Acer Swift 3 achieved decent scores of 3447 and 14628 points in the Fire Strike and Night Ride tests, respectively.
The Acer Swift 3 AMD operates with very little stress associated with the heat generated by its internal components.
Neither the keyboard nor the wrist rests nor the bottom of the device suffers from excessive heating, and the device can be used on the knees without any discomfort.
To achieve this, the cooling system quickly calls on the fans when we demand maximum performance. For more basic tasks, you can work with the computer in silence.
As for the operating system, we have already analyzed the equipment with Windows 11 installed, numerous pre-installed software, and some management programs such as Radeon for the graphic section.
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Excellent autonomy, correct keyboard
The Acer Swift 3 laptop has a battery of 48 Wh. With it and our tests of actual use of the equipment, we achieved an excellent autonomy of between 8.5 and 10 hours.
We continuously test it with varied workloads (multimedia, social media in the background, all-time connectivity, 33% brightness, and lots of web browsing).
