In case you were looking for THE slimmest laptop, and not just one of the slimmest, you have landed at the right place. Behold, the great Acer Swift 7 – measuring just 0.35 inches in thinness.
It is amazing how Acer managed to fit everything, and by everything we mean everything! There is a really beautiful 14 inches display, along with a full-sized comfortable keyboard. On top of that, the laptop even boasts a 4G connectivity option.
Now with a relatively small size in dimensions, you would expect a shorter battery life, but that’s clearly not the case here: The laptop managed an impressive 9 hours of battery life despite having a smaller-sized battery. But then all that glitters is not gold since the laptop’s speakers are quite weak and the processor is currently the 7th Generation Intel sadly.
Design
It seems like every major manufacturer is trying to come out on top by creating the slimmest laptop to this date. But now, it seems like the Acer Swift 7 is to be crowned the king. This is because the laptop measures only 12.9 x 9.3 x 0.35 inches and combined with a weight of just 2.6 pounds, it is clearly amongst the most portable laptops in the world.
There is no match to its dimensions since it quite easily beats the HP Spectre 13 with a weight of 2.4 pounds and 12 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches in dimensions, LG Gram with a weight of 2.2 pounds and 12.7 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches in dimensions and the Huawei MateBook X Pro weighing 2.9 pounds and measuring 12 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches.
The very reason why the laptop looks so premium is that it is made up of CNC aluminum. Thus, the laptop can be made quite sleek yet still remain extremely durable. It has a rather professional look instead of the aggressive look for gamers. Perhaps, the major reason why it appears so is that it has a seamless design and on top of that, there aren’t fans for ventilation purposes. On top of that, the rear hinges allow the display to be rotated 180 degrees. The Acer logo is centered on the lid and is made up of glittering chrome.
There is a Swift logo present at the back of the machine. Furthermore, the good news is that you don’t have to worry about leaving stains with your oily fingers, courtesy of a special nano coating. Thus, the laptop is supposed to remain in immaculate condition for long.
The same delicate finish is applied to the laptop inner frame as well, with a smooth black aluminum coating. The deck encloses a full-sized Island-style keyboard, and there is a fingerprint scanner which is cut in a diamond shape.
Ports
With a slimmer size, the usual caveat is that the number of ports is quite less. Same is the case here since the laptop only offers a pair of USB Type-C ports along with a headphone jack on the left. The power button and a nano-sim slot sit on the right side of the laptop. Though this is perhaps good for you, since the future is surely going to be USB Type-C, and with a free of cost dongle provided with the Swift 7, you can easily connect a USB 3.1 device, an additional USB-Type C device and also connect an external display through the HDMI port.
Display
The display also features an elegant finish with the IPS panel being only 0.8 inches thick. The 14-inches display is given further durability with its 0.02 inches thick Gorilla Glass. The company also tried to give a bezel-less finish to the laptop with its 0.38 inches thick bezel from the top and 0.36 inches thick bezel from the bottom. Yet, the Dell XPS 13 has a nearly true bezel-less display with the thickness being just 0.2 inches.
Speaking about the display, the Full HD screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and is quite vibrant with colors. The display is quite vivid and accurate too.
For the tech-savvy, the display managed to reproduce a whopping 143 percent of the sRGB color gamut, which is way better than the premium laptop average. Other competitor laptops like the HP Spectre 13, LG Gram, and the Huawei Matebook X Pro could only manage to reproduce 111, 128 and 124 percent of the sRGB color spectrum which is nowhere near that of the Swift 7.
On the other hand, the laptop’s brightness is just above par with the display managing to record 304 nits on the light meter where the category average is 302 nits. It could only beat the Spectre 13’s 247 nits, but both the LG Gram with 307 nits and the MateBook with a whopping 458 nits recorded better display brightness levels.
Not only this, but the display also can be used as a touch-screen featuring an impressive 10-finger capacitive panel which is quite responsive.
Audio
The only downside about the Acer Swift 7 is that its audio is rather weak. You won’t be able to listen to music across your bedroom even. And with the fan turned on, it is nearly impossible to hear the sound even sitting near the laptop.
Keyboard and Touchpad
With a small-sized (in thickness) laptop we would have expected an even smaller keyboard with an uncomfortable typing experience, though rather surprisingly, this is clearly not the case here. The laptop features an impressive full-sized keyboard which is extremely comfortable. Even though the key travel being just 1 mm is no-where near the idle mark of 1.5 mm, it compensates for that by having a relatively high actuation force of 71 grams.
Furthermore, with a backlit-keyboard, you can easily type in the dark too, though we would have been happier if the keyboard had been a sRGB one.
Another strong point about the laptop is its precision touchpad. The touchpad in itself is quite spacious measuring 4.8 x 2.5-inches. It is further protected by a Gorilla Glass coating. Furthermore, it is quite responsive to multi-touch gestures as well. The only problem which some people might face is that there aren’t any discrete physical mouse buttons. Instead, you have to totally rely on the touchpad itself to select things.
Security – Fingerprint Sensor
There is also a fingerprint sensor, which you can find on the right side of the laptop. Using Windows Hello it is very easy to log in to your PC since you don’t have to type in the PIN or password which is prone to be stolen when someone sees you typing. Thus, it is a rather more secure feature to have.
Performance
One of the few downsides of the laptop is that it employs a 7th generation Intel 7Y75 processor. As some of you might know that the Y series of Intel is specifically made for tablets i.e. fanless machines. Thus, although they consume less power, they also take a hit on performance. Even still, the laptop manages to run rather smoothly without any worries.
Though, when it comes to benchmarks, the laptop does feel left out amongst the performance-based ones. This is depicted when you see the Geekbench 4 score since the laptop only managed a score of 6,011 where other premium laptops at least on average have a score of 10,946. As far as the competitors, the HP Spectre 13, the Huawei MateBook X Pro and the LG Gram achieved 13,090, 13,018 and 11,154, respectively courtesy the latest Intel 8th Generation Core i7 – 8550 processor. Even the Core i5 version of the Dell XPS 13 managed 13,254. Thus, the laptop does lack out on performance
Graphics
The laptop has an Intel HD Graphics 615 GPU, you might be able to play some older games but not the new ones since there isn’t any dedicated or discrete GPU. This is proved by the 3DMark IceStorm Unlimited test, where the laptop again only managed a score of 55,870. Usually, laptops in the same category have a score of at least 84,885 on average. Though the Spectre 13 and the Gram scored 75,144 and 67,989 respectively, the Huawei Matebook had a whopping score of 116,359. The XPS 13 too managed to score better than the Acer Swift 7 with a score of 77,584.
LTE Connectivity
The laptop has a dedicated nano-sim slot which can come in handy especially on international trips.
Battery Life
The laptop has an impressive battery life of 9 hours and 4 minutes with the display at 150 nits and continuous use over Wi-Fi. This is more than even the category average which is usually 8 hours and 41 minutes. Other laptops like the Spectre 13 only managed 5 hours and 16 minutes on battery power, though the MateBook X Pro and LG Gram even lasts better than the Swift 7 with a battery life of 9 hours 55 minutes and a whopping 10 hours 46 minutes respectively.
Heat
You would think that the fan-less design might cause the laptop to get hotter than usual, but courtesy the low-powered processor, it remains rather cool. It doesn’t even the 95 degrees Fahrenheit mark, which is usually considered above comfortable level.
Webcam
The laptop’s 720p is positioned at the bottom of the screen rather than at the top. This can cause for some awkward photos or video session since this type of webcam is rather known as “nose-cam”. This is because it focuses more on your nose rather than your face.
Even still, the webcam is quite accurate, and you won’t need to buy an external webcam for your professional meetings.
Price
For a modest price tag of $1,699, you are getting the world’s slimmest laptop with an extremely comfortable keyboard and a glorious touch-screen display. On top of that with over 9 hours of battery life and its slim size, you can easily forget the charger at home while going to work, and you would still have some charge remaining on your return. Further, with it being easy to carry around, it is quite portable.
Therefore, it is completely worth the buck, if not for its lower than average performance. The choice is yours.