Acer unveiled the Swift Go laptop series during the CES 2023 event, featuring CPUs from both Intel and AMD. The AMD Ryzen-powered variant of this laptop was officially released in India in March of the current year. In this review, we will be examining the entry-level model of the Swift Go 14. This laptop is specifically designed to cater to the preferences of the urban youth, who seek a sleek and high-end portable device with substantial computing capabilities. Let us ascertain whether the Swift Go 14 fulfills all the desired criteria.
Price
The Acer Swift Go 14 is offered in Prodigy Pink and Pure Silver hues. The laptop is available for purchase on the Acer India online store, with a starting price of Rs. 59,999 for the variant that we will be evaluating. This particular model is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. For an additional cost of approximately Rs. 5,000, the same configuration can be obtained with 16GB of RAM.
Specifications
The Acer Swift Go 14 boasts a metal chassis, lending it an air of sophistication and elegance. Additionally, it is remarkably compact and lightweight, with a mere 15.9mm thickness and a weight of 1.25kg. The pink variant, in particular, possesses a pleasing aesthetic that grows on the user over time.
This laptop offers a commendable array of ports for a 14-inch device, including two USB 3.2 (Gen1) Type-C ports for charging, HDMI, USB 3.2 (Gen1) Type-A port, USB 2.0 Type-A port, headphone jack, and a Kensington lock. While it lacks an SD card reader, I do not consider this to be a significant drawback.
Furthermore, the right side of the laptop is equipped with two LEDs that indicate the power and activity status.
Software
The Acer Swift Go 14 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 7530U CPU, which boasts six CPU cores. This particular model is part of AMD’s mobile CPU refresh, which was officially announced at CES earlier this year. It is worth noting that this specific model is built on a refreshed Zen 3 architecture, as opposed to the 7040 series, which utilizes the latest Zen 4 architecture. Presently, this is the sole CPU configuration available for the Swift Go 14 series in India. In terms of storage, a 512GB NVMe PCIe Gen3 SSD is provided, accompanied by 8GB of RAM. Notably, the laptop is also equipped with Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, and a 3-cell 50WHr battery.
The Acer Swift Go 14 comes preloaded with Windows 11 Home, in addition to the standard inclusion of software such as Microsoft Office Home and Student, McAfee antivirus, and a selection of Acer programs designed for system diagnostics and driver updates.
Performance & Battery Life
The overall performance of the Acer Swift Go 14 is highly satisfactory. It operates at a cool temperature and remains virtually silent when handling simple tasks, although a faint sound from the fans can be detected during gaming. The ergonomic design of the keyboard, with a slightly elevated base when the lid is open, provides a comfortable typing angle. Additionally, the soothing backlighting of the keyboard and the sufficiently bright display make it suitable for outdoor use even during daylight hours. The loading speed of applications is swift, and there is no noticeable lack of power.
While the stereo speakers can produce high volume levels, the audio quality is not particularly impressive. However, games run reasonably well with the integrated Radeon graphics. In Fortnite, for example, smooth framerates were achieved with medium graphics settings and the display’s native resolution. In synthetic gaming tests such as 3DMark, the Acer Swift Go 14 achieved a score of 1,268 in the Time Spy test suite and 13,570 in Night Raid. The performance of the CPU and SSD was also commendable, with scores of 566 and 3,664 points in Cinebench R20, respectively. In SiSoft Sandra, the laptop demonstrated an average read speed of over 1.5GB/s in both sequential and random tests. However, the write speeds were slightly lower, falling below 900MB/s.
Furthermore, the Acer Swift Go 14 exhibited impressive video rendering and encoding capabilities. It took only 45 seconds to encode a 1.3GB AVI file to H.265 MKV, and the BMW test scene in Blender rendered in a mere 6 minutes and 18 seconds. These times were notably faster compared to the Intel Core i5-1335U CPU tested in the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1.
