Acer Swift 3 Thin Review: Explosive Performance With the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU
The Acer Swift 3 Thin is the mid-range laptop computer from the Taiwanese manufacturer and is part of the first wave of Ryzen 4000 Mobile laptops. In 2019, the Swift had one of the best quality/price ratios on the market. Will the new model with a Ryzen 4000 Mobile follow the same path?
Here is what we will look at:
Acer Swift 3 Thin Presentation and Build Quality
We included The Acer Swift 3 of 2020 in our best laptops money can buy as it does not change a formula that worked in 2019: we still have a brushed aluminum frame for a sober and versatile look. The first impression is good and only the wideband below the screen reminds us that we are in front of a mid-range model.
The keyboard offers a decent experience, with good tactile feedback that you get used to quickly. It is also silent. The keys may be a bit too far apart, but that's a matter of personal preference. Its only real flaw actually comes from its backlighting, white on silver keys.
A regrettable choice which means keys unreadable in bright light. It also has only one backlight level (on / off). We hope that manufacturers - like Asus recently on the Zephyrus G14 - will soon abandon this perhaps aesthetic choice, but not at all practical.
At the bottom right, we find the fingerprint reader. Windows Hello compatible, it did not pose a problem for us, except with wet fingers. The plastic-coated touchpad is quite satisfactory.
After this first satisfactory contact, we are pleasantly surprised by the connectivity: two USB-A (one on each side), a USB-C, an HDMI port and a headphone output; this is quite rare on a 1.2 kg ultraportable.
The charge goes either through a specific charging connector or through USB-C. On the other hand, the SD card reader of the 2019 model has disappeared.
Inside this 2020 Swift 3 Thin, we find an eight-core Ryzen 7 4700U with a base frequency of 2 GHz and a turbo up to 4.1 GHz as well as an integrated Radeon Vega 7 graphics part. Our test model also has 16 GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory soldered to the motherboard. In fact, only the SSD is replaceable.
The most discerning eyes will no doubt have guessed by looking at the cooling system: it does not heat up much and keeps the temperature within a perfectly acceptable range. On the other hand, the results are more mixed on the side of noise pollution. The rather quiet fan (40.1 dB when encoding with Handbrake) produces a rather unpleasant sound.
The full specs of the Acer Swift 3 are:
Screen diagonal: 14 inch
Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080
Dimensions (width, length, thickness): 323.4 x 218.9 x 17.95 mm
Weight: 1.2 kg
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U
RAM: 16 GB
Graphics card: AMD Radeon Vega 7 (integrated on the CPU)
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Operating System: Windows 10
Panel Type: IPS
Connectivity: 1 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Headphone output, 1 x Microphone input
Acer Swift 3 Thin Performances
The Ryzen 7 4700U leaves the processors of competing ultraportables far behind. Whether it is Intel's 10th generation Core or AMD's previous generation, we can measure a significant jump in performance (+15% for tasks using a single core and up to + 50% for tasks using the 8 cores of AMD's processor).
In practice, this Ryzen 7 4700U is therefore more like a more energy-intensive Intel processor such as the Core i7-9750H with an energy envelope of 45 watts. These results are particularly impressive since AMD has long lagged behind in the notebook PC business. While the Zen architecture of desktop Ryzen processors has allowed AMD to become competitive again on desktop PCs, we have always expected such a competitive portable architecture. It's now done with the Ryzen 4000 Mobile.
The graphics part does not disappoint either and allows you to familiarize yourself with the 60 fps in Overwatch, even in the busiest moments of a game. This is graphics performance that approaches that of Nvidia's entry-level dedicated cards, such as the GeForce MX250.
As long as you make sacrifices on the graphic details, and by lowering the resolution a little if necessary, it is possible to run a large number of recent titles. We can thus play The Witcher 3 in all graphic details at least in 1080p with a framerate around 30 fps.
Be careful, however, that does not make the Acer Swift 3 a gaming laptop. It remains an ultraportable that will allow games to be played but with lower graphics details. Either way, the competition in 10th Gen Intel Ice Lake processors doesn't allow you to game properly, even with a lower resolution display or lower graphics.
Acer Swift 3 Thin Screen
The Swift 3's display blows hot and cold. At first glance, we find little change compared to its predecessor: we find a wide band below the screen which drops the occupancy rate to 76% on the front panel - while the average is around 80%.
After a few measurements, there is a significant improvement in contrast (to 1439:1, compared to 929:1 on the previous model) and perfect color temperature (6507K, the video standard).
Acer Swift 3 in direct sunlight
Alas, the good news ends here. The colors of the Swift 3 panel are not faithful (average delta E of 6) and above all, it is not bright enough (250 cd/m²). The screen is therefore difficult to read in direct sunlight, which is all the more unfortunate since the matte panel is not very prone to reflections (average reflectance measured at 25%).
Finally, we measured the afterglow at 24 ms, which reveals fuzzy trails behind moving objects, and therefore in the most demanding games.
Acer Swift 3 Thin Mobility and Autonomy
For a 1.2 kg ultraportable with a 14-inch screen, the built-in 48 Wh battery seemed a bit small compared to those of the competition. However, the Swift 3 does honorably with our battery life test protocol (Netflix on Chrome, screen brightness at 200 cd/m², headphones plugged in and keyboard backlighting off) by lasting 8h 24 min.
Acer Swift 3 Thin Battery Autonomy (mins) compared to its competitiors
While battery life could sometimes be a weak point of previous generations of Ryzen mobile processors (such as the Surface Laptop 3 in its 15-inch version), we can only be happy to see AMD come back into the competition.
Acer Swift 3 Thin Audio
Like the 2019 model, the True Harmony software is no longer installed by default on the 2020 Swift 3. This is not a big loss since it applied unpleasant processing (notably hissing on vocals).
However, with the speakers still located under the chassis at the front, the result is still poor this year.
The headphone output is decent, however. Its power of 122 mVrms allows you to connect any portable headset without a second thought.
With a decent chassis and unprecedented performance in a compact form factor, the Acer Swift 3 Thin could have been the affordable benchmark of this first wave of ultraportables with AMD Ryzen 4000 Mobile processors and it is if we don’t count on a screen not bright enough and poorly calibrated. This is one big flaw unfortunately but we don’t really consider it a deal-breaker if you are interested in this laptop.
