Acer Swift X Review (SFX14-41G-R1S6)
The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 is all about fast powerful components packaged in a truly small form factor. Acer created a niche for itself in the laptop space with the introduction of its Swift line and has continued to offer laptops that are powerful yet easy on your pockets.
The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 is no exception, as Acer brings some serious power to the mainstream productivity category and class-leading battery life.
Pros
- Discrete graphics card as standard (Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU)
- Competitive pricing
- Solid spec sheet
- Comfortable keyboard
Cons
- Single USB-C port
- Lacks an SD card reader
Acer recently launched their latest offering in the ultraportable Swift lineup: The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6. As someone who’s been following Acer closely, I was quite excited because it offers something that no other Swift X laptop can offer: A discrete graphics card as standard, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory.
Desktop replacement laptops are not meant for commuting or traveling so it makes sense that Acer opted to include a discrete mobile graphics card in their latest ultraportable offering; The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6. In this Acer Swift X review, we break it all down.
Design and Build quality
- Aluminum chassis: Blue, Gold, Pink colors
- Integrated fingerprint scanner
- Weight: 1.4kgs (3lbs)
- Thickness: 17.9mm (0.7 inches)
Weighing at just 2.2 pounds and measuring 14 inches across, Acer’s latest offering is not the lightest compared to competing ultrabooks but does pack more punch–literally!
The Swift laptop comes with a metallic body and lid which offers a premium cooling feel. It’s not really different from what we’re used to but lightweight (1.39 kg). Its profile is also rather thin at 17.9mm (0.7 inches). At 0.7 inches, it looks and feels sleeker than most at this price range. We were thrilled to find that the construction is relatively solid and does not bend too much or make annoying creaking sounds. Acer did a great job here.
Bottom line, it’s good build quality and light enough to tote around for school or work.
Acer has included an aluminum chassis and lid with a two-tone finish: Blue on the outside and Gold on the inside. The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 also comes with an integrated fingerprint scanner for added security and convenience but it’s not recessed or placed in such a way that makes it hard to reach.
Display and Screen Res
- 14-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LCD panel
- 300 nits brightness, 100% sRGB gamut
Our X review unit comes with a 14-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display panel which Acer claims can hit 300 nits of brightness. The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6’s display is sharp but the colors look a little washed out and it doesn’t offer the same vibrant quality or brightness that we’ve seen in other laptops from Acer such as Swift 5, Acer Spin 7, Acer Nitro 5, and others.
These are not 4K and OLED screens – the touchscreen screen of Swift X review unit is perfect for productive work. The 14-inch 1080p IPS display screen is bright enough to watch your favorite shows or films. The panel exhibited 74% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with the lowest overall percentage of total panel brightness being close to 83% Category Average and Envy 14 (83%) and nearly matched the Yoga 9i. The screen is sharp enough for smaller strands of fluffy fur that are coming out of Bugs Bunny’s fur. The Swift X screen has a 15:9 aspect ratio.
A good brightness level is between 400-500 nits.
Is there any alternative laptop?
If you want some more graphics options, the HP envy 14 is the solution that you want to live with. Intel Core CPU will be preferred. It had a good performance in Adobe Apps. The Asus ROG Flow 13 suffers from a lower display, but it has good performance and better build quality. It is a good alternative for any who needs portability and cpu and gpu combo performance. The laptop likewise offers a better display than the HP Envy 14 which has fewer screens than the Asus Flow 13, which is almost as fast. It is a smaller and cheaper option for those who require a laptop with discrete graphics.
P/S Acer desktops are some of the best in the industry. Here are our best Acer gaming desktops and best Acer desktops for home use.
Ports-
We loved that there are more than enough ports.
Connections
- 1x USB 3.1 Type-C with Thunderbolt 3
- (2) 1x USB 3.0 ports
- (1) HDMI 2.0 port
- (1) MicroSD card reader
- (3) Acer Active Pen compatible
- Single Audio jack
- Wi-fi 6 available
It also has 2 USB Type-C connectors, one of which is Thunderbolt, and two USB-A sockets on the other side – all of which support Acer’s fast charging tech that can juice up in 90 minutes flat, according to Acer. Like Acer’s other Swift laptops, the Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 comes with a full set of connections for a modern workstation or gaming PC: 2 USB-C 3.1 ports that provide 40GBps bandwidth each and a Thunderbolt.
Also worth mentioning is the single SD card slot available for extra storage. If you own a camera, you could use this extra SD card reader to save or retrieve pictures and video.
Acer has not included any full-sized ports for USB or HDMI, which means that you’ll need to use dongles to attach your external hard drive or display to the Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6.
P/S If you’re ever interested in an Acer desktop, check out our are Acer desktop good article for more insight.
It’s good to see the Wi-fi 6 here. Acer claims that this Swift offers a maximum transfer rate of Wi-Fi 6 up to 866 Mbps (in theory). However, as this is not new technology, the Swift X will work with older networks as well. Acer has included two antennas in addition to their Wave 2 MU-MIMO Wi-Fi for better speeds and coverage.
Acer Swift X webcam
The 720p Web camera from Swift X looks more like a piece of artwork than a picture. Buy a webcam for business meetings or conferences. Acer of course is probably not the only one who uses horrendous internet webcams but the Swift X lands at the very bottom. Our best advice is to buy an external camera for conferences, meetings, conferences, and meetings. The Swift X supports the DV720, but it doesn’t have the best camera to use.
Sound
Alexa is built in too.
The speakers of the Swift X produce high-quality audio while providing average maximum volume. Low, medium, and high tones are clear of deviations and the Swift X does a good job with sub-bass and lower mids. High tones are, however, somewhat weak and if you’re really looking to enjoy your music without headphones or external speakers Acer puts 200 dollars into pushing the quality of sound positioning them above Acer Spin 7.
You get a single audio jack for your quiet time or when you want to listen to music, watch a movie in peace.
Touchpad & Keyboard
- Comfortable keyboard with shallow travel
- Decent touchpad
Typing this review on Swift x’s keyboard became enjoyable once my fingers became used to the slightly shallow travels. The appropriate spacing fills the space for little keys although the smaller arrow keys and shortcut keys will prove tricky for those with sausage fingers. Another minor complaint concerns inconsistent keyboard backlighting and the power button on the top corner occupying the left side.
The touchpad is built of Mylar, a fancy name for plastic and the same material I criticized in my HP Envy 13 review. The interface of the touchpad has been carefully developed because it feels cheap and the fingertips on it don’t glide effortlessly and feel like glass. Clearly, I prefer a touchpad that has a glass layer because but you would have to chuck out more money to have that.
Acer Swift X software and warranty
- 12-month warranty
The Swift is accompanied by a 12-month warranty. There is Booking.com ExpressVPN, FigLeaf’s privacy risk dashboard. Evernote Hearts Deluxe and a pair of content creation apps are also preloaded on Acer Swift. Acer’s official apps are JumpStart, Documents, Legal Aid, and. See how Acer fared in the tech support match down and the Best and Worst Brands special reports on Best and Worst Brands special reports. For more information about the Swift X, see here.
Performance
- AMD Ryzen 5800U processor; 16GB RMA; 512GB SSD (8-core, 16 threads)
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card (GPU)
- Thermal system: Fans (0.3mm blades), dual copper heat pipes
- Cited battery life: Up to 14 hours
The Swift X has an AMD Ryzen 5800U CPU coupled with Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti GPU. The Ryzen 5800U processor is a mid-range CPU that Acer has used for its Acer Swift 3 and Acer Swift 5 lineup. It is AMD’s answer to Intel’s Tiger Lake and is their fastest available chip for ultraportable and ultrathin laptops. It is an 8-core processor with 16 threads, with a base clock of 1.9 GHz and a maximum boost frequency of 4.4 GHz. The processor comes with Radeon™ integrated Graphics.
If you don’t understand integrated graphics, don’t worry about it. It comes pre-fitted in the processor and is no big deal since there is a dedicated graphics card (GPU) installed.
The computer has 512 grams of NVMe SSD. The laptop duplicates 25GB multimedia files in just 26 seconds for a maximum transferring rate of 1.4 billion megabytes a second. On the Geekbench 5.3 overall performance, Swift X averaged an outstanding 7,954 defeating the Envy 14 (4,761, Core i5-1135G7), the Yoga 9i (5,038), and Acer Spin 7 (6,639). Acer Swift X took first and second place in every benchmark. The SSD also helps cut down the boot speed to seconds.
From a cold start, Acer Swift X takes about 54 seconds to boot into the Windows 10 Pro operating system from a complete shutdown state. Acer’s use of the fast NVMe SSD is one reason for its quick loading times and data transfer speeds. This is a great improvement from the Windows 10 Home that most laptops show up with at this price range. Windows 10 Home is Acer’s general operating system.
Under the Hood
Under the hood, the Swift X packs an AMD Ryzen 5800U processor which has four cores, eight threads and is clocked at 2.3GHz to 3.8GHz with up to 4MB of L2 cache. Acer Swift X’s default 8GB RAM can be upgraded to a maximum of 32GB DDR4-2666 via two SoDIMM slots (one free slot).
The Acer Group has been able to build the Acer Swift X SFX14 laptop in a tiny body due to AMD Ryzen 5ooo series mobile CPUs which have TDPs as low as 12 watts. The Acer Swift X’s use of two cooling fans was an excellent choice for Acer and the notebook can keep its components cool while remaining quiet during standard operations such as browsing or word processing without much difficulty; however, under heavy loads, it can become warm and loud.
The Swift X uses a fast NVMe SSD for storage as well as being equipped with 16GB of RAM which is more than enough to handle most content creation. In addition, the Swift X manages heat very well during standard activities allowing it to perform without much noise or throttling due to heat buildup under normal conditions. The 14-hour battery life allows you to get a lot of work done on the road, in planes, trains, or anywhere that there’s no electricity for charging your device. Keep in mind that battery life will lessen if you do heavy gaming or other GPU-intensive tasks such as video editing.
Gaming Capacity
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU
Thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Graphics card (GPU), gaming on Acer Swift X is a pleasure. Acer Swift X’s boost in graphical horsepower does not have an effect on its ability to run fast and discreetly during everyday tasks. Acer has put AMD Ryzen 5000 into Acer Swift X, which offers enough power for day-to-day computing along with some heavy lifting when needed. It can handle heavy tasks like rendering and editing. And some light 1080p 60fps games.
The Acer Swarm FX software enables you to change the Acer Swift X Fan Curve which changes fan speeds according to CPU temperatures: faster fans for cooler CPUs or slower fans for hotter CPUs via Acer’s Vapor Chamber technology that helps keep Acer Swift X cool while running high-performance games or applications. This makes Acer one of the few able to perform both productivity tasks (such as web browsing) and intense gaming without slowing down due to heat buildup. Acer’s laptop cooling technology allows for Acer Swift X to run all applications smoothly with minimal throttling or fan noise
The Acer Swift X has an air-cooled vapor chamber for keeping the laptop cool during heavy gaming sessions.
As mentioned, Acer did a wonderful job of keeping heat under control – even when running games at a low resolution and medium graphics settings, Acer Swift X runs between 40° C (104° F) and 50° C (122° F), which is still within acceptable temperatures. The fans turn on fairly often while playing graphics-intensive games such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), but this is expected given that it packs only a single fan.
I would say, while this is not a gaming laptop, it does crunch numbers quite well I would say, while this is not a gaming laptop, it does crunch through games and runs them smoothly.
Acer Swift X battery life
- 9 hours of battery life
The Swift X lasts 9 hours and 11 minutes on laptop battery testing. The Swift X could not match the Envy 14 and Yoga 9 battery life. Its power declined almost 1 hour before the clocked average (10 hours 58min) and the average of 10 hours 15 minutes ( 10:15). Even so, the Swift X battery life is decent enough for a whole day of productivity.
Acer Swift X heats
The aluminum surface of the Swift X was able to efficiently divert hot air. This temperature was 96 degrees Fahrenheit just 1 degree below comfort limits. The keyboard and touch pads cooled only at 89 degrees. The toastiest place was the lower console – the tactile keypad was a temperature of 83 degrees and the keyboard of 90 degrees. Even so, it still gets the job done pretty well.
Acer Swift X price and configurations
The Swift X has a 14-inch 480p touchscreen display 16GB RAM, a 512GB solid-state drive, and an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti processor. It’s a premium product requiring a premium price but I expected a much higher MSRP after examining the specs. The laptop is available only at this point at $2,069. It features an AMD Ryzen 5800U CPU and 16GB RAM with 512GB of space and an Nvidia RTX 3050Ti GPU.
What I liked
If you’ve been looking for a laptop that will just get the work done without any extra bells and whistles, this might be a great laptop for you. And while we haven’t had a chance to fully test the Acer Swift X, it follows in the footsteps of the Swift lineup, and that’s something that we’ll never have a problem with. This is the laptop you get when budget and productivity are at the top of your list – and these days, that’s all we can ask for.
Conclusion
Looking for a new laptop?
The Acer Swift X is the perfect workhorse laptop. It’s not flashy, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, perfect keyboard or touchpad you might find in an ultrabook, but that’s exactly what makes it so great. If you like simplicity over everything else, this is definitely a good choice for you.
You won’t find another device like it on the market today – just one of those systems you want when budget and productivity are at the top of your list. This little powerhouse will help get your work done without any extra bells and whistles to slow down or distract you along the way. And with its sleek design, there’s no need to worry about carrying around something bulky either!
Click here to purchase an Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Acer swift laptops good?
Are Acer Swift laptops good? My answer would a strong YES. Acer Swift laptops are all about packing the fastest components in the smallest chassis. The Swift X accomplishes this by putting a super-fast processor from AMD in a small package. The Swift lineup are definitely one of the best budget laptops for professionals and creators who want to get their work done, without worrying about buying an expensive laptop for daily use.
Is Acer Swift X good for gaming?
Acer has always been known as a very reliable brand making great products for everyday use, at affordable prices. Acer is popular for its line of gaming laptops, but before buying you should know that they aren’t so powerful compared to other brands like Razer or Acer Predator – which is expected considering Acer Swift laptops are all about having a great performance at low costs. Acer does have some high-end gaming laptops though: Acer Predator 17 X GX-791 & Acer Predator Helios 300. Acer Swift is popular among pro-creators & gamers looking for a balance between price and performance.
The Swift lineup is definitely not meant for intense gaming but can be used to play some games on low settings. Acer has always been known as more of a workstation brand, so its main focus has been on having high-end components – like the one from AMD Ryzen in Acer Swift SFX14-41G R1S6 that allow you to have great performance at very affordable prices, especially when it comes to professional tasks such as video rendering or photo editing. Acer is also widely popular in the eSports industry with Acer Predator series being one of the top choices of pro gamers around the world. Acer Swift X isn’t a perfect laptop for gaming, but you can definitely play some games on it – with the main purpose of saving money and having a great performance for your work!
Which Acer Swift is the best for students?
A good Acer Swift for students in 2021 would be the Swift X. The Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 is a great choice for students (check out our review here). It packs enough juice to run all productivity a student would need including gaming. Under the hood, it’s packed with an AMD 8 Cores Vega Processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256 SSD. Acer VX 15 is also a good choice if you are looking for an Acer laptop with an Intel processor instead.
Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 can be indeed considered a great Acer laptop for students because it packs all the power to do any kind of everyday tasks. It has been designed with creators and professionals in mind, which means that its main focus is on having high performance at very affordable prices – the perfect combination for every student who would like to have, both powerful and practical!
Is Acer Swift X good for study?
I recommend the Acer Swift SFX14-41G-R1S6 laptop to everyone who needs something fast and efficient at an affordable price! These are all about packing high-end components in small packages; just like this Acer swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 laptop. It is a great choice for study, as it packs enough power to run great apps like Adobe Photoshop or Premier Pro, while keeping one of the best prices in its category with very affordable prices – making Acer Swift SFX14-41G R1S6 an excellent bang for your buck! Read our full Acer Swift X review above.
Is Acer Swift good?
Acer is one of my favorite brands and for many reasons. The Acer Swift series is all about having a high performance at low costs and they manage to do that by packing really powerful components into small packages. This Acer swift X has a Ryzen processor which is almost three times more powerful than the Intel processors found on most laptops. These are perfect for creators and professionals, who require an efficient laptop to run their apps. Swift series manages to keep one of the best prices in its category with very affordable prices – making Acer swift X SFX14-41G R1S6 an excellent bang for your buck! But it doesn’t stop at that as Acer has really good customer service upon you buying from them.
Which Acer Swift is the best?
I would say, as it stands the Swift X is the best Acer Swift laptop for those who are looking for great performance and affordable prices. Swift series laptops manage to keep one of the best prices in its category with very affordable prices – making Acer swift X SFX14-41G R1S6 an excellent bang for your buck! Acer is one of my favorite brands and for many reasons. The Swift series is all about having high performance at low costs and they manage to do that by packing really powerful components into small packages. But it doesn’t stop at that as Acer has really good customer service upon you buying from them.
What is the difference between Acer swift and Acer spin?
The main difference between Acer Swift and Acer Spin is the screen. Acer Swift laptops have 15.6″ Full HD IPS screens, while Acer Spin laptops have 13.3″ or 14″ HD touchscreens with 360-degree hinges. Acer Spin notebooks are geared towards consumers who need something that can be used for entertainment purposes as well such as watching movies or listening to music while on the go, and Acer Swift laptops are designed for creators and professionals that require an efficient laptop to run their apps such as Adobe Photoshop or Premier Pro.
