I recently bought the ACER Swift 3 SF314-44-R6K6 laptop to replace the Apple Macbook Air M1 which I had let go.
As I explained in my previous post, the Macbook Air is a good laptop, but circumstances rendered it rather pointless for me to have.
Technically, I was looking for a laptop that was lightweight, had at least Ryzen 5 or Intel i5, 512GB of SSD RAM and 16GB of RAM. This will mean I need not look into upgrades for a couple of years.
I had considered the HONOR MagicBook 14, Infinix InBook X1 Pro, and another Ryzen 7 ACER Swift 3 model prior to choosing the ACER Swift 3 SF314-44-R6K6 as the replacement for the MacBook Air.
ACER Swift 3 SF314-44-R6K6 Specifications
The specifications of the ACER Swift 3 are as follows;
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5625U Processor (Max Turbo Frequency 4.30GHz)
- RAM: 16GB OnBoard LDDR4X Ram
- Storage Space: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Graphics: AMD Radeon Graphics
- Display: 14.0″IPS,Full HD 1920 x 1080,High-Brightness (300nits) Acer ComfyView LED-backlit TFT LCD 16:9, sRGB 100%
- Dimension: 321.71 (W) x 211.72 (D) x 15.9 (H) mm
- Weight: 1.25kg
Advantages of the Acer Swift 3
There’s a few reasons that made me choose the Swift 3 over the other options I had.
As you may had realized by now, the laptop hit all four points I require in my new laptop which were its weight (below 1.5kg), its processor (minimum Ryzen 5 or Intel Core-5), is 16GB RAM and its 512GB storage space.
This was almost matched by the HONOR Magicbook 14, Infinix InBook X1 Pro and another older model ACER Swift 3.
However, they all lost because they were older models and had older processors, and didn’t have the weight I wanted.
The HONOR MagicBook 14 was close, but it was heavier than the Swift 3 I choose.
In terms of processor, the Swift 3 SF314-44-R6K6 is a newer model and had a never processor hence easily making it the better choice among the rest.
The body of the Swift 3 SF314-44-R6K6 is made from aluminium and reviews of it’s older model were also good.
The laptop also came with a finger print scanner, free antivirus and Microsoft Office Student edition.
It charges using USB-C cables which to me is equal to todays charging needs, and the charging is also pretty quick.
The charging brick is also small and light.
I must admit that finding a laptop which ticked all my boxes was quite something, so the choice of the Swift 3 SF314-44-R6K6 was a no brainer from the start.
On top of that, I managed to secure it during the 3.3 Sales, enabling me to buy the laptop for RM2.7K, much cheaper than its usual RM3.1K price tag.
Problems with ACER Swift 3
Despite ticking all the boxes I wanted, there’s a few things I didn’t like nonetheless.
For once, I didn’t like the power button which to me felt like a cheap plastic button instead of a premium one.
Then there was the built quality.
While it is built from aluminium, it doesn’t feel that way and feels like its made from cheap plastic. I know this is a personal opinion, but compared to laptops produced by Lenovo or Asus which are made from plastic, this aluminium made Swift 3 feels like plastic.
I also don’t quite like how the laptop opens up because the screen doubles as hinge and this somehow pushes the laptop up.
Aside from that, under the default setting, the screen doesn’t look as nice as I felt it should.
Last but not least involves the battery life which I felt is somewhat inaccurate. There are times I see there’s over 3 hours of use time left for about 9% of battery, but then, within an hour, I get another notification asking me to plug in for power.
However, I have not had an incident where the laptop suddenly goes black so far.
Conclusion
Anyway, regardless, I have no regrets buying the laptop because it fits my needs.
I no longer have to carry a heavy bag around because my laptop is just 1.25kg, and the battery, despite giving out questionable notifications, has been performing for at least 8-10 hours on a single charge without problem.
Aside from that, it does what it should and I am happy I am just able to use it to complete my work when I am on the go.
