Acer Swift 14 AI review: Finally an Efficient Windows Laptop

Ever since the introduction of apple silicon through the MacBook M1 series, Macs have outmatched windows notebooks in power efficiency and performance. This is why we were excited to finally test the Acer Swift 14 AI, a laptop that features the energy efficient and powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 258V along with premium hardware.  After testing this notebook in various benchmarks and using it extensively for over a month for all sorts of tasks, we can confirm that the dream of having a long battery life on a powerful windows notebook is finally here. 

Performance: fast CPU and remarkable iGPU 

The Acer Swift 14 AI can either be configured with a Snapdragon chip – in which case the laptop would be running the ARM version of windows, or with an Intel Core Ultra 200 series processor. Our test device comes with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The RAM is not upgradable, as it is soldered on the CPU itself, but the SSD can be swapped if necessary. The laptop packs a 63-Watt hour battery.  
 
While the Acer Swift 14 AI doesn’t score all too high on CPU benchmarks like Geekbench, the integrated GPU doesn’t disappoint in graphically demanding applications or games. This performance comes at a shockingly low 37 watts maximum power draw, a huge decrease compared to previous Intel CPUs like the last gen Ultra 7 165v at a whopping 115 watts. This gives us hope that the laptop will have as good battery life as marketed.  

Although the processor is just as efficient as promised, we find that fan noise can get quite loud when the laptop is under load. Changing the fan profile does very little to reduce this noise. This is only really noticeable when gaming, benchmarking or when the laptop is otherwise under heavy load. The fans also seem to do a good job at cooling the laptop, with peak CPU temperatures at 75° and the chassis only becoming warm to the touch.  

We benchmarked the Swift 14 in Geekbench CPU and GPU benchmarks, as well as a wide range of 3DMark tests to gauge graphical performance. In Geekbench, we see 2690 points in CPU single core and 10896 in multi core. This isn’t a very high score for multi core, which is understandable considering that Intel ditched hyperthreading with their newest lineup of CPUS. AMD’s new Ryzen AI HX 370 receives ~14,700 points in CPU multi core testing, for reference.  

To test the Arc 140v integrated graphics, we use 3DMark’s range of GPU performance benchmarks. We see a score of 4404 points in time spy, 8761 in fire strike and 15041 in solar bay. These scores best any iGPU currently out on the market and promise good performance in GPU intensive tasks.  

AI: 

We installed Intel’s AI Playground in order to test the promised AI performance of the Ultra 7 258v, and the results are surprisingly good. We are able to generate good quality AI images locally just using the ARC 140 iGPU. The time it takes to generate the images isn’t much longer than on our desktop with an Arc A750 GPU, which is impressive coming from a laptop without a dedicated graphics card. The NPU doesn’t appear to do anything when running local language models and Image generation models. 32GB of RAM seems to be enough even when running demanding AI tasks (the iGPU can use up to 16GB of RAM in some scenarios). 

Gaming Performance:  

Based on the previous tests, Intel’s Arc 140v iGPU looks promising for gaming. All of our testing was done on the performance power profile with windows HDR on.  

In Counter Strike 2, we see an average framerate of 67 FPS on high settings. If you want more FPS for a more competitive experience, dropping the preset to low will give you an average of 101 FPS, again at 1200p.  

In Fortnite, we get to test Intel’s XeSS AI upscaler and the Arc 140v’s ray tracing capabilities. And the results are genuinely surprising, to say the least. At native 1800p, we see an average of 45 FPS at maxed out settings with performance upscaling. Activating hardware raytracing brings this average down to 30FPS. Turning the resolution down to 1080p and changing the graphics preset to medium gives us a +90 FPS experience. 

We tested other less demanding games like League of Legends, Terraria and Civilisations VI which all can yield +90 FPS gaming experiences with absolutely zero issue. 

Paired with a 90Hz OLED display, the Acer Swift 14 might be just the pick for someone who’s looking to do some casual gaming on the side without having to carry around a heavy gaming laptop.  

Battery life:  

As you would expect, the Acer Swift 14 is a battery life monster. While it doesn’t pack a huge battery, this laptop can easily last two or even three days without going for a full charge when handling light work. 

Our battery test plays a YouTube video at 720p at max brightness in order to get a rough feeling for average battery life under load. The Swift 14 performs wonderfully, reaching a rough 12 hours in continuous playback. The laptop can easily last far longer with the screen brightness slightly down and enabling the battery saver settings on windows. The 13’ MacBook air sees very similar battery life figures. 

Design and build:  

The Swift 14 AI is what a 14-inch productivity Laptop should be. It is light, simple, and has a good lineup of ports for most users. This device has a relatively minimalistic design. When closed, the only recognizable features are a small acer logo and a square of LEDs that light up when AI features are used, a part of Acer’s push for more AI integration into their devices.  

The left side of the laptop features a full-size HDMI port, a usb 3.2 port and 2 USB 4.0 type C ports. The right-side has another usb 3.2 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. There is unfortunately no included SD-Card slot. The laptop charges with either of the Type-C usb ports at 65 watts.  

This device comes in a reflective grey magnesium-alloy exterior, which overall gives a quality feel and look to the laptop. There is very little smudging on the surface after use. 

It is easy to open the laptop with just one hand using the protruding camera bump. The hinges are however slightly wobbly. Usually, this flaw goes unnoticed, but when there is strong backlight against the screen, the wobble creates a distracting flickering effect when typing. The matte panel variant of the device might be worth considering if this is a problem for you.  

Glorious display, underwhelming speakers: 

We are using the 2880×1800 OLED display configuration of the laptop. The 90 Hz OLED screen with support for HDR is objectively a beautiful display with a peak brightness of 500 nits. Colours are bright and punchy, and the high refresh rate provides a smooth experience in daily use. One complaint that we have is that the display is VERY reflective, which is something that usually goes unnoticed but occasionally makes the laptop difficult to use due to all the glare.   

(Left: Acer Swift 14 A; Right: Microsoft Surface Pro 11)

It is a shame that the refresh rate on this screen is not variable, meaning that setting the display at 90Hz will use more power than keeping it at 60, which is the default right out the box. It is also inconvenient to have to go into settings in order to adjust the refresh rate.  

Speakers:

 
We did not have very high hopes for the speakers on this little laptop due to the obvious lack of any forward-firing speakers. The reality is just as expected; we hear little bass, distortion at high volumes, and the speakers don’t get very loud anyways. The sound also becomes muffled when the laptop sits on a soft surface like a couch or a thick tablecloth. We compared the speakers to the similarly small Microsoft Surface Pro 11 and the difference between the two devices is night and day. Unfortunately, the Acer doesn’t ace every aspect of our testing.  

Software:  

We have little to say about the software on the Acer Swift 14 AI, but most of our experience has been more negative than not. Despite the emphasis on AI, this laptop barely feels different than any other “non-AI” laptop.  

The huge copilot button on the keyboard opens up Microsoft’s Copilot AI screen, which provides the user with chat functions very similar to ChatGPT. 

Although the NPU in Intel’s Core Ultra 258v promises a whole 47 TOPS of AI performance, we feel that the inclusion of an NPU is still quite underwhelming. When running Copilot, we noticed that everything runs on the cloud anyways, as the GPU and NPU both don’t see any increased usage. It’s strange for Microsoft to demand manufacturers include an NPU in windows devices that want to use Copilot when only a few of the features, as far as we can tell, run locally anyways.  

Upon setting up the laptop for the first time, we noticed that there is a lot of bloatware that comes preinstalled. It is disappointing to see a laptop come with McAfee installed directly from the manufacturer, especially since Microsoft Defender already does a good job at providing security to windows devices. There wasn’t even a choice to not install McAfee during setup. Acer also has a suite of included AI- and in house software that come preinstalled, like AcerSense and Acer LiveArt. We didn’t find any of these features particularly useful, but it’s neat that they’re there.  

Keyboard and trackpad:  

Good keyboards are often overshadowed by performance and aesthetics when people look at a laptop. However, for anyone who spends the majority of their day typing away, having a well-designed keyboard saves you from a whole world of discomfort. 

The Acer Swift 14 has a backlit, solid, tactile and comfortable keyboard. Although the keyboard doesn’t compare well to something like something on a Lenovo ThinkPad, after getting used to it, the typing experience on this little laptop is quite enjoyable.  

There is very little travel distance for the keys, but each key is wide and fills as much space as possible on the limited profile of the 13’ notebook. The keys feel tactile and have a quiet but nice click sound to them. There is very little wobble in the keys and the entire bottom frame of the laptop is very solid. All these aspects combine to provide a great feel as you type away.  

The trackpad is quite good. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to leave smudges on the smooth and large surface of the trackpad, but aside from that we have zero complaints.  

Webcam quality:  

The QHD 1440p webcam does a solid job at getting the job done for a zoom call. An interesting feature is the absolutely huge viewing angle on this camera, which is probably made for the AI face tracking option during calls. The webcam tends to produce images with very dull colours though. Still, this camera is significantly better than the usual 1080p laptop webcams that still somehow find their way into productivity laptops.  

Is the Swift 14 worth your time?  

With the Acer Swift 14 AI, it seems like there is now some actual competition for the productivity laptop segment on the windows side. Acer has done a wonderful job at creating a device that ticks all the boxes at what a 13’ productivity laptop should do. Battery life is great, performance is good, and the hardware and user experience are phenomenal. The only glaring weaknesses are the mediocre speakers, too much glare and some bloatware that can easily be uninstalled.

We think that this laptop is a great buy if you need a fast device that lasts days with a full charge and prefer windows over MacOS. The 13’ M3 MacBook Air is similar in price and performance, but naturally comes at the cost of windows freedom and app compatibility.