Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) review – a budget machine done right

Look at that. A budget device with an all-metal body. Honestly, when we were looking for getting this laptop in for a review, we were joking about this. How can you give people a metal chassis, when the price is that low. Not only that, but the Swift 1 (SF114-32) offers a fingerprint reader option and a Full HD IPS panel.

Then, we got the unit… and everything of the aforementioned was true. Yes, you get a 6W Pentium Silver N5000 (in our case), and soldered memory, but hey, it has a PCIe SSD inside, and its M.2 slot supports upgrades.

Quite frankly, the similarities between this device and the Swift 3 series is baffling. What is more stunning, though is the similarity to Apple’s MacBook Air series. A few years back, the Swift 1 had big colored bezels, just like the MacBook Air 2017, and now, after Apple has upgraded their most affordable laptop, the Swift 1 continues to follow its trend. Sure, this is not bad, especially given the price difference of the two, but let’s dig further into this bad boy and see what is it made of.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-swift-1-sf114-32/

Contents


Specs Sheet

  • BOE NV140FHM-N48
  • Color accuracy  4.4  3.7
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 512GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 16GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 S, Linux, No OS
  • Battery
  • 54Wh, 54Wh, 3-cell , 54Wh, 4670 mAh, 48Wh, 3-cell, 4670 mAh, 3-cell, 54Wh, 3-cell, 54Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 323 x 228 x 14.95 mm (12.72" x 8.98" x 0.59")
  • Weight
  • 1.30 kg (2.9 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • HDMI
  • Card reader
  • SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ac (2x2)
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • combo audio / microphone jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • 720p HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Dual-Array Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Lock

All Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

After you open the packaging, you’ll see the laptop covered by a white protective cloth and surrounded by documentation stuff. In a separate compartment, there will be the 45Wh charger adapter.


Design and construction

Interestingly, the Swift 1 (SF114-32) feels very premium in the hand. It is very thin at 14.95mm and has a weight of 1.30 kg, which is decent for a 14-inch outfit even in 2020. Now, keep in mind that the quality of build is not as high as on more expensive devices. Its body produces some squeaks when you twist it, but it is nothing too much, nonetheless.

On the downside, the lid cannot be opened with a single hand, but more importantly, it is very rigid. There is little-to-no flex when you twist it, and in a closed position, the bending action is negligible. In addition to that, Acer has added a notch, where you can start lifting, and the bezels around the display are thin enough (excluding the bottom one). Another interesting feature is the rubber ring all around the display, which protects it from touching the keyboard when the lid is closed.

Further down below, we have the keyboard. It is decently sized, and… wait for it… has a backlight. And while the feedback is clicky and the keys are balanced themselves, the key travel is a little short to our likings. You might also find the “Page Up” and “Page Down” buttons too close to the Left and Right “Arrow” keys.

Next, there is the fingerprint reader, which is decently quick. Probably it is the same unit seen on the last year’s Acer Swift 3 (SF314-56). Last, but not least, we have the touchpad. It is definitely on the bigger side for a Windows laptop and its tracking is quick and responsive. By the way, you may notice some bending going on when you press a little harder on the base.

Turn the laptop upside down, and you’ll find only the speaker cutouts. This is a clear indication of a passive cooling solution.

Ports

On the left side, you’ll find the tiny power plug, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 1) port, as well as two USB Type-A 3.0 ports. Then, on the right, there is a single USB Type-A 2.0 port, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

There are 9 Torx-head screws that separate you from the insides of this machine. After you remove them, gently pop the bottom panel away with a plastic pry tool. Ultimately, this would enable you to lift the plate from the chassis, and take a look at the internals.

Quite expectedly, given the hardware in place here, the Swift 1 (SF114-32) features a passive cooling solution. It consists of a single copper plate, which has to dissipate the heat coming from the 6W processor inside.

Sadly, the memory is soldered to the motherboard, but on the bright side, you still can upgrade the storage, via the single M.2 PCIe/SATA slot.

Lastly, there is the huge battery, which comfortably takes half of the space inside the machine. You won’t be able to information about it unless you turn it upside down. This reveals, Acer has put a 53.9Wh battery in a super-efficient laptop. We expect a huge number when it comes to battery life!


Display quality

Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) is equipped with a Full HD IPS display – BOE NV140FHM-N48 (BOE081D). Its diagonal size is 14.0 inches (35.56 cm). The screen ratio is 16:9 and the resolution is 1920 x 1080p which translates into a pixel density of 157 PPI. The pixel pitch is – 0.161 х 0.161 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from further than 22 inches (55 cm). From this distance, the individual pixels become indistinguishable for the average human eye.

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images to evaluate quality.

The maximum measured brightness is 296 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 283 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of just 2%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6840K (average) – a little colder than the optimal 6500K for sRGB.

In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. In other words the leakage of light from the light source. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 40% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.1 cd/m2).

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1360:1 (1280:1 after profiling).

Color reproduction

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers just 54% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 34 ms – the panel is pretty slow.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Sadly, Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32)’s screen is PWM-adjusted throughout all brightness levels. In addition to that, the flickerings are with a pretty low frequency, which is quite a disadvantage.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32)’s display has a budget IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and somewhat adequate default settings. However, its backlight flickers aggressively at all brightness levels except the maximum (our Health-Guard profile fixes that), and its color coverage is pretty modest – 54% of sRGB.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32) configurations with 14.0″ BOE NV140FHM-N48 (BOE081D) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32)’s speakers are not bad. Although, the low and mid tones they produce have some deviations, the highs are crisp and clear.


Drivers

You can download all of the drivers and utilities for this laptop from here: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7564?b=1

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook features a massive 53.9Wh battery inside. It is able to deliver up to 16 hours and a half of Web browsing and 12 hours of video playback.


CPU options

According to our system, this laptop can be purchased with anything from the Celeron N4000/4100, through the Pentium Silver N5000, and even the Core i5-8250U. Keep in mind that all of these processors differ vastly when it comes to performance, so pick your choice accordingly.


GPU options

Now, in terms of the graphics cards, all of the Swift 1 (SF114-32) laptops that are currently on the market, come with only their integrated graphics solutions – Intel UHD Graphics 600, 605 and 620.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS13 fps– fps– fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS26 fps– fps– fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Pentium Silver N5000 (6W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32)2.58 GHz @ 70°C1.93 GHz @ 57°C1.89 GHz @ 68°C
Acer TravelMate B1 (B118)2.59 GHz @ 58°C2.02 GHz @ 52°C1.76 GHz @ 61°C
ASUS X5432.59 GHz @ 70°C2.59 GHz @ 84°C2.59 GHz @ 78°C
Acer Aspire 3 (A317-32)2.20 GHz @ 70°C1.93 GHz @ 68°C1.74 GHz @ 70°C
Acer Aspire 1 (A114-32)2.60 GHz @ 68°C1.85 GHz @ 58°C1.84 GHz @ 64°C
Acer Aspire 3 (A315-34)2.60 GHz @ 80°C2.15 GHz @ 79°C1.69 GHz @ 76°C
HP 15 (15-da0000)2.60 GHz @ 55°C2.30 GHz @ 53°C2.10 GHz @ 55°C

When it comes to passive cooling solutions inside of a laptop, there is nothing much to be expected. However, the temperature here is well-balanced, while the clock speeds were pretty similar to these of the Acer Aspire 1 (A114-32).

Comfort during full load

Obviously, the laptop is completely silent under load, and thankfully, it is quite cool, as well – 36.4C at most.


Verdict

Let’s start our summary with the price of this notebook. Currently, it can be found for anywhere between $250-500, depending on the specification you get. However, keep in mind that a simple, budget offering, would rarely provide an all-metal build, a 1080p IPS display, 8GB of memory and ultimately – 512GB of PCIe x2 storage. Despite the unexciting processor from a performance standpoint, this laptop was fast enough in daily use.

Text creation, web browsing, movie watching, transfer of memories via an SD card or an external hard drive, there is no problem – the perceived speed is great. Surely, you wouldn’t want to edit your photos, or videos on the Swift 1 (SF114-32). In addition to that, there is a USB Type-C port onboard, as well as a fingerprint reader.

Acer Swift 1 (SF114-32)’s display has a budget IPS panel (BOE NV140FHM-N48) with a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles, and somewhat adequate default settings. However, its backlight flickers aggressively at all brightness levels except the maximum (our Health-Guard profile fixes that), and its color coverage is pretty modest – 54% of sRGB.

Despite the budget-level display, we were happy with this notebook, and one of the biggest reasons for that was the battery life – 16 and a half hours of Web browsing and 12 hours of video playback.

Surely, the soldered memory and relatively slow processor will surely not be liked by everyone, but if you get the 8GB version, and you don’t plan on using the laptop for heavy tasks – don’t miss it. It is perhaps one of the best notebooks for the money.

Pros

  • Surprisingly good value
  • Large touchpad and an optional fingerprint reader
  • SD card slot, USB Type-C connection and an M.2 slot for storage upgrades
  • Very good battery life
  • Its Full HD IPS panel has comfortable viewing angles and good contrast ratio (BOE NV140FHM-N48)
  • Aluminum body, which feels very premium, despite the price tag


Cons

  • Memory is soldered to the motherboard
  • Covers only 54% of sRGB (BOE NV140FHM-N48)
  • Uses aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment (our Health-Guard profile fixes that) (BOE NV140FHM-N48)

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-swift-1-sf114-32/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
3 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Jakov
Jakov
3 years ago

I’ve bought this laptop for my wife on Black Friday sale, got it for €200. N5000, 8GB, 256GB SSD. Great build quality, narrow screen bezels and very good screen, huge touchpad and outstanding battery life! What I personally didn’t like is the keyboard which has almost no feedback for my taste, especially compared to my HP 440 G6 keyboard. But on the other hand – Acer put a white-ish LED backlight on their one so that’s a big plus in my book. Also, the CPU is a little bit too slow for me but for my wife it’s fine 😉… Read more »

John Asbacher
3 years ago

If this is anything like the previous swift notebooks the keyboard backlight can not stay on indefinetly. Even when ac powered there is no known work around to have the keyboard on 24/7.
If you work in dark environments, DJ, film industry, Audio Visual, Corporate Events… then this is not a good choice if looking for backlit keyboard.

Hiro
Hiro
3 years ago

Thank you for this detailed report.
Acer has a few different variants on this particular model Swift 1 SF114-32;
SF114-32 P2PK with 64 GB eMMC
SF114-32 C225 with 64 GB eMMC
SF114-32 P85N with 128 GB SSD
SF114-32 P573 with 128 GB SSD
SF114-32 P9MX with 128 GB SSD

Would you please look into the model that you tested and provide the exact model number?
I am interested in purchasing this model, too.
Thank you.