Acer’s Swift line has brought some great devices to the market and this new Swift 3 is no different. Like last year’s model, it still sports a 3:2 aspect ratio screen with a very high resolution for its size. Tiger Lake brings improvements on the hardware front both on the CPU and GPU side.
Today we are presenting you our Top 5 picks about the Acer Swift 3 (SF313-53). Here you can find our in-depth review of it.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-swift-3-sf313-53/
3 reasons to BUY the Acer Swift 3
1. The Design and build quality
Acer brought the big guns when it came to the design of this device, deciding to opt for premium materials, such as aluminum and magnesium-aluminum alloys. This makes the device lighter, and since metal is harder and more durable than plastic, you can make the sheets thinner, thus the laptop being thinner. Its keyboard is also pretty nice, with good travel distance and clicky feedback.
2. The Display
The display on the Swift 3 is pretty unique, in the sense that it is has a 3:2 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2256x1504p. It is an IPS panel with great viewing angles, very high maximum brightness, and a great contrast ratio. What is more, is that it covers 99% of the sRGB color gamut. When our Gaming and Web design profile is applied, we get an Average dE of 0.6, which is among the best that we have ever tested.
Below you can compare the scores of Acer Swift 3 (SF313-53) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).
3. The performance
Under the hood of this Acer Swift 3, we have the new Tiger Lake CPUs, which deliver great performance and generally are a big improvement from last years’ models. Where the Tiger Lake CPUs shine the most though is with their integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7, which are among the best iGPUs that you could get right now.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| CS:GO | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings) | HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 160 fps | 115 fps | 69 fps |
| DOTA 2 | HD 1080p, Low (Check settings) | HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings) | HD 1080p, High (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average FPS | 135 fps | 70 fps | 57 fps |
2 reasons to NOT buy the Acer Swift 3
1. The Upgradeability
With everything that is great about the device, not everything is perfect. For example, the RAM is soldered onto the board, meaning that upgrading it is impossible. You’d better go for the configurations with 16GB of RAM in order to ensure the longevity of the device as much as possible. There is, however, one M.2 PCIe x4 slot for upgrading the storage, so at least you have that.
2. The Battery life
With a device this compact you’d expect there to be some sacrifices. The 55.9Wh battery unit on the Acer Swift 3 managed to last 8 hours and 37 minutes of Web browsing and 8 hours and 25 minutes of video playback. Below is a comparison against last year’s model.