Acer Swift X 14 (SFX14-71G) review – going to a gunfight with a knife
It is becoming more common nowadays for manufacturers to offer sleek 14-inch notebooks with beast hardware. Apparently, nobody is afraid of potentially throttling the processor, as far as it can offer the initial push of 45W (and more).
Today, we are going to review the Acer Swift X 14 (SFX14-71G). It would be fairly easy to find it a competitor because we have just recently checked out the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7 (14″, 2023). In contrast to Lenovo, Acer rely on Intel’s 13th Gen processors.
And there are no cut-down 15W CPUs on the radar – both available options are 45W units. Regardless of your choice (Core i5-13500H, or Core i7-13700H), you can expect a fantastic computational performance.
Weirdly, you can configure the machine with either the RTX 3050 or RTX 4050. Both of the options feature 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM, which makes us think that the graphics memory is identical on either machine (up to now, the RTX 3050 could only be found with a 4GB buffer).
The Acer Swift X 14 (SFX14-71G) is a device aimed towards content creators, with two great display options – one IPS solution, and one OLED unit. Both of them have a 120Hz refresh rate, but the nature of the OLED panel makes it significantly faster to respond to frame change.
Nevertheless, let’s take the laptop out of the box, and check what it looks and feels like, as well as evaluate its structural integrity.
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-swift-x-sfx14-71g/
Contents
- Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box
- Design and construction
- Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound
- Buy our profiles
- Performance: CPU, GPU, Gaming Tests
- [eBook Guide + Tools] How to MAX OUT your Acer Swift X 14 (SFX14-71G)
- Temperatures and comfort, Battery Life
- Disassembly, Upgrade options, and Maintenance
- Verdict
Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box
- HDD/SSD
- up to 4000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 1x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 See photo
- RAM
- up to 32GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11, Chrome OS
- Battery
- 76Wh, 4-cell
- Body material
- Aluminum
- Dimensions
- 322.79 x 228.12 x 17.9 mm (12.71" x 8.98" x 0.70")
- Weight
- 1.55 kg (3.4 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
- 2x USB Type-C
- 4.0, Thunderbolt 4
- HDMI
- Card reader
- microSD
- Ethernet LAN
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.1
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- optional
- Web camera
- FHD with Temporal Noise Reduction
- Backlit keyboard
- optional
- Microphone
- Dual Microphones with Acer Purified Voice, AI noise reduction
- Speakers
- Stereo Speakers, DTS X: Ultra
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
- Kensington Lock
All Acer Swift X (SFX14-71G) configurations
Drivers
All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.acer.com/us-en/support?search=SFX14-71G&filter=global_download&suggest=swift%20x%2014;0
What’s in the box?
Besides the boring paperwork inside, you will find a 100W USB Type-C charger.
Thanks for the review. One question. Can the P-Core responses be addressed through software updates are is this a hardware issue?