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Acer’s Swift X 14 ($1,499 as tested) is the latest in a batch of slim desktop replacement laptops that have nearly ultraportable dimensions and weight, but couple that portability with dazzling displays and GPU-powered hardware that lets you edit media on the go. With enough oomph to run demanding apps and ample battery life to get you through most of a day at work or school, this is a class of powerful laptops that impress at every level.The Acer Swift X 14 looks especially intriguing at first glance, with a premium OLED screen, competitive 13th Gen Intel Core H Series processing, and sharp Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series graphics that matches top models, like the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-Inch) and the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra. But, unlike the Editors’ Choice-award-winning Slim Pro 9i, the Swift X 14 doesn’t keep pace in performance, and the battery life will have you reaching for the charger a little more often than the Samsung would, making it less exciting than the first impression would suggest.
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Configurations: A Dual-Flavor AcerOur test configuration (model number SFX14-71G-76LC) is outfitted with an impressive Intel Core i7-13700H processor, 16GB of memory, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 mobile GPU with 6GB of VRAM, and a 1TB SSD for storage. Equipped with an OLED display with 2,880-by-1,800-pixel resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, it sells for $1,499.99.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
However, you’ll find another, stepped-down configuration if you want to pay less, or scale back the performance assuming media editing power isn’t the priority. The basic Swift X 14 (model number SFX14-71G-5911) sells for $1,099.99 and pulls back on the performance and components, with an Intel Core i5-13500H CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050, and 512GB SSD. It also lowers the display resolution to 2,560 by 1,600, with an IPS panel.
Design: Lightweight and ElegantThe Acer’s aluminum construction makes the entire laptop lightweight and sturdy on top and bottom. With the chassis measuring 0.7 inch thick, the construction is solid, with no flexing in the deck and only a little in the lid. And, at just 3.42 pounds, this 14.5-inch laptop isn’t much heavier than most ultraportables.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The styling is attractive, too. The finish keeps the luster of bare metal, but with a dark gray anodized finish that looks slick but not too ostentatious for an office. The full keyboard is comfortable to type on, with chiclet keys that deliver a pretty standard typing experience. It may not have the bounce of a Lenovo keyboard, and it’s just as shallow as Apple’s laptop keyboards but with a mushier feel. One welcome touch is the inclusion of a fingerprint sensor in the power button for simple, seamless secure logins. The accompanying touchpad has a fully clickable surface, made of so-called OceanGlass, recycled ocean-bound plastics used as the raw material for the glassy pad.A speaker bar is located above the keyboard, which houses a pair of stereo speakers with DTS X:Ultra audio. The 1080p FHD webcam is naturally above the display. Where other manufacturers have opted for camera notches that dip into the display panel, or raised tabs that protrude from otherwise slim bezels, Acer has slightly widened the top bezel of the 16:10 display to house both the webcam and microphones. Despite the objectively thicker bezel, it never once bothered me when I was using the laptop. Sometimes, the best fix to a problem is to recognize that it may not need fixing.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Of course, the real treat with this laptop is the 14.5-inch OLED WQXGA+ display with that 120Hz refresh rate. It’s a beautiful panel, and showcases all of the benefits of OLED, like deep, inky blacks and unbeatable contrast levels. Plus, this display adds to that with excellent color quality and effective brightness.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
The Swift X 14’s connectivity options include a pair of USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, dual USB 3 connections, a full-size HDMI output, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio headset jack. Wireless connections provide both Wi-Fi 6E for networking and Bluetooth 5.2 for peripherals.Testing the Acer Swift X 14: Competent, If Not Hyper-CompetitiveTo find the best models to compare the Acer Swift X 14 with, we looked at several of the best desktop-replacement laptops available, including some of the best video editing laptops on the market. We found many models with similar hardware and pricing, making it easier to see which model makes the most of the hardware. This includes nearly identical systems, like the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i and the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra, which have almost the same specs as our test unit. We also included a newer system, the recent Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch (2023, M3), as well as another media-focused machine, the MSI Stealth 14 Studio.
Productivity and Content Creation Tests We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.Our other three benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses that company’s Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Geekbench 5.4 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).Finally, we run PugetBench for Photoshop by workstation maker Puget Systems, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s famous image editor to rate a PC’s performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It’s an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.
Despite most of the laptops using the same Intel Core i7-13700H processor, we saw a range of results for productivity tests, usually with the Acer at or near the bottom of the rankings. In PCMark 10, that meant that the top performer beat out the Acer Swift X 14 by more than 1,000 points. Sure, that score still easily clears our 4,000-point baseline for measuring effective office productivity, but it also means that most competing systems displayed better performance using similar CPU and GPU combinations.We saw this again in other tests. The nearly identical specs of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra plowed through Handbrake a full 79 seconds faster than the Swift X 14, and the Swift X’s Cinebench score was second to last. The two tests where the Swift X had slightly better performance were Geekbench, where it placed a firm second to the leading MSI Stealth 14 Studio, and Adobe Photoshop. However, most of the test systems didn’t run this benchmark, and its results are not directly comparable with the Apple MacBook Pro 14 due to emulation differences.While the Swift X 14 performs well enough for itself and the general productivity tasks you’d throw at it, the laptop certainly is outpaced within its category.Graphics TestsFor media-focused laptops and other systems, we run synthetic graphics tests to measure overall 3D rendering performance. This first includes two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid (more modest, suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). We then pull up the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to gauge OpenGL performance. These GFXBench tests are rendered offscreen to accommodate different native display resolutions; more frames per second (fps) means higher performance.
We saw a similar distribution of results in our graphics tests, where the Acer Swift X placed third out of four in 3DMark Night Raid, and it was oddly unable to return a valid score in 3DMark Time Spy. GFXBench results looked the same, with the Swift X 14 sitting at the bottom of the comparison stack in both Aztec Ruins and Car Chase subtests. Again, we see decent multimedia performance out of the Swift X 14, but not so much in the 3D rendering department.Battery and Display Tests We test each laptop’s battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off. After that, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and software to measure a laptop screen’s color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).
Lasting nine and half hours in our battery rundown test placed the Acer squarely in the middle of the competition, outlasting the shorter-lived MSI Stealth 14 Studio and Lenovo Slim Pro 9i, but falling behind the truly impressive all-day batteries of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 and the larger Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra.More notable than the battery life is the display, which leveraged the superb quality of OLED to produce better color coverage overall than either the Apple MacBook Pro or the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i. The brightness is fairly decent, as well, but the real standouts for this system were color quality and depth of contrast.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
In a vacuum, the Acer Swift X 14 would be a superb machine with plenty of portability, power for productivity and media creation, and a sleek design that looks fantastic, thanks to its elegant aluminum chassis and pleasing OLED display. On paper, it’s a compelling mix of features.However, the reality falls a bit short. Yes, it provides ample power for daily productivity and editing photos and video. But, in this price range and with this hardware, the performance and battery life are consistently outperformed by competitors like the Apple MacBook Pro 14 and Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra, not to mention the Editors’ Choice-award-winning Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-Inch). It’s not a bad laptop, or a bad purchase, but the Acer Swift X 14 is just not the most compelling option you could buy in its range.
Pros
Compact, lightweight, and sturdy aluminum construction
Impressive OLED display
Powerful hardware for mobile productivity
Handy selection of ports and connectivity options
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Cons
Middling performance in comparison
Relatively short battery life
Mushy keyboard might be off-putting
The Bottom Line
The Acer Swift X 14 impresses with its sleek design and stunning OLED display, packing a punch as well, but inconsistent performance and a steep price hinder its overall appeal.
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