SPECIFICATIONS
- Display: 14-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) touchscreen
- CPU: Intel Core i7-1260P
- GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
- RAM: 16GB
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- Weight: 2.65 pounds
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What you need to know
The Acer Swift 5 (2022) is a svelte Windows laptop sporting a slick design, a gorgeous 1600p display and a speedy enough 12th-gen Intel chip onboard to get you through a day of work. It’s also cheaper than its chief rivals when comparably equipped.
While this laptop has some flaws, it’s a great machine that delivers a lot of value for its sub-$2k price tag.
Design: While older Swift 5 laptops looked pretty generic, the 2022 model has a beautiful design with eye-catching edges decked out in a double-anodized gold treatment.
Measuring 12.2 x 8.4 x 0.59 inches and weighing just 2.65 pounds, the Acer Swift 5 is thicker than Apple’s MacBook Air but also a hair lighter. The Acer Swift 5 feels sturdy despite its light weight thanks to its resilient aluminum chassis, and our review unit had a beautiful diamond pattern traced on it in gold lines that are as thin as a human hair, according to Acer.
Display: The Acer Swift 5’s 14-inch panel looks beautiful, and its WQXGA resolution (2560×1600, or 1600p) ensures it can deliver more pixels on-screen than more traditional 1080p or 1440p laptop displays.
The display offers a 16:10 aspect ratio, and in our testing the big, wide screen was easy to digest at a glance and made the games and movies we watched on it look great.
Performance: The Acer Swift 5 is plenty speedy thanks to its Intel CPU and 16GB of RAM. While this machine can’t achieve the same speeds as other, more expensive laptops on this list, like the M3 MacBook Pro, it’s plenty powerful enough for getting work done.
And while you shouldn’t expect to play the latest and greatest games at max settings on this laptop, less demanding games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and League of Legends can be enjoyed for hours with decent-looking graphics courtesy of the laptop’s integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics chipset.
Battery life: Sadly, we’ve hit the one disappointing point in this otherwise glowing overview. While the Acer Swift 5 is a stunning little Windows laptop that’s plenty good enough for what it costs, the fact that it barely lasted over 11 hours in our battery test was a little disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still longer-lasting than most Windows laptops, including a few on this list. But our battery test is done under controlled conditions with the screen kept quite dim, and in the real world when you’re perhaps using it in the bright sun or playing games on it, it will last a lot less time. In our review we noticed that using the laptop normally at max brightness caused it to conk out in about 5 hours, which is disappointing. Thankfully, it does charge quickly.
Read the full review:Â Acer Swift 5 (2022)
| Test | Notes | How it stacks up |
|---|---|---|
| Battery life | 11:25 tested battery life | ★★★★☆ |
| Performance | Speedy but not great for gaming | ★★★★☆ |
| Display | Tall, beautiful screen | ★★★★☆ |
| Design | Elegant, striking design with plenty of ports | ★★★★☆ |
