Initially unveiled at CES 2019, the Acer Swift 7 is now available in Malaysia. Measuring only 9.95mm thin and tipping the scales at 890g, it’s a ridiculously thin and light productivity laptop.
However, given these two traits, the Swift 7 also carries a rather steep price tag. Regardless, it’s a really impressive laptop, especially when viewed up close.
What makes the Swift 7 such a stunning laptop isn’t just its lightweight and slim nature: the almost bezel-less display is arguably even more impressive. According to Acer, this laptop has a very high screen-to-body-ratio of 92%. In fact, the bezels are so small that there’s no space to put a webcam anywhere near the display.
To solve this issue, Acer placed a pop-up webcam right at the top left corner of the keyboard. It is by no means a perfect solution – especially with the awkward camera angle – but it is quite an ingenious solution. Personally, I quite like it.
Going back to the display, the Swift 7 comes with a 14-inch 1080p IPS display. Acer claims that the display covers 100% of the SRGB colour gamut (72% for NTSC), and as far as I can tell, the display does look really good. It can get reasonably bright too, and I love the fact that it’s a touch display.
Powering such a thin laptop is none other than Intel’s Core i5-8200Y or Core i7-8500Y processor. Yes, these are lower-powered Y-series chips from the Amber Lake generation, so you won’t be getting the same level of performance from the latest U-series processors.
It’s really unavoidable for the Swift 7 to use these Y-series processors, especially given its 9.95m thin chassis. Nonetheless, there is one benefit: this laptop has a completely fanless design. As the Y-series processor can be passively-cooled, there’s no need for Acer to use any cooling fan for the Swift 7.
The result? A dead silent productivity laptop. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?
Rounding out the specifications of the Swift 7 are 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, 256GB or 512GB of fast PCIe NVMe SSD storage, as well as Intel UHD Graphics 615. Naturally, the Swift 7 does not come with a dedicated GPU, and that’s totally fine – it’s meant to be a highly portable productivity laptop.
Speaking of which, a productivity laptop needs a really good set of keyboard, and I’m happy to report that the Swift 7’s keyboard is quite decent despite its slim chassis. As expected, key travel is very short, but it’s not quite a shallow as, say, the latest generation MacBook Pro’s butterfly keyboard – that’s a very good thing.
What makes up for the lack of key travel with the Swift 7’s keyboard is the excellent tactility. The keys are very clicky, and combined with the light actuation of these keys, you have yourself a pretty darn comfortable keyboard to type on. Even the trackpad is quite accurate, though I’m not quite sure if I like the sheer…length of it.
The Acer Swift 7 is now available for purchase in Malaysia. The Core i5 model retails at RM5,999, while the higher-end Core i7 variant goes for RM7,599. Without a doubt the Swift 7 is not affordable, but that’s the price you have to pay for a slim, light, and sleek laptop like it.
That being said, you can get the Swift 7 at a discount until 30 June at Acer’s roadshow in Sunway Pyramid. The Core i7 model can be purchased with RM500 discount, while the Core i5 Swift 7 can be yours for RM300 off.