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14-inch Acer Swift X (2022) Hands-On – A Lightweight Productivity & Gaming Laptop
January 6, 2022 Andrew Cheng

The new 2022 14-inch Acer Swift X is an intriguing thin and light laptop. Acer’s Swift lineup typically consists of slim and light productivity machines, but the Swift X can easily double as a gaming laptop too, thanks to its Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU and a new 12-core processor from Intel.

After spending a brief time with the updated Swift X, I’m quite impressed with this “double duty” laptop. If priced right, it can easily appeal to folks who want a productivity laptop that can also do more than just light gaming on the side.

First, let’s talk specifications. The 14-inch Swift X is powered by Intel’s latest 12th generation Alder Lake chips. The prototype unit that I tested was powered by an Intel Core i7-1260P 12-core processor, which should offer notable performance gains over its predecessor.

In the GPU department, the Swift X is sporting the aforementioned RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. It’s not awfully powerful, but it should still be able to run AAA games reasonably well. This GPU also offers RTX-specific features like ray tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), offering even higher frame rates without sacrificing visual fidelity.

Unfortunately, I was not able to put the Swift X through its paces in my brief time with it. But on paper, there’s no denying that it will serve as a really good productivity and gaming laptop – just don’t expect to play heavily demanding games at maxed out settings with it.

Other specifications of the Swift X include a 14-inch 2240 x 1400 IPS panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a 17.9mm thin profile with a 1.4kg chassis, up to 16GB of RAM and 2TB of PCIe SSD storage, a fingerprint reader for Windows Hello authentication, as well as Windows 11 out of the box.

One of the biggest changes to the updated Swift X is definitely the new, taller 16:10 display. It has more vertical screen real estate than the previous model’s narrower 16:9 screen, so it doesn’t feel quite as “cramped” for a more comfortable user experience.

Plus, if your job requires you to do a lot of screen scrolling, you’ll definitely appreciate the extra vertical space.

Of course, the taller display of the Swift X also makes for a more modern-looking machine, thanks to the smaller bezels surrounding the screen. According to Acer, this laptop has a 92.22% screen-to-body ratio, which is really quite good. It would’ve been great if the top and bottom bezels were a tad smaller, but overall, this is still a sleek-looking laptop.

Speaking of looks, the 14-inch 2240 x 1400 IPS panel of the Swift X is a looker too. Colours are vibrant, viewing angles are good, and it is bright enough for comfortable use outdoors. It also offers 100% coverage of the sRGB colour space. Overall, definitely a display I won’t mind looking at for long periods of time.

Oh, I dig the colourway of the Swift X as well. Available in either red or green – the unit you see here is the latter – it has a nice dual-tone design for a unique aesthetic.

Measuring 17.9mm thin with a 1.4kg chassis, you can just slip the Swift X into a backpack and forget about it. Granted, it’s not the thinnest or lightest laptop around, but given the reasonably powerful hardware under the hood, these dimensions are more than acceptable. Plus, a thinner chassis would likely mean worse cooling performance.

Last but certainly not least are the input devices of the Swift X. The OceanGlass trackpad – made out of recycled plastic – feels surprisingly smooth despite its plastic material. It can also track my fingers quite accurately, which is important for a productivity-focused laptop.

The Swift X’s keyboard, on the other hand, is…serviceable. While I can easily get accustomed to the standard layout of the keyboard, it doesn’t offer a lot of key travel, so it feels quite shallow to type on. Thankfully, the keys provide enough tactile feedback and a cushioned bottom out for a comfortable typing experience.

All in all, the 2022 Acer Swift X is a nice upgrade over its predecessor. It looks sleeker, it is faster, and it still retains the slim, lightweight design. The only issue is, the price and availability of the new laptop has not been revealed yet, so it’s tough to decide if it is worth it or not.

If the new Swift X is priced similarly to the previous model (from RM4,299), then yes, it may just be worth considering. As far as first impressions go, I’m quite fond of the Swift X, but only a full review can shed a light on its strong and weak points for a more fair assessment.

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