The exterior
When you first have a look at the Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-52W2 Ultrabook the first obvious descriptor that comes to mind is that this is another cheap Macbook Air clone. While in the past this descriptor was used in a derogative manor, I don’t think it’s the case with the Acer Swift 3. Other models tend to only take some of the design features of Apple laptops and leave out the important bits. This one uses everything good about the Air and improves on it.
The Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-52W2 Ultrabook comes in an all aluminium body just like the Air, it has a slightly bigger 14-inch FullHD (1920x1080pixel) IPS screen. The screen in surrounded by a silver border with the built-in webcam right in the middle of the top border. Acer even went so far as using the same hinge design, with the same rubber border around the display to protect it from touching the keyboard. Considering that the Macbook Air is already many many years old I think the Acer Swift 3SF314-51-52W2 Ultrabook is a very good hardware upgrade option.
Detail of the inside
On the inside we find a chicklet style backlit keyboard with contrasting black keycaps. The power button is the top right corner key. Also on the right side, just below the keyboard we find the built-in fingerprint sensor. Underneath the keyboard slightly offset to the left we find a big silver touchpad.
The built-in microphone is located on the left of the keyboard. Also on the left side of the body we can find the status LEDs. The two stereo speakers are located on each side underneath the body.
The outside is kept very basic and elegant and as first mentioned, it is a very good Macbook Air clone in the design department. To be hones this design has indeed aged very well compared to most other laptops from the past.
The connectivity
On the connectivity front the Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-52W2 Ultrabook stands quite well.
On the right side of the body we find the Kensington-Lock port, one USB 2.0-Port, the combo headphones/mic jack and the SD Card-reader.
On the left side we find the power connector, a HDMI-out one USB 3.0-Port and one USB 3.1 Type-C connector that supports power and DisplayPort output.
On the inside it features dual band 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 and that’s pretty much it. It does lack an ethernet LAN port, so be aware of that when you purchase it.
The performance
The performance is where the Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-52W2 Ultrabook shines and the main reason why I think this is the perfect replacement for old Macbook Airs or for people looking for a very light, compact and capable laptop.
It comes with the 6th generation of Intel’s’ Core i5-6200U running at a base clock speed of 2,3 Ghz and can boost all to 2,8 Ghz when required. Added to this comes 8Gb of DDR4 RAM and a 256 Gb SSD. Unfortunately there’s no dedicated video card, but that wouldn’t even be expected for this type of laptop. The big bonus with this Ultrabook is that it is rated at up to 10 hours of battery life. As with most of these, the rating is usually fairly optimistic to what an user can actually achieve. That considered I still expect it to manage at least 8 hours of battery life.
Considering that the Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-52W2 Ultrabook starts at 650$ you can quickly tell from these specs that it is a bargain for what you get. The processor is fast enough to run any productivity applications and the 8Gb of RAM is enough even for the more demanding user. It is a high mobility high performance laptop that can keep you going for an entire day.
