Acer Swift Go SFG14: Review

The Acer Swift Go 14 (starts at $799.99; $1,099.99 as tested) is a surprising ultraportable laptop that looks like the company’s basic notebook from years ago. This time, Acer used outstanding hardware to power a stunning, high-resolution OLED panel. That makes the Acer Swift Go 14 a strong $1,100 laptop, rivaling the Dell XPS 13 (9315) and Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 in value. Only a mediocre keyboard prevents it from rising.

Acer Swift Go SFG14 Specification

Build and configurations Acer Swift Go 14

The Acer Swift Go 14 is so modest that I almost called it an Aspire. As I’ve observed on other Acer everyday laptops I’ve used in recent years, Acer is maximizing its notebook design. A solid frame, a stiff hinge, and a slight keyboard deck flex make it sturdy. This model has thinner bezels to fit a 16:10 screen instead of 16:9. The surface-mounted vent above the keyboard is better on this model than others I’ve tested because it has a powerful processor to cool.

Price

Not all Acer Swift Go 14 variants are available yet, and availability varies by area. For instance, the model I evaluated is unavailable in the UK and Australia. If you want to buy this laptop, pay carefully. My review device, the Acer Swift Go SFG14-71-785V, costs $1,099.99 in the US and has an Intel Core i7 13700H, Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 14-inch 2880 x 1800 90Hz OLED display. As said, the UK and Australia don’t have it. The $799.99 (approximately £630, AU$1,200) base model with an Intel Core i5-1335U, Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, and a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 60Hz IPS touch display isn’t available outside the US. The price of my review item may be too high for others. You’re getting a lot of value with solid specs and an OLED display. However, few people are willing to spend that much on a laptop they’ll only use for business and daily use.

Specs

For now, the Acer Swift Go 14 has numerous configurations. The issue is that not all configurations have been disclosed yet. My review model is only available in 2880 x 1800 and is not available outside the US. Also, the UK only has 16-inch units, and Australia only has an AMD 14-inch version in their Acer online shops.

Design

The designers at Acer keep things simple. Therefore, the Acer Swift Go 14 is a powerful gadget in an unassuming package. It’s not unsightly; you wouldn’t be embarrassed to take it to a coffee shop. Compared to the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 and HP Spectre ranges, it’s dull. At 0.59mm, this laptop is thicker than many luxury choices but still thin and light. But it only makes room for more connectors, including two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, an HDMI port, and a MicroSD card reader. It weighs 2.76 pounds, which is light. It feels expensive. It feels sturdy enough to withstand strong falls, but I wouldn’t use it in extreme conditions. Since it can take a beating, you won’t need to coddle it. The 2880 x 1800 OLED display appears great, but the glare and reflection are so awful that it’s hard to determine if Acer used an inefficient anti-reflective coating or skipped it. When processing photographs with Lightroom, using it outdoors in the middle of the day was difficult, but using it in my kitchen with the lights on was even worse. With 400-nit brightness. At least the keyboard and trackpad are comfortable. The keyboard keys are undersized, and the switches are mushy. The keyboard is nice to type on. Despite being smaller, the trackpad is snappy and easy to use.

Performance

The Acer Swift Go 14 sports a 1440p webcam, a cinema-grade 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, and a powerful cooling system, yet it struggles with demanding creative workloads. I used the laptop for productivity and processing high-res RAW photographs, but it struggled with the latter. Lightroom took longer than five minutes to export 50 high-resolution photographs with some simple changes from RAW to JPEG, which was irritating and not ideal for a time-sensitive narrative. It wouldn’t be powerful enough to generate and export a five-minute 4K video without user intervention. However, the Swift Go 14 excels at productivity tasks. I had 20 browser tabs open with four streaming providers playing material without any slowdowns. It also competed with the Asus ZenBook 14X OLED and the Acer Swift X 14 in Geekbench for single-core and multicore performance. It outperformed the Zenbook 14X OLED in CrossMark and Handbrake.

Battery Life

Look elsewhere for MacBook-like battery life. If you want something to last you through a workday without recharging, the Acer Swift Go 14 will do the trick, outlasting the Swift X 14 by 30 minutes in our web browsing test with eight hours of battery life. Reduce brightness to get extra juice so you can leave the charger at home.