Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom from Tech Chap and I want to show you these three brand spanking new laptops
00:04that Acer just unveiled at CES 2023, which I am at currently as you're watching this,
00:09but I'm actually recording this in late December because they gave me the chance to have a bit of
00:13a sneak peek early look at these guys. We've got the Swift Go, the Swift, and the Swift X.
00:18And there were definitely a few surprises. Firstly, they've chucked their old naming
00:21conventions out of the window. Gone are the old Swift 3, 5, and 7 names. Now we have the new Swift
00:27Go, both 14 and 16 options. And actually this kind of replaces the old Acer Swift 3. It's a
00:32little bit more affordable. It lacks some of the bells and whistles and the fancier designs of
00:36these two, particularly this one, but there's tons of options. It can be spec'd with a nice OLED screen
00:41up to a 13th Gen i7 processor. And so as the cliche goes, I think this is going to be a pretty
00:45good all-rounder. The Swift 3 was one of my favorite sort of more mainstream slash budget
00:50laptops, although prices have been creeping up in recent years. But I'm excited for this. I think
00:54it's going to be a really nice sort of everyday laptop. But then we have the regular Swift, and
00:58it's very nice actually. It's kind of like the old Swift 5 with a bit of the luxury of the Swift 7.
01:04We've got this nice gold sort of trim around the edge. It's very nice. And actually they managed
01:08to squeeze in a full-fat H series, so we're talking 45 watt 13th Gen Intel processor in here,
01:14which is not bad at all given it is pretty slim and light. Very light actually, 1.2 kilograms.
01:19So this is like a good travel companion with a surprisingly beefy CPU. But then we also have
01:25the Swift X. You can see my very high-end laptop stand going on there, but it forgoes a little bit
01:30of the sort of finesse and pizzazz and a bit of the fancier design in favor of, well, more power
01:35basically. This can be spec'd with up to an RTX 4050, so a discrete GPU. It's the only one on the
01:40Swift lineup to come with a discrete graphics card and also a nice high-res OLED screen with a 120
01:45hertz refresh rate as well. I think for me, this one's a lot more interesting. But importantly,
01:49the whole lineup gets 13th Gen Intel H series processors, which is impressive. A lot of thin
01:55and light laptops still use Intel's P or even U series processors, so to have that 45 watt CPU in
02:01here is definitely gonna make a difference to performance. They're also all Intel Evo certified,
02:05which means we're getting nice extras like Wi-Fi 6E and Thunderbolt 4. We also get a brand new
02:10quad HD camera, so we're looking at a 1440p resolution for the webcam. So all three have a
02:16lot to offer, but there is some stiff competition out there from the Dell XPSs to Asus Zenbooks,
02:21LG Grams, and many others. So let's dive a little bit deeper into each one. And starting with the
02:25Swift Go, this will come in both Intel and AMD flavors. As I say, it will be the H series Intel
02:31processor, two sizes, 14 and 16 inch, three displays, either a full HD plus touchscreen,
02:36a 2.8K touchscreen, or at the top end, a 3.2K OLED 120 Hertz. We also get new twin air cooling
02:43technologies. So there are two fans in here, keeping everything nice and chill. But I think
02:46what I'm most excited about with the Swift Go is the price. I've been told that this should start
02:51from about £899. I imagine for the 14 inch i5 full HD, which isn't exactly cheap, although I
02:58think it's fairly comparable to what the old Asus Swift 3s were going for. I think my issue is going
03:02to be once you start going up the specs and getting that OLED screen and the i7, I don't think
03:07the design and the form factor and everything else is going to sort of keep up with the quality of
03:10those specs. But as a more affordable LG Gram alternative, albeit a little bit heavier, not bad.
03:16Now as for the regular Swift, and I say regular in a sort of lucid sense, this is not the cheapest,
03:21that's going to be this guy, but it's just the Swift. This comes in two very snazzy colors. I
03:26have it in the steam blue, but it also comes in a mist green. And we have this very nice luxury
03:31gold trim, as they call it, and also this ocean glass trackpad. Now using it briefly, I did notice
03:37the trackpad felt a little bit cheap. I also think they could have maybe put a bigger one in here.
03:41And they're still using this magnesium aluminium alloy, which they've been using for a few years.
03:45It is a nice looking laptop with these thin bezels, it's sort of a flush glass, but it doesn't
03:49exactly blow me away like a Dell XPS 13 plus. And it's also got an antimicrobial coating on the
03:55Gorilla Glass. How do I know? Because it says right there and you can't actually get rid of
03:58that. It's like a printed on logo. It doesn't actually kill bacteria, I should say. It sort of
04:02stops it from growing on the screen, it falls off. Although it is only on the screen and not anywhere
04:06else. I do have one complaint with this. And as I say, this is like a first impression, it's not a
04:11full review, but we're still stuck with 60 hertz, which I think for a premium laptop experience,
04:16and one that costs or starts from 1400 euros, 60 hertz is a bit unforgivable in 2023. I also feel
04:24like the lack of HDR and the fairly average 435 nit brightness is a little bit run of the mill,
04:29and particularly for this price, a bit disappointing. But what I will say is I
04:32actually appreciate they've made this a little bit thicker than previous laptops to accommodate
04:36more ports. And actually we get two Thunderbolt 4s, a full size HDMI 2.1, two USB-As, I assume
04:42they're 3.2 Gen 2s, as well as a Kensington lock and a headphone jack. So a really good selection
04:47of ports, although an SD card reader would have been nice. So a nice design doesn't exactly blow
04:52me away, but they have crammed in quite a powerful processor into this thin and light laptop. And
04:58then finally, the one I am most excited about, the Swift X. Now it's not really much of a looker. In
05:03fact, it's probably one of the most boring laptops I've seen in a while, and the slightly protruding
05:08plastic bezel does feel a bit cheap. So nothing really to write home about in terms of design,
05:11but it's functional. We get all the ports you could throw a stick at, except for full size SD,
05:16just micro SD. It's not a touchscreen, but we do get up to a 120 hertz OLED with just a 0.2
05:21millisecond response time. I should also mention that all three are 16 by 10 aspect ratio displays,
05:26which I'm very happy to see. So they're a little bit taller and I think a lot more usable,
05:29particularly in the smaller 14 inch sizes. We also get display HDR true black 500. So up to 500
05:35minutes of brightness, which isn't crazy, but the true black kind of display HDR is the best kind.
05:40But as I say, only the Swift X has the discrete GPU option topping out without 4050, which I am
05:46very curious just how fast it's going to be. And also how it compares to a last gen 3050,
05:50or even the GTX 1650. You'll have to wait for my full review on that because I can't benchmark
05:55these just yet. And of course it's not just the new architecture. We do also get DLSS 3,
05:59even with the 4050. And that also supports frame generation in the handful of games that support
06:04it, which can make a big difference, particularly for the likes of flight sim. But certainly if you
06:08are going to do any gaming or even a bit of, you know, rendering 3d modeling or more demanding 4k
06:13video editing, then it's the Swift X that you're going to want to keep your eye on. This does also
06:17support Nvidia studio drivers, which are very similar to your regular game ready drivers,
06:22but they've basically been tested in a lot more professional applications to make sure there's no
06:25bugs or issues. If I had my way, I would combine the performance of this, including the sort of
06:30beefier cooling and the discrete GPU option with the design of this, but sadly that doesn't seem
06:36to be an option. So I am excited about these refreshed Swift laptops, but there's still a lot
06:40I don't know. File pricing, particularly in the UK, and also how the different SKUs with the
06:44different specs will be priced. Also battery life, what kind of an impact will that 4050 and these
06:49H series CPUs have in these form factors? Is it going to kill the battery life? But certainly
06:54worth keeping an eye on, and I will update the description and a pinned comment with pricing
06:57and availability when I know more, and I'll have my full reviews coming as soon as possible. But
07:01what do you reckon? Between the Swift Go, the Swift and the Swift X, which are you more excited
07:05for or none of the above? Let me know in the comments below. And if you did enjoy this video,
07:09a like and subscribe would be lovely. And I'll see you guys next time right here on the Tech Chat.