Though the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) that we will talk about is from last year, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad option today. In fact, considering that the new Acer Swift 3 is available with the newer 12th gen Intel processor, it has allowed the last year’s Acer Swift 3 to drop in price.
Making it a great budget option for someone who wants excellent performance and premium build quality without breaking the bank. However, that certainly doesn’t mean that the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) is free from flaws, which we will discuss later.
Design & Build Quality
In the typical $500-$600 range, it’s hard to find a laptop with a premium built quality. Mostly you will find laptops that use a plastic body, and at most use a metallic lid like the HP 14-inch laptop. Acer usually doesn’t do that and provides a premium body even to its budget devices like the Acer Aspire 5. And being a premium laptop, the Acer doesn’t compromise on the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) either.
The Swift 3 features a smooth and simple silver metallic finish consistently carried out throughout the whole body of the Swift 3, from the minimal lid to the keyboard deck. Though a bit of flex can be noticed, it’s nothing concerning. Overall the Swift 3 feels solid thanks to the rigidity provided by its magnesium and aluminum body. It doesn’t weigh much either, coming at 1.2Kg, which is pretty much the same as the current 2022 model and the previous 2020 model.
The Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) hasn’t changed much in thickness from the previous model, measuring around 0.63 inches. It has shrunken a bit in width by 0.85 inches and increased in length by 0.81 inches, which makes the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) 12.71 x 8.35 x 0.63 inches, which is completely fine and acceptable for the 14-inch laptop.
I/O & Ports
On the left side, we have a USB C 3.2 port that only supports file transfer and does not support Power Delivery or Displayport, HDMI 2.0 port, and a USB 3.2 Type-A port along with the charging port. We have a USB 2.0 port, a combo audio jack, and a Kensington lock on the right side.
On the Wireless side, the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) comes with WiFI 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. Overall the Swift 3 got you covered in basic I/O that can get the job done without requiring you to carry a dongle daily. Though we would have loved it if the USB C port supported charging then, it would have been possible for you to carry a single charger for your phone and your laptop.
Keyboard & Touchpad
Keyboard
The keyboard on the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) is excellent for those who go on long typing sessions. This could be a student writing a thesis or a programmer writing code. The typing experience is pleasant thanks to the well-spaced out keys that have medium travel that actuates fairly easily. This allows you to type faster and smoothly without putting too much strain on your fingers.
And it features a backlit one too. Allowing you to type away with ease in the dark without making mistakes. Though the keyboard lacks a Numpad which is common in 14-inch laptops, so if you are someone who plays with numbers a lot, then you should consider buying something like the Lenovo Ideapad 3, which features a full Numpad. Though you will be sacrificing a little bit on performance so, keep that in mind.
We should also mention that below the keyboard on the right side is a fingerprint reader supporting Windows Hello recognition. So the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) got you covered on the biometric verification side.
Touchpad
The touchpad does a fine job tracking movement accurately, and the surface feels nice and smooth. The left and right click buttons are located on the touchpad’s lower side, offering very nice clicky feedback. The Touchpad also supports all the Windows gestures of pinch and zoom, along with the ability to scroll.
Webcam & Speakers
Webcam
The 720p webcam is what you would come to expect. It does a fine job in a well-lit room, but despite that, it produces washed colors and lacks sharpness, while in a dark room, it has a grainy image quality. Unlike a Lenovo laptop, this does not feature a privacy shutter nor supports Windows Hello facial recognition.
Speakers
The speakers are not bad and stand up well against the competition. They have a decent amount of bass with clear mids. This makes them fine for watching a youtube video or listening to an online lecture however don’t intend to listen to any music on this. You are better off using headphones for that.
Display
The display is where the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) shines. If you are someone who wants a laptop with an excellent color-accurate display, then this laptop is something you gotta look at.
The Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) 16:9 1080p display is color accurate, covering 99% of sRGB while also covering 78% of Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color gamut. This makes the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) perfect for a graphic designer on a budget who wants a color-accurate display budget. Allowing you to work on your Photoshop and Illustrator projects with ease.
However, there’s a catch. Despite getting the full marks in color accurately, the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) 1080p display fails miserably when it comes to brightness. Maxing out at around 250 nits, the display is dim and unsuitable in any daylight environment. We especially advise against using it outdoors during broad daylight as you would barely be able to see the screen.
Specs & Performance
CPU
The Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) packs in a Ryzen 7 5700u, an 8 core 16 threads processor that can boost up to 4.2Ghz. This is significantly faster than the previous and 11th gen Intel Swift 3 models offered alongside the Ryzen 5700u one. This is quite clear by taking a look at the benchmarks. The Ryzen 7 5700u annihilates the Core i7 1165G7 in Geekbench. Scoring 1430 in the single-core, 24% faster than the i7, and 4320 in the multi-core, 40% faster.
And it doesn’t end there either; In Cinebench, the Ryzen 7 5700u leaves the Core i7 1165G7 in the dust by scoring 1470 in the single core score, beating the i7 by almost 20% whereas it scores 8880 in multi-core, beating the i7 by staggering 50%. It’s quite clear that buying the Intel version is a waste of money.
Apart from the usual web browsing and working on Word documents, the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) would slay in CPU-heavy workloads such as code compiling or video rendering. So if you are a programmer looking for a machine to code or a video editor to edit light projects, you can’t go wrong with the Swift 3.
GPU
Considering that the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) is not a gaming laptop, it doesn’t feature a dedicated GPU. Instead, it has Radeon RX Vega 8 integrated graphics. So the ability for you to game on this laptop is quite limited.
However, the Radeon APU can run all the eSports games like CS GO, Fortnite, Dota 2, and Valorant at constant 60FPS if you turn down the graphic settings to medium or low. But don’t think of playing demanding titles like Far Cry 5 or Red Dead Redemption 2 as it would bring the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) to its knees.
Battery Life
The 57Wh battery in the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) is nothing but impressive. You can comfortably forget about bringing a charger with you when you are on the go, thanks to its 10-11hrs of excellent backup on casual use. This includes browsing the web or working on word documents and spreadsheets. The battery life will fall quickly if you do anything demanding, like render a video or compile code. So if your use case includes intensive CPU usage, we recommend carrying the charger with you.
Expandability and Upgradability
The Acer Swift 3 kinda sucks in the upgradability department. Our unit’s 8GB RAM is soldered, and there’s no way to upgrade it. This is disappointing, considering this laptop is perfect for any video editing or coding application because of the speedy Ryzen processor. But that would be held back by its limiting 8GB RAM.
However, if your use case only includes web browsing and working on word documents and spreadsheets, then you would be just fine with the 8GB RAM.
On the storage side, it doesn’t have a secondary M.2 SSD slot either. However, it comes with a replaceable 512GB SSD. So if you need additional storage down the line, you can easily replace the SSD, though keep in mind that you would have to reinstall Windows too.
Conclusion: Is Acer Swift 3 AMD variant worth it?
Suppose lack of upgradable RAM and a dim display isn’t an issue for you. In that case, we can safely recommend you to go with the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) thanks to the Ryzen 7 5700u that makes daily tasks feel extremely snappy and fast while dominating in multi-threaded workloads. While also great for occasional creative work thanks to its color-accurate display, all are securely inside its premium metallic chassis. Overall, the Swift 3 (SF314-43-R2YY) is one of the best laptops for those under a budget.
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