I ’ve reexamine some impressive14 - column inch laptopslately . Some have been expensive , while others have been pretty affordable . So many have been awesome . But the late Acer Swift Go 14 is n’t one of them .

I mean , it ’s not a bad laptop computer . A couple of years ago , I would have recommend it , wart and all . It ’s reasonably fast , has decent battery life , and sports a pretty in force IPS video display . But that ’s just not enough powerful now . If you want to compete , you have to tender something exceptional — and the Swift Go 14 does not .

Specs and configurations

The Swift Go 14 comes in several models , and I ’m reviewing the SFG14 - 73 T model that ’s currently available at Acer ’s web store in two configurations . For $ 830 , you get a Core Ultra 5 125H chipset , 16 GB of RAM , a 512 GB SSD , Intel Arc nontextual matter , and a 14.0 - inch WUXGA IPS jury . For $ 950 , you get the same with a Core Ultra 7 155H.

A couple of years ago , those would be excellent prices for this course of machine . Today , Acer faces some stiff competition for around the same money . TheAsus Zenbook 14 Q425 , for exemplar , is $ 800 for the same base spec but with an OLED display and a more modern design ; on sales agreement , I ’ve seen that config for as scummy as $ 500 and the high - end modeling with selfsame specs to the Acer ’s $ 950 config at $ 800 .

That said , if you ’re a Costco member , you could get the Swift Go 14 with Core Ultra 7 , 16 GB of RAM , and a 1 TB SSD for $ 800 . That ’s a more attractive choice , give the extra storage it come with , but on sales agreement , the Zenbook is still a good simple machine for $ 800 .

Design

Somehow , the Swift Go 14 impress me as sort of an old - school 14 - column inch laptop computer . It has a eloquent chassis with black keys and prominent vents along the rear boundary . The display has jolly minute bezels but they ’re plastic rather than being set behind a solid objet d’art of spyglass . And , while the overall branding is subjugate , the bright “ Swift ” lightness on the touchpad stick out — maybe a little too much . It ’s not an untempting laptop , but theDell XPS 14and Asus Zenbook 14 Q425 still wield to come across as more contemporary .

The Swift Go 14 has a assorted build lineament . Its all - atomic number 13 chassis and lid balk bend , bend , and twisting for the most part . But it did n’t exhibit the sort of dense rigidity I ’ve amount to anticipate .

For example , the shape was the tiniest bit wobbly as I used it , with the right side sticking up just enough that I felt it hit my desktop when I opened the lid . Other laptop computer , like the XPS 1 , Zenbook , andApple MacBook Air M3 , feel more whole and , frankly , the Swift Go 14 just was n’t the same . That could have just been a flaw with my review article whole , but it did n’t give me the same sense of quality .

In terms of portability , the Swift Go 14 is in spades middle of the pack . It ’s moderately thin at 0.74 inches and light at 3.05 pounds . But the Zenbook 14 is sparse at 0.59 column inch and unclouded at 2.82 punt , and the XPS 14 is thinner at 0.71 inches but heavier at 3.7 hammering . And the MacBook Air   is fantastically flimsy at 0.44 column inch and light at 2.7 pounds , albeit with a slightly smaller display . Overall , the Swift Go 14 is reasonably easy to carry around .

Keyboard and touchpad

The Swift Go 14 ’s keyboard is very in effect , with little keycaps but lot of key spacing . Its switch are weak and snappy , with a comfortable bottoming action . I found it easier to get used to than the XPS 14 ’s zero - lattice keyboard and as good as the Zenbook 14 ’s , while a step behind the MacBook Air ’s . The keyboard includes the Microsoft Copilot key , but that ’s of questionable value give that it merely opens the cloud - base Copilot feature in Windows 11 .

The mechanical touchpad is magnanimous enough , and while I receive the bowel movement toward haptic touchpads on Windows laptops , that ’s still a mostly premium feature at this point . The problem here is that the Swift Go 14 ’s touchpad has very stiff button that are n’t abominably responsive . I receive myself either failing to register a click or double - clicking when I did n’t mean to . It was a thwarting experience all around . The Zenbook 14 ’s mechanical touchpad is much better , and the XPS 14 ’s and MacBook Air ’s haptic variant are even better yet .

The Swift Go 14 does have a ghost - enable showing by default , so that ’s a plus that is optional ( or unavailable ) on some other 14 - column inch laptops .

Connectivity

One positivistic old - school aspect of the Swift Go 14 is its more heroic connectivity . While laptop like the XPS 14 and MacBook Air have gone all - in on Thunderbolt 4 , the Acer includes a practiced admixture of modern and bequest connectivity . And the uncommitted Wi - Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 is about the most up - to - date wireless connectivity usable .

The webcam is also better than the contemporary standard , make out in at 1440p versus the more and more mutual 1080p standard . Acer build in several tools to raise videoconferencing quality , such as its AI - enable Temporal Noise Reduction . Acer also has its branded PurifiedView that works with Windows Studio consequence for automatonlike framing , innovative background fuzz , and gaze correction . Studio Effects can utilize the Neural Processing Unit ( NPU ) in the Meteor Lake chipset , which is also supported in a few apps like Gimp . So far , though , the NPU ’s welfare is limited .

Performance

By now , I ’ve review enough laptops with Intel ’s latest Core Ultra 7 155H to have a sense of their relative performance . The chipset run at 28 watts and has 16 cores ( six Performance , eight Efficient , and two Low Power Efficient ) and 22 threads . It ’s a very good performing artist for productiveness tasks , and its structured Intel Arc graphics are a footstep up from the pervious generation but still well slower than entry - degree discrete GPUs .

In our CPU - intensive benchmark , the Swift Go 14 was among the fast motorcar we ’ve test using the Core Ultra 7 . Its execution mode provided a meaningful encouragement , but the fan got quite loud during the most intensive bench mark . The bottom vents think of that you have to be careful of the surface the laptop is posture on , and the bottom of the material body got a morsel tender .

Its Intel Arc art were in the upper range of what we ’ve seen from the chipset , and that add to a higher grievance in the Creation portion of the PCMark 10 consummate bench mark and an overall gamey account .

While the lack of a discrete GPU choice holds the Swift Go 14 back in originative apps and games , the laptop is nevertheless an incredibly firm option for demand productiveness users .

Battery life

The compounding of a 65 - watt - hour battery and a FHD+ IPS presentation promise secure battery life . Laptops with the Core Ultra 7 have manifest assorted electric battery life-time , though , so I was n’t bear miracles .

In our web browse mental test , the Swift Go 14 managed around 11 hours , which is a comparatively inviolable showing for a 14 - inch laptop computer . The XPS 14 with its IPS display slay around 12 minute , while the Zenbook 14 Q425 was around 12.5 hour with an FHD+ organic light-emitting diode presentation . However , those are stronger rafts than some others that were closer to eight hour . The Swift Go 14 live for 12.5 hours in our trial run that loop a local picture , compared to the XPS 14 ’s 15 hr and the Zenbook ’s fantastically strong 18 hour . The MacBook Air has the good battery liveliness of them all . But again , most laptops we ’ve tested have been close to the Acer ’s score .

Overall , the Swift Go 14 had honorable but not great assault and battery sprightliness . It might make it through much of a day with a light work load , but there are no warrant .

Display and audio

The Swift Go 14 has one display option : a 14.0 - inch 16:10 IPS panel escape at FHD+ ( 1920 by 1200 ) settlement and 60Hz . That ’s a fine selection for battery life , but several other 14 - column inch laptop producer include OLED options and many at higher resolution .

Acer ’s option in jury was OK by IPS standard , according to my colorimeter . First , it was a burnished panel at 448 nit , following a trend toward much high brightness . Our banner for laptop displays used to be 300 nit , but I have n’t review a laptop in months that did n’t hit that baseline or much hopeful . The contrast was also excellent for an IPS display at 1,620:1 . Once gain , our stock contrast ratio , 1,000:1 , is low than has become the average . But the Swift Go 14 is competing against OLED displays , and those have virtually innumerable contrast and utter inkiness .

Colors were just fine at 99 % sRGB , 76 % AdobeRGB , and 76 % DCI - P3 . That ’s average for IPS displays and has n’t improved as much . The colors were also very accurate at a DeltaE of 1.23 ( less than 1.0 is study fantabulous ) . You ’ll find much panoptic colors on OLED show and Apple ’s IPS panels , and OLED ’s truth is much better .

Overall , I found the display more than good enough for productiveness function . It wo n’t please creators , and HDR performance was n’t cracking so media consumers wo n’t love it .

The audio is provided by two downward - firing speakers . They were okay for the episodic YouTube video and system voice . But for anything else , I highly advocate a pair of earpiece or an external speaker .

A laptop with too many flaws

The Swift Go 14 is a firm productivity laptop that ’s at the upper final stage of its Core Ultra 7 chipset . It has a good IPS display , but that ’s no longer a hard-core standard at these prices . And the keyboard and connectivity were very good . That makes it an OK laptop but one that does n’t really stand out .

The problem is that I found some flaw that make it hard for me to recommend it . First , the material body was wobbly , which progress to me question its overall build caliber . secondly , the touchpad was bad than most and uncomfortable to expend . The bottom wrinkle is that you’re able to opt some other laptops for the same or lower monetary value that are a circle proficient .