The new Acer Swift 5 is NOT the world’s lightest 14″ notebook

Acer has introduced its latest lineup of products at its next@Acer 2019 global press event in conjunction with IFA 2019. One of the interesting products that caught my attention was the new Acer Swift 5 that’s running on the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors and it even comes with Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics.

According to Acer, the Swift 5 maintains the world’s lightest 14″ notebook title. But the problem is, it isn’t.

The new notebook uses a combination of magnesium-lithium and magnesium-aluminium alloys for greater weight reduction. It weighs just 990 grams and has a thickness of just 14.95mm.

Despite its lightest claims, their current Acer Swift 7 that also comes with a 14″ Full HD display is actually 100 grams lighter. It weighs 890 gram and it’s also thinner too at 8.98mm. Of course, in terms of performance, the Swift 7 is a step back as it runs on older Intel 8th gen Core i7-8500Y and Core i5-8200Y processors. On top of that, the Swift 7 also carries a higher price tag of RM5,699 for the base Core i5 variant with 256GB of storage.

Putting the weight contest aside, the Acer Swift 5 is still an impressive workhorse for a notebook that weighs less than a kilo. It has a 14″ Full HD IPS touch-screen that boasts a screen-to-body ratio of 86.4% thanks to its 3.97mm narrow bezel at the sides.

The new Swift can be configured with up to Intel Core i7-1065G7 (U-Series) and up to a maximum of 512GB PCIe Gen 3×4 SSD storage. On a full charge, it is rated to last up to 12.5 hours of battery life. It even supports fast charge and Acer claims you can get up to 4.5 hours of usage from a quick 30-minute charge.

As expected with the latest 10th gen processor, it also supports dual-band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) and Thunderbolt 3 via USB-C. For quicker access with greater security, the Swift 5 also supports Windows Hello via a fingerprint sensor.

According to Acer, the Swift 5 will be available in EMEA in September starting at EUR 899 (about RM4,157) and in North America in November with a starting price of USD 899.99 (about RM3,778). It will also go on sale in China in Q3 starting at RMB 7,499 (about RM4,402).

Related reading