Who exactly is the Acer Swift 5 for?

The Swift 5 is one of the most portable laptops on the market. The company has a MacBook Air competitor. It's thin and light, it looks nice, and it's powerful for most office use cases.

Several Swift 5 models have been the same package. The thickness of the aluminum build is.9 inches. I couldn't for the life of me get the display to stay on one color profile, so I had to uninstall Bluelight Shield when I opened another app. The device is a step above the Swift 3 in build but also in price, and my test model is currently going for $1499 on the website.

See how we rate for more information.

This is on the Swift 5. I feel like I'm using a computer. The keyboard has solid back lighting and some nice gold accents. The Core i7 processor has made it easy for me to get my office work done.

• 14-inch IPS display, WQXGA 2560 x 1600
• Intel CoreTM i7-1260P 12-Core Processor, 2.1GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 up to 4.7 GHz
• 16 GB of onboard LPDDR5
• 1 TB PCIe Gen4 SSD, 16 Gb/s, NVMe
• 2.65 pounds (1.2kg)
• Two USB Type-C (USB4, Thunderbolt 4, USB charging), two USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 2.1, headphone/speaker jack, DC-in, Kensington lock slot
• Windows Hello fingerprint reader
• $1,499.99
• Mist Green

If it weren't for the battery life, I'd recommend this model for general ultraportable use. I only get around four and a half hours of consistent use before it dies, because I use this device at medium brightness for my daily office workload, and I only get 12-20 tabs a day.

I would expect a comparable MacBook Air to have three times the battery life of the Swift model. Ultraportables in the Windows space can give you better battery results, even if you aren't considering a MacBook. The Zenbook S 13 is cheaper and lighter than this machine, has a higher-resolution screen, and lasted me close to twice as long.

The battery life of the Swift 5 makes it difficult to sell, even though there are lots of other great things about the device. Premium laptops are not in that location.

Who should buy the Acer Swift 5?

The only people I think are a good fit for this computer are people who like the look and feel of the Swift line of computers. It doesn't pick up fingerprints easily and doesn't have a lot of flex in it's body. It is portable for its size even though it is not the lightest laptop on the market. It is slightly lighter than the MacBook Air.

If you like a smooth, silky, and firm touchpad, you may consider it. It is responsive with a loud and decisive click, which is hard to find as laptops get thinner. The touchpad is made of ocean-bound plastic waste, which is nice, though a sustainable laptop should be more power- efficient than this one.

Swift fans can consider the Swift 3. I have a model of this one in my queue to review, and it appears to have good battery life per early reviews. The Swift X looks a bit more like the Swift 3 than the Swift 5, but it's still more powerful than an ultraportable.

Outside of the Swift-stan category, I am hesitant to recommend this to anyone in particular with the battery life as it is. If you want a standard ultraportable that you can carry around and use in public, I worry that this one might die on you too quickly.

Not all customers will know to fiddle with profiles, lower the screen brightness, or adjust the resolution if they want to do this regularly. It is important for a laptop to work well out of the box, especially if it is targeting the mainstream consumer market.

• The letter keys are 0.63 x 0.63 inches with 0.06 inches between them. All keys are backlit. The Caps Lock key has an indicator light. The power button and volume keys are 0.6 x 0.25 inches. The keys are dark blue with gold text and take very little force to depress.
• The speakers reached an average of 71 decibels in my testing.
• The lid cannot be opened with one hand. It can be tilted back to 140 degrees.
• The touchscreen has 2560 x 1600 resolution and reaches 425 nits of brightness.
• The touchpad is 4.1 x 2.5 inches and takes firm force to depress.
• The Zenbook supports fingerprint login but not facial login.

• Windows 11 includes a built-in screen reader (Narrator). It supports third-party screen readers, including NVDA from NV Access and Jaws from Freedom Scientific. A full list of compatible software can be found on Microsoft’s website.
• Windows 11 supports voice typing (accessed by Windows + H) and speech recognition (toggled with Windows + Ctrl + S).
• Color Filters, including inverted, grayscale, red-green, and blue-yellow, can be toggled with Windows + Ctrl + C. Contrast themes are toggled with Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen. Standard Dark Mode and custom colors are also available under Personalization.
• Caption color and size can be customized and appear close to the bottom of the screen.
• The keyboard can be remapped with Microsoft’s PowerToys. Sticky Keys is supported. An on-screen keyboard is available.
• The cursor’s size and speed can be adjusted, and gestures can be remapped in Touchpad Settings.
• Windows 11 supports eye control with external eye trackers.
• Windows 11 includes a Snap Layout feature, accessed by hovering over the Maximize button on any open window.