It was IFA 2016 when Acer announced their new lineup of laptops called the Swift series, along with it includes the new world’s thinnest laptop at only .39 inches or 0.998 cm. Announced late November 2016 here in the Philippines, we are currently in the process of reviewing the unit and here is our first impression + unboxing.
Now laptop boxes aren’t that much-paid attention, but Acer follows though the impression of you should treat your laptop same as you love your smartphone. The box is all black with matte lamination, texts are printed in Acer’s gold color saying Swift 7 at the front.
Upon opening the box, you’ll be front with the Swift 7 immediately. Lifting the laptop out will reveal another layer for the USB Type-C charger, USB-Type C HDMI and USB adapters and papers for the quick-start guide and manual.
The Swift 7 only has one color which is black and gold, we love the matte black finish of the device along with the gold finish through the keyboard. Black and Gold is still one of the color combinations that can bring a corporate image and upbeat look at the same time.
Upon opening the Swift 7, you’ll encounter the 1st problem. Its hinges are strong enough for its weight unfortunately, you will need two hand operation to open the lid.
Opening the lid welcomes you to a 13.3″ Corning Gorilla Glass 4 panel, this impression is good for us as the lid literally bends under pressure. Having an extra protection for the glass is an assurance for us, though it’s a glossy screen but not touch screen enabled.
On the right there is only a small hole for lanyards to insert, probably a neat feature if you want to secure your laptop (though it defeats the purpose of being really mobile).
On the right are the only ports available for the laptop, 2 USB Type-C (Non-thunderbolt) connectors and a 3.5mm audio jack. Still 1 more than the Macbook of Apple, but we wished there is a SD card slot even on the other side.
Powering up the Swift is a delight, with the usual Windows 10 startup we just entered our account and we were ready to go. Gone were the days where you have to personalize each and every settings.
The Swift 7 is really light at only 2.28 pounds or 1.12kg, it’s even lighter than our current ultrabook ZenBook UX305LA at 1.4kg. The key in Acer’s thinnest is it’s processor it’s packing an Intel Core i5-7Y54 CPU which is fanless along with 256GB SATA SSD Storage and 8GB LPDDR4 RAM.
Keyboard is a bit shallow at the side, along with its giant trackpad. Now we were a bit surprised with the touchpad having a giant footprint, but since this is more of a work station we think it is good that the aspect ratio is the same as the screen.
Problem No.2 – Function keys are inverted, shortcut functions are by default. This means you need to press fn + the corresponding F1, F2, F3 to use it. It’s inverted that the usual FN + F1 for sleep, now this is a problem to us as we are a keyboard shortcut junkie especially rename (F2), refresh(F5) and full screen(F11). A week into using the laptop we are still doing mistakes as adjusting the settings is far less to happen than using the function keys.
Problem No.3 – The trackpad may be big but it’s still buggy, we really hate a trackpad with no palm rejection software. While the Swift 7 has one, it’s not working all the time…somehow our palm still being detected and seriously annoying as the cursor jumps.
Note : As of Dec 15, 2016 there is no update for the trackpad for this problem.
Acer claims that the Wireless solution on the Swift 7 is 3x better than previous configuration. Powered by WiFi 802.11ac it’s able to get more signals especially the 5Ghz band signal, in our experience, this is true as we can get a better signal in certain parts of our house.
Battery life of the Acer Swift 7 is rated at 9 hours by the company, in our experience, we get a solid 6 hours of use before reaching 10%. Though our experience was a bit intense with Chrome having 15+ tabs, full brightness and casual photoshop for editing photos. We think this laptop can reach 9 hours with all-day browsing, low brightness and light usage scenario.
Using the included adapters is a love and hate relationship, while Type-C is just starting to be adapted in PC’s we think it’s a good move to remove all clutter from the laptop. That’s why we have this thinness in the first place anyways, cause all ports can be consolidated into one. We just wished Acer could have provided a special case / sleeve for this laptop to complete the package.
Priced at Php64,999 the Acer Swift 7 is available now for purchase. We aren’t done yet with our full review but for our first impressions, this laptop can be your everyday work driver if you aren’t using any intense applications such as video editing, large format photo editing or gaming.
Plus Acer partnered with New Balance to bring a special bundle until Dec 31, 2016. Just by any Acer Swift series from Swift 3, 5, and 7 to get a New Balance voucher worth Php5,000.
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