The ultrabooks sector has advanced rapidly in recent years motivated by this sector of consumers who want laptops that really are. In addition, the ultrabooks have advanced hand in hand with the ultra low power processors, which have been rising notably power, also becoming more versatile for use in a professional environment.
The Acer Swift 7 model is one of the last additions to this sector, aimed at those who want a lightweight equipment but that can be used without problems in everyday tasks and presuming thinness less than one centimeter thick.
Features and design
The design of the Swift 7 is made of aluminum, with a lid in black with matte finish and the rest of the body in gold. When you leave it on the table, you will see a pair of lights that indicate if the computer is on – blue if it is on standby or intermittent orange if it is hibernated – and another if it is charging. The lid is raised by two hinges on the sides.
The screen of the equipment is of 13.3 inches with resolution FHD and is of IPS type with finishing in brightness of a great quality of color. It has a good reproduction of colors, although the colors are noticed slightly off, but the quality of the screen is very high.
The screen has a lot of frame, which slightly affects the appearance of the notebook. Not so much for its top and sides, which can be considered as a normal frame size pulling to a little broad, but rather by its bottom. They are almost 3 cm frame at the bottom, which makes it look like the 13.3-inch screen is even smaller than it is.
Despite this, it is a laptop with an excellent design. It is made of golden aluminum with a lid made of matte black, with very attractive trim, and draws attention to its lightweight, 1.1 kg, and its thickness, 9.98 mm. This makes an ultrabook that you can easily take anywhere, and surely draw the attention of those who may want a lightweight and good design.
| ACER SWIFT 7 | |
|---|---|
| PROCESSOR | Core i7-7Y75, 1.3 to 3.6 GHz, 2 cores / 4 threads, 4.5 W of TDP |
| GRAPH | Intel HD 615 at 1.05 GHz |
| MEMORY | 8 GB, LPDDR3-1866 |
| SCREEN | 13.3 “, 1920 x 1080 px. IPS, Finish Gloss, Gorilla Glass |
| STORAGE | SSD 256 GB SATA3 |
| PORTS | 2x USB 3.1 type C (5 Gbps) |
| CONNECTIVITY | Wi-Fi 2×2 802.11 ac MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.1 |
| BATTERY | Li-Po 2770 mAh battery, 45 W power supply |
| DIMENSIONS | 324.6 x 9.98 x 229.6 mm |
| WEIGHT | 1.12 kg |
| ADDITIONAL FEATURES | 2 Mpx webcam, 3.5 mm connector. |
| PRICE | 1399 euros |
The processor that Acer has included in this notebook is the Core i7-7Y75. It is an ultra low consumption model, with a TDP of 4.5 W, and configurable with a drop down to 3.5 W at the manufacturer’s decision for systems that are even more limited as far as their cooling. It is two physical or four logical cores, with frequencies between 1.3 GHz and 3.6 GHz. It is not a processor that will be good to be working continuously, and will reach or maintain the turbo frequency of 3.6 GHz only at specific times. It has 8 GB of LPDDR3 memory at 1866 MHz, which is suitable for the power of the notebook.
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The graphics integrated in the processor is an Intel HD 615, which operates at a base frequency of 350 MHz and a turbo of 1050 MHz. It is an integrated graphics card of the most modest for notebooks, but it can output signal to 4K.
The keyboard of the laptop is membrane type, but without any differentiating feature and is not backlit. The main current in this type of equipment is to include keys with actuation distances as small as possible, and in Swift 7 they have a normal height. Even so, in this case the keys are very comfortable and pleasant to press, and do not make too much force to press them.
In the section of the touch panel, it works quite well and is accurate, and above all nice to use and has a good feel. It has an elongated shape, and the entire touchpad is tactile, so it can be configured seamlessly to recognize the right and left click gestures. Pressing it requires a bit more force than would be ideal for someone who is more accustomed to it, but in general it is a fairly good touch panel and responds well to what is usually seen in Windows notebooks.
As good ultrabook in the times, to reduce its thickness, Acer has chosen to dispense with the USB type rectangular connectors for smaller USB Type C. It includes two of them type USB 3.0, one of which can be used to recharge and to connect an external monitor. It also has a 3.5 mm audio jack, and that’s all it has in the connectors.
ACER Swift 7 Performance and Software
By using an ultra-low-power chip, Acer is targeting this notebook neatly to be used for light work, office type, presentations and basic editing. As for processing, it has a bit more power than the Core i7-6500U of 15 W of TDP, although in the section of graphic performance is not too high, but sufficient. There is also not much power from the Core i7-7500U, although it is not a processor to perform heavy workload. The passive refrigeration system would not allow this either.
It continues to serve to play simple titles, such as World of Warcraft or League of Legends , but to low grades if you want to reach 60 FPS, although you can gain some quality by lowering the screen resolution. In the most modern titles it is almost impossible to play them properly even to the minimum of resolution and level of detail.
| SWIFT 7 | CORE I5-6200U | CORE I7-7500U> | CORE I7-6500U | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CINEBENCH R15, CPU | 160 cb | 262 cb | 333 cb | 312 cb |
| CINEBENCH R15, OPENGL | 17.1 FPS | 32.1 FPS | 47.1 FPS | 38.9 FPS |
| PCMARK 8, HOME | 3021 | 2772 | 3438 | 2907 |
| PCMARK 8, CREATIVE | 3409 | 3176 | 3922 | 3497 |
| PCMARK 8, WORK | 3853 | 3587 | 4295 | 3798 |
The Swift 7 has pre-installed several Acer applications to try to provide certain utilities that may be of help to certain users. They are not too many, so do not occupy too much space of 256 GB available to the computer.
It has the Quick Access application to change the color temperature – a typical application type in this type of equipment – Care Center to keep the drivers and applications of the computer updated, and Recovery Management for the situation where the computer does not start. It also has preinstalled some common applications on notebooks such as Candy Crush Soda Saga or Netflix, which can be uninstalled if they are not to be used just like the rest of Acer software.
Display, USB Type C and Storage
The screen of the Swift 7 is 13.3 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, and has a high quality. It has good viewing angles and easily reaches 350 nits maximum brightness. The screen has a gloss finish that can make it difficult to use in certain conditions, such as outside or indoors depending on what lighting is around where it is due to reflections. As a side note, the screen has a Gorilla Glass protection layer.
The equipment has USB video output type C, so you can give a little more mixed use in and out of the house, gaining the convenience of connecting it to a normal monitor, keyboard and mouse. On this connector, the data transfer is made to USB 3.1 Gen. 1, which is generally known as USB 3.0. Acer has included a USB type C to USB type A converter with the laptop, although some type of multiple adapter with some additional HDMI input and USB type A would not have been wrong.
In the storage section, the computer has a 256 GB SSD SATA3 type, with speeds suitable to what can be expected from this type of storage. It has 531 MB / s of sequential reading and 241 MB / s of random reading, which are correct values. Perhaps it might have been desirable to include a PCIe-type SSD, but on a day-to-day basis there is not much difference between the two types, and the inclusion of a PCIe would have potentially generated more heat inside the computer, so Acer’s choice seems Correct.
Temperatures, autonomy and noise
The Swift 7 ultraportable only includes passive cooling, so the noise section is not a problem. Its processor has a TDP of just 4.5 W, and are chips that can also be used in thin tablets. The heat in the housing is below 40°C, and concentrated in the area above the keyboard, so it does not become a problem. Neither is the heat in the lower area, and you can use the laptop without problems in the lap. In this respect, it is a magnificent laptop.
This ultrabook has a battery of 41.58 Wh, and the terrain of autonomy is a point where it stands out. By continuously reproducing video clips of YouTube – which implies a continuous use of the wifi – with a brightness calibrated around 180 nits, the autonomy exceeds eight hours. Acer promises a great autonomy for this laptop and in practice it complies.
If you are doing a heavier job that makes more intensive use of the CPU or GPU, it is below four hours of autonomy, which goes reasonably well, whereas if it were used continuously at full load it would not reach The two hours – a space that will be very unusual. The charger is 45 W and allows fast charging through the USB connector type C, allowing it to be recharged in less than two hours.
The world’s thinnest ultrabook
Acer has presented an ultrabook that is excellent for the target audience. That audience is those users who want a light equipment, that does not have problems with the daily tasks and can work at ease with the laptop, with a quiet operation. This last section is assured since there is no fan, and there are very few laptops of this type.
It is a fine and elegant ultraportable, improving the aspect of the design in terms of the use of the screen as are other companies in their ultrabooks, but still attractive and good design. It has a good autonomy with a low recharge time, so it will be difficult to run out of battery.
It is a very complete team for those who want to take advantage of what it offers and incorporate it into their daily life. Share more features with a tablet than with other laptops and ultrabooks, as it does not heat or make noise. Because it does not have much competition in this sector, and the one that has ventilators or have other deficiencies, the laptop can be expensive even if it has no alternatives. There will always be heavier and more expensive laptops with better prices, but this is for those who want an ultraportable that is truly in all aspects, performance, temperatures, thickness and noise.