Customer Ratings & Reviews

I will start off with the TLDR summary by saying that, standing alone, without comparing this laptop to any other current competitor in this price range, I would absolutely recommend this as an entry-level laptop to buy in 2026 for most casual or basic users who are looking for a drama-free Windows laptop that is well built with many of the features that competitors try to skip out on this price range. The features I really appreciate at this price in a laptop are facial recognition for login (Windows Hello), a backlit keyboard, decent speakers, and a lightweight build WITH a solid metal chassis; they are all present in this laptop without compromise. The only limitation this laptop has is its non-user upgradeable 8GB of RAM, which is relatively low in 2026, but I can say confidently that any user who would think this is an issue probably isn’t even reading this review since they are likely filtering out to 16GB and above of RAM laptops anyways. Therefore, dear reader, if you are here and curious about this laptop, please read on. I will expand the review by just saying that I can tell Acer wants to take care of its customers with this laptop. The thoughtfulness of including a very nice and color matched laptop carrying sleeve is truly a very kind gesture and is perfect for the kind of folks I would suspect are going to be looking at this laptop, such as students on the go or seniors at home wanting to keep it safely tucked away for occasional use. Further evidence is in the many simple features of this lightweight laptop that just make it convenient for users of all ages. One such feature is the included USB-A port. I have relatives who always want to use the same USB-A wireless hub connected mouse they bought back in 2009 and other such legacy accessories, so I know folks like them will be pleased to find a compatible port on this laptop which is indeed remarkable on such a thin and lightweight device. The laptops’ two USB-C ports, located on the left, are both Thunderbolt 4 certified and are also both capable of charging the laptop. This is great since I do a lot of work off a USB-C connected Crucial SSD drive and having the speed and connectivity is great. The keyboard and trackpad of this laptop are both amazing. I am an avid Mac device user and I was able to transfer my same typing speed and comfort to this keyboard without hesitation. I must really praise Acer here. There is no weird layout, unneeded buttons, and all the laptop control keys like screen brightness and volume are on the top row and do not require holding down the Fn button to use by default. This is a win again for ease of use and I feel confident that I could put this laptop down in front of my 72-year-old luddite father and he would (begrudgingly) be able to use this keyboard without getting frustrated. The fact as stated above that it is backlit is also a serious win on such an inexpensive lightweight device. The trackpad is a typical glass springboard style trackpad but has accurate tracking and is the perfect size for this device. My medium-large male hands use this keyboard and trackpad fluidly together without any accidental track pad touches. Truly, high praise to Acer for this awesomely usable trackpad and keyboard combo! The screen of the laptop is lovely. I love that it is capable of 120hz refresh which smooths out everything from webpage scrolling to mouse tracking across programs. The laptop is capable of dynamic refresh in the windows settings, though, which can turn down the refresh to 60hz situationally to allow for increased battery life. The non-touch screen gets plenty bright for my needs and has very nice viewing angles with a screen that can go completely flat relative to the keyboard, meaning this would be as comfortable on the lap and knees of a student in their dorm room bed studying as placed on a plane seat tray flying cross-country. As for battery life, this laptop manages most excellent battery life in this configuration. I have conducted no formal tests, but I can say confidently than in my usual use case of a full day productivity session with typing, music listening, and web browsing at a coffee shop, I would not be concerned about bringing my charger with me if I left the house with the laptop fully charged. I would legitimately anticipate, utilizing battery friendly settings like 60Hz screen refresh, mid-low screen brightness, and power saver mode, that one could get into the low-teens for hours of use! Altogether, this may be one of my highest recommend laptops of the year for basic users. There just does not seem to be any meaningful compromises here that would detract from the users experience. I would be as confident and happy gifting this to a new college student doing a less computer intensive course of study (e.g., not engineering, computer science, etc.) or gifting it to a senior who is just looking for a comfortable device they can do basic computing on in 2026. This laptop gets a solid 5/5 stars from me for its balance of price to value and overall excellent usability. Bravo, Acer, and thanks for making a competitive and usable Windows laptop for everyday folks in 2026-2027!

The Acer Swift series offers a premium line to their on the go laptops. At a somewhat higher end price point the question you have to ask yourself, is this really worth it? Out of the box you get everything you need to get you started and one thing i will note is that this is actually a very well put together piece. I believe there are 3 different colors and i ended up with the sage green. The laptop has a nice aluminum built chassis with low profile backlit keys ensuring you can still wrap up any work you left to do in the darkest of nights. The laptop is weight and can easily be stored in a traveling case without ever feeling weighed down. The laptop does come equipped with a webcam and privacy shutter. Webcam picture quality is average so don't expect 4k quality however audio and mic noise canceling are remarkable. I have a house full of teenagers so it is always loud when they come home and there are days where i have to work from home. During my Google Meets calls not once did any of the background noise bleed through and that speaks volumes considering one of my kids had there friends down and they were being loud enough to fill a stadium. Now moving on to what your most likely going to be using this for. The laptop has 2 usb-c thunderbolt ports, audio jack and one usb type A port but no hdmi port. This is actually quite disappointing as i use that port quite often when presenting at work so i guess i will be having to buy an additional adapter if i wish to use this at work. Performance was also average at best. The intel core 5 does allow for adequate day to day work such light video editing or Google Meets, however bottle necking starts to become very apparent when deciding to live stream presentations while having to move between different applications. The 8gb of dedicated ram, (and yes you heard right, there is no upgrading that memory) is just not capable of keeping up with high paced task. One thing i want to note the box literally says "Play hundreds of high-quality games" which i think is hilarious considering it can barely handle the most basic of conference call live stream meetings. Here's my take away and my opinion before buying this. Are you looking for something to take on the go that's lightweight that you can take on a plane or bus that won't weigh you down? Grab it. Do you only do the most basic of functions like emails, google meets (with no presenting)? Grab it. Do you want something that you can also watch and stream high quality movies? Grab it. This laptop has no problems for some reason watching movies from netflix, however Hulu live has its moments. For me this laptop is not my go to. I want to be able to grab my laptop, head to work and not have to worry, did i bring all my adapaters? Or will i have issues when presenting today?

For me this laptop has the right combination of value and features. Home, school or work it’s a value priced laptop that didn’t break my checkbook. Setup is easy and seamless, with 512GB storage for a range of applications. Its lightweight and easy to carry around at under 3 lbs. In everyday use it’s the design details that I appreciated. A backlit keyboard with a great feel. A display that’s flicker free and low blue light levels. Audio quality that’s nice with 4 speakers. For video chats it has impressive AI noise canceling features. The background sounds were effectively cancelled. There are features that I typically look for that are missing. There are 2 USB C ports, and a USB A port. There is also an audio jack. It lacks an HDMI port. This might be a concern if you plan to use it for presentations. The 8GB of onboard memory is not upgradeable. If you’re into multi-tasking while watching videos or editing videos, the system can be a little slow. However, streaming online video, it handles very well. If you’re looking for a gaming laptop, this isn’t it. As a simple daily system for web browsing, business apps, email, this laptop does it all. For a student it works well. If traveling it’s an easy to lug companion. For everyday basic functions, this does hit the spot. If your serious about computing power, you’d do better to look at a more powerful system. It does compete favorably against similar priced systems from competitors.

I had high hopes for this laptop to be a solid mid range option for a laptop. Acer is a quality company but they fell short on this device. The Good: * The form factor is nice. It' a metal build so it is sturdy. The keyboard is responsive and the touchpad, while a bit loose, is nice as well. * The screen and resolution are good. It's a 2K laptop so the screen does show a quality picture. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to really test the screen because of..... The Bad: * SPEED! This laptop is laggy and slow. I wasn't to say up front that I do have 8GB which is a no-no these days. I assume with the memory crunch, this may have been a pricing decision (there may be a 16GB option available). The Intel Care 5 series is probably the biggest issue. I didn't use the AI features since it was so slow just doing simple web browsing. For a nesr $700 the speed is inexcusable. If it was around $300-$350 then it would be expected. I would not recommend this laptop at this price. If you could find it under $350 then it may be an option.