Customer Ratings & Reviews

great computer for college. Easy to use. Nice features.

I like it it works but it could be better with screen reader.

I couldn’t get this computer to hold the internet and it was really slow. I returned it and got a Lenovo which holds the internet fine and is very fast!

-=> Construction <=- The box is just plain cardboard, which is fine. There is a minimal amount of plastic in the packaging, so there is little that can’t be recycled. I would rather money go towards the insides instead of the packaging, which will just go in the trash, so this was a wise choice by Acer. The body of the computer itself is very well made, with minimal flex. The surface has a matte finish, and barely shows fingerprints at all, and it exudes a quality feel. Of note is that this is NOT a “convertible” in that it will not fold over into a tablet form factor. Of note is that the box also included a nice quality carrying case for the computer. This is a nice touch and very much appreciated. The box also included a USB-C to HDMI adapter, and that is necessary because the computer does not have a built-in HDMI port. -=> Peripherals <=- The keyboard is backlit (white only, with two brightness levels), and does not have a separate numeric keypad. The feel of the keyboard is about what is expected for a laptop in this price class. It is perfectly usable, but unremarkable. The power button is in the upper-right corner of the keyboard, right above the backspace key, and I have on occasion accidentally hit this button because of the placement. Not anything serious, but it should be noted. The touchpad is decently large, and works well. The only unusual thing is the lighted logo in the upper-right of the touchpad that starts pulsing when the “AI” core is active. The IO consists of two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports (which is the only way to charge or get video out), and one 3.5mm audio jack. There is no SD or micro-SD card slot present, which is somewhat unfortunate. The speakers also sound surprisingly good for a computer this size. The display is very good, at 2560 x 1600 at 120 Hz! It appears to be an LCD and not OLED, but it is still quite bright with a contrast ratio that appears excellent to my eyes. The downside is that an external display has to be connected via one of the two USB-C connectors, where the bandwidth appears to be somewhat limited. This computer can only drive an external 3440 x 1440 monitor at 60 Hz. There is the obligatory web camera along the top of the display. I am not a connoisseur of cameras, so I cannot judge the quality. However, the “AI” light was lit up on the touchpad when the camera was operating, so clearly something was being done to the image, but I could not see a difference. The camera also supports facial recognition under Windows, in addition to the fingerprint sensor built into the power button, so both methods of logging in are possible. -=> Performance <=- Here is where things begin to get complicated. This is among the first of a new generation of Windows computers featuring an ARM processor, and all of the good and the bad that this implies. The processor literally speaks a different “language” than the ones that previous Windows computers have used. There is a translation layer built into the software that allows older “x86” and “x64” software to work, but there are a few problems. A far better solution is to use the native ARM versions of your favorite software, but as of right now, much software has not been recompiled to use ARM, leaving you to use the translation feature. I tried several “x64” applications, and those generally worked as expected. However, there were problems when the code was not a simple application. For school I need to use VPN software called “GlobalProtect,” which refused to run properly. There is also a package called “Open Shell” that I use to replace the start menu built into Windows (it makes the start menu work like Windows 7), and this refused to install entirely. So, what do these problems mean? If you are going to stick primarily to common office-type stuff (web browsing, office suites, etc.) then this computer should work just fine. On the other hand, if you need to do something more unusual then you MAY have problems. Do a quick Internet search to see if the programs that you need are supported under ARM Windows. One of the claimed advantages of moving to an ARM processor is that this CPU is supposed to draw less power, allowing the battery to last longer. Others have reported that this laptop can get close to the twenty hour mark, but this was not my experience. My first test was to simply run a YouTube video. The screen was at around medium brightness, and the video playback was around ten hours using the Microsoft Edge browser, which certainly should have been running native ARM code. Next I spend some time installing software, and just trying to get the computer usable for school work (which failed, as I noted above). But my estimation of the battery life was once again at around 10 hours. Perhaps others have been doing less demanding tasks. Still 10 hours, while not remarkable, is entirely enough to get through a day. Speaking of the battery, I like to baby my computers and expect them to last a long time. One feature that appeared to be lacking is a way to limit the battery to only charge to around 80%. If you plug it in and wait long enough, the battery will charge to 100%, which is not ideal if you expect your computer to last for several years. -=> Software <=- One issue that I encountered is that this computer is pre-loaded with a bunch of useless software. The first is that McAffee anti-virus is included. In general, the antivirus built into Windows is adequate, light on resources, and free. Whenever I find McAffee, I immediately uninstall it. Also included are links to Dropbox and Booking.com. Finally, software called “Acer Jumpstart” seems to keep throwing up advertisements for cheesy games and Dropbox. For a machine in this price class, Acer getting a few extra pennies in exchange for pre-loading this useless software seems like petty money-grabbing and they should reconsider this policy. But, now, onto the headline feature. It has “AI!” What real advantage does this bring you? I have no idea. If you are the type of person who gets excited with new buzzwords, then this computer features AI! Wow. As for me, I don’t really have a compelling reason to use the AI part, especially the NPU (Neural Processing Unit). Few computers have a NPU, so not much software will support it for now. I suppose that as NPUs become more common, software to take advantage of it will come out. But as for now, the “AI” appears to be more hype than substance. Overall, this is a good computer, if your needs are simple. It holds the promise of powerful AI in the future, but software headaches for now.

Most people who've followed the attempts to start offering Windows ARM based PC's will tell you that it's been a rather frustrating road so far. While on paper it makes a lot of sense to push more mobile-friendly chip architectures for laptops every time someone's actually done it the push gets done in by limited developer enthusiasm, lackluster hardware options, and less than flattering price to performance ratios. I don't know for sure if machines like the Swift 14 AI are going to be remembered as the point where that finally changed - but after spending about a week with it I've come to the conclusion that it's definitely making a good case that it can work. Right out of the box, it becomes pretty clear that the Swift 14 is aiming to provide a premium experience rather than chasing cost effectiveness above all else and it works quite well. First, I want to talk about build quality. I've owned Acer laptops before and while I've never had many complaints, I never really considered them to be much better than "okay" in this area. The Swift 14 steps things up a fair bit. The case is sturdy, the keyboard firm, and the design has just the right mix of angles and curves. This is not something you need to worry about hauling around in a backpack or picking up fingerprints left and right. And unlike many so-called laptops, it's actually comfortable to use in your lap. The thermal management system does a great job keeping the CPU in check during normal use and it's surprisingly well balanced along the hinge - something I never really thought to look for until I realized I wasn't having to use my wrists and forearms to hold it in place when I didn't have a desk handy. When it comes to performance... well, that does get a bit more complicated. When using apps that were optimized for the Snapdragon X Elite CPU this thing is using, it was great. They are every bit as responsive and fast as you'd expect from a premium laptop. Best of all is the fact that it didn't have to run all out to get that performance, which meant less fan noise, less heat, and better battery life. But it definitely can't match that performance when you leave the ARM sandbox. I didn't come across anything that straight up wouldn't run, but there were a lot of cases where they ran badly enough that I wouldn't want to be using them on my laptop. Gaming, obviously, was a big one - with even older titles struggling to reach 20fps. I also encountered a lot of freezing with some of my older CAD software, which I doubt is getting a native ARM version any time soon. And while it worked great with the AI features that the chip was designed for, I don't feel like there's actually much value being added in having those yet. Now, to be clear, this isn't something that's necessarily going to be an issue forever. There's a surprisingly broad library of ARM native software all ready to go in the Windows store and it's getting larger. But it'll likely be a massive sticking point for anyone who relies heavily on legacy software that may not be getting as much support as it used to. As such even though it comes very close to being an excellent all-rounder, Right now I'd only really recommend it to people focused more on basic office productivity tasks and media consumption who need the improved portability features that come with it.

I’ve been using this laptop as my daily driver for a few days now and I have mixed emotions about it. Let’s start with the hardware then move onto the artificial intelligence features then wrap up with the Windows ARM experience. I like the look and feel of this laptop. Structurally it feels solid without feeling heavy and well balanced. The keyboard is a joy to type on, the backlit keyboard offers the right amount of illumination without the RGB special effects of gaming keyboards, and the trackpad is responsive to the touch. The screen looks wonderful, is touch-enabled, and the built-in web cam offers good performance for an integrated web cam. The only thing missing from the webcam is a built-in privacy shield, something Acer includes in other laptop models but is missing from this device. Another feature worth highlighting is that the laptop ships with Wi-Fi 7, something I recently upgraded to in my home. As to expansion, there are dual-USB-C ports and dual-USB-A along with an audio jack. The laptop supports DTSX audio through two built in speakers with remarkably clean audio quality which makes video consumption a pleasant experience. Overall, this is a great looking laptop. For the “cool” factor there is a Microsoft Copilot hardware key that when pressed triggers a geometric pattern on the trackpad to illuminate. It’s a nice touch and I think Microsoft is hoping that this new key becomes as popular as the Windows key, also included. This is the first laptop I’ve seen with an “ALT GR” key which Microsoft Copilot tells me is handy for typing alternative symbols, but when attempting to use this key on a US-English version of Windows 11 Microsoft Word seems to not understand that it’s supposed to do anything, but I chalk this up to Microsoft Word being word and not some defect with the keyboard. Which is as good a segway as any to talk about the artificial intelligence features. The Snapdragon X Elite CPU includes an NPU which for the most part never gets used. The laptop ships with Windows 11 24H2 and the sad truth is that unless you are developing A.I. there’s currently very little value to having an NPU. While having an NPU is likely to offer some level of future proofing to extend the lifespan of this device, at the moment the daily practical value is mostly non-existent which begs the question do you even need to buy a laptop that includes an NPU. I mean it can’t hurt to have it for some future state, but I would not pay extra for it. I asked Microsoft Copilot if the NPU gets used when Copilot is in use and it said no, at the moment all tasks are processed in the cloud. Microsoft Copilot expanded the conversation to tell me that “features like Microsoft’s CoPilot will soon run locally on PCs, leveraging the NPU for tasks such as natural language processing and real-time suggestions” but for the moment the NPU just idles by doing nothing useful. Windows 11 ARM edition is a far cry from Windows 11 x86 and even Microsoft still hasn’t figured out how to write their own application stack to work properly on ARM editions of Windows. For example the “New Outlook” is unable to even launch on this device, telling me that there’s an error installing Microsoft WebView2 Runtime. Third party apps like the Epic Games Launcher download and run but their installers error out suggesting the installation is interrupted but in reality everything installed properly. I think some of this is just Windows 11 24H2 is so new and on so few devices the vendors are all playing catchup to fix their software for what until now has been a very limited use case of running Windows on ARM. In short, the Windows software experience on this laptop feels like you are running Beta software, yet still running remarkably quick. When I asked Microsoft CoPilot what other tasks would leverage the NPU it offered image and video processing with apps like Photoshop, Gaming, or Security technologies like faster facial recognition, but on a practical day-to-day basis I see none of this having an impact on anything I use a Windows device for. And short of running an NPU benchmarking tool just to see if the NPU was functioning, which it is by the way, it’s just one more thing that at the present time offers zero benefits. A year from now; who knows, having an NPU might change my world, but by then I’ll likely have a new laptop anyway. In closing, from a hardware perspective this is a very nice high quality ARM-based Windows laptop that I think most casual Windows users will enjoy. For the rest of us I think sticking with an x-86 based Windows device is going to offer a better software experience for the time being.

To begin w/ I have never owned a Acer product so I don’t have any comparison that I could share as apples to apples so to speak. That being said there are a lot of things that I really like about this computer. First and foremost Acer does a great job of packaging this product, and to me that is impressive. I like the fact that on the power cord they have attached a Velcro “tie” that when you need to transport the laptop you don’t have to have the cord going everywhere. I was also pleasantly surprised that they include a portfolio type carrier to place the laptop in if you do have to transport it or carry it w/ you. As far as the function of the computer I was also pleasantly surprised. I love the weight of this laptop it’s just the “right size”. The computer was very easy to setup and install several programs that I use throughout my day. I really love this keyboard on this laptop, the keys are very responsive and the backlighting is very helpful. The one item that I truly like about this Acer - Swift 14 AI laptop is the touch-screen. It is very responsive and it helps so much. The display is bright, clear and the colors are comparable to another laptop that I own that is very high end. This is a very well made laptop that I’m certain I will enjoy. I would recommend this laptop to anyone that is in the market for one.

The Acer Swift 14 AI Copilot laptop is a very nice PC for work or school. The Swift 14 is built very well and feels super premium while using it. The screen is beautiful and crisp, and the touch screen capability is a big bonus! Setting this PC up will take a bit of time. I had a bunch of updates to install and it took about an hour in total. Once you get everything setup, everything works wonderfully. The Snapdragon X Elite processor is very snappy and provides a smooth experience. Copilot was a pretty decent experience. It works well if you are doing simple things like getting a recipe, need help with homework or basic informational inquiries. Copilot’s speech and response seems pretty seamless and was a pleasure to use. It would be nice if Copilot could do more advanced functions like turn certain settings on and off. It shows you how to do these things but can’t actually execute. Maybe in the future. Overall, the Acer Swift 14 AI laptop has been great. Works very well, is smooth and Copilot is a nice assistant to have. Definitely recommend!

Amazing product came packaged and protected well came with everything I would need plus more. Doesn’t have a dedicated graphics cards so computer won’t holdup with physics simulations or video games but very good other than that.