Intel’s Lunar Lake processors, with their integrated memory, had the potential – real or imagined – to bring PC speeds up to new heights, as well as shake up the Windows laptop market. Unfortunately, being a one-off, the form factor has been proven to be an ephemeral one. That, by extension, also applies to the laptops that come with said processors. Which brings us to the Acer Swift 14 AI.
Probably being the only generation of its kind, alongside the recently reviewed ASUS Zenbook S14, it shows hints of what could have been. Although unfortunately, whether or not you think it had shown real signs of new heights depends on what you’re looking for in a laptop.
Specifications
Looks & Functionality
As a laptop that’s not specifically being marketed for the gaming crowd, the Acer Swift 14 AI has a fittingly subdued and unassuming look to it. That’s not to say it has no defining feature on the outside, since the company has added its AI activity indicator to not only the lid, but also the track pad. The latter one lights up when the laptop is engaging the NPU of the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V is being engaged.
Beyond that, the company’s branding, and a key that specifically launches the Acer Care Centre on the keyboard, there’s not much else that helps distinguish the Acer Swift 14 AI from the rest. That being said, the 14-inch form factor has been a personal favourite for the longest time, as it allows the laptop to fit most bags with little issue, if any at all. On paper it weights 1.26kg, but in hand the good weight distribution makes it feel lighter than that.
Contributing to the lightweight build is its aluminium chassis, but while the rest of the laptop’s body feels plenty sturdy, you can still see some flex on the lid and screen if you go out of your way to do it. Minus the power button, the keyboard on the Acer Swift 14 AI features the standard fare chiclet keys, albeit a little on the stiff side when it’s brand new. Typing is still comfortable enough that even if you’re in for some long-haul typing, you won’t particularly feel any additional discomfort.
It should also be mentioned at this point that the Acer Swift 14 Ai is pretty thin, though it’s probably something you’d expect from no-gaming laptops these days. In terms of available ports, it is doing better than some of the others out there, though not by much. In total, you get an HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A 3.2 ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. This leaves you with just enough for an external screen, keyboard, and mouse, with one more port for charging and one last extra for when you need to plug in an external device.
Underneath, you’ll see that the Acer Swift 14 AI comes with down-firing speakers on both sides. As an aside, and probably the least important thing to note on the laptop, it has pretty stiff and aggressive-looking feet.
Performance & Battery Life
As a work machine, the Acer Swift 14 AI does just about all that one can ask for. Beyond the initial setup process and the first Windows update, the user experience is smooth and snappy. Naturally you won’t be running into any issues when processing documents. You can even have videos playing in the background and your experience won’t feel a difference in terms of responsiveness.
Of course, if you want it to keep going for longer, you’ll have to cut some of that back and lock in on just what’s necessary. While I didn’t manage to get the laptop to last the 29 advertised hours, locking it in energy saving mode the whole time got me about 15.5 hours, which is more than a full work day as it is. The battery is rated at 65Wh, with the provided charger providing a fitting 65W output.
Probably worth mentioning at this point is the screen on the Acer Swift 14 AI that I was loaned for this review. It’s a WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) 16:10 60Hz screen with a hinge that allows it to lie 180 degrees flat. It is an OLED screen, with HDR as you’d probably expect, which is nice for passive content consumption.
Emphasis on the word passive though because while you can game on the Acer Swift 14 AI to some degree, it’s probably not your first choice if you can help it. It does pack Intel’s Arc 140V GPU, but running Warframe on low settings for example sees framerates fluctuating pretty wildly and often abruptly between 30fps and 60fps. While it does tilt towards the top end more often than not, it’s simply not stable enough for it to be a comfortable enough experience, unless you cap the framerate at 30fps instead. This is despite its synthetic benchmark scores being very much comparable to its closest competitor, which we’re just getting to.
Competition
ASUS Zenbook S14
On the surface, the ASUS Zenbook S14 is the same laptop as the Acer Swift 14 AI, but made by a different brand. Of course, the despite the internals being mostly similar, the Zenbook is quite a bit pricier at RM6,999. One key difference here though is that the Swift gets you 512GB of storage space while you get 1TB with the Zenbook. Then there’s also the display resolution, which is 2,880 x 1,800 resolution and 240Hz compared to the Swift’s 1,920 x 1,200 60Hz.
Conclusion
On one hand, the Acer Swift 14 AI boasts spectacular battery life in a practical sense, even if it’s only slightly over half of the advertised rate. This can probably be chalked up to the Intel Lunar Lake CPU, which isn’t sticking around, for better or worse.
And in general use, it will more than serve you fine. But you’ll unfortunately run into some major hiccups when you try to put its gaming prowess to the test. So while it is technically possible, the experience is so inconsistent that you’re probably better off not doing it. Unless of course, you cap frames at 30fps as mentioned
Seeing as its graphical performance is quite limited to begin with, and that any higher resolution than WUXGA is kind of wasted on a 14-inch display, the Acer Swift 14 AI is kind of in a sweet spot. You’re not paying for a higher pixel density that you won’t realistically utilise, with a similar argument for refresh rates higher than 60Hz. This means that, in terms of bang for your buck, you can argue that this laptop is about as good as it gets.
