Acer Swift 13.5" 3 Review

So you're looking for a laptop that disappears into your bag and doesn't weigh you down. The Acer Swift 3 is built for exactly that. It's a 1.2kg featherweight with a 13.5-inch screen, and that compact design lands it in the 94th percentile. This thing is made for slipping into a backpack and carrying all day without a second thought.

Who is it for? Honestly, it's a solid pick for students or anyone who needs a basic, portable machine for notes, web browsing, and streaming. The 3:2 aspect ratio screen is taller than normal, which is great for scrolling through documents or web pages. And with a claimed 14-hour battery life, it should get you through a full day of classes or work without hunting for an outlet.

What makes it interesting is the package. For around $615, you're getting a thin-and-light with a sharp 2K touchscreen, Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 6. It's an Intel Evo model, which is Intel's stamp of approval for good responsiveness and instant wake from sleep. It's not a powerhouse, but it promises a polished, no-fuss experience for everyday tasks.

Let's talk about what's under the hood. The Intel Core i7-1165G7 is a few generations old now. Its performance percentile is 18th, which tells you it's towards the slower end of the scale compared to modern chips. For daily stuff like having twenty browser tabs open, writing papers, and video calls, it's perfectly fine. You won't feel it lag. But if you try to edit photos or run heavier software, you'll hit its limits pretty quickly.

The integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics are in the same boat—18th percentile. This is not a gaming laptop. You can play very old or incredibly lightweight indie games, but that's it. The 8GB of RAM is also a bit tight by today's standards, sitting in the 11th percentile. It's fine for basic multitasking, but if you're the type to have a browser, a document, Spotify, and a messaging app all running at once, you might notice it getting a bit sluggish. The 512GB SSD is decent, though at the 35th percentile, it's just average for storage space.

At around $615, the value proposition is all about portability and screen quality. You're paying for that slim, lightweight chassis and the nice 2K touchscreen. Compared to other thin-and-lights, that price is pretty aggressive. The catch is that you're making big compromises on performance and future-proofing to hit that price. The older CPU, minimal RAM, and integrated graphics are the trade-offs. If your budget is firm and carrying weight is your top priority, it's a fair deal. But if you can stretch your budget a couple hundred dollars, you'll find options with much newer and faster components.

The most direct competitor might be something like an ASUS Zenbook or a Lenovo ThinkPad in the same price range. A Zenbook might offer a similar screen and portability but with a newer AMD or Intel CPU, giving you a big performance bump for maybe $100 more. The Lenovo ThinkPad P14s is built like a tank and has better upgradeability, but it'll be heavier and likely more expensive.

Then there's the elephant in the room: Apple's MacBook Air. Even an older M1 or M2 model, if you can find one on sale, will absolutely demolish this Acer in CPU performance, battery life, and build quality. But you lose the touchscreen and Windows. It's a classic trade-off: raw efficiency and speed vs. a familiar OS and touch input. For pure specs per dollar, the Acer struggles against these rivals, but its low entry price and specific feature set (touch, 3:2 screen) are its main arguments.

If you are a student or a commuter who needs the absolute lightest, most portable laptop for under $700, and your work is 100% web-based, document editing, and streaming, the Swift 3 makes sense. Get it for the screen and the weight, and accept that it's a basic machine.

But if you have any plans to do more—like light photo editing, coding, or keeping this laptop for more than two years—I'd recommend looking elsewhere. Saving up a bit more for a model with 16GB of RAM and a newer generation processor (like an Intel 12th Gen or newer, or an AMD Ryzen 6000/7000 series) will give you a much better experience that won't feel outdated so quickly. This Acer is a niche pick for portability above all else.