Acer Swift 14" 3 Thin & Light Review

So you're looking for a thin and light business laptop around $900? The Acer Swift 3 with its AMD Ryzen 7 4700U is a solid contender. It's a 14-inch Windows 10 Pro machine that promises good battery life and a backlit keyboard, which is pretty much the standard checklist for a work laptop. People searching for a portable machine for office tasks, web browsing, and light media will find a lot to like here. Just know that while it's marketed as a 'business laptop,' some of its specs, especially the 8GB of RAM, might feel a bit tight for 2024 multitasking. The included touchscreen is a nice bonus for presentations or casual use.

Let's talk numbers. The AMD Ryzen 7 4700U is an 8-core chip, and in benchmarks, its CPU performance lands in the 29th percentile. That means it's perfectly fine for everyday office work, spreadsheets, and video calls, but it's not a speed demon. The integrated AMD Radeon graphics are in the 64th percentile for GPU, which is decent for an integrated solution. You can handle some very light gaming or photo editing, but don't expect to run modern AAA titles. The real bottleneck is the 8GB of RAM, which is in the bottom 10th percentile. If you like having dozens of browser tabs open alongside a couple of apps, you'll likely hit a wall and see some slowdown.

At around $900, the Acer Swift 3 sits in a crowded spot. You're paying for the thin-and-light design and the touchscreen feature. The problem is that 8GB of RAM at this price in 2024 is hard to justify. For the same money, you can often find laptops with 16GB of RAM, which is becoming the new baseline for a smooth experience. If the touchscreen isn't a must-have, your money might go further elsewhere.

This is where it gets tricky. Compared to something like an ASUS Zenbook Duo, you're losing out on innovation and likely better build quality. Against a Lenovo Legion or MSI Vector, you're not even in the same league for performance—those are gaming laptops. A more direct competitor would be other 14-inch ultrabooks like a Dell Inspiron or HP Pavilion. The Swift 3's main draw is the touchscreen, but its weak RAM and middling CPU performance make it a tough sell. If you're considering an Apple MacBook Pro, that's a completely different price and ecosystem conversation.

Should you buy this? Only if your needs are very specific and light. If you absolutely want a touchscreen on a 14-inch Windows laptop and you rarely run more than a few apps at once, it could work. But for most people, the 8GB of RAM is a deal-breaker at this price. You'll feel the limits quickly. My advice? Keep looking. Prioritize finding a laptop with 16GB of RAM, even if it means sacrificing the touchscreen or looking at a slightly older model on sale. This Acer Swift 3 configuration feels like it's one generation behind where it should be.