Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Big, basic, but amazingly brawny

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Although the Swift 3 is the second-lowest ranking member of Acer's clamshell lineup - a range which includes the luxuriously slim Swift 7 - this latest version is no plasticky entry-level laptop: it has a 1080p, 15.6in IPS display, an attractive and durable aluminium build and even an integrated fingerprint reader.

There are numerous Intel-based Swift 3 variants, but this model we've tested is of particular interest. That's because it's part of the very first wave of laptops to use one of AMD's mobile Ryzen chips, which have finally launched almost a year after their transformative desktop counterparts. It's another attack on Intel's dominance, this time in the laptop and 2-in-1 space, and the Swift 3 is at the vanguard.

Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Design

Being a sub-1,000, 15in notebook, the Swift 3 was never going to be very slim or light. Indeed, it's almost a full 19mm thick when closed, and it weighs 2.1kg - to be fair, that's light enough that we could lug it to and from the office without much too much discomfort, but we wouldn't want to do so on a daily basis.

Otherwise, though, this is a thoroughly well-designed machine, particularly given its price point. You’ll notice immediately that it uses a true all-metal chassis, complete with a striking brushed aluminium finish – this not only looks superb, but it also feels reassuringly sturdy. To match that ruggedness, the screen is topped with a scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass panel.

As with most machines, you’ll get some warming at the top of the keyboard under heavy CPU loads, yet it should never get hot enough to become uncomfortable or worrying.

Perhaps the only downside of its design is the inclusion of downward-facing speakers. Sound quality is not the best as it is, and this makes it even worse – we’d recommend you use a pair of headphones if you’re in need of high-quality sound.

Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Keyboard and trackpad

Although the Swift 3 is a large machine, it does mean that there’s extra room for a numeric keypad, which is not something you see every day on a laptop. The keyboard is also not as cramped as most other devices on the market – in fact, at first glance we thought there might be a little too much room between the keys, although this concern was quickly dismissed once we got used to the layout.

We should note that the keyboard’s keys have a rather shallow travel depth and very little tactile feedback with each stroke – this seems to be an issue with the scissor-switch keyboards, rather than a deliberate design choice. That said, if you’re used to longer travel times, or a ‘spongy’ feel to the keys, you might struggle here.

A bonus, though, is the presence of white backlighting, which is great for typing in dimly lit areas. Despite it being a standard feature on laptops, you’d be surprised by how often backlights are missed off higher-end machines, so it’s great to see here.

We’ve no complaints about the trackpad. The size of the machine means there’s ample room for a generously sized pad, the surface is smooth rather than glassy, and it’s responsive to gestures – nothing inherently wrong here.

Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Display

Sadly, the Swift 3's screen is by far its greatest weakness. It does get off to a good start: the 1080p resolution is plenty crisp enough, the IPS panel provides wide viewing angles and there doesn't immediately appear to be anything wrong with its vibrancy.

However, continued use (and our display benchmarks) tells a different story. We recorded the Swift 3 covering just 57% of the sRGB colour gamut, and with a startlingly high average delta E of 5.47, the colours it can show aren't even accurate. Brightness also only peaked at 233cd/m2, which means it will struggle with direct sunlight - a problem compounded by the panel's glossy finish.

That's not to say that the screen is a total bust. It managed a very respectable contrast ratio of 1199:1, and together with a nice, low black level of 0.19cd/m2, dark scenes in videos and even black-heavy web pages look pretty good.

Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Specs and performance

Along with a middling-yet-adequate 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, this laptop gives us our first look at AMD's Ryzen 5 2500U in action. It's a quad-core, eight-thread chip, running at a base clock speed of 2GHz with a 3.6GHz boost, and packs integrated Radeon Vega 8 graphics.

The desktop Ryzen chips succeeded by besting Intel on heavily multi-threaded tasks, and it looks like it might be a similar story for laptops as well: the Swift 3 scored an extremely impressive 62 in our multitasking benchmark, and 74 overall. That's much higher than what a lot of premium, Intel-based ultrabooks have scored in the same tests, including the Dell XPS 13 and the Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe. The latter costs around twice as much as the Swift 3 after VAT, an outstanding coup for this comparatively unassuming notebook.

Battery life, conversely, is awfully shot. We measured it lasting a scant 3 hours 16 minutes in our video playback test, so even with less taxing use you'll need to keep the charging cable to hand.

Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Ports and features

Another benefit of forgoing ultra-slimness is that you're not limited to USB-C for physical connectivity. Here, Acer has included a (non-Thunderbolt 3) USB-C port, but it's joined by one full-size USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, so juggling peripherals and removable storage is seldom a worry. Just as convenient is the SD card slot located on the right edge, and on the other side, an HDMI socket can handle video output duties even if the USB-C port can't.

Credit is also due to the fingerprint reader, a tiny pad positioned just below the bottom-right corner of the keyboard. Other than a couple of misfires, we found it generally reliable for logging in biometrically, and it works quickly too.

Acer Swift 3 Ryzen review: Verdict

It's a shame that the Swift 3's display can't handle colours that well, as with so much multi-threading power for the cash, it could have made a decent budget option for basic video and media editing.

Nevertheless, there are loads of other ways to harness that power, and you'd be doing so on a notebook that's both well-built and well-equipped for connectivity and features. If you value performance over portability (and, frankly, battery life), it deserves your attention, and as a demonstration of Ryzen laptops it's a promising start.

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