The AMD Acer Swift 3 flew by the Intel model (7:31), as well as the 7:56 category average. Meanwhile, the HP Envy 13 (11:11) just barely beat the Acer Swift 3 by two minutes. Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Webcam Installing of our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

If you are running memory intensive programs, like large spreadsheets or editing videos, then there's no getting around the 8GB ceiling. However, for casual users, I don't see it as a problem. READ NEXT: Our favourite laptops for every budget Acer Swift 3 review: Performance and battery life The screen brightness of Acer Swift 3 (SF315-41) is not PW-modulated only at maximum brightness mode. However, the high frequency of the pulsations dramatically reduces the negative effect, when they are present. It did capture texture decently well, as I was able to see the ripples in my stuffed animal’s fur well enough, but the picture was usually too dark for texture to be my top concern. Consider buying an external webcam for use with the Swift 3. Software and Warranty I liked the snappy response. 8 seconds from boot-up to Windows 10 start screen. Excellent CPU performance and fairly decent GPU performance. No overheating issues. Fast SSD drive. Fast DDR4 memory. It's a very nimble performer, IMO.The Swift 3 measures in at 12.6 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches and weighs 2.7 pounds, making the device incredibly portable without feeling flimsy. In fact, once our cat got bored with the box and decided to investigate the power cable, she brought the open, running laptop down off a three and a half foot tall desk onto a hardwood floor and bolted, leaving no visible or noticeable damage to the exterior or the internals of the laptop. Acer Swift 3 (SF315-41) comes with a FullHD IPS panel, with a serial number BOE NV156FHM-N48. The size of the screen is 15.6 inches with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. With an aspect ratio of 16.9 and a pixel density of 142 pixels per inch, the screen becomes “Retina” from a distance of at least 60 cm. Next, we look at the color coverage of the sRGB color gamut (that’s the standard of internet and HDTV). We also included the color reproduction limits of the human eye via the “CIE 1975 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram”, which gives us the idea of the range and accuracy of the colors, your device throws at you. Inside the dark grey triangle, we see the standard colors used by Internet and digital television – rec 709/sRGB.

Anecdotally, this keyboard impresses. The touchpad, meanwhile, uses Windows precision drivers, and is smooth to the touch. Audio The maximum brightness value we measured was 233 cd/m2 in the middle of the screen and 221 cd/m2 average on the whole surface, with a maximum deviation of 19%. The color temperature on a white screen is 6000K – a bit warmer than the sRGB standard (6500K), which is not bad. Moving to the grey scale the temperature maintains the same value. The Acer Swift 3 will absolutely wow you with how long it lasts on a single charge. While continuously browsing the web at 150 nits of brightness, the Swift 3 lasted 11 hours and 9 minutes. It will definitely last you your whole work day and then some. It also offers fast charging, so for 30 minutes of charge you can get 4 hours of use. Color accuracy on the Swift 3, though, isn’t half bad. The display has a Delta-E color accuracy score of 0.2 (0 is ideal). This beats the category average (0.3), the Swift 3’s Intel model (0.29) and the HP Envy 13 (0.29). Acer Swift 3 audio Battery life is measured under specific test settings and conditions pursuant to MobileMark 2018. Actual battery life may vary considerably by specifications, depending on product model, configuration, applications, power management settings, operating conditions, and features utilized. Performance variation also arises based on components in use, which includes but is not limited to the processor, RAM capacity, storage, display, resolution, etc.

The Acer Swift 3 (2020) punches above its ultralight-weight

That the Swift 3 is able to outperform more expensive machines this well on battery is impressive. However, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, which we reviewed recently, performed similarly well and also features a Ryzen 4000-series CPU, which points to a potential sea change in battery life overall hitting the laptop scene in 2020. Heat A little light gaming isn’t out of the question either. The Metro: Last Light Redux benchmark scored nearly 49fps at 1080p, which is really rather good for a Core i5 laptop using Intel’s integrated Xe graphics processor. Even the 2016 Doom reboot ran pretty smoothly at around 50fps although I did have to reduce the resolution to 1,280 x 720 and video detail settings to medium.

The system seemed to struggle a bit when trying to run several advertising-heavy tabs, but the same can be said of most systems and — really — that's more of a societal problem than one limited to a single Acer laptop. The Swift 3 took 11 minutes to transcode a 4K video to 1080p on our HandBrake test. Though that sounds like a long while, it outperformed the mainstream laptop average of 20 minutes and 33 seconds. The Intel Swift 3 took 21 minutes and 26 seconds, while the HP Envy 13 took 23 minutes and 38 seconds. As what may have been expected, the color production wasn’t great for the Acer Swift 3. According to our colorimeter, the Acer Swift 3 produced 62% of the sRGB color gamut, falling short of the Intel Swift 3’s 66%, and falling below the HP Envy 13’s 99%. It doesn’t even come close to the category average of 91%. Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Keyboard and touchpad As I navigated Windows 10, I found that the Swift 3's silver 4.2 x 2.6-inch touchpad offers extremely precise scrolling and cursor control. Visually, you might not even notice it's there, were it not for the indentation around it. Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Audio

The Acer Swift 3 offers amazing performance and battery life for a cheap price

The speaker system can’t quite match the display for quality, though, despite carrying DTS certification. To start with there’s not a lot of volume on offer: at 1m distance, I measured an average of 71dB from a pink noise source and 72dB with peaks of 79dB from a music source. That’s pretty average. There’s not much in the way of bass, either, although the definition is good and there’s no break-up even at maximum volume. First of all, the integrated GPU doesn't hog 2GB of RAM. It only uses that much if you're running GPU-intensive tasks. The Acer Swift 3’s webcam is easily its weakest asset. Outputting at a maximum of 720p and surrounded by two distracting and unhidden microphone holes on the bezel, it has the clear mark of a feature only included out of obligation.