Derek 'Dez' Maggs 
The team at Intel Australia recently sent me the new Acer Swift 5 2020, which is part of their Project EVO. Available with Intel 11th Generation Core i5-1135G7 or i7-1165G7 processors, 8 or 16GB and up to 1TB SSD. Let’s see if this lightweight can compare with other heavyweights of its class?
First Impression
Upon opening the box, you notice straight away that the new Acer Swift 5 2020 is lightweight & thin. At only 14.95mm and tipping the scales at only 1kg, it feels more like an exercise/notebook than a laptop.
The other thing that grabbed me straight away was the colour. As most laptops normally range from light grey through to black. The Acer Swift 5 seems like a mixture of a dark gunmetal grey mixed with dark army green. It was unusual, a little weird but I kind of love it.
What is Intel Project Evo?
If you are in the market for a new Laptop, you will be seeing, Intel Project Evo or Evo a lot. So, what is Project Evo?
In its simplest form, it is the minimum requirement the laptop needs to achieve to be certified by Intel and have access to their Intel 11th Gen Intel Core processor.
Which is actually a great thing for people looking to buy. It takes the guesswork and comparing one laptop to the other. As you know for a fact, you will have these features no matter the brand & that all Project Evo platform laptop does the same thing at a similar speed.
To achieve Intel Evo certification, laptop producers need to reach a variety of performance benchmarks including the following:
- Intel 11thGen Intel Core processor featuring Iris® Xe graphics
- WiFi 6
- Thunderbolt 4
- instant wake
- fast charging
- 9 hours of real-world battery life (minimum)
Build Quality
The unit I received was in Acer’s new colour ‘Green Mist,’ which sounds like it should be a more pastel blue-green. But I love the mixture of a dark gunmetal grey mixed with dark army green of Acer’s Green Mist
As mention before, the Acer Swift 5 is light, 1 kg or 2.2lbs light. I knew this spec prior to my review, but the weight really does catch you off guard.
Acer has limited the weight by using a thin Aluminium-Magnesium & Lithium Magnesium Alloy Chassis and includes a new silver-ion antimicrobial agent in the finish. Which is supposed to kill lingering Bacteria (I had to google what it was, as I had no idea what it was for).
I guess in this day an age where COVID is still an issue, it is great; yet, this personally wouldn’t be a huge selling point to me.
So how would I describe the Acer Swift 5 in four words? Strong, durable, antibacterial & light.
Visual
The Acer Swift 5 boost a 1920×1080 14-inch IPS touch screen that claims to be 100% sRGB (standard red, green, blue colour space). I say claims, as, during my testing, I was only able to get it to register at 96%, which isn’t bad and could be due to the screen running a little cooler at 6600k. But I’m sure if I had spent a little time tweaking it, I could have got it to 100%.
The 14-inch screen is surrounded by a tiny bezel & boosts 90% screen to body ratio. It gives the Acer Swift 5 a clean & modern look. The only way they could have got the bezel any smaller was to remove or get rid of the webcam.
Weirdly, I wouldn’t mind if they did get rid of the webcam. With some of the most advanced tech in this laptop, I feel putting just a 720p webcam is a waste of space. I understand that people need a webcam & having an inbuilt one is easier, but at least throw a 1080p on in there. As in this day and age, 1080p is the new standard. Hell, even my mum has a 1080p webcam.
Ports
The port placement on the Acer Swift 5 is exactly how I personally like it. A USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A on each side, A Mic/headphone combo plug on the right-hand side & a full-size HDMI, Thunderbolt 4 & the charge barrel plug on the left-hand side.
The Ports are close but not tight. Through most of the testing, I had all the ports in use & was easily able to access all the ports without feeling cluttered or having issues accessing every port…. But I still had to flip the USBs 3 times to get them in. haha
Keyboard
The plastic keys on the Acer Swift 5 are backlight from underneath, and not through the keys. As the letters are painted on, which could lead them to wear off over time. Injection moulding the keys would have been a way to go with the keys for longevity, but I’ve only ever worn the paint off one keyboard yet definitely something to keep in mind if you keep laptops for a long period of time.
The 1.3mm travel makes for effortless typing. I personally think 1.5mm is perfect for me, but 1.3mm is so minor you don’t even notice it.
Performance
Everything I would do in a normal day at work & more; the Acer Swift 5 handles with ease. Zoom Calls, to Multiple accounting programs on a cloud-based system, listening to music & watching YouTube on my lunch break (Promise, only on my lunch break). The Tiger Lake processor handled it like a dream.
Even when I did some video rending & photo rendering on Photoshop, it was all so smooth & though it is slower than my current desktop, not weirdly not by as much as I expected.
Though this isn’t meant as a gaming laptop the Intel XE Graphics really surprised me. As I able to play the Witcher 3 on 720p on high at about 40-42 frames per second & Apex Legends 1080p on Medium at about 47-48 frames per second.
Conclusion
This was my first foray into the Intel Evo set of laptop & I can see why Intel has set minimum requirements to use these Tiger Lake processors, as this thing has some serious power. These processors need to be allowed to be let free & not be bogged down by the limitation of the other component. I actually wish more companies did this.
The Acer Swift 5 is a great all-rounder that can handle everything you want as a student, traveller or worker, wrapped in small light, sleekly-designed package. It is light enough to throw in a bag or but into your carry-on without even noticing that.
And there has never been a better time to buy, as Acer is having a special End of Financial Year sale:
From Tuesday 1st June 2021, until sold out, Acer has partnered with Ovolo Hotels to bring relaxation to tax time, with a free night’s stay at an Ovolo location with a purchase of select Acer Swift 5s. Perfect for small business owners looking to claim a tax break on great tech!
EOFY Tax Time Specials: Acer Swift 5 – Available at www.acer.com.au and Bing Lee Acer Swift 5 – HOT PRICE $1,792 [1st – 13th June] at Bing LeePLUS RECEIVE A FREE NIGHT’S STAY WITH OVOLO HOTELS*
So why not take advantage of this offer & get a great laptop & take a break for yourself!
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