This Acer laptop tries to be everything to everyone

Finding the right laptop for you has always been an inherently tricky business, not least due to the sheer volume of models on offer. There are options with the most power, the best battery life, the nicest looks, but usually these are discrete categories, any choice you might make always implies some kind of sacrifice.

The mythical machine which does it all has yet to arrive, but there are some ready to try, and the Acer Swift X 14 is among their number.

Discrete graphics card? Check. Thin and light design? Check. Powerful processor? Check. Battery life? Also check. At least in theory, it has everything needed to appeal to nearly anyone out looking for a laptop today - aside from hardcore Mac users, for whom anything running Windows is to be avoided.

There’s another factor to consider when choosing an essential laptop, however, and that is experience. What is it like to use? How does it feel? How does it fit in? More than any category, the generalist needs to succeed here. So how does the Swift X 14 fare? Could it perhaps be an appealing laptop for students?

Design, build and display

• Very portable
• Has a pleasant display

When the brief is to be all things to all comers, the job of a designer suddenly becomes quite difficult. Sometimes in aiming to please everyone, all that is achieved is to satisfy no one.

That said, the Swift X 14 makes for a good first impression and certainly is in no way poorly designed.

Machined entirely from metal, it is strong and sturdy and feels well put together. Finished in a gunmetal grey colourway, it is also highly suitable for a workplace environment. There are compromises, namely the downward-facing fans, but those are to be expected. That does mean that if undertaking more intensive tasks with the machine, your lap can become quite toasty.

At 1.5kg, it is quite light and certainly easy enough to lug around in a backpack, and for that reason alone, it should be considered by creative students, for whom portability is key. The keyboard also makes for a good impression, chiclet style, but with nice feedback; it was very simple to get a good flow going. Those who prefer the click of a mechanical option will feel left out, but for most users, it will present a pleasant typing experience.

Coming to the screen, as should be expected for the price, it's great. The size, at 14 inches, limits its potential to be used for some creative work, but also means it is very portable.

Resolution, at 2880 x 1800, is plenty for the size, leaving everything pin-sharp, while the 120Hz refresh rate keeps the device feeling smooth in general use. The resolution is a little too much to drive for the GPU when it comes to reaching advanced framerates in the likes of competitive shooters. If you’re a budding e-sports fan, you might wish to invest in something a bit more specialist.

Should you like to watch video on your laptop, you’ll be served well by the OLED tech, which means colours on the whole are saturated and have a pleasant degree of punch. No official measurements of colour accuracy are given, and this isn’t something which could be tested, as such you would be best with an external monitor if accuracy is an absolute necessity.

Lastly, brightness, while enough to work easily indoors, as might be expected for a laptop, was nowhere near enough to battle bright sunlight.

Design score: 4/5

Features

• Good port selection
• Nice keyboard

What applies to design when it comes to pleasing all comers also applies to I/O. To be truly useful while also being portable, any machine must have enough ports to minimise reliance on dongles without overcrowding the sides.

And with that in mind, the Swift X 14 does indeed have a lot to offer. There’s HDMI, and two USB-A ports to begin, offering a decent degree of expandability. There’s also MicroSD card support, which will come as a disappointment to filmmakers and photographers, for whom a full-size SD slot simply can’t be beaten.

At the very least, there are two Thunderbolt 4 slots, which does mean dongles will be necessary for some tasks, but which at least allows for fast data transfers of large files from SSDs.

Baked into the device are also the requisite AI features, which seem to be everywhere now. Here, there’s a tool to enhance video calls, and another to improve microphone performance. Neither are game changers and are only barely worthy of mention.

Battery life beat expectations, too. Using the machine for general productivity work, such as email and document writing, it was possible to eke out over five hours of continual usage, which isn’t enough to make it through a full day of work, but definitely to make it through a short flight or train ride.

Feature score: 3/5

Performance

• Has a low-end dedicated GPU
• Comes with 16GB of RAM by default

It isn’t just enough to look good; more than anything, the ability to perform is key. And the X 14 makes some fairly large promises in this area, with an Intel Core 5 Ultra processor, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia Geforce RTX 4050 graphics card with 6GB of RAM. None individually are enough to set the world alight, but for such a thin machine represents a lot of power.

That’s mostly reflected in benchmarks. The Swift X 14 comfortably outperforms machines which are thinner and lighter, and those with integrated GPUs. Though it doesn’t pull enough wattage to bring out the best in the graphics card, and there’s clearly some throttling to keep thermal performance respectable, the value of having the card is clearly there.

For gaming, you’ll be able to achieve decent framerates at either ‘medium’ or ‘high’ settings in many modern games at 1080p. The 4050 isn’t the newest or the most powerful chip on the market; however, it is powerful enough for those who aren’t chasing either the highest framerates or the last word in visual fidelity.

Running the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark at ‘High’ settings, it achieved a framerate of 41, which won’t be enough to satisfy purists, but for more casual gamers will be enough.

For those with more creative workflows, the value here comes from the combination of a discrete GPU and portability. It isn’t the most powerful machine, but it has the benefit of being something you can easily travel with and take anywhere. If you need the most power and are generally sat in one location most of the time, this might not be the machine for you.

Performance score: 4/5

Price

At £1,599.99, the Swift X 14 finds itself in weird territory. At the same price, you can easily get a well configured MacBook, which itself would be lighter and have far better battery life. For a Windows machine with this set of specifications and build however, it represents reasonable value.

Who is it for?

The Acer Swift X 14 is aimed, generally, at everyone. Anyone who might need power and portability in a package that’s somewhat reasonably priced will find something to like here. Students in particular will be attracted by its generalist qualities, this is a machine which can last away from the socket, which can engage in intensive work and which can game.

Buy it if...

• You want a machine that's capable of a bit of everything
• You need Windows
• You need decent battery life

Don't buy it if...

• You need the most performance from a machine
• Budget is a big concern
• You want to play the latest games

Also consider

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4 Pro, 2024)

The MacBook 14 has several advantages over the Swift X 14, beginning with design. It's thinner, lighter and has a nicer display. To top things off, as it has an ARM chip inside, battery life is also far improved on what you'll find in the Acer

Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen 10 (15" AMD)

The Lenovo comes in at nearly £400 cheaper than the Asus, and while it doesn't have as nice a display, it still comes with a pleasant design, and crucially more power.And with the money you'll save, you could invest in a decent graphics tablet or other peripherals.

Asus ProArt PX13

Maybe you need power and mobility, should that be the case then maybe the Asus ProArt PX13 is the machine for you. At 13 inches it may be small, but that also means it is easy to lug around. It’s also possessed of a GeForce RTX 4070 so can game, and make short work of many creative tasks. It can bend too, boasting a tent mode, and with prices on sale starting at £1,899.99, it is at least worth a look in, even though it costs a little more than the Swift X 14.

Verdict

Unfortunately, it's always the case that you can't please everyone all of the time. In spreading yourself too thin, sometimes you miss the mark in the places that count. So while the Acer Swift X 14 does a lot to impress, it's a let down in some key areas. It looks good, is very portable, has a nice screen and keyboard, and has a bit of power to boot. In a vacuum, it's a perfectly competent machine. But for the price, there's options which are more portable, more premium, more powerful, and which represent better value for money, especially for those with more complex computing needs.