Acer Swift 5 SF514-54T NX.HHUEK.001 Review

Acer have released the latest in the Swift 5 series looking to capitalise on their reputation on being one of the best all-round budget machines. The SF514-54T is still regarded as one of the lightest models in the market (at 990g) with its casing compromising of a magnesium composite. It also has a strong technical package with an Intel Core i7 processor with 8GB RAM and 512SSD of memory which is stands out amongst the entire Swift range. It also comes with a 14in display and a 56Wh Li-on battery that is quoted at giving 12 hours of battery life.

 

Check out the latest price for the Acer Swift 5 SF514-54T NX.HHUEK.001

 

Specs

Processor: Intel Core i7-1065G7

Memory: 8GB of RAM

Storage: 512GB of SSD

Display: 14in

Benefits

  • Acer have certainly made it easy on the eye. The standard finish come in two forms – blue/gold or white/gold- giving it a sleek look and feel that similarly priced models often lack at this level
  • For such a lightweight machine, it boasts impressive performance stats. The i7 processor is a big improvement over the i5 processors used in the 2018 versions and the inclusion of the Iris Plus Graphics also makes it surprisingly adept for handling tasks that can be power-intensive such as editing photos and video.   
  • Acer have also included a lot of tools that help fit in with many of the active features of Windows 10. The mouse trackpad using Microsoft Precision drivers helps the user have full control when scrolling across the screen and the biometric finger scanner can help access the benefits of Windows Hello

Downsides

  • The media capabilities of the Swift 5 SF514-54T is not anything to shout out about. The screen display isn’t the brightest coming in at 300 nits and the basic speakers are fairly average which won’t drown out an entire room of people.
  • As with many other Acer products, you still find a host of pre-loaded software that comes as a default part of the package. Unfortunately, the likes of Firefox and Dropbox are unnecessary additions in comparison to the default Microsoft alternatives such as the Edge browser and OneDrive taking up vital storage space.
  • For some reason, Acer has still included an USB 2.0 port on the right hand side of the body. Considering there are USB 3.1 ports included as well, it seems completely redundant and Acer could have utilised the space for a much better purpose.

Verdict

Overall, the Acer Swift 5 SF514-54T ticks many of the boxes someone could want from a lightweight ultrabook. It looks great and is extremely powerful for its size however the unnecessary inclusion of the Acer Software package and USB 2.0 slot still shows a little room for refinement.

 

Check out the latest price for the Acer Swift 5 SF514-54T NX.HHUEK.001