When referring to Acer’s Swift series, the biggest highlight of it is its light weight and portability. The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 is the representative of the Acer Swift series with regard to light weight and portability. The Acer Swift5 features a 14-inch screen and is powered by Intel’s eighth-generation Core processor. The 14-inch Swift 5 SF514-52 even shows its advantage in portability aspect compared with 13.3-inch laptops. Today, we will have a test on the Acer Swift 5 SF514-52’s performance.
Specifications
| Screen | 14.0″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS screen |
| Processor | Intel Kaby Lake-R Core i5-8250U (up to 3.40GHz) |
| Video | Intel UHD Graphics 620 |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 2400 MHz |
| Storage | 256GB SATA SSD + 1 extra M.2 80 mm slot |
| Connectivity | Intel Dual-Band 7265, Bluetooth® 4.0 |
| Ports | 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x USB Type-C gen 1, 1 x HDMI, 1 x RJ45 Ethernet, 3.5mm Headphone/mic combo jack |
| Battery | 45 Wh |
| OS | Windows 10 |
| Weight | Starting at 0.93 kg |
| Extras | 720p HD Camera, Stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio |
Fashion Business Style
The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 has adopted concise design on its top cover. Acer’s logo in the middle is highly recognized, and dark blue cover color delivers a sense of business style. The laptop’s top and back covers use new magnesium-lithium alloy. Such new material is lighter than aluminum and brings good texture.
The laptop has also adopted simple design on its back cover. The three air vents can provide enough air.
The screen that the Swift 5 SF514-52 features come with narrow bezels and has high screen ratio. The surface with keyboard area uses magnesium aluminum alloy which has excellent metal texture.
The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 has good LCD hinge design. The axis part uses aluminum alloy material. It applies gold color which can be in harmony with laptop body’ blue color. The LCD hinge part has been carved with logo “SWIFT” which is highly distinguished.
Excellent screen
The Swift 5 SF514-52 features a 14-inch IPS screen with the resolution of 1920 pixels by 1,080 pixels. The IPS screen provides wide viewing angle and supports multi-touch function.
We test the color gamut of the screen with professional Datacolor Spyder 5 Elite. From the test result, the screen covers 99% sRGB color gamut and 74% NTSC color gamut. The screen that the Acer Swift5 features have good performance and it reaches top-level among the laptops at a similar price.
Great Portability
The biggest feature of the Acer Swift5 is its great portability. The laptop’s thickness is only 14.9mm which belongs to super thin type.
The Acer Swift5 without other accessories merely weighs 0.93kg, while the laptop with a charger weighs 1.08kg. These data fully show great portability of the Acer Swift5.
Backlit Keyboard
The keyboard of the Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 has comfortable texture. The size of the keyboard and distance between keys are reasonable and proper. The keys can quickly snap back when being pressed.
The Acer Swift5’ keyboard boosts of a white backlight, which enables the user to comfortably tape under dark condition.
The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 features the sensor with fingerprint scanning function on the right. The sensor supports fingerprint-to-unlock method which takes the user less time to enter the desktop.
Expansion Ports
The Acer Swift5 doesn’t have a variety of expansion ports. The laptop’s left only provides a headset microphone port and a power indicator.
The ports on the laptop’s right include a USB 3.1 Type-C two USB 3.1 Type-A, an HDMI and a power jack. It will bring some inconvenience for a lightweight laptop not to provide SD card port.
The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 is powered by Intel’ eighth-generation Core i5-8250U processor and comes with 256 GB of SSD. The following is the performance test on the Acer Swift5.
Processor performance Test
The i5-8250U that the Acer Swift5 is powered by adopts 4 cores and eight threads design. The processor’s main frequency is 6.6GHz, and its turbo frequency is 3.4GHz with 15W thermal design power (TDP, We do a test on the i5-8250U processor’s performance with Cinebench R15. The processor’s single-core score is 128cb, and its multi-core score is 501cb. From the result, the i5-8250 reaches the normal level.
SSD Performance Test
The Swift 5 SF514-52 features 256GB of SSD from Hynix. We test the SSD speed with AS SSD. The SSD’ final sequential read speed reaches 507.38MB/s, and its sequential write speed reaches 245.18MB/s, which can satisfy daily use.
Heat Dissipation Performance
We use AIDA64 to test the Acer Swift5 for half an hour and then detect temperature with the thermal camera. From the picture, we can see that although the Acer Swift5 is thin and lightweight, it behaves well in temperature control. The highest temperature that the laptop reaches is less than 50 degree. Only a small part of the keyboard produces heat.
However, the laptop’s good performance in temperature control leads to another problem. Under full load condition, the processor will underclock, which will make the adverse impact on performance.
Battery Life
We adjust the screen brightness to 50% and volume to 20% without other running software, and then play the 1080p video. After an hour the laptop consumes 14% power. Inferred from that, the Acer Swift5 can last up to seven hours in regular use.
Disassembly
The disassembly process on the Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 is quite easy. Just remove the screws and pry up the back cover, then the disassembly is finished.
The accessories including the SSD and wireless card can be upgraded directly by the owner instead of being taken to the computer repair shop. The memory card can’t be changed. An M.2 SSD slot beside the SSD is reserved for a 2280 SSD which supports PCIe SSD. Remove copper pipe and fan, then the processor’s silicone can be changed.
Summary
To pursue perfection on light weight and thinness, the Acer Swift 5 SF514-52 has given up part expansion ports. But the laptop’s light weight has fully shown its great portability. The 14-inch display provides wider viewing angle. Besides, the Acer Swift5 boosts of fashion and excellent appearance design. If you pay more attention to a laptop’s portability and appearance, then the Acer Swift5 will be a good choice for you.
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