Names are often misleading in this day and age, with the stylish-sounding often turning out to be performance-duds, their promises fizzling out into little more than could-have-been buzzwords. But making a heartfelt attempt to live up to its prestigious family name is the 14” Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ laptop — every bit as swift as promised.
This new Acer ultrabook is priced at $999.99 and delivers swiftness in performance and response time. However, the most significant victory is its adaptability to a high-speed, charged lifestyle. With a feather-light weight of only 2.14 lbs, the portability you get from this machine is substantial. Let’s dig deeper and see what else the Acer Swift 5 brings to the table.
Table of Contents
Tailored For Travel
For a laptop to be a competent travel companion, it needs to achieve the steep tradeoff between durability and portability. The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ is exceedingly good at this. The charcoal blue beauty is constructed with a cross between strength and style, achieving both and compromising on neither.
The laptop is astonishingly lightweight, weighing only a little over 2 lbs. The metal covers (both top and bottom) enhance the durability by several notches. In fact, the metallic covers are thoroughly inventive; the magnesium-lithium mix looks classy but doesn’t weigh things down. The dimensions of the laptop are also compact — you get a 14” screen at 12.9 x 9 x 0.6 inches. It proves convenient to carry the Acer Swift 5 along with you, say to class, office, a coffee shop or even public transport.
The Performance Report
At the heart of the Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ is an eight-generation Intel Core i5-8250U processor (four cores) running at 1.6GHz. It is equipped with 8GB RAM (LPDDR3) and 256GB of 
The battery backup, while not extraordinary, is also adequate: up to 8 hours. The Lithium-Ion battery (4670 mAh) strives to be by your side for most of your work-day until you get a chance to plug in the 45W adapter.
Another handy offering of the latest Acer ultra-book is its familiar, warm Windows 10 experience, the operating system of choice. Several Windows-based tools for productivity, multi-tasking and security come with the package. This means you can use Windows Hello to sign in without the need to enter a password. You can also use Cortana for A/V content and Skype for video-calling. Bonus: You also get a free 30-day Microsoft Office trial — quite useful for all those note- and brief-taking sessions!
Display, Graphics & Sound
The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ laptop has a full High-Definition, backlit screen that offers a pleasant viewing experience on-the-go. It has an integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics coprocessor (shared LPDDR3 memory) and a maximum screen resolution of 1920 x 1080. The touchscreen display also supports In-Plane Switching, so the imagery isn’t distorted by the sharpness of your viewing angle.
A particular word for the Acer Color Intelligence technology — it makes a magnificent difference to the overall display quality. Everything you see is more meticulous, the colors more accurate, than you’d have imagined. Plus, since the laptop is designed with a narrow border, the CineCrystal display 
manages to feel more immersive. This brings a unique realism to your multimedia content.
The display is widescreen and wholly backlit (LED), so you get a decent rendering of your photos and videos even when lighting conditions and vantage points aren’t ideal.
How’s the listening experience? The Acer Swift 5 utilizes Acer TrueHarmony and Dolby Audio Premium to up its sound game. There are two stereo speakers, and they deliver loud, clear and reasonably detailed audio even for strongly auditory movies and games. The sound playback is satisfactory even during video calls on the 1280 x 720 webcam (with High Dynamic Range). However, note that the laptop does not support High-Definition audio or Dolby Audio Enhancement.
Read: Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-82WQ 14-inch Laptop Review
Accessibility & Connectivity
In the realm of accessibility, this Acer Swift performs remarkably well. It has a comfortable, completely backlit keyboard that lets you work smoothly never mind the powers that be. (The keyboard is included with the laptop.) The touchpad on this one is also very user-friendly, supporting multi-touch and boasting of terrific precision.
In terms of device support, it is interesting to see this laptop inch ahead of several contemporaries. It is equipped with two USB 3.0 ports, one HDMI port and an SD card reader, thereby simplifying all your collaborative and shared endeavors. But wait, there’s more. The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ also has one USB 3.1 Gen 1 port (Type C) which delivers incredible data transfer speeds as high as 5 Gbps. Additionally, there’s also a fingerprint reader that you can use with Windows Hello.
On the wireless connectivity front, you can avail of 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and 2×2 MU-MIMO. The latter supports a dual-band: 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Notably, the wireless antenna is strategically located, helping you work seamlessly as you move across networks.
- Keep reading: Acer Swift 5 Pro Overview – The Featherweight Champion
The Writing on the Wall
It isn’t often that you see such an honest product that’s so true to its goal: portability combined with power. The Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ laptop is a stellar combination of style and performance well suited to the forever-on-the-run population.
It does not disappoint in fulfilling any of the multiple roles ultrabooks are expected to play (read: audio and video playback, academic and professional projects, staying connected with family and friends).
| Specs of Acer Swift 5 SF514-52T-50AQ |
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| Processor | Intel Core i5-8250U (up to 3.4 GHz) |
| Graphics | Intel HD 620 |
| RAM | 8GB LPDDR3 |
| Storage | 256GB SSD |
| Display | IPS Multi-Touch 14″ Full-HD |
