This is my detailed review of the AMD-powered Acer Swift Go 14 series.
I bought this laptop a month or so ago, as a potential daily driver for my father, due to its enticing mix of capabilities and functionality in a compact sub-3lbs device. I paid less than 800 EUR for a modern and highly-capable AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS configuration, with 16 GB of RAM, 1 TB of SSD storage, and a beautiful OLED display, all tucked inside a fairly compact and well-made package.
For the money, this laptop offers good value. It’s not necessarily the nicest design compared to the other options out there, but it is the most affordable option in its class in this part of the world, with this sort of hardware specs and capabilities.
However, Acer cut some corners to get this series as affordable as it is, among the notable nits being the audio quality and battery life.
We’ll get in-depth on all the aspects that you should know about this new Swift Go 14 series down below, in this review. And BTW, while this is the AMD-based configuration, our findings generally apply to the entire range of current Swift Go 14 laptops, both Intel (SFG14-72) or AMD (SFG14-53).
Specs as reviewed – Acer Swift Go 14 OLED SFG14-63 laptop
Acer Swift Go 14 OLED, SFG14-63 series, 2024 model
Screen 14 inch, OLED, 16:10 aspect ratio, non-touch, glossy,
Processor AMD Hawk Point, Ryzen 7 8845HS , 8C/16T, up to 5.1 GHz
Video AMD Radeon 780M, 12 CU, up to 2.7 GHz
Memory 16 GB LPDDR5x-6400 (soldered)
Storage 1 TB M.2 NVMe SSD (SK Hynix HFS001TEJ9X110N) – single M.2 2280 slot
Connectivity Wireless 6E (Mediatek MT7922) 2×2, Bluetooth 5.3
Ports left: 2x USB-C with USB 4.0, 1x HDMI 2.1 TMDS, 1x USB-A gen1
Battery 54 Wh, 100W USB-C charger
Size 313 mm or 12.32” (w) x 218 mm or 8.59” (d) x from 14.9 mm or 0.58” (h)
Weight 2.9 lbs (1.32 kg) + .55 (1.21 lbs) for the USB-C charger and cables, EU version
Extras clamshell format with almost 180-degree hinge, dual-fan single-radiator cooling,
Design, build quality – refined chassis and ergonomics Over the years, laptops in the Acer Swift lineup have always been competitively priced in their segment of portable designs, and this 2024 generation is no different.
It has been slightly updated over the years, and even this generation improves a bit over the 2023 model, a slightly smaller and lighter chassis with slightly refined ergonomics and a larger touchpad.
But overall, this remains a rather utilitarian design and isn’t quite as refined as some of the other options in the ultraportable space. Nonetheless, the differences between this Swift and competitors from Asus or Lenovo are subtle, such as the overall feel of the painted aluminum surfaces or of the plastics around the edge, as well as the branding that just says Acer in a couple of places and the multitude of ugly stickers plastered all over the place.
Here’s how this unit looks next to the Zenbook 14 and the Vivobook S 14 that I had around. They’re much alike, but you can tell the differences in feel on a closer look.
Back to the Swift, this model that I got is a dark gray color, a perfectly fine color for general use, one that’s acceptable in every environment and barely shows any smudges. The surfaces can scratch over time, so I’d make sure to treat this well, especially when having it in the backpack.
The build quality is mostly strong, both in the lid and in the main chassis, with some flex in the keyboard deck, but not creaky noises.
Ergonomics are overall solid as well, with sturdy hinges that can be easily adjusted with a single-hand and allow for almost 180-degree display angle, with friendly edges and corners, good grip on the desk, and no status LEDs in the line of sight.
The cooling is designed to blow air on the rear-edge, and the laptop uses an Ergolift kind of hinge, which means the main body raises on rubber feet to allow for better ventilation underneath. That, however, also means that hot air is pushed out into the screen, making that bottom display bezel the hottest point of the laptop in sustained loads, and heating up the panel as well. More on that in a further section.
That aside, though, this is a fine design.
With the sides free of any cooling, there was room for plenty of ports, including USB-A and USB-C connectors, a full HDMI, a Kensington lock, and audio jack and a micro SD card reader. Few to no other 14-inch laptops of this size offer as many ports. The status LEDs are on the sides as well.
My only minor nit is with that fact that both USB-C slots are on the left edge, which means you can only charge the laptop on that side.
Keyboard, touchpad on the Swift GO 14 The keyboard on this Swift is standard for portable Acer models over the years, with back keys and their standard layout with the half-sized up and down arrow. The only addition to this generation is a dedicated Copilot key that replaces the right Ctrl.
This keyboard offers decent feedback and types well overall. But somehow the response corroborated perhaps with the flex of the chassis had an impact over my typing experience, which wasn’t entirely consistent during my tests. For regular use, though, this will do well.
The keys are backlit, with white LEDs, several brightness levels and good uniformity. There’s also a dedicated Caps Lock light. But the lights cannot be activated with a swipe over the touchpad once they time out, you need to press a key for that, which has been a common culprit of Acer portable laptops over the years and hasn’t changed on this generation.
The touchpad is improved over the 2023 Swift model, now much larger in size. It feels like a glass surface, but I can’t tell for sure. Nonetheless, it worked fine with daily use, gestures and taps. And didn’t rattled badly with firmer taps.
As for biometrics, there’s no IR camera on this laptop, but there’s a fingerprint sensor in the power buton.
90Hz OLED 14-inch display The display on this laptop is a 14-inch 3K OLED panel, in a glossy non-touch implementation.
For what is worth, this isn’t the latest-gen 120HZ OLED offered on competing 2024 models, but a 2023-gen 90H Samsung OLED. Hardly important, especially in this non-touch version that doesn’t experience the grain caused by the digitizer layer on the touch variants of that generation.
For general use, this is a beautiful panel, with sharp resolution, punchy colors, and excellent blacks and contrast. It’s not very bright, at about 400-nits peak sustained, which means it might struggle in very bright environments or for outdoor use, just like most other OLED laptop panels.
I’ll also add that this OLED display is a solid option for gaming, with nearly instantaneous response times and 90 HS refresh rate, paired with the punch of the Radeon 780M iGPU in this powerful configuration that allows it to run at its full potential. More on that later.
Anyway, here’s what we got in our tests, with an X-Rite i1 Display Pro sensor :
Panel HardwareID: Samsung SDC4181 (ATNA40YK11-0);
Coverage: 100% sRGB, 93.7% Adobe RGB, 100% DCI-P3;
Measured gamma: 2.14;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 391.33 cd/m2 on power;
Min brightness in the middle of the screen: <5 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 1:1;
White point: 6500 K;
Black on max brightness: ~0 cd/m2;
PWM: Yes, to be discussed.
The panel came well-calibrated out of the box and turned up uniformly in color and luminosity. Plus, since this is an OLED panel, there’s no light bleeding or blooming to worry about. If interested, this article goes indepth over the OLED panel technology available in laptops .
You do have to account for flickering on OLED notebooks, though, which can be an issue if you preffer using the laptop at night in very dim environments.
Hardware and performance – AMD Hawk Point Ryzen processor, Radeon 780M iGPU Our test model is a top-specced configuration of the 2024 Acer Swift Go 14 OLED, code name SFG14-63, with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor and AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR5x-7500 memory, and a fast 1TB gen4 SSD.
Disclaimer: I bought this unit from a local store, so this is a retail unit. I tested it with the software available as of mid-June 2024. This is a fairly mature software package, as the laptop has been available in stores for a few months now.
Spec-wise, this series is based on AMD’s Ryzen 8000 Hawk Point hardware platform, with Ryzen HS processors and Radeon integrated graphics.
Our configuration is an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor, a design with 8 Cores and 16 Threads. This runs at up to 45W of sustained power on the top profile, which is plenty for a compact and lightweight computer, as you’ll see in a bit.
A lower-tier AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS 6C/12T processor is also available on the more affordable configurations.
Graphics are handled by the integrated AMD Radeon 780M chip, which is a capable performer for its niche. Note that the Ryzen 5 configuration comes with Radeon 760M graphics, which is only about half the performance of the 780M.
Our configuration also comes with 16GB of LPDDR5-6400 memory. 8 GB and suposedly 32 GB configurations are also available for some models.
For storage, Acer opted for a fast PCIe gen4 SK Hynis SSD drive here, faster than normally offered in these sort of devices.
The SSD and the Wifi chip are the only upgradeable components. To get inside you need to remove the back panel, which is held in place by a couple of Torx screws. Everything is packed up nicely inside, but there’s some unused space towards the front of the laptop, and you’ll also notice how Acer place the SSD on this laptop. Most other portable designs stack the SSD over the motherboard, allowing that space at the bottom for a bigger battery. Instead, Acer go a different route and only include a rather smaller 54 Wh battery as a result.
As far as the software goes, this Swift Go gets the now standard Acer Sense control app which allows control over the power profiles, battery and screen settings, updates, etc. Nice to finally see a unified control app on consumer Acer devices.
There are three performance/thermal profiles to choose from:
Performance – allows the hardware to run at ~45W sustained, with the fan ramping up to ~45 dB;
Normal – allows the hardware to run at 35W in sustained loads, with the fan ramping up to ~38 dB;
Silent – limits the CPU at 20W to favor fan noise of sub 30 dB.
I’d recommend keeping the laptop on Normal in most cases. The Performance profile offers faster processing capabilities in sustained loads, but is also noisier. We’ll discuss the noise profiles further down, in the next section of the review.
We’ll get to that in a bit, but first, here’s what to expect in terms of speeds and temperatures with daily chores such as streaming video, editing text, or browsing the web.
Productivity Performance and Benchmarks – AMD Ryzen 8845HS, Radeon 780M graphics On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance in the Cinebench R15 loop test.
On the Performance mode, the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor peaks at ~60W of power for brief seconds, and then quickly stabilizes at 45W in each run, with temperatures in the high-80s Celsius that eventually build to low 90s C. With the laptop on the desk. The fans ramp up to ~45 dBA.
On Normal, the system limits the power to 35 dBA, with quieter fans (37-38 dBA) and lower temperatures in the low 80s Celsius. The scores drop about 10% compared to Performance mode.
On Silent mode, the processor runs at 20W, with barely audible fans and temperatures up to highs-60s to low-70s C. The scores end up at about 60 to 65% of the Performance scores.
Finally, our sample performed very well on battery, stabilizing at around 35W of power on the Normal mode (Performance is only available plugged-in). That’s on par with the plugged-in normal profile.
All these are illustrated in the graph below.
To put these in perspective, here’s how this Ryzen 7 8845HS implementation fares against other hardware platforms available in current and past-generation 14-inch thin and light laptops .
This is faster than Core Ultra 7 155H or Core i9-13900H platforms at similar power, faster than the Tyzen 7 8840HS at 28W implemented in the Zenbook 14, and a little slower than a Ryzen 9 8945HS (also at 45W).
I did add the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in there as well, as that’s the faster mobile platform available today, outperforming these now previous-gen Ryzen platforms even at lower power, or by roughly 30% at similar settings. More on that in a separate article.
We then further verified our findings with the more taxing Cinebench R23 loop test and in Blender. We measured similar behavior, power limits, fan noise, and temperatures.
We then ran the 3DMark CPU profile test.
Finally, we ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook, on the Performance profile. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time. This unit failed the test while flat on the desk, but passed it while raised on a stand, which means the performance is thermally impacted with the laptop on the desk, as the heat builds up. More on that in the Gaming section.
Benchmarks results and performance summary With that out of the way, let’s get to some benchmarks. We ran our standard set of tests with the laptop on Performance mode and the screen set at its default 2.8K resolution.
Here’s what we got.
3DMark 13 –CPU profile: max – 7255, 16 – 7301, 8 – 6419, 4 – 3705, 2 – 1941, 1 – 998;3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 7418 (Graphics – 7960, Physics – 26035, Combined – 2872);3DMark 13 – Night Raid: 29100 (Graphics – 34404, CPU – 15533);3DMark 13 – Steel Nomad Light: 2489;3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 3029 (Graphics – 2702, CPU – 9674).
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1571;Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 4972;
PCMark 10: 7008 (Essentials – 10435, Productivity – 9860, Digital Content Creation – 9079);GeekBench 6.2.2 64-bit: Multi-core: 11988, Single-Core: 2551;CineBench R15 (best run): CPU 2443 cb, CPU Single Core 277 cb;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 5918cb, CPU Single Core 682 cb;CineBench R23: CPU 15148 pts (best run), CPU 14866 pts (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1754 pts (best run);CineBench 2024: GPU – pts, CPU 849 pts (best single run), CPU 848 (10 min run), CPU Single Core 103 pts;x265 HD Benchmark 64-bit: 24.85 s.
And here are some work-related benchmarks, on the same Performance profile:
Blender 3.4.1 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 2m 43s ;Blender 3.4.1 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 11s;Blender 3.6.5 – BMW Car scene- CPU Compute: 2m 45s ;Blender 3.6.5 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 10s;
PugetBench – DaVinci Resolve: 548;PugetBench – Adobe Photoshop (25.5): -;PugetBench – Adobe Premiere (24.2.1): -;
SPECviewperf 2020 – 3DSMax: 32.61;SPECviewperf 2020 – Catia: 31.86;SPECviewperf 2020 – Creo: 51.06;SPECviewperf 2020 – Energy: 20.43;SPECviewperf 2020 – Maya: 115.33;SPECviewperf 2020 – Medical: 23.00;SPECviewperf 2020 – SNX: 136.11;SPECviewperf 2020 – SW: 59.56;V-Ray Benchmark 5.0: CPU – 10594, CUDA – 254.
This Swift Go laptop is a solid performer for its class of portable and lightweight laptops.
The AMD Hawk Point hardware is highly capable across the board, and especially so in this implementation that allows for fairly high 45W sustained power in Performance mode.
That means this Swift Go 14 is somewhat faster than most other 14-inch thin-and-light options , both Intel or AMD. However, there are exceptions that run at similar or even higher power, such as the Vivobook S 14 OLED , which you can also get with a Ryzen 9 processor.
Plus, new-generation devices are being launched as of the second part of 2024, based on the improved AMD Ryzen AI Strix Point hardware (and future Intel updates as well), which are faster than this Ryzen 7 8000 even at lower power. But they do come at a significantly higher price, as this new hardware is generaly implemented in higher-tier designs.
Acer touted updated Swift laptops built on Ryzen AI 300 hardware as well, but as of August 2024, those are not yet available in stores.
Normal and Silent modes, quieter and still powerful This laptop runs fairly noisy for an ultrabook on Performance mode, at 45 dBA at head-level, so many would be be interested in a quieter experience even for sustained multitasking and demanding activities.
Here are some benchmarks results for the Normal mode, in which case the fans won’t go over 37-38 dBA:
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 7165 (Graphics – 7922, Physics – 24564, Combined – 2579);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 2790 (Graphics – 2485, CPU – 9228);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1443;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 5508 cb, CPU Single Core 664 cb;Blender 3.01 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 6m 41s.
This profile provides 90-95% of the performance in the top profile, which makes it excellent considering the low noise. Thermals are rather high in this case, though, but overall this is a versatile profile, and for the most part enve higher power than the top profiles on many competing laptops, at 35W sustained power.
And here’s Silent mode, in which case the fan is nearly imperceptible at sub 30 dBA:
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 6551 (Graphics – 7094, Physics – 19080, Combined – 2561);3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 2482 (Graphics – 2226, CPU – 7151);Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1353;CineBench R20 (best run): CPU 4902 cb, CPU Single Core 655 cb;Blender 3.01 – Classroom scene – CPU Compute: 8m 45s.
In this case, you’re losing about 30% of the processing power in sustained CPU loads compared to Performance mode, and about 20-25% of the GPU performance. So even if I wouldn’t use this Silent mode for demanding chores on this laptop, it’s still a solid performer for this sort of quiet profile, and definitely one that’s well suited for daily use and multitasking.
Gaming Performance We also ran a couple of DX11, DX12, and Vulkan games on the Performance profile of this Ryzen 7 8845HS + Radeon 780M configuration, at FHD+ display resolution, with Low/Lowest graphics settings. I threw in a few other platforms for comparison.
Low settings Swift Go 14 14 2024 – Zenbook 14 2024 –Zenbook 14 2024 –Zenbook 14X 2023 –ZenBook S 16 2024 –Vivobook S 14 2024 –
Dota 2 78 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
76 fps (44 fps – 1% low)
81 fps (58 fps – 1% low)
74 fps (55 fps – 1% low)
80 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
84 fps (55 fps – 1% low)
Far Cry 6 43 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
46 fps (34 fps – 1% low)
43 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
–
54 fps (46 fps – 1% low)
51 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 40 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
35 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
34 fps (25 fps – 1% low)
–
40 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
45 fps (35 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 64 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
65 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
54 fps (3o fps – 1% low)
43 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
72 fps (56 fps – 1% low)
68 fps (54 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 52 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
45 fps (33 fps – 1% low)
44 fps (26 fps – 1% low)
32 fps (23 fps – 1% low)
60 fps (38 fps – 1% low)
58 fps (42 fps – 1% low)
Horizon FW, Dota 2, Witcher 3 – recorded with MSI Afterburner in game mode;
Far Cry 6, Tomb Raider – recorded with the included Benchmark utilities.
Most games are playable here with these settings, including newer titles. But nonetheless, you can only expect so much from a portable laptop with integrated graphics today.
I was perhaps expecting better gains of this 45W implementation over the 28W Ryzen implementation in the Zenbook 14. But the differences are minor. And the differences between this Ryzen 7 HS and the Ryzen 9 HS implementation in the Vivobook are minor as well.
However, the new AMD Strix Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 platform offers a 15-20% improvement in framerates, and that’s in a much lower power design. At 45W, the Radeon 890M provides 25-30% higher framerates in games over the Radeon 780M in this AMD hardware generation.
With that our of the way, here’s what to expect if you plan on running games on the quieter modes. Both Normal and Silent modes are more than versatile here, and if I were to use this laptop on a daily basis, I’d mostly likely keep it in Normal mode, which in this case offers 95+% of the framerates measured on Performance, but with night and day differences in noise.
Swift GO 14 2024 – Performance – 45W, Normal – 35W, Silent – 20W, FHD+ 1200p, <30 dBA
Far Cry 6 43 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
42 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
34 fps (24 fps – 1% low)
Horizon Forbidden West 40 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
38 fps (32 fps – 1% low)
34 fps (28 fps – 1% low)
Shadow of Tomb Raider 64 fps (50 fps – 1% low)
61 fps (48 fps – 1% low)
55 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 52 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
48 fps (36 fps – 1% low)
38 fps (30 fps – 1% low)
With that out of the way, let’s go through some CPU/GPU logs.
First, the Performance mode. The hardware stabilizes at 45W of power, which allows the GPU to stabilize at around 2.55 GHz, about 90% of its full potential speeds of 2.7 GHz.
As far as noise and temperatures go, the fan spins at 45 dBA with games in this mode, and the CPU stabilizes at temperatures in the low-80s C. Quite toasty.
Bumping the laptop off the desk or placing it on a stand in order to improve airflow underneath the chassis and into the fan only a small difference here, allowing the hardware to stabilize at around 77-78 Degrees Celsius. But somehow this allows for more stable sustained performance in games, as also illustrated in the 3DMark stress test.
The Normal profile limits the processor’s power at around 35W, with a quieter fan at ~37-38 dBA. The GPU clocks at around 2.2 GHz, so 15% lower than on Performance, but that only translates in a roughly 5% loss in framerates. The CPU runs a cooler in this mode, in the high-70s with the laptop flat on the desk, and mid-70s with it on a stand.
Silent more limits the APU power at 20W, but with inaudible fan noise at sub 30 dBA and internal temperatures in the high-60s with the laptop on the desk.
Somehow though, even if the GPU only averages at around 1.2 GHz on this profile, the measured framerates remain competitive, at about 70-75% of what we got on Performance mode, which means you can still play many games even on this Silent profile. That’s impressive!
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others Acer went with a dual-fan single-radiator dual-heatpipe thermal module here, with the fans grouped together on a single heatsink.
The heatsink is placed on the rear of the laptop, and some of the hot air is thus pushed into the display.
Furthermore, this sort of design is barely adequate to handle a 45W sustained TDP in a portable chassis, even if this Swift Go isn’t as necessarily as slim as other options in this class.
As a result, the internals and external temperatures are very high on this laptop in Performance mode, with loud fans as well. Placing this on a stand to improve airflow underneath the chassis and into the fans is recommended, albeit it doesn’t impact temperatures that much.
Instead, Standard and even Silent modes are just more versatile on this laptop, with better temperatures, quieter fans, and still respectable performance.
As far as the noise levels go, expect 45 dBA on Performance, 37-38 dBA on Normal, and sub 30 dBA on Silent mode.
With daily use, the fans keep mostly idle on all profiles, but kick in with heavier multitasking, especially on Performance with the laptop plugged in. I haven’t noticed coil winning or electronic noises on this unit.
As for external temperatures, the chassis keeps cool with light use, and the screen’s bottom bezel around the exhaust is the warmest spot, but still at sub 40 C.
*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Whisper Mode, fans at 0 dB
With demanding loads, this laptop runs gets HOT on Performance. The hotspots are in the mid 50 Celsius on the chassis and screen, bezel, around the exhaust. At least the screen’s chin is thick enough to soak most of the heat, but even so, the display itself heats up to high 40s C, which isn’t great news for the OLED panel.
The case-level temperatures are lower on Standard and Silent modes, but the screen’s chin still heats up to 50+ C. Even so, I’d be more comfortable gaming on Standard on this laptop, and with it placed on a raiser stand to improve airflow underneath the case.
*Gaming – Performance mode – playing Witcher for 30 minutes, fans at ~45 dB
For connectivity, there’s the latest-gen Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 through a Mediatek module on this laptop. This performed fine during my time with the laptop.
Audio is handled by a set of stereo speakers that fire through grills positioned on the side of the chassis. The sound quality isn’t much, not in terms of volume and quality. If there’s one important aspect where Acer could and should improve this series, it’s the audio quality. These speakers don’t seem to have evolved much over the years for mid-tier Swift devices.
Finally, there’s a QHD camera placed at the top of the screen, flanked by microphones. The image quality is fine in good lighting, and not that great in bad light. There’s no IR functionality with Windows Hello support offered here, but there’s a physical privacy cover.
Battery life – excellent runtimes with Hawk Point There’s only a 54 Wh battery inside this 2024 Acer Swift Go laptops, smaller than the average for the segment.
Here’s what we got in our battery life tests, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~50 brightness) and at its default 90Hz refresh rate. I’ve also set the Windows 11 power modes on Best Power Efficiency.
5 W (~10 h of use) – idle, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;8-9 W (~6 h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;6.5 W (~7-8 h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;6 W (~8-9 h of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;10W (~5-6 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON;55 W (<1 h of use) – Gaming – Dota 2, Standard Mode, screen at 50%, Wi-Fi ON.
The AMD Hawk Point hardware platform is efficient, but the smaller battery takes its toll and this laptop will generally last for about 5-8 hours of use on a charge. Other options with larger batteries last longer.
As a side note, the screen doesn’t automatically switch from 90Hz refresh on battery power, but you can do this manually if looking to push the runtimes a little further.
One other aspect to consider is the size and weight of the 100W USB-C charger that comes with this device. It’s a dual-piece design with a long and thick cable and a USB-C plug, but in a design that was generally offered with laptops in this class 5 years ago. Acer should include a more compact charger design with this series. At least full charge takes a little under 1.5 hours, with the high-capacity charger and smaller battery.
Price and availability- Acer Swift Go 14 OLED At the time of this article, the Acer Swift Go 14 OLED SFG14-63 is listed in some stores.
This exact configuration reviewed here, with the Ryzen 7 / 16 GB RAM / 1 TB SSD configuration and the 2.8K OLED display, is available here in Europe for around 800 EUR and even less at sales. That’s competitive pricing for the specs and the overall package.
Ryzen 5 configurations are available as well in some markets. Over here, those start at 650-700 EUR with 8 GB of RAM. Other configurations should be available as well over the different regions.
The Intel Core Ultra version of this series (Acer Swift Go SFG14-72 model name) is more widely available in all markets, including in the US, where the MSRP price is $799 for the Core Ultra 7 155H model with 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD, plus the same OLED panel. That’s once more very competitive pricing! Over here in Europe, though, that starts at 900 EUR, which is about 100 EUR more than the AMD version.
Follow this link for updated prices and configurations in your area .
Final thoughts- Acer Swift Go 14 OLED review If you’re in the market for a powerful laptop in a portable package, but you’re on a tighter budget, this Swift GO 14 is among your better options out there.
The overall performance of this series is impressive, as a powerful implementation of the AMD Ryzen hardware platform. This can handle multitasking and some workloads and games as well, within the limitations of an iGPU-only design, of course. It does run hot and noisy on Performance mode, but Normal and even Silent modes offer much more versatile daily-use experiences, with still plenty of oomph, quiet fans and better thermals.
You’re also getting decent inputs, plenty of ports and a beautiful OLED display here.
But then, the audio quality is rather lacking, which could be a deal-breaker for some of you. And the battery life isn’t as good as on other options, mostly because of the rather antiquated internal design that only allows for a 54 WH battery inside.
Now, you might find these acceptable given the overall value of this series, especially as this is one of the more affordable devices in its segment.
But there are a few other options that some of you might prefer. The Asus Vivobook S 14 OLED and the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 14 come to might as slightly more refined designs with larger batteries and fairly close pricing. Or, if you don’t necessarily need the kind of power offered by this series, perhaps opting for a mid-tier configuration of a superior design might make more sense to you, such as the Zenbook 14 or the Lenovo Yoga 7i.
Anyway, that’s about it for this review. After careful consideration, I have decided to return this Swift Go and continue my search. My father doesn’t really need a 45W Ryzen 7 HS laptop, but would benefit from longer runtimes and better audio for Netflix and Youtube. That doesn’t mean this might not be the right choice for you, though, so let me know what you think of this Acer Swift Go 14 OLED compared to the alternatives available out there.
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Review by: Andrei Girbea
Andrei Girbea is a Writer and Editor-in-Chief here at Ultrabookreview.com . I write about mobile technology, laptops and computers in general. I've been doing it for more than 15 years now. I'm a techie with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering. I mostly write reviews and thorough guides here on the site, with some occasional columns and first-impression articles.
Altandmain
August 21, 2024 at 2:03 pm
There is one good point about these laptops – cheaper laptops are now getting OLED displays. It used to be that only higher end laptops would get OLEDs. Now the technology seems to be getting cheaper. I hope that OLED displays get brighter as well (in terms of cd / m^2).
Consistently across the whole line-up, I've noticed the trend of Acer not having good speakers. I think that it would be worth it for a slight price increase (say $50 or so) in return for better speakers. The laptop would still be an amazing value and the good speakers would justify the price.
The other big point – it seems the laptop has made being thin more important than good cooling or being quiet. Part of the issue is that Apple has a big advantage in thermal efficiency in its SOCs, but the other is compromises were made to make the laptop thin.
Jakub
August 22, 2024 at 3:38 pm
Can you please elaborate on the point regarding Performance profile and hot air being blowed on the OLED screen (it shows 40°C when playing Witcher which is less taxing than e.g. rendering – do the temps go even higher during render tasks?). Specifically, is it technically speaking an issue for the display – will it degrade over time and what time would that be?
Thank you for the excellent review btw. Site bookmarked :)
Andrei Girbea
August 23, 2024 at 9:46 am
the panel doesn't get that hot in this design (around 45 C near the exhaust), mostly because there's the plastic chin that soaks up most of the heat, so I'd say the heat isn't going to affect the OLED in here.
Nonetheless, I still don't like this sort of design and prefer vents that fire onto the rear or to the sides, that's why I've listed that as a negative.