About two months ago, Acer Malaysia had unveiled the Acer Swift Go 14, a thin and light laptop with a starting price of RM3,199. Boasting the latest generation of AMD 7000 series processors and weighing only 1.25 kg, the Acer Swift Go 14 looks like a great value on paper for those seeking a portable laptop under RM4,000.
Table of Contents
Acer Swift Go 14 Specifications
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 7 7730U AMD Ryzen 5 7530U |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon |
| Display | 14-inch 1920 x 1080 pixels IPS Acer ComfyView LED Backlit TFT LCD 300 nits 100% sRGB Colour Gamut |
| Memory | 8 / 16GB LPDDR4X |
| Battery Life | Up to 13 hours |
| Storage | 512GB NVME SSD |
| Camera and sensors | FHD with Temporal Noise Reduction |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 321.71 (W) x 211.72 (D) x 15.9 (H) mm |
| Weight | 1.25 kg |
| Color | Pure Silver |
| Connectivity | WiFi 6E Bluetooth 5.2 |
| I/O Ports | 1 x HDMI 2.1 port with HDCP support 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (1 port w/ power-off USB charging) 1 x 3.5 mm headphone/speaker jack 2 x USB Type-C port: USB 4 (up to 10 Gbps) |
Retailing at RM3,999, our review unit is the highest spec-ed SFG14-41-R3ZM variant with the AMD Ryzen 7 7730U processor and 16GB of onboard LPDDR4X memory.
Design
Let’s put it this way, the Acer Swift Go 14 won’t win any design awards. It looks as basic as laptops get. It is available in two colourways: Pure Silver, and Prodigy Pink, but the latter is only reserved for the base variant.
The entire chassis is made of plastic. While the laptop feels well-built for the most part, there is some flex on the keyboard deck and touchpad. Opening the lid will allow the chassis to tilt upwards, which in turn improves airflow towards the bottom.
You get a standard 14-inch IPS display with fairly slim bezels on the sides. The top bezel is slightly thicker to accommodate the 1080p webcam. The bottom bezel is quite thick for 2023 standards, but is not a dealbreaker for me.
In terms of I/O, you get a decent amount. On the left are two USB 4 Type-C ports with power delivery, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A port with power off USB charging. On the right lies a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A port, a 3.5mm headset combo jack, and a Kensington lock.
Display
The local version of the Acer Swift Go 14 gets a fairly basic 1080p IPS display, which is a far cry from the gorgeous 2.8K OLED display available in some other countries. That being said, a 1080p display is alright at this price point, although we are starting to see other brands offering OLED panels or displays with 16:10 aspect ratio at this segment.
The colour gamut is just okay, occupying 100% of the sRGB colour space. This is good enough for day to day use, but creative professionals will be left wanting for more. As with other IPS panels, the viewing angles are excellent.
Performance
I am genuinely surprised by the amount of performance the Swift Go 14 capable of for its size. Granted, my review unit came with the highest specification, but make no mistake, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 series mobile processors are a powerful bunch. The 8-cores 16-threads Ryzen 7 7730U is quite efficient, having a power draw of just under 25 watts.
The benchmark figures are promising as well. On Cinebench R23, the Swift Go 14 scored a respectable 9,433 points for multi-core, and 1,468 for single core. On CPU-Z’s benchmark, it managed 5,618 points for multi-core, and 625.4 on single core.
AMD’s integrated Radeon still holds the lead over Intel’s own iGPU solution. It can handle light photo and video editing applications with ease. I barely noticed any lag while using Capcut to edit videos for TikTok, although it does take a bit longer to export. However, with only 512MB of VRAM, I wouldn’t recommend it for AAA gaming. Though, you can expect a playable experience with some esports titles such as League of Legends and Dota 2 if you lower the graphic settings to low or medium.
Thermals
Despite the level of performance from the Ryzen 7 7730U processor, thermals are surprisingly well controlled. Yes, the fan is audible but not to the point of being intrusive.
CPU temperatures hovered just under 75°C after running HeavyLoad for 30 minutes, which is quite impressive. I also didn’t really feel the heat on the keyboard and trackpad as well, as most of the hot air is expelled upwards via the vent located neat the hinge.
User Experience
Keyboard
The Swift Go 14 came with a chiclet styled keyboard. The individual keys are well-spaced, and all keys save for the spacebar have white backlit LEDs. There is minimal key wobble and the keys felt tactile with a noticeable bump. It felt comfortable to type on for long hours. However, the center of the keyboard has a bit of deck flex.
Touchpad
The touchpad on the Swift Go 14 is responsive, if not a bit tiny. The size is more akin to those you would expect to find in 13-inch laptops. It does seem to be quite resistant to fingerprints and smudging, so that’s a plus.
Webcam
The 1080p webcam on the Swift Go 14 is usable to say the least. Like other laptop webcams, it will serve you just fine for video calls.
Speakers
The Acer Swift Go 14 is equipped with stereo downward firing speakers on each side. While it can get reasonably loud, the sound quality is just so-so. The mids are warm, but the highs can get quite sibilant at higher volumes. There is also a noticeable lack of mid-bass. You may want to get a decent pair of headphones if you plan to use this for entertainment and media consumption.
Battery Life
Acer has rated that the Swift Go 14 has up to 13 hours of battery life. During my testing, which involved a mixed use scenario, I could manage around 5 hours on balanced mode, and about 10 hours on battery saver mode with reduced screen brightness.
Final Verdict
3.5 / 5While the Acer Swift Go 14 will not win any design awards, it offers tremendous value with an efficient processor at an accessible price point.
The Acer Swift Go 14 offers a lot of performance for the money, but you have to manage your expectations on the user experience side of things. From a small trackpad to ‘meh’ sounding speakers, some aspects need to be compromised in order to maintain a competitive price point.
And to be fair to Acer, a lot of these cost-cutting are on fairly insignificant components, and if you can look past these quirks, the Acer Go Swift 14 is a compelling option for thin and light laptops on a budget.
For more information, please visit Acer Malaysia’s official website.
