Acer Swift 7 Preview – Wafer-thin 14″ laptop with e-SIM

It’s been quiet for a while in the battle for the thinnest and lightest laptop. Since 2016, many manufacturers have tried to outdo each other with impressive figures. For example, Apple came up with its MacBook 12″, HP with the Specter 13 and Asus with the ZenBook 3. Acer joined the battle last year with the first Swift 7 , a one centimeter thin laptop. At CES, the Taiwanese manufacturer is now showing a completely new and even thinner model.

The new Swift 7 has had some significant changes. As with its predecessor, the housing is an aluminum unibody, but another millimeter has been shaved off, so that the laptop is only 9mm thick. A more notable change is the enlargement of the screen to 14″. The screen has thinner bezels, so that a larger screen panel now fits in the laptop. The previous model had a 13.3″ screen. The new model also has a touchscreen.

It is not yet entirely clear to us whether the new Swift 7 really has the same size as the previous model. Acer only had the new model in its demo room and the manufacturer has not yet published a specification list with dimensions. What we can say with certainty after holding the laptop is that it is indeed very thin, but also very light. The exact weight is also not clear, because Acer has not yet announced that and we did not have a scale at our disposal.

The housing feels sturdy due to the use of metal. Because the laptop is so thin, you can hardly press the housing. Only the keyboard springs in slightly when you press it firmly. The finish also seems to be in good order, just like with the first version of the Swift 7. For the time being, there will only be a black version of the laptop. This makes the color scheme sleek and sober, a big difference with the first Swift 7, which was only available in a champagne-colored version.

The hinges of the screen are no longer on the sides, but a little more towards the middle. It is possible to fold the screen all the way down to an angle of 180 degrees. It is not possible to continue running, so you cannot use the new Swift 7 as a tablet.

The touchscreen has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and is finished with Gorilla Glass. Many manufacturers opt for screens with higher resolutions in high-end ultrabooks. Although the high pixel density can look beautiful and ensures razor-sharp text, we also agree with the choice of a full-HD panel. That saves on costs and also benefits the battery life, while the sharpness is usually fine in practice.

4g modem and e-sim

Microsoft and Qualcomm have been promoting their new Always Connected PCs a lot in recent weeks. Under that heading, the manufacturers include Windows 10 laptops with the Snapdragon 835 soc, which also have a built-in 4G modem. A modem is of course not reserved for laptops with a Snapdragon soc; manufacturers also often offer it as an option in models with Intel processors.

With the Swift 7, Acer goes one step further. There is not only a modem from Intel’s XMM series in the laptop, but also an e-SIM. So you don’t have to put a SIM card in the device to make a 4G connection. That is possible, because there is also a nano SIM card slot. If you buy the Swift 7, you get 1GB of data for free, which can be used for a month in 48 countries, including the US and European countries.

That data belongs to a Transatel profile, which is on the e-SIM. Acer also puts a Mobile Plans app on the laptop, which allows users to buy other data bundles and put them on the e-sim. This should make it possible, for example, to quickly buy a data bundle from a local provider when you are travelling.

Keyboard, touchpad and fingerprint scanner

Although the case has become thinner, Acer has managed to find a place for backlighting for the keyboard. This was still missing in the first version of the Swift 7. The keyboard has been modified in more ways; it now consists of only five rows instead of six. The top row contains both the number keys and the F buttons, so you’ll need to use the Fn button for half of the functions. Acer probably did that to get more space behind the keyboard. At that point the laptop is slightly thicker and that’s where the hardware will be.

We found the keyboard of the first Swift 7 to deliver acceptable typing comfort, an impressive feat in such a thin laptop. In practice, for example, it typed better than the thicker MacBook 12″. Our first impression is that the typing comfort has remained the same with the new model. The keys don’t have much travel , but enough to ensure a good workable experience. Under the keyboard there is a large touchpad, without buttons.The fingerprint scanner to the left of the keyboard is new, which is a copy of Synaptics.

Hardware

Acer uses a very economical processor with a tdp of 4.5 watts in the Swift 7. In the new model this is the Core i7-7Y75. That is still a seventh-generation processor, because Intel has not yet announced economical 4.5W versions of eighth-generation CPUs. It is a dual core that can work on four threads and the clock speed is 1.3GHz with a boost to a maximum of 3.6GHz.

Due to the economical processor, the new Swift 7 will not be a speed monster and will have to lose out to alternatives equipped with the new Kaby Lake-R quadcores. The big advantage, however, is that the Swift 7 only needs passive cooling and is therefore completely silent in use.

Whether the passive cooling works well enough to allow the processor to work hard in the thin housing and what about the heat development will have to be seen in a review. With the first Swift 7 version, Acer did that well, so that offers good hope for the new model.

The other hardware consists of 8GB lpddr3 memory. That is probably soldered to the motherboard, so expansion is not possible. There won’t be room for a memory slot in the thin laptop either. For storage, there is a 512GB NVMe SSD; it will probably be faster than the sata variant in the previous Swift 7.

Nothing has changed in terms of connection options, except for the placement of the two USB-C ports. These are now on the left side of the laptop, along with a 3.5mm jack. A micro SD card slot can be found on the right; the laptop does not have more ports.

Preliminary conclusion

The new version of the Swift 7 has a number of clear improvements over the first model, including the larger screen, the backlight in the keyboard, a fingerprint scanner and the built-in 4G modem with e-SIM. We were very pleased with the first version in our review and the new variant is therefore very promising.

In terms of hardware, not much has changed. Acer still uses a seventh-generation processor, but is forced to do so because Intel has not yet announced eighth-generation 4.5W models. The new 15W quadcores cannot be passively cooled in such a thin case. Still, that is something to take into account, because in terms of performance, the laptop will be inferior to many slightly thicker competitors, which are equipped with Kaby Lake-R quadcores.

The Taiwanese manufacturer will probably not sell large numbers, but anyone who sees weight and dimensions as important arguments for purchasing should definitely put this laptop on their shortlist.