Acer Swift series first look at CES 2023

Acer simplifies its Swift laptop lineup for 2023. It’s now naming laptops by display size, rather than random numbers.

Video transcript

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DANIEL COOPER: Let's be honest. Can you tell some of Acer's laptop series apart without googling because I can't and I think a lot of people can't, which is why the company has come to CES this year with a complete rebrand of its consumer notebook line. Whereas before you would have the 3 and the 5 Series, now the company has basically broken the Swift range down into three discrete chunks. You have the Swift Go, which is more of its lower end more portable line. And there is a 14-inch and a 16-inch model with that.

Then you take a step up to the mainstream standard Swift without any suffixes. And then if you want some more power, you can then opt for the flagship Swift X, which, of course, comes with discrete Nvidia 40 series GPUs. One of the best things about all of the new Swifts is that they all come with an amazing range of connectivity options. You've got two USB-C, one USB-A, an HDMI out. And on the Swift X and the Swift Go, they both come with a micro SD card reader as standard.

First thing, let's talk about the standard Swift 14. And the first thing to say about it is that it's absolutely gorgeous. It's got this sort of matte body with these lovely sort of copper accents around the outside. And it really does scream premium notebook. And, in fact, almost everything about it with the exception of some very large vents tucked up on the back of the laptop deck by the display, everything about this screams premium machine.

As well as being a gorgeous machine, there's also loads of build to order specs that I won't bore you with now. The base model starts from $1,400. And I would imagine that that number will climb fairly quickly once you start speccing. At the lower end, you've got the Swift Go. And these are aimed more for the sort of thin and light travel machines. Although I will admit, they're not the thinnest or the lightest. But, certainly, I mean, this is a 16-inch machine. So you wouldn't necessarily expect it to be as light and thin as a tablet.

It has a 14 and 16-inch variation on that. Now, these are both very affordable machines. They both start between $800 and $850. Although when you start speccing, that number will go up. But one of the big features about this is that Acer has made a real big effort to get the thermals right. And you can actually spec both of these machines with an H-series Intel Core chip, one of the new 13th generation models. And Acer says that it will be strong enough and powerful enough to run a chip with that sort of power draw.

And then at the top of the range you have the Swift X. So, obviously, this is an Nvidia Studio-rated laptop. You can plug in one of the new 40 series RTX discrete GPUs. And, I mean, to be fair, there isn't a huge amount to say about this. The design is very similar to what we've already seen. The chip options are just refreshed from the last year. And, fundamentally, if you're looking for a machine that is a workhorse, if you want to do lots of video editing, creative staff, or gaming probably, then this is the machine for you. It starts at $1,100. But, again, you're not going to be spending that sort of money if you want a brand new GPU in that. So probably expect it to be a bit more like two grand.

Now, I've only just really scratched the surface with all of these machines. If you'd like to learn more, you can head over to the story on Engadget.com. And we're here at CES all week. So you should hit the Like button and the Subscribe button. And we will keep you abreast of all of the new exciting technology and science and everything else news not just for this week, but for the whole year.