Acer Swift 5 is the XPS13 rival of Tiger Lake Power and Ultralight Dell

Acer Swift 5 is the XPS13 rival of Tiger Lake Power and Ultralight Dell

Acer's Swift laptops have always treaded the line between being extremely lightweight and affordable, yet powerful enough to be a workhorse machine on the go. And that is what the new Acer Swift 5 is trying to do again.

Unveiled at Acer's annual GPC Next event, the Swift 5 is one of the first laptops to feature Intel's new Tiger Lake mobile chip. It also has been tweaked in design and could be one of the best laptops when it arrives later this year.

Here is everything we know so far about the Acer Swift 5 and what we can expect from the company's new slim laptop.

Despite today's reveal, the Acer Swift 5 will not arrive until October. [The reason for this is likely because Acer is waiting for Intel's upcoming Tiger Lake processors to be released. These processors promise better performance for both CPU and integrated graphics than the current 10th generation Intel Ice Lake chips in slim machines like the Surface Pro 7.

The Acer Swift 5 will start at $999.99 in the US, €1,099 in Europe, and roughly £1,000 in the UK. This is comparable pricing to the previous model.

At the $1,000 range, the Swift 5 is a reasonable price for a laptop that is thin, lightweight, and can take advantage of the latest Intel chips. However, configurations vary by region, and prices are expected to fluctuate and go a bit higher if optional discreet graphics cards and other features are added.

The Acer Swift 5 is not only available with an Intel Tiger Lake CPU, but also offers the option of an Nvidia GeForce MX350 graphics card. This is an upgrade over the MX250 that the previous Swift 5 came with and should offer a bit more graphical grunt for those who want to do a bit more intensive work on the go, such as photo editing. But don't expect Swift 5 to run the latest games at high frame rates.

Intel's upcoming Tiger Lake chips will feature new Xe integrated graphics, which will provide a significant boost in GPU performance over the Iris Plus graphics found on Ice Lake CPUs. So unless you plan to do something particularly demanding, you may not need a dedicated graphics card. The Tiger Lake chip that the Swift 5 will feature is unknown, but it will come in Core i5 and Core i7 variants and is believed to be the same Ice Lake configuration that the older Swift 5 came with.

RAM can be specified up to 16GB in LPDDR4X, and although Acer did not mention the starting amount of memory, we assume it would be 8GB. Storage will come in the form of M.2 PCIe SSD space, but Acer has not yet revealed the storage configuration.

If the Tiger Lake chips can deliver impressive performance, the Swift 5 could challenge great ultraportables like the Dell XPS 13 2020.

The Acer Swift 5 has one display option in the form of a 14-inch 1920 x 1080 resolution IPS touchscreen. With a brightness of 300 nits and an aspect ratio of 16:9, it is very similar to the older Swift 5's screen.

However, Acer has shaved the bezel slightly, giving the new display a screen-to-body ratio of 90%. The touchscreen also features a layer of antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass, which promises to reduce the possibility of microbial growth on the touchscreen.

Even with its discreet GPU, Swift 5 is extremely lightweight, weighing less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs.). It is also only 14.95 mm thick, making it an ultra-slim laptop.

You won't notice any difference in the keyboard and trackpad layout on the new Swift 5. However, we expect Acer to have improved the feel of the keyboard this time around, as the previous model lacked a bit of tactility in the keys.

The port selection is similar, with the Acer Swift 5 offering a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3, two USB 3.2 Type-A connections, an HDMI port, a Kensington lock, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Acer included an SD card reader. I would have liked to have seen one, but there wasn't one either.

Finally, the new Swift 5 brings back dark green with copper gold trim. Both of these color options serve to make the magnesium and aluminum construction of the Acer Swift 5 look more attractive.

The Acer Swift 5 is an evolution of its predecessor, and the main changes lie beneath the chassis. However, the Swift 5 remains one of the more attractive ultra-portable machines available for purchase.

If the Swift 5's mix of Intel and Nvidia chips can deliver impressive performance at a reasonable price tag, Acer could be a winner with the Swift 5. But we won't know for sure until we test it.

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