The new Acer Swift 5 has the right parts but the wrong price

In Australia, the Acer Swift 5 (2022) has a recommended retail price of $2899.

By the standards of laptops, that figure is certainly on the high side. It's a lot more than you're looking at for an entry or mid-level variant of a premium machine like Apple's latest MacBook Air or MacBook Pro as well as Windows-based machines like the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED.

Right now, the only place in Australia where the Acer Swift 5 can be found is on the official Acer website. However, when availability does widen, I suspect that it'll be worth your trouble to look around for the price. When it comes to buying a laptop, pricing can vary significantly between both online and physical retailers.

Before you make a decision, be sure to read our recommendation for the specs.

Most of the time, I like to start my laptop reviews by talking about the display. After all, it's the thing you're going to be looking at every second you're using a given machine.

However, in the case of the Acer Swift 5, the aluminium chassis is a more natural place to kick things off. Smooth to the touch and indifferent to fingerprints, the body of the Acer Swift 5 looks every bit as expensive as it feels. The edges and the Acer logo engraved on the top of the machine contrasts against what's found elsewhere, opting for an eye-catching and distinct gold instead of the usual matte grey.

The rear-facing edge of the Acer Swift 5 bends and breaks the illusion of regularity, jutting out the back of the machine like the vent on a gaming PC. Fortunately, when you unfold the display this outgrowth tilts and turns to push the screen up to a more comfortable viewing angle. It's not entirely unlike ASUS' ErgoLift hinge, though slightly different up close.

Thanks to a 14-inch IPS panel that incorporates deliciously thin bezels, the screen on the Acer Swift 5 is nice enough to look at though. With a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio, the display here feels just that little bit more expansive than the average.

Add to that the inclusion of an antimicrobial Corning Gorilla Glass coating, and you've got a generously-sized touchscreen that looks sharp and promises to resist the usual onslaught of blemishes and scratches. Despite these otherwise strong fundamentals, the glossiness of the screen on the Acer Swift 5 can sometimes work against it in brightly lit environments.

Similarly, the absence of things like HDR or a high refresh rate also makes this an ill-fit for more-demanding content consumption. Likewise, the absence of wide colour gamut capabilities means that the price here is going to be equally hard to justify for content creators.

There's something to be said for not falling into the trap of including too many unnecessary bells, whistles and novelty features. However, that kind of restraint usually comes paired with a lower price point rather than the higher one found here.

With the starting RRP being what it is, the appeal of this particular laptop largely lives and dies on how alluring you find the luxury-grade looks involved.

$2899 might get you a lot, but it won't get you many extra privacy-related perks beyond a fingerprint sensor that's integrated into the power button.

Acer Swift 5 is premium and powerful, but it's not particularly flexible. That sentiment applies regardless of whether we're talking about thin and light alternatives like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon or productivity workhorses like the new Surface Laptop 5.

In contrast to either of the above, the Acer Swift 5 is the kind of professional-oriented laptop that's looking to stand out rather than blend in. It looks like most laptops do, but the details give it a visual pop and sell it as something slightly nicer than the norm.

This kind of emphasis on aesthetics is sometimes synonymous with style over substance, but thankfully that's not the case with the Acer Swift 5. The keyboard has a satisfying pushiness to it, and while the trackpad could be a little wider, it's plenty responsive.

That said, there was a subtle stubbornness here that got under my skin the more I used the machine. Clicking on the trackpad on the Acer Swift 5 required a small but noticeably greater amount of pressure than other laptops ask for, which can take some getting used to. 

Despite the premium flair and high-quality material design, the Acer Swift 5 is lighter to carry around and geared up with more ports than you'd otherwise expect.

You get a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports, plus an extra two type-A inputs. There's also a combo audio jack and an HDMI 2.1 output. Acer scores a few extra points for opting to stick with USB Type-C when it comes to charging here rather than anything more proprietary.

This adherence to strong basics cuts both ways, however. For example, the dual speakers inside the Swift 5 are loud enough to be listenable but far from exceptional.

Likewise, the webcam on the Acer Swift 5 is reasonably capable out of the box. Unfortunately, the quality of the video it captures can vary widely. Specifically, I found that it struggled in environments with low or uneven lighting in a way that my other webcam options didn't.

When it comes to the hardware hiding underneath the exterior of the Acer Swift 5, flourish quickly gives way to familiarity. You'll find the same Intel Core i7-1260P processor here as with competitors like the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED. The usual 16GB of RAM comes complemented by an above-average 1TB of storage and a 55Wh battery.

The result of these parts is much what you expect. Everyday performance of the Acer Swift 5 did little to deviate from the expectations the spec sheet inspires. Web browsing was fast and most apps ran cleanly but weren't all that much more so than what you'll get from the competition.

Being fast enough for most is hardly a sin, but it does little to take the sting out of the price tag involved here. For $2,899, you'd hope that the Swift 5 would be able to feel much faster and smoother than it does.

All told, I'd rate the Acer Swift 5's performance towards the top end of the Everyday bracket. Even if it's rocking the latest Intel silicon, it's hard to imagine using this machine for anything particularly graphically demanding. Gamers and content creators will want to look elsewhere if they want their needs met.

Those with more modest demands will be able to get by here, but the Acer Swift 5 doesn't really make a compelling argument for why you should pick it over the many other options in the mix.

When pitted against other laptops we've reviewed, the Acer Swift 5 managed to edge out a win on a few fronts. Specifically, the machine excelled when it came to multi-core performance. It managed to beat out both Apple's M1 MacBook Air and the ASUS Vivobook Pro 16X when it came to both Cinebench and Geekbench's multi-core metrics. However, the Acer Swift 5 lagged behind on single-core performance and lost out to the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro OLED when it came to Novabench.

As for battery life, the Acer Swift 5 mostly conformed to expectations. It could take me through the ups and downs of an ordinary workday, but those expecting the ultra-long battery life of Apple's most recent MacBooks will be disappointed to find that this device can't keep up.

Burned down via video streaming on YouTube, the Acer Swift 5 took 9 hours and 15 minutes to go from 100% to nil. In context, that result sits right in the middle of the pack. It's better than you can expect from many gaming and ultralight options, but not quite as accomplished as category-leading laptops like the latest MacBook can offer.

While the new Acer Swift 5 and Acer Swift 3 lean in the same direction when it comes to looks, the latter comes in a larger number of variations.

If the Swift 5 is the model for those who don't want to compromise on anything in particular, then the Swift 3 is the opposite. It's the option for those who know they want an Acer laptop and they know exactly which corners they're willing to cut for a cheaper price.

More practically, that translates into the option of a less powerful Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM (rather than the 16GB found in the Swift 5) and either a FHD or a QHD screen (rather than the WGXD one found on the more expensive Swift 5).

These differences aside, the two devices boast an almost identical set of ports and features. It really does come down to the performance. If you think you can get away with less, you can save a lot by going with the Acer Swift 3.

The Acer Swift 5 has slick looks, solid performance and ports aplenty. Nevertheless, the high price here is hard to justify for most.

You might be able to eke out a little more bang for your buck here, but the cost you're paying for it is hard to ignore. You can spend close to half as much as this laptop costs and get performance that's within the margin of error and if you want to spend this much, you're probably better off getting something with a discrete GPU or a nicer screen.

Give them five minutes to mess with it, and I suspect most people come away feeling like the Acer Swift 5 has the right parts and the wrong price.

If you're going to go for the Acer Swift 5, it's probably worth going all out. Relative to the minimum spec model (which Acer tells us may or may not end up making it to Australia), our recommended spec boasts double the RAM, a better processor and a full 1TB of storage rather than the usual 512GB.