Acer Swift 1 Fresh Review (SF114-34-P2VU)

For the needs of studying and working everyday, Acer launched the Swift 1 Fresh series which is offered at a low price. The name Fresh itself confirms that this is the latest generation in the entry-level class of the Swift series. And let me say cheap, the features are not arbitrary. What is certain is that this laptop uses the latest generation of processors. For more details, let’s look at the specification table first.

Specification
Design
Swift 1 has a look that is a common characteristic of the Swift series itself, which is minimalism. Moreover, the color choices consisting of Pure Silver, Sakura Pink, and Safari Gold, make it look more stylish. While the unit we tested has a pure silver color.

Almost the entire body uses aluminum alloy material which is sturdy but lightweight. The cover is plain and only has Acer written in the middle. While there are two hinges, on the left and right. And when the screen is opened, this hinge will lift the lower body of the laptop so that there is a slight gap at the bottom. Acer itself calls this design the elevated hinge design. Unfortunately, this hinge cannot be opened with just one hand.

Swift 1 body does not provide exhaust holes. This is because the cooling system is fanless, aka fan-less. So in addition to making the laptop body completely closed, it also makes the laptop quieter.

The screen design has thin bezels on the left and right sides. Although not the thinnest in its class, this bezel size makes the 14-inch screen look more spacious with a screen to body ratio of 83%.
The inner body has the same color, namely silver and the keyboard buttons appear in black so they are clearly visible. The palmrest area is quite spacious with a touchpad in the middle. While there is a fingerprint sensor on the right side of the palmrest.

Dimension
Swift 1 is included in the thin & light category, which means it has thin dimensions and light weight. For its size, it has a width of 32.28 cm, a length of only 21.22 cm, and a thickness of less than 1.5 cm, to be exact, only 1,495 cm. With such compact dimensions, this laptop weighs only 1.3 kg. Although light, thanks to the use of aluminum material, the build quality of this laptop remains solid and comfortable to carry everywhere.

Screen
Well this is cool. Usually cheap laptops are only given a TN panel screen. The resolution is also mostly still HD. In this Swift 1, Acer gives an IPS panel screen and the resolution is already full HD. With a wider viewing angle, it keeps the screen cool to look at from the left or right side. It’s good for watching movies together. When we checked using Hwinfo, the screen panel was made by Chi Mei with the N140HCA-EAC series. And when calibrated, the results have a color gamut of 65% sRGB, 47% NTSC, 49% AdobeRGB, 48% P3.

Keyboard
The keyboard has a simple design and is not much different from other Swift series. There is no numpad area or additional shortcut keys. Some button placements are made a bit different. For example, the page up and page down buttons are located adjacent to the arrow keys.
The Power button is attached to the keyboard button at the top right corner. But don’t worry, because if you press the wrong one, the laptop won’t turn off right away. If you want to turn off the laptop, you have to press the Power button for a long time.

Interestingly, the keyboard keys are backlit in white. So it doesn’t matter if you want to type in a dark place. Unfortunately, the Caps Lock button doesn’t have a marker in the form of a small led when it’s active. The Fn Lock function is also absent here. Meanwhile, the buttons have a nice feel to press. Perfect for typing while doing work.

Touchpad and Fingerprint
The size of the touchpad is quite large but still leaves room for armrests on the sides. Without a dedicated button, the left and right click areas are a bit heavy. But once you get used to it, it’s not too much of a problem. The runway is smooth and smooth for navigation. And of course it supports muti gestures up to four fingers.

Oh yes, interestingly, this laptop provides a fingerpint sensor. Its position is at the top right of the palm rest area. Right under the arrow keys. It is a small rectangle. But the sensor is a bit deep. So if you want to stick your finger, you have to press it a bit so that it sticks to the sensor. Meanwhile, the sensor response is good and fast. We don’t have a problem here.

Webcam
The webcam found on this laptop has standard specifications. The webcam flanked by two microphones has a resolution of 720p with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and the frame rate is stuck at 30 fps.
For the results, the webcam is pretty good with sufficient lighting. Movement when capturing the object is also smooth. For the matter of mediocre detail like a webcam in general. But what is certain is that it is good enough for online meeting activities.

Battery
This laptop is powered by a 44Wh battery. This capacity is relatively small but just right. Because it is used on entry-level laptops, of course the power consumption is not as greedy as gaming laptops. Acer itself claims the battery can last up to 15 hours. But in our test the battery lasted up to 11 hours more. Testing using PCMark 10 Modern Office with power saving scenario on, backlit keyboard turned off and brightness set to 50%.

In general, the battery life is fairly long. Because PCMark simulates the use of daily activities such as presentations, typing, to video conferencing. So 11 hours more of course, it’s pretty cool when the laptop is brought to a place where there is no power plug. As for the 45 watt adapter, it has a small size. So don’t bother if you have to take it too.

I/O Port
The I/O port on this laptop is quite complete for an entry-level laptop, sequentially on the left there is a DC-in adapter port, HDMI, USB 3.2 Type-A with support for power-off USB charging, and USB Type-C. without Thunderbolt support. Continue to the right, there is a Kensington lock, LED indicator, USB 3.2 Type-A, and combo audio port. There is no SD Card reader here, so just use an external SD card reader if needed.

Storage
For cheap laptops, using a large SSD is a plus for us. On testing, the reading score was around 2000 MB/s. This speed is certainly much faster than HDD. Moreover, the 512 GB capacity is suitable for installing a lot of software and also storing large data.

Upgradeability
As a cheap laptop, the upgrade options are more limited. For RAM, Acer does not give an option to upgrade. Because the 4GB main RAM is soldered and no other empty slot is given. It’s a shame, even though if I could increase it to 8GB, it would be more interesting. For storage slots, there is only 1 here and it is already filled.

Audio
In the audio sector, this laptop only relies on two speakers located at the bottom without any audio tuning software. When it’s set to 100%, the sound isn’t too loud, but it’s enough for use in a small room or room. The sound is quite clear and clear when listening to music. The treble sounds good and not too much, while the bass is minimalist but with a good treble, the sound doesn’t sound shrill. It’s quite enjoyable.

Software
In the software section, Acer embeds the Care Center on this laptop. The software is useful for hardware diagnostics, OS recovery, to check the serial number on this laptop. For the power option on this laptop we recommend using the presets provided from windows.

Temperature
In the design sector, we previously mentioned that this laptop does not have an exhaust hole to remove hot air from inside this laptop, this is because this laptop has a fan-less cooling system, does not use a fan, aka passive cooling which only relies on a sufficient copper heatpipe. big. Although it doesn’t use a fan or fan, the cooling system on this laptop must be appreciated. This is because the temperature produced by this laptop is very cool, which is only 60 degrees Celsius on average, without producing hot spots in the keyboard area. We got these results by performing a stress test using AIDA64 for 15 minutes.

Performance
Swift 1 is intended for light computing activities. This is evident from the specifications it uses. Armed with an Intel Pentium Silver N6000 coupled with 4GB of RAM. Expectations obtained from these specifications are clearly not too high. But from our tests, the performance is quite good. Because on Cinebench R15, the score is above the ASUS VivoBook A412FA which uses Intel Pentium Gold 5405U which still has a dual core configuration. So on the higher handbrake x264 test on Intel Pentium Silver.

But if you look at the GPU performance, the Pentium Silver N6000 which uses Intel UHD Graphics G1 is still inferior to the Pentium Gold 5405U which uses Intel UHD Graphics 610. Even though both are not suitable for playing games.

With the results of this test, it can be concluded that this laptop with Intel Pentium Silver is suitable for running office-based applications or running high-definition multimedia files. Apart from that, the performance is indeed less powerful. Yes, according to its designation. For more details, can be seen in the following table.

Conclusion
Well, for those who are curious about the price. The Acer Swift 1, which has the complete SF114-34 series, is priced at 6 million 699 thousand rupiah. Let the price is only 6 million, but there are many features that we like. First, the design is similar to the series above, namely Swift 3. So even though it’s cheap, it looks ok. Then the screen also uses a 14-inch full HD resolution IPS panel. The image display is sharper and better. Viewing angle is also wide. So besides being good for typing, it’s also cool for watching movies.

The keyboard is backlit and the storage is also solid, because it uses a fast SSD and a large 512GB virtual capacity. Other than that. The battery is also solid. For typing while presenting or watching a movie, 10 hours or so is still strong.

Oh yes, for WiFi support, WiFi 6 version is faster and more stable. For those who want protection access to Windows, there is also a fingerprint sensor.

And of course, apart from getting Windows Ori, Acer also gives Microsoft Office Home and Student 2021 worth Rp. 1,799,000 which can be used for life, free of charge…. That’s great.

Well, because the price is cheap, it’s natural that there are drawbacks. What we don’t like is the RAM support which is only 4GB and soldered. So I can’t add more. While minor flaws such as the touchpad being a bit hard, or hinges that can’t make the laptop open with one hand, it’s not too much of a problem for us.

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