Acer Swift Go 14 SFG14-71 review – a compact laptop for office tasks

The Acer Swift line of laptops has grown significantly over the years and now has several lines. Swift is an ultraportable laptop with quite productive hardware for an ultrabook and sometimes some interesting features. For example, the Swift 5 was the first 14-inch laptop to weigh less than 1 kg. Swift Edge is a lightweight model with a large 16-inch OLED screen. Swift X with more productive hardware and discrete graphics, available with 14.5 and 16-inch screens. And Swift Go – more affordable portable models, one of which we have on review today. Namely, the Acer Swift Go 14.

Acer Swift Go 14 SFG14-71 specifications

Package contents

Acer Swift Go 14 comes in a plain cardboard box with minimal printing and the bare minimum inside. In addition to the laptop, the box contains a compact 65W power supply with a fixed cable and documentation.

Design and construction

All members of the Acer Swift Go line have a classic, even neutral design that will suit the vast majority of users. Almost the entire body is made of aluminum. Only the black frame around the perimeter of the screen is plastic.

The metal is quite thick and of high quality, the panels do not bend. The coating has a pleasant matte texture and does not collect fingerprints at all. This applies to both the lid and the working surface, so the laptop always remains neat. The color is neutral silver. Other model configurations come in a darker steel gray color.

There are minimal decorations on the case: a small glossy Acer logo on the top of the lid and the same under the display. Minimalism and practicality that benefit Acer Swift Go 14.

There are two small rubber feet at the bottom of the lid. The laptop rests on them in the open position. It uses a familiar design that slightly raises the back of the laptop in the open position. This allows for better air circulation and also tilts the keyboard at a slight angle to the table for more comfortable typing.

The display unit is attached with two rather tight hinges. They have both advantages and disadvantages. Together with the thick metal of the top cover, we have an excellent fixation of the display in the desired position. The maximum opening angle is about 145°. But the hinges are too tight to open the laptop with one hand. You have to hold it by the work surface.

The bottom panel of the laptop has a lot of ventilation holes, four rather massive rubber feet, and stereo speakers. There’s not much point in removing the bottom lid. The RAM is unsoldered, and only the SSD and wireless network adapter can be replaced.

The laptop is compact: 312.9×217.9×14.9 mm and weighs 1.25 kg. It fits in most backpacks, cases, or bags, so it won’t be a burden to carry around every day.

Connectors

Considering the dimensions of a laptop, the set of connectors is very pleasing. All of them are located on the sides. On the left are two Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, and one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, which supports charging gadgets when the laptop is turned off.

On the opposite side there is another USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, a 3.5 mm audio jack, a MicroSD card reader, activity indicators, and a Kensington Lock slot.

There are enough ports for comfortable work.

Display

Acer Swift Go 14 has configurations with different displays. More expensive variants have OLED panels. The configuration under review is equipped with a 14-inch IPS display. The aspect ratio is 16:10, which is quite convenient when working with documents and a browser. The resolution is quite unusual: 2240×1400 dots. With such a diagonal, this is a plus: the picture is clearer and more pleasant than in Full HD. The screen has a matte finish, which is quite effective against glare. The maximum brightness is 300 cd/m², the color gamut is 100% of the sRGB color space. The refresh rate is standard, 60 Hz.

The screen makes a very pleasant impression. It has enough brightness for comfortable work, maximum viewing angles and a very nice picture with natural colors. I was also pleased with the contrast level: it is noticeably higher than that of typical IPS-matrices and black really looks like black. By this indicator, the screen is more like a VA.

Platform and performance

The Acer Swift Go 14 came to us with an energy-efficient 13th-generation Raptor Lake processor Intel Core i5-1335U. 10-core model with support for multi-threaded computing up to 12 threads. The processor contains 2 high-performance cores with a frequency of up to 4.6 GHz and 8 energy-efficient cores with a frequency of up to 3.4 GHz. The standard TDP level is 15 W, with a short-term increase to 55 W. The integrated Intel Iris Xe 80EU graphics has 80 processing units, with a maximum frequency of 1.25 GHz. There is 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, it is soldered on the board. The drive is a Micron 3400 model with a 512 GB PCIe 4.0 x4 interface. This is quite enough for an office or study scenario.

Wireless communication capabilities are represented by Bluetooth 5.2, as well as a Wi-Fi 6E network adapter with support for IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax standards and 2×2 MU-MIMO technology.

The Acer Swift Go 14 delivers performance that’s quite appropriate for its class and purpose. This is not a laptop for heavy-duty tasks, but for working with documents, browsing, video calls, and possibly basic photo editing. It copes with these tasks without any problems. The results in benchmarks are matching:

In the maximum performance mode of the PCMark office benchmark, the laptop scores 5375 points, a figure typical of modern ultra-corporate models.

When the power supply was disconnected in balanced mode, the result dropped significantly to 3661 points. But there will be no noticeable changes when working with not very demanding applications.

The drive is a M.2 2280 512 GB Western Digital PC SN740 M.2 2280 SSD with a PCIe 4.0×4 interface.

The Intel Iris Xe graphics accelerator is not designed for heavy graphics. The maximum is not the latest games. In the tests, the results are matching.

Heating and stability of performance

A cooling system with two heat pipes and two coolers is responsible for cooling the internal components. In the vast majority of cases, the cooling system is completely inaudible. Only at maximum load does the noise of the fans become slightly noticeable. The laptop case hardly heats up, even the area above the keyboard, which usually gets noticeably warm. In balanced mode, you may experience throttling for the first few seconds while the cooling system adapts. After that, the laptop works stably, with an average processor temperature of 72°, an average processor frequency of about 3.3 GHz, and a maximum of 3.4 GHz.

In the maximum performance mode, the average frequency is almost the same, about 3.34 GHz, and the maximum is 4.3 GHz. But almost all the time the frequency stays at the average value, the maximum is reached very briefly. At the same time, the processor heats up to no more than 71° and the system operates stably.

Security

Acer Swift Go 14 is not positioned as an enterprise solution, so there are no special technologies or additional security features. For quick login, there is a fingerprint scanner in the power button. It works quickly and precisely.

Speakers and web camera

Acer Swift Go 14 is equipped with two speakers and supports DTS virtual surround sound. Considering the dimensions of the laptop, the sound was quite good. Both in terms of volume and quality. Although, of course, you shouldn’t expect deep bass like in desktop speakers.

Usually, there’s not much to say about built-in webcams in laptops. However, Acer Swift Go 14 decided to take care of users who spend a lot of time in video conferencing and installed a camera with a resolution of 1440p and support for TNR (Temporal Noise Reduction) technology to improve the image in low light conditions. It’s complemented by Acer PurifiedVoice noise-canceling microphones based on machine learning.

Keyboard and touchpad

Acer Swift Go 14 has an almost typical “ultrabook” keyboard layout without an additional number pad. The F-row is reduced and ends with a power button with a fingerprint scanner. Both Shift keys are long. The only not very convenient feature of the layout is the arrow block: it is not separated from the main part of the keyboard in any way and has reduced up and down arrows. It takes some getting used to. The buttons have a rather long and pleasant stroke. There is a white backlight with two brightness levels.

Despite its name OceanGlass, the laptop touchpad is not glass. It’s made of eco-friendly ABS polymer and recycled plastic from the oceans. Although the surface feels very similar to glass touchpads, your fingers glide over it well. Sensitivity and positioning accuracy are also good. But the size of the touchpad is a little disappointing, you have to make more movements than you would like.

Battery life

Acer Swift Go 14 is equipped with a three-cell 50 Wh battery. The manufacturer promises up to 8 hours of operation. In everyday use, when working with documents, a browser, Photoshop at 50% brightness, it takes about 6.5 hours. So you will have to carry the power supply with you.

A standard 65W power supply charges a laptop in just under an hour.