Hey all,
I've recently bought this laptop and I wanted to share my review. Before buying this laptop, I was quite frustrated because there were no proper reviews of this laptop and buying this laptop felt like a gamble. Hopefully this can help you guy. I'm only going to include details apart from the given specs. First time giving review so bare with me.
Firstly, I've only started using this laptop for less than a week but I'm quite happy with what I've got. My usage will be for mostly school, maybe AutoCAD and light gaming but yet to test. My laptop has the i5-8250u, mx150, 512gb nvme ssd and 12gb ram.
*Lenovo 530s has similar specs to the acer swift 3
Background:
This laptop is the successor to the acer swift 3 sf314-52 series. The older model had pretty good performance and value for money, but had huge bezels and a bad screen. So if you are planning to buy make sure you know which model you are buying.
New whisky lake 8th gen intel CPUs are being added to the new models (probably names sf314-55 / sf314-56) in late 2018 or 2019.
Build quality:
The metal chassis feels good and sturdy but the edge isn't polished to a curve and feels it can easily get scratches. But for the price, it feels premium.
Screen:
The sf314-54 has a 1080p 14" inch IPS screen with a matte finish. From my perspective it looks really good but I'm not really an expert in this. Do note that the screen isn't covered in gorilla glass like some laptops. There's a 15.6 inch version (sf215-52)
Keyboard:
Pressure on the keys feel alright but Key travel is more shallow compared to other laptops. I managed to get use to it in a few days. Keys have back light.
Trackpad:
Nice and big but it's not glass so it doesn't feel so smooth. Buttons feel nice and clicky.
CPU:
As of now, come in i3-8130U, i5-8250U and i7-8550U
RAM:
Ram is soddered on, but there is an extra slot. The one I have is 12gb DDR4-2666. Some models come with intel optane memory. It's definitely better than having a sata3 hdd but my advice would be to just get a nvme ssd.
Storage:
Firstly, there is a 2.5 inch sata 3 hdd slot. For those who require a lot of storage, this is a good feature.
Secondly, there's the m.2 ssd slot (form factor should be 2280 but best to confirm with other sources). like acer, many companies are sells a 128gb ssd+1tb hdd option. However, this is quite misleading as the 128gb ssd uses sata lane which is as good as a normal hdd. Thus, I got the 512gb nvme ssd option.
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 is the base option. The sf314-54g (includes the "g") has a mx150 2gb dedicated graphic card. However, there are 2 variants; 15W (1D12) and 25W (1D10), with the 25W being the better performer. Thankfully this comes with the 1D10 version. This was the most difficult information to get as there was nothing online, even called up acer but said they didn't know. I can't definitively say that you will also get the 1D10 version as they might be versions in your country that sell the 1D12 variant. Bought mine in Singapore.
Cooling:
Feels adequate. Hotspot around the top left area but feels a little warm at most. Nothing extreme. On load you can hear the fans but it's quite soft.
Battery Life:
On paper - 12hrs, based on other reviews 9~hrs. Yet to test