The swifter Acer Swift 5 glides into Malaysia
By Tan Jee Yee November 20, 2019
- Weighs a mere 990grams, with 11% smaller footprint
- Offers all-day battery and option for NVIDIA MX250 graphics
Ah, the Acer Swift 5. For the most part, ultraportable laptops tend to sit squarely on the high-end side (Acer’s own Swift 7 belongs in that category), but the Swift 5 have remained squarely in the middle. There are choices in price and specifications, but regardless, you get a lightweight and thin laptop meant for the travelling worker.
The Swift 5 have just gotten swifter, too. The next generation of the laptop was announced during the IFA 2019 event, and now this swifter, more powerful version has just graced Malaysian shores.
The new Acer Swift 5 is now powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core processors, and up to NVIDIA GeForce MX250 discrete graphics. This is squeezed into a 14-inch laptop weighing a mere 990 grams.
“The Acer Swift 5 has been a long-time favourite among Malaysians and we are proud to be able to bring an improved, sleeker, portable and powerful laptop to Malaysians,” says Johnson Seet, Acer Malaysia’s Consumer Business, Product and Marketing director, adding that the previous generation of the Swift 5 was a “key selling model” in Acer Malaysia’s thin and light series of laptops.
“The new Acer Swift 5 will not only be convenient for everyone to travel around with, but it would also fit with the minimalist style while being highly productive.”
Seet also announced that the new Swift 5 will come pre-installed with Microsoft Home & Student 2019, which is worth US$127 (RM529). The license is valid for the lifetime of the device.
Still thin, much swifter
The Swift 5 expectedly maintains the series’ ultra-slim design. In fact, Acer Malaysia’s senior product manager Jeffrey Lai notes that the new Swift 5 has an 11% smaller footprint, with visible size differences when put up against the older version.
Despite the smaller stature, the new Swift 5 manages to maintain its existing ports and even added a USB3.1 Type-C connector with Thunderbolt 3 support, which is a nice addition.
This is a 14-inch Full HD laptop, featuring a screen with wide viewing angle of up to 170 degrees (thanks to an IPS touch screen). The narrow 3.97mm bezel is said to give it a high screen body-to-ratio of 86.4% – to the eye, it means that the screen looks a lot larger than what the laptop’s size would suggest.
Acer claims that the new Swift 5 can deliver more than 11 hours of battery life when fully charged (depending on the usage, of course). More impressive would be its fast-charging capabilities – Lai says that users can get up to 4.5 hours of use with just a 30-minute charge.
From the brief moment I have with the new Swift 5, I have to say that the core user experience feels good. If anything, I’m glad that the keyboard layout doesn’t have the rather odd key placements of the Swift 7. The screen looks good, and the two available colour schemes – Charcoal Blue and Moonstone White – gives it a nicely elegant lustre.
Types and prices
There are technically three variants to the new Swift 5 that Malaysians will be able to purchase. The highest-end version would feature an Intel Core i7 processor with Intel Iris Plus Graphics, 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM support and 512GB SSD. This one prices at US$1129 (RM4,699), but is only available in Charcoal Blue.
Those demanding for more graphics power can opt for the Core i5 unit that comes with NVIDIA GeForce MX250, 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM support and 512GB of SSD storage. This variant prices at RM3,999, and is available in Moonstone White.
(RM1 = US$0.24)
If you don’t require anything too fancy, there’s a variant equipped with an Intel Core i5 processor and Intel UHD Graphics, alongside 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM support and 512GB SSD, pricing at RM3,699. Both colours are available for this unit, though we do wonder why the other two are locked to specific colour designs.
The new Acer Swift 5 is available immediately at all Acer Concept Stores and Acer Official Online Stores, as well as selected Acer Official Resellers. There will also be a promotion whereby the first 5 units of any model purchased at any of these stores will receive a MI True Wireless Earbud Basic worth RM99.
Additionally, anyone who purchases select Acer models worth RM3,000 to RM5,399 will be able to redeem either a Predator waterproof bag or a Predator Cestus 310 gaming mouse or Acer E300 true harmony earphones.
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