Presenting the brand new Acer Swift X creator laptop. This is the device you want to take a look at if you need a compact laptop that can game yet has good battery life. You don’t see ultra-portable laptops housing the Ryzen 7 5800U CPU and NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti GPU often. Will this SFX14-41G-R1S6 be able to handle your computer needs and also gaming? Let’s read this review here. For the 2020 model with older CPU generation, read on this page.
Gorgeous Through and Through
The key unique factor that distinguishes this laptop from its competitors is the design. It comes with a business-oriented and professional look with a simple metal unibody. So this is a great alternative to a MacBook due to its metal chassis that offers style, and durability.
This SFX14-41G-R1S6 is also super light in a 3.31 lbs or 1.5 kg body with the good build quality. You’re getting a laptop that is lighter than the newest 2021 14-inch Macbook Pro (3.31 lbs vs 3.5 lbs).
The keyboard itself has 1.3mm key travel which is quite large for a 14-inch compact laptop. The white backlit lighting is a nice addition. It enables you to type, even when you are in a dark room. You can switch the backlit keys off on or off.
Below the keys, you will locate the fingerprint reader button. It supports the Windows Hello login option to help keep your laptop protected.
SFX14-41G-R1S6 Specs
| Product: | Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 Creator Laptop | 14" Full HD 100% sRGB | AMD Ryzen 7 5800U | NVIDIA RTX 3050Ti Laptop GPU | 16GB LPDDR4X | 512GB SSD | Wi-Fi 6 | Backlit KB | Amazon Alexa | Windows 10 Home |
| Display | 14″ Non-reflective ComfyView IPS Full HD Display (1920 x 1080)
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| Processor | Octa-Core (8-Core) AMD Ryzen 7 5800U (1.9 GHz – 4.4 GHz) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti |
| RAM | 16GB 4266MHz LPDDR4X (dual-channel) |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Ports & Connectivity | 1x HDMI, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (supports up to 10 Gbps transfer, DisplayPort, USB Charging 5 V; 3 A), Webcam, 2x Stereo speakers, built-in Microphone, Wi-Fi 6, BlueTooth, Alexa, Fingerprint reader, Backlit Keyboard |
| Strength & Weakness | VIEW |
A True-Champ Performance
The popularity of AMD’s Ryzen processors has extended in the market of portable computers. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800U CPU is no different. This 2021 Acer Swift X comes with this R7 5800U processor. It is without a doubt the fastest in ultra-light Windows-based thin laptops or Ultrabooks CPUs category.
Compared with its previous generation, the Ryzen 7 4800U, this CPU has improved base and max. boost clock speed. It has a 1.9GHz base clock speed and 4.4GHz max. boost speed. The 4800U has 1.8GHz, and 4.2GHz respectively.
This means, when needed, your PC’s CPU can easily boost up to 4.4GHz while keeping its temperature low. Due to its 8-Cores and 16-Threads this CPU shreds multitasking faster than its predecessor and competitors despite having only a 15W TDP.
Another advantage of this new AMD R7 CPU is the enhanced Zen 3 architecture processor. This new CPU has a double onboard L3 cache compared to 4800U (16MB vs 8MB L3 Cache).
In short, you will be a thin laptop that can offer plenty of power on the go.
What about Gaming?
If you want to enjoy playing games on a lightweight laptop with good battery life, this is where this Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 creator laptop came in. Thanks to its R7 CPU that has the enhanced integrated Radeon Vega 8 Graphics with its 8-Core Graphics count and 8 CUs which clocks at 2000MHz.
This integrated GPU destroys Intel’s integrated GPU by a mile and combined with the laptop’s dual-channel 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, this little beast can perform a lot of modern games at a respectable 60 fps at low to medium settings.
And by using its HDMI or USB-C port and an external monitor, you can even enjoy Full-HD and even 4K games with its Vega 8 Graphics, and most importantly while keeping its battery life going where most gaming laptops can’t.
Dedicated GPU on an Ultra-Thin Laptop!
We have just discussed about the integrated Graphics card of this laptop, not yet the dedicated one. Yes, not only this laptop comes with iGPU, it also has a dedicated GPU. Dedicated GPUs are mostly found in gaming laptops, not in a 14″ thin laptop!
The SFX14-41G-R1S6 features the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti with its advanced features that the RTX 20-Series do not have. Those features include DLSS, Tensor AI cores, and Ray Tracing NVIDIA technologies. While it is not the best GPU out there, but it is more than enough to fill your gaming itch on the go, particularly in this form factor category.
Ray Tracing technology is the future of gaming. It enables you to get more realistic visual effects on the supported games. And there will be more future games that are developed to use this visual effect. Check the following Minecraft graphic as an example, when the RTX is on, the visuals look more real-looking.
For a 14-inch light laptop, there is a great deal of processing power inside, and it is a rival for 15 or 17-inch laptops categories in terms of performance. Keep in mind though, when you use it for gaming, meaning the dedicated RTX 3050 Ti is used, the battery life will drop noticeably, so use it wisely when you don’t have the power charger around.
Furthermore, at the end of the day, this was designed more for content creators than gamers, so if you plan to game intensively, it’s best to get a gaming laptop because they are more equipped to game, such as better cooling, etc.
Worth the Value Components
Other than appearance and performance, there are many reasons why this Acer Swift X RTX 3050 Ti model is worth checking.
IPS 14-inch Display
There is a 14-inch IPS Display (with ComfyView) non-reflective screen coming with this device. Thanks to the 1920 x 1080 Full-HD screen resolution and its thin bezels the display gives great viewing angles. The 100% sRGB and 300 nits give beautiful colors and good brightness levels.
Acer designed the hinge with innovative technology, which will lift your keyboard whenever you open the display. This system allows the laptop to release the heat better when it’s under heavy load, and it won’t make the CPU throttling either, better cooling for a thin laptop. If you are even after a smaller screen like a 10-inch check this tablet out.
Battery Life
Laptops that come with dedicated Graphics cards are usually gaming laptops, and they come at a price when we speak about battery life. In this SFX14-41G-R1S6 laptop, you will find the balance of performance and good battery life.
You can get more than 9 hours of battery life for everyday usages like browsing the web and home office tasks. However as we have mentioned earlier, you’ll get about 2-6 hours when you use it to game, also depends on the games you are playing.
It’s a great laptop if you want a super portable device yet still very capable. Plus, the 14-inch size is perfect, bigger than the 13-inch range but smaller than the 15-inch laptops. You can take this device everywhere without being worried about carrying the charger all day.
Good Port Selection
For a thin and light laptop, this Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 comes with a great port selection and connectivities. The Wi-Fi 6 is functional with excellent speed and the Bluetooth 5.2 is also useful if you want to connect wireless devices like a wireless mouse to your laptop.
For the ports, there are full-size HDMI v2.0, Headphone/Microphone combo jack, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (one of them supports Power-Off Charging), and 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port. Though it is not a thunderbolt port, the USB Type-C port supports up to 10 Gbps transfer rates, DisplayPort, and 5 V;3 A USB-Charging.
Is This SFX14-41G-R1S6 For Me?
Yes, this laptop is worth considering if you need a thin lightweight laptop with a beefy CPU and dedicated GPU that matches a gaming laptop, yet capable to offer longer battery life. It is difficult to ignore these fun bells and whistles at this reasonable price;
- New capable AMD Ryzen 7 5800U processor
- 16GB RAM instead of 8GB
- 512GB fast SSD storage instead of 256GB
- Thin and ultra-portable design – perfect for backpack
- Durable Metal unibody, yet lightweight
- 14″ IPS thin-bezel non-reflective display with innovative hinge design (100% sRGB, 300 nits)
- Fingerprint reader
- Backlit Keyboard & Large touchpad
- USB-C port with lightning speed transfer rate (up to 10 Gbps instead of only 5 Gbps), DP and PD support
- Good battery life with fast charging
- Kensington Lock
- DTS Audio Speaker
- Up-to-date built-in Wifi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2
- Good thermals management
To summarize this Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6 review, this unit is blazingly fast. This laptop is in the same league and even outperforms Dell XPS and Macbooks, for much less $$. And you can play some games on it due to its iGPU and dedicated GPU that are normally found on a gaming laptop. Sure, you can find other laptops that are more powerful than this, but you’re going to sacrifice the weight and the battery life.
in stock - high demand
This creator laptop is really “swift” and a good value for its price, there aren’t many that can match this Acer Swift X SFX14-41G-R1S6.
