The Acer Swift 3 SF315-41 Review: Ryzen Meets Laptop
by Brett Howse on May 3, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Acer
- AMD
- Ryzen
- Ryzen Mobile
- Raven Ridge
Wireless
Acer has outfitted the Swift 3 with a wireless NIC we’ve never tested before, at least not with this branding. The Qualcomm QCA6174A is a 2x2:2 802.11ac network adapter with MU-MIMO support and Bluetooth 4.2 It’s also the basis of the Killer 1535, which we’ve seen in plenty of devices.
The performance in terms of bandwidth is fine for the Qualcomm NIC, but much like the Killer 1535, it suffered from several reliability issues during our testing. Several times the NIC would drop off completely, and the machine would have to be restarted to get it to see any access point again. This happened during two battery life tests, and a few other times as well, and is awfully similar to issues we saw with the Killer version of this adapter. Unfortunately we’re at a point in the PC space where there’s not a lot of choice for a quality NIC right now. We did reach out to Acer and they said they’ve not seen this issue, but this is an issue that’s plagued devices with the similar Killer 1535.
Speakers
Acer uses the Acer TureHarmony technology for their speakers in the Swift 3, and the laptop has stereo speakers, but compared to many other laptops, they have a sound that is richer than many other laptops we’ve tested, and there’s plenty of volume as well, with a maximum SPL of 84.5 dB(A) on our test track.
Thermals
With a 15-Watt TDP processor in a large 15-inch laptop, there’s going to be benefits for cooling, and that definitely plays out. The Swift 3 stays cool under all scenarios, and never gets loud.
Running the laptop under the load of Tomb Raider shows that even when gaming the system never gets excessively hot. The CPU doesn’t even get to 80°C after an extended session.
Even better, the sound level of the fan never gets excessive, with a measured SPL of just 42.3 dB(A) measured 1-inch over the trackpad. That’s very quiet when gaming.
Storage
The Swift 3 comes with just two drive options. The 2500U model features a 256 GB SSD, and the higher tier 2700U model comes with 512 GB of SSD. In the review unit, that’s the Micron 1100 SSD, which features 3D TLC with a SATA interface.
The SATA slows down the maximum performance compared to an NVMe drive, but regardless, the larger included drive in the review unit, without the normal massive price increase we see on most laptops, is very welcome.
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milkod2001 - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
It is a good value laptop for everyday use but who expects to play games on it should look into benchmarks carefully: Tomb Raider 1080p at 15.4 fps is just not cutting it.A5 - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
It will at least finish the benchmarks, which is something. It won't be acceptable for someone looking at a "gaming" laptop, but if you want to be able to launch like Civ 6 or Motorsport Manager and get an acceptable experience, it'll do.The results in the web browser tests aren't good, though. Hopefully that can be improved in the future.
psychobriggsy - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
Sure, but having the option to play it upscaled from 720p and lower settings is better than not having that option.I'd like to see this laptop, but with a bigger battery and the APU configured to 25W or even 35W TDP.
And USB-C charging, and a keyboard without number pad.
erwos - Monday, May 7, 2018 - link
The USB-C thing is a deal-breaker for me. A $950 laptop should at least have USB-C charging and alt-mode DP. Thunderbolt would also have been nice, but I can at least see why that didn't happen.Santoval - Tuesday, May 15, 2018 - link
Acer appears to be still hanging on to the days of taking into account the money they can make by scamming customers for $50 to $80 chargers only they can sell. Their charging barrel cable is so thin and flimsy by design.eva02langley - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
At ultimate...mr_tawan - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
in Nvidia's title.....coolhardware - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
How would the Swift 3 w/Ryzen compare to the Swift 5 w/Intel?https://amzn.to/2KvPCMS ($997 = roughly comparable price)
Personally I prefer the 14" form factor of the Swift 5, but I assume it lacks any gaming chops at all?
Also, on the Swift 3 is there a way (BIOS/UEFI etc.) to force the keyboard backlight to stay on? I know the last Acer I tried you absolutely could not force the backlight to stay on and coming from Thinkpads that really sucks :-(
Thanks in advance for advice!
Jimster480 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
The ryzen have more GPU power... and otherwise trade blows in everything else.IntelUser2000 - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
So the Surface Pro with the Iris maintains ~50% performance advantage over the HD graphics in the 8550U, but the gains completely disappear at the enthusiast setting. It sounds like a configuration, or even a driver bug.Notebookcheck's review of the DOTA 2 Reborn shows different results.