Acer Swift 3, 15.6" Full HD, AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Windows 10, SF315-41-R8PP

Beautiful laptop; construction, fit, and finish are top-notch. But beware the one issue that is a deal-breaker for me, the screen is GLOSSY. Yes, it is non-touch, and yes, one of the answers from Acer America on Amazon claims the display is "matte", but the display is indeed glossy. If you like a glossy display, or a glossy display is not a concern for you, then this laptop is a very fine machine and I would recommend it based on performance and price. But for me personally, I just cannot use glossy display. This laptop was intended to be a daily-use tool for software development, but the glossy display makes that impossible in office environment. Using a glossy display for many hours a day, the reflected light and images are just too distracting and cause eye strain. I judge a laptop on its display, and I am absolutely willing to pay for a high-quality display, and this does have IPS panel, good resolution and brightness and color reproduction; but the glossy, glaring, reflective screen makes it non-useful for me. Amazon, please fix your Questions and Answers to correctly describe the product being sold! And Acer, please make the same computer without the glossy display.....

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This laptop is packed with performance in a lightweight package. At only about 4 and half pounds this sports and all metal housing and a display made of Corning gorilla glass. I havent put it through a drop test but it looks like it would hold up to some abuse. When I opened up the box and turned the PC on it only took about 10 minutes to set everything up from start to finish. Acer did include some bloatware but not near as much as Ive seen from some other OEMs. I was actually impressed. I uninstalled a couple of things to see if it would give me a headache to do so and it didnt. The Swift 3 has a fingerprint reader that actually works also. Once I setup my fingerprint I shut the computer down and restarted it. It booted backup, recognized my fingerprint and logged in a just a couple of seconds. This laptop is fast. Im not a gamer so I cant say how it would perform on graphic intensive games but on everyday tasks such as web browsing, running several spreadsheets, photo editing and watching videos it hasnt bogged down a bit. It has performed these tasks simultaneously without the issue. The only downfall the Swift 3 has is battery life. I have every setting set to optimize battery when its unplugged and the best I can get is about 4 hours of use. This is nowhere near the advertised 9 hours. Personally this isnt a deal breaker for me because Im rarely away from an outlet for more than a couple of hours at a time. If you need a PC that will last a day on battery life then you need to look elsewhere but otherwise this is one of the best midrange laptops on the market today.

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Pros: Fast Good battery life Runs very queit Great build quality Cons: Input devices "Sharp" edges Design and Build Quality: The build quality of this laptop is very high end. It is mostly brushed aluminum and resists fingerprints. Every part of the computer feels rigid and strong. It is tough to find any fault in the overall quality of the build. My main problem with the computer is the design. The keyboard and touchpad are both well-built but I simply cannot get used to them. The keyboard is slightly too firm for my tastes, I feel like I have to press a little more aggressively than I am used to. I also do not enjoy the power button being a key, right above the number pad that I use often, and I do not enjoy having to hold the function button to change the brightness or sound levels. The touchpad also has a weird finish to it. It is smooth but it somehow feels a little too sticky. I sometimes find my fingers jumping around on the touchpad, especially in dry conditions. I could live with those two things but what I cannot live with is the sharp edges of the laptops where the metal meets the plastic bottom. I tend to rest my wrists on the edges when using it on my lap and it feels like the computer is digging into my wrists. Even as I am typing this review, I feel the need to lift my arms up every so often to give them a break from the sharp edge. It is even more pronounced on the sides of the laptop. I feel like it could legitimately cut you if you rub against it the wrong way. Performance: There are two versions of this laptop around the same price. This version, AMD-based with the Ryzen 7 2700U/RX540, and the Intel/Nvidia version with the i5-8250U/MX150. Previous benchmarks I have seen put them on fairly equal ground and I have pretty much found that to be the case. Both versions will handle the everyday users needs with ease, especially with a solid-state drive, with each one coming out ahead in certain aspects. I have used laptops with the i5-8250u before and I see no difference in the processor performance. While the benchmarks show the RX540 to be pretty much equal to the MX150, I have not seen that to be the case. It might be more due to driver support, as the hardware specs of the RX540 should be faster than the MX150. I find I am just below the MX150 FPS in most of the games I have loaded up. It isnt a huge difference, no more than a handful of FPS for the most part, but it is something that should not be the case. Still, if you are looking at this laptop for slightly cheaper than the Intel/Nvidia model, or maybe you just prefer AMD, it isnt worth paying a little more for the MX150 in my opinion. Battery Life, Misc: The battery life on this is very good for having a dedicated graphics card. I average close to seven hours with normal web-browsing use. I have heard that the Intel/Nvidia model is better but given the same battery capacity, I doubt it could be by much. One of my favorite things about this laptop is how quiet it runs. Even when gaming/running benchmarks, the fans are barely audible. Under normal usage, you cannot even hear a fan with you hear on the bottom of the laptop. Thermals are also great. I have never felt the laptop get too hot for comfortable use on my lap, even when playing games. Acer did a great job with the thermals on this. The display is above average, pretty high brightness with bright colors and crisp images, while the speakers are below average. The speakers are also below the laptop, on the front downward facing edge. Using the laptop on your lap will make the speakers, which are not that great to begin with, thoroughly mediocre. Conclusion: If you are looking for a portable, light gaming laptop then the Swift 3 is a great choice. Battery life is good, the laptop is thin and light, and you do not have to worry about fan noise or the computer getting too hot. You will definitely not have any performance issues whether you go with the AMD or Intel/Nvidia version. Performance will generally be about equal so opting for the AMD is not a bad choice when it is less expensive.

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BOUGHT THIS COMPUTER RIGHT AROUND CHRISTMAS. OF COURSE EVERYONE IS LOOKING FOR BARGAINS. THIS COMPUTER WAS MARKED DOWN FROM $800 TO $650. OF COURSE, ITS NEVER BEEN LISTED FOR $800 SINCE. I FEEL LIKE THEY ARTIFICIALLY RAISE THE PRICE TO MAKE YOU THINK YOU GOT A DEAL.

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The things the other reviewers have said are true. The laptop is fast, well-made, and seems durable enough. The specs should be enough for a casual to moderate user. And its true that the screen is nice. However, I have been having a bit of trouble with sound. I tried updating, uninstalling and reinstalling, and tweaking the settings for the sound card, but I am still getting a bit of a crackle/pop here and there. It does not seem to be connected to CPU usage, and is an issue when watching videos and movies, and when playing music. My hunch is that they used a low-budget sound device and these are the consequences. My other gripe is that the battery life is significantly shorter than advertised. I have not gotten more than four hours out of this laptop since purchasing it a month ago.

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This is a good looking home to class or note taking laptop. Short on battery life is gaming, but for my purposes, perfect

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Was not looking for monster LTop, this is a decent performer for all but gaming, battery seems inconsistent in life after full charge, sometimes 5 hours other times 8hrs. Think is has something to do with background processes & Win10, wish there was more control of BIOS and deleting items not needed.

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