Acer Swift 3 SF315-41G-R6MP Laptop, 15.6" Full HD IPS Display, AMD Ryzen 7 2700U, AMD Radeon RX 540 Graphics, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Windows 10

Comment

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.

Show more

Comment

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

Show more

Comment

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.

Show more

Comment

Hmmm... Where do I start? This is an amazing laptop. Screen Vibrant, clear, bright. I bought this laptop for photography and editing videos, obviously not the most colour accurate screen but you can work with it. Keyboard Backlit. Now I can use my laptop anywhere I am, in any lighting. The keys are responsive and short travel, which I like. Trackpad Precision trackpad. I think that all I need to say. Also large trackpad area. Ports PORTS. There are all the necessary ports, the only one that I wish it had was Ethernet but I could live without. I am sure a dongle could fix that. Fingerprint Scanner Responsive but as every fingerprint scanner, make sure the scanner and the selected finger is always clean. It works 90% so far. Build Hmmm... Okay so this is one part you will hear a negative but hear me out. The build quality is great. Slick design but there is one problem, the edge, near your wrist, is a bit sharp. For me, it is bearable but some, I know it would irritate. If you have any questions, you may ask and the review may be updated if anything arises.

Show more

Comment

Pros- *Display is very nice *Back-lit Keyboard *Very fast *Nice Graphics *4 Core 8 Thread on laptop *Metal body *Very thin *Fan is very quiet *Heat exhausts up the screen *Light gaming ( Overwatch ) Cons- *Battery is only 4 Cell *Display is not as bright as others *No DVD Drive (Most are going this way) *****The second one I just received had Norton installed. This will slow any laptop down by a lot. I would suggest removal immediately. It came with 1709 so I did a clean install of 1803. ****One of the best things on this laptop for me is the back can be removed easily. For techy people who know what they are doing - I would highly suggest removing the back cover take the 2 screws out over the CPU. Be careful to take off as there are small metal clips holding that tray. Very Carefully wipe the old paste - Apply better Thermal paste like Noctua NT-H1 or Similar. I have done 3 of these laptops now it takes down the temps a lot ! Update April 2019 got a $599 Ryzen 7 2700U (Photos Attached) Struzzin

Show more

Comment

We are very, very pleased with this laptop! Out of the box, before even turning this on, we were impressed. Its light, and just looks like quality equipment, with nicely made cords and the like. Setup was a breeze. The voice helper told us exactly what to do, and things like recognizing our wi-fi and setting a passcode were effortless. And then---actually using it! The screen is beautiful, and seems bigger than youd expect, with great resolution. The processor seems very fast. Surfing the web and running videos seemed far faster than we were used to. The Bluetooth worked well, and the built in speakers had a good sound. The keyboard lights up. There are plenty of ports. Im not a computer expert, but I have a son who is---a senior in college in computer sciences. He was highly impressed with the stats, and especially with the fact theres a solid state hard drive. Im not super sure what that does, but he said its part of what makes this very fast. The most impressive part almost for us was the battery. It charged up to 100 percent in 20 minutes out of the box, and after using it what felt like a very lot over about five hours (not constantly during that time, but a good deal) it still had over 6 hours of charge left! Weve used it a lot since then and found the same thing---extra quick charging that lasts a long, long time. Im not a huge gamer of games with hard core graphics, but Ive run a few games I like on this, like The Sims 3, and it handled them with ease. Both my expert son and my non-expert but heavy computer user husband and self feel like this is a wonderful deal for the around eight hundred dollar cost. Absolutely recommended!

Show more

Comment

This computer checks every box I want in a laptop. Fast, responsive, cool, quiet, backlit keyboard, thin, relatively lightweight and all for a good price. The construction is very nice too. You cant find many other full bodied brushed aluminum chassis at this price point. Acer is spot on with this build, configuration and price for my tastes. The Asus Vivo machines were tempting but they have plastic bottoms. Im glad I found this before pulling the trigger. The Ryzen 7 is the way to go in my opinion. Its only when you get the i5-8250 + Nvidia MX150 combo do they become equivalent in performance. Even then the Ryzen 7 edges out in efficiency. Its very powerful for a 15W chip. I plan to use this primarily for productivity but I do like that the GPU on this gives me the option for light gaming. The Ryzen 5 is a good choice too if the price of this is just out of reach. The only thing youre getting with the Ryzen 7 is slightly higher clock and 2 more GPU cores for increased graphics performance. Cons: (1) Battery longevity is not so good in my short time with this machine. I plan to be plugged in most of the time so its not much of an issue. I feel like the battery size might be the only corner cut but for every box this checked and the price Im not complaining. Just dont expect this to last several hours off the charger. (2) The screen is beautiful but I did notice a little light bleed on a couple of edges on a black screen. Its only when the brightness is turned up on a black screen. Other than that scenario I dont see or notice it. Its definitely no deal breaker just something I noticed. Other than those two observations I have nothing negative to say. UPDATE - Still a great laptop for my needs. Some things to note... Unfortunately the ram is soldered on board and cannot be upgraded. The hard drive is M.2 B+M slot with a SATA III interface. It can be upgraded to a larger drive but be sure it is the right slot key and is SATA (not NVME). I will post a picture of the drive to make it easy.

Show more

Comment

Bought this for my mother to replace her 2010 1st generation i3 Acer. She loves it. I chose this laptop because Ryzen gives the best graphics and processing capability in one chip. Sure you could get better performance if you combine an i7 8550U or even a 8250U along with a graphics card, but thats just going to consume more power (and thus battery life) and is wasteful for someone that will not be using the system for gaming. Having a separate graphics card is also one more part that can generate heat and/or fail, Ryzen is a no brainer. Unlike the other mid-priced Ryzens on the market, this has the all-important SSD, and unlike the Lenovo, is the size that we were in the market for. The rest of the Ryzen notebooks you can get right now are high-end, expensive, and geared for gamers. And a notebook with just an i7 and no graphics card will not match this for overall performance. Was monitoring this one for a while and took the plunge when the price came down to $675, a fine deal for what I hope will be another 8-year laptop. For those more budget minded, the equivalent Acer Aspire model with the same hardware is possibly a better deal but I decided the premium for the Swift 3 was worth shaving a little weight for. The keyboard backlight is also nice to have. The only issue was a bit of a scare when the wireless chip was getting a (code 10) wont run error, but after uninstalling the driver in device manager and installing the updated one via USB, everything was in order. Some reviews complained of a sharp edge in the front so I was expecting it to be razor sharp but honestly it was fine, no sharper than a regular table edge. There was also only minimal "bloatware" from Acer that I had to uninstall, far less than what I have seen before on HP laptops. Overall, very pleased with this package, will update this if anything comes up.

Show more

Comment

very happy with this laptop. great 1080p screen, very fast processor and great graphics without a discrete card. i have not found anything that i dont like about it about it does everything i want in a laptop as it is lightweight, very quiet and stays cool. it is even the same price as the Acer 8250U model and blows it away when it comes to graphical capabilities. i would very highly recommend it to anyone wanting a good all purpose laptop including light gaming.

Show more

Comment

After 2 months I find this to be a very good notebook. Performance is solid, excellent stability. Build construction is very good and the sleek/thin look are excellent. Great performing touchpad and keyboard. Some reviews complained of the sharp edges of the body affecting wrists but I dont find this to be a problem at all. The area below the keyboard is wide enough that my palms dont sit on the edge. I mostly use this plugged in so I cant comment much on battery life.

Show more