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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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

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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!

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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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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.

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Was sent a laptop with the wrong specs - the listing says AMD Ryzen 7 2700U, AMD Radeon RX 540 but this laptop actually has Ryzen 5 2500U and Radeon Vega Mobile graphics. Dont know if they messed up or the listing is actually just wrong. Other than that the main reason Im going to have to return this laptop is because the display is too dark. Cant reasonably use the laptop for a long period of time without straining my eyes, feels like its permanently on flux or something. Its a shame cause Im a fan of the glossy display other than that. Keyboard layout is squished as well - if you dont have space for the numpad just dont include it, its not useful anyway. Right shift key doesnt always work. Keyboard backlight also turns off after 30 seconds without an option to keep it on, which is a minor issue. Also feels kind of cheap and plastic, but that might be just a personal issue. Laptop also comes with a ridiculous amount of bloatware. I also cant configure double swipe to be something useful - like going back and forth between pages. All in all Im mostly annoyed because this was pretty close to being a good laptop but they just fell short in too many ways.

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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.

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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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Ive got this laptop today and so far its been looking pretty good. I wanted to switch from my $1200 rog Asus gaming laptop since the battery life was very short and it was heavy. I didnt feel like spending that much money on a laptop that now I hardly use since it was originally made for college. I want a slimmer and more lightweight design but looks professional and a good battery life. My original laptop only lasted for about an hour. This one claims to last for 8 hours but more like 4-6 hours depending on what you do. I dont really care because I will hardly use this outside of my house. So far I really like it. I did a lot of research on a good laptop that I could spend and use for years. I will highly recommend this one. I will keep you guys updated if anything happens. The one thing I do not like about this is how the battery life how it tell you how long it has will go from telling you have no time left to a lot and back and forth. EDIT: After hardly using it it froze and crashed and had to restart. MAY 2019 THE SCREEN WENT BLACK. I BARELY USE IT

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The same day I got this laptop it started crashing on me, giving an error "Driver Power State Failure". After checks, I found out it had nothing to do with the drivers but was actually faulty hardware. Youd expect that if youre paying this much for a laptop that theyd at least ensure it is problem free. Called Acer and they had me doing all sort of foolish tests on the laptop and when nothing worked they said Id have to send it in for repair, they do not do refunds or replacements unless they cant repair. I dont know about anyone else, but this is crappy service. So I found out that Amazon had their own special technical support for when you purchase a laptop. I called Amazon and the guy who talked with me immediately said no no youre laptop has to be replaced. He understood the seriousness of my issue and knew from the start that it could not be fixed and that I needed a replacement and not a repair. My replacement is on the way now. I will update this review from 1 star, after receiving the replacement, if I find no fault with it. Update 03/14/2019: I received the replacement one week ago and started using it immediately. Between then and now it has started to overheat at random intervals. Temperature goes over 60 degrees Celsius for silly reasons like just opening the browser, or initiating a copy and paste on a flashdrive, etc. The mouse has started giving trouble, freezing at random intervals. The battery doesnt last me more than 5 hours if that long. On average it lasts between 3-4 hours on light usage. The worst issue yet is the fact that it takes over 1 minute to go into sleep, and to shut off, and whenever I leave it for more than 5 mins the screen light goes off and refuses to come back on. This is the worst laptop Ive ever bought. I reached out to Amazon for a refund and will be returning it asap! I understand the first one I got having factory fault, but this one has even more issues than the one before. I WILL NEVER RECOMMEND ANYONE TO BUY AN ACER SWIFT 3 LAPTOP AND IVE LOST FAITH IN ACER ENTIRELY!!!

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