Acer Swift Air 14: A direct competitor to the Macbook Neo

Acer has just announced a new range of portable computers, including the Swift Spin 14 and the Swift Air 14. The latter is an ultra-light model with a starting price of $699.

Positioned as a direct competitor to the Macbook Neo ($684 at Amazon US), the Swift Air is powered by Intel’s budget Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” hexacore processors, with buyers having the option between the Core 5 and Core 7. This is accompanied by 512 GB SSD and 8 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, both of which are expandable up to 1 TB and 16 GB, respectively. The aluminium chassis is available in green, pink, purple and grayish blue. The 14-inch screen has a resolution of 1920 x 1200, a brightness of 350 nits, and a refresh rate of 120 Hz. Although not the best screen specs, aside from the 120 Hz refresh rate, the panel purportedly offers 100% sRGB color space coverage. 

Ports are scarce, but nevertheless up to date and should suffice for all but the most demanding users: two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports and one USB-A 3.2 port. Wi-Fi 6E is also on board. Lastly, the 70 Wh battery promises "up to 19 hours" and "up to 16 hours" of video playback, though it remains to be seen whether Acer’s marketing claims hold up to real-world testing.