Marketing overshoots the mark: A laptop on the verge of overheating

Based on our experience, which we summarised in a review of the Acer Swift Go 16, we cannot confirm noticeably cool surface temperatures. In the field of comparison, the laptop, with its powerful Intel Core i7-13700H processor, tends to be one of the warmer machines. In our stress test with Prime95 and Furmark, the processor worked at 45 watts. This resulted in the keyboard heating up to 43°C. Apparently in order to put this into perspective, Acer also compares its own laptop with competitors via a thermal image.

First of all, the Acer Swift Go is clearly not visible on any of Acer's thermal images. Acer does not hide the fact that the laptop reaches 44°C on the surface under loads such as our stress test, but shows a thermal image of a laptop that supposedly reaches 84.1°C in comparison. Of course, the Acer Swift Go is twice as cool. However, no fully functional laptop should ever reach such high surface temperatures. At 84°C, the plastic keys are likely to become very soft and leave burns on the user's skin.

It would probably be better for Acer to simply focus on the Swift Go's strengths, which are described in detail in our review. These include a high-performance Intel Core i7, a light case, an excellent webcam, a vivid OLED display and good connectivity. Yes, the notebook can get warm under load. But it stays within a typical range and delivers a high level of performance. In comparison to other devices, the notebook has no need for imaginary temperatures.