Acer Swift 7 review: The skinny on the world's 'thinnest laptop' (video)

By Daniel Rubino
published

How thin is too thin? Well, that depends.

Acer's ultra-thin Swift 7 laptop is certainly impressive to look at. At just 8.9mm thick, it's actually thinner than some smartphones. Combine that with a great (albeit 1080p) display, LTE support, and battery life that's surprising for its size, and you've got a formidable device. But those alluring aesthetics do come with some downsides, not least of which is that $1,700 price tag (opens in new tab).

So is it worth it? Check out our video review below to find out.

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Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

10 Comments
  • They could make the world's longest lasting laptop in terms of battery life. But in our times, only morons exist and thinner is apparently always better.
  • Battery life of this device is not bad actually, did you watch the review? Also there are laptops with big batteries, like dell xps. Just get a full hd screen and not a 4k screen obviously.
  • 8 hours is not very good. I expect to actually use a laptop the whole day and charge it overnight. I don't want to carry charging cables wherever I go. 12 hours is my minimum.
  • There are already laptops that can do that: see XPS 13 9360, Yoga 920, ThinkPad T470 etc. Laptops like the thinkpad, some Clevo laptops (Sager, BTO etc) and probably some business line laptops of Dell and HP also offer bigger battery options for their laptops when you "build" your own laptop on their sites. If you want ultra long battery life, get such a laptop with a m/y proc (I don't know if there are many choices but there should at least be a few options).
  • Look at the laptops (well windows tablets with keyboards) that are powered by the snapdragons, those have insane battery lives, over 14hrs on end, maybe about 16 to 20 hrs.
  • My thoughts exactly. Whenever technology shrinks, instead of cramming a bigger battery the manufacturers make thinner devices, it's completely moronic and very prevalent especially with mobile phones.
    We are at very decent size levels already, and see how much I care for 0,00001mm thinner when I could get proper battery life instead. And to define proper: if i have to recharge through the day with normal usage i consider it a fail. My Surface Pro 2017 i5 pulls 7-8 hours. Not bad, but not good either. when it reaches some 10+ hours at normal use then we start talking. I'm very glad that Microsoft hasn't given into this stupidity yet, and instead of making the 2017 thinner they put a bigger battery inside. I hope they keep that trend up.
  • Well the options are there for people to buy them, if consumers buy more thin devices over devices that are slightly thicker and have more battery life, than I cannot really blame manufacturers for making the devices thinner. Another problem is that big batteries for laptops are not cheap and it increases the weight; how many people are willing to pay that extra 100 or 200 more for something that also makes devices more clumsy? For many people they might as well bring along their charger.
  • SashaDR only a moron would assume "their" device requirements are what every consumer needs or wants
  • Nice review Daniel. Personally I think this device would have made more sense if it would have a 360 degree hinge (even if that would mean a slightly heavier device).
  • My wife got such a few months ago, very satisfied, it's ultra thin and have, in my personal opinion the greatest value for the money, somehow it looks better for ladies