More screen, less body in the revamped Acer Swift 7
This CES 2019 update gets up to a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio, and is still under 10mm thick.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Acer's ambitious Swift 7 laptop was one of my favorite laptops of 2018. Its main selling point was an amazingly thin body housing a 14-inch screen. But the world's-thinnest-laptop Swift 7 was more than a one-trick pony: It was actually a very usable everyday laptop, with an excellent touchscreen, good touchpad, 180-degree hinge and fanless cooling.
Exactly one year later, Acer is back with a new version of the Swift 7 for CES . The 2019 model is the Swift 7 SF714-52T, if you're keeping track (last year's was the SF714-51T). What's different this time around? A few small tweaks -- not that there's much room to change a lot in a wafer-thin laptop.
The screen bezels have been reduced to under 3mm, making the laptop's footprint smaller and allowing for a screen-to-body ratio of 92 percent. The 1.9-pound (0.86 kg) laptop does gain just a hair of thickness in the process, going from 8.98mm thick to 9.95mm.
The processor gets an upgrade as well, going from a seventh-gen CPU to the eighth-gen Intel Core i7-8500Y, similar to what you'd find in a new MacBook Air .
The flat keyboard and fixed (no-click) touchpad won't be everyone's favorite, but I found the previous version to more than make up for that by jamming a ton of features into such a tiny frame. The new Swift 7 is coming to the US in May, starting at $1,699. Exact configurations and prices elsewhere will vary by region.
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