The Acer Swift 3 SF315-41 Review: Ryzen Meets Laptop
by Brett Howse on May 3, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Laptops
- Acer
- AMD
- Ryzen
- Ryzen Mobile
- Raven Ridge
Wireless
Acer has outfitted the Swift 3 with a wireless NIC we’ve never tested before, at least not with this branding. The Qualcomm QCA6174A is a 2x2:2 802.11ac network adapter with MU-MIMO support and Bluetooth 4.2 It’s also the basis of the Killer 1535, which we’ve seen in plenty of devices.
The performance in terms of bandwidth is fine for the Qualcomm NIC, but much like the Killer 1535, it suffered from several reliability issues during our testing. Several times the NIC would drop off completely, and the machine would have to be restarted to get it to see any access point again. This happened during two battery life tests, and a few other times as well, and is awfully similar to issues we saw with the Killer version of this adapter. Unfortunately we’re at a point in the PC space where there’s not a lot of choice for a quality NIC right now. We did reach out to Acer and they said they’ve not seen this issue, but this is an issue that’s plagued devices with the similar Killer 1535.
Speakers
Acer uses the Acer TureHarmony technology for their speakers in the Swift 3, and the laptop has stereo speakers, but compared to many other laptops, they have a sound that is richer than many other laptops we’ve tested, and there’s plenty of volume as well, with a maximum SPL of 84.5 dB(A) on our test track.
Thermals
With a 15-Watt TDP processor in a large 15-inch laptop, there’s going to be benefits for cooling, and that definitely plays out. The Swift 3 stays cool under all scenarios, and never gets loud.
Running the laptop under the load of Tomb Raider shows that even when gaming the system never gets excessively hot. The CPU doesn’t even get to 80°C after an extended session.
Even better, the sound level of the fan never gets excessive, with a measured SPL of just 42.3 dB(A) measured 1-inch over the trackpad. That’s very quiet when gaming.
Storage
The Swift 3 comes with just two drive options. The 2500U model features a 256 GB SSD, and the higher tier 2700U model comes with 512 GB of SSD. In the review unit, that’s the Micron 1100 SSD, which features 3D TLC with a SATA interface.
The SATA slows down the maximum performance compared to an NVMe drive, but regardless, the larger included drive in the review unit, without the normal massive price increase we see on most laptops, is very welcome.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
78 Comments
View All Comments
kaidenshi - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
640KB is enough for anyone.In all seriousness, this is a midrange laptop and 8GB is midrange these days. Unless you're trying to use it for containers/VMs, 8GB is plenty for the kind of use case a laptop like this will see.
Now, if they included the right GPU to make it a gaming laptop, I'd love to see it come with 16GB with the option of 32GB. But in this case, 8GB is plenty.
Targon - Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - link
That is the problem, a mid-range laptop is generally that $450-$650 range. Add the SSD and you go into the next price category. RAM being overpriced at this point is a part of the problem, but it isn't the only reason the cheapest you can find a Ryzen based laptop is $600 at this point.kfishy - Wednesday, May 9, 2018 - link
Unfortunately a side effect of Ryzen’s success is retailers can mark it up much more.Jimster480 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
There are $400 Ryzen 3 laptops, its just that if its a Ryzen 5+ then its double the cost.Jimster480 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
Its not when its a single channel 2133mhz ram setup...Its the cheapest ram, cheapest SSD, cheapest screen, cheapest battery.... all for a price more than an i7 + dedicated GPU with double the ram!
tn_techie - Thursday, May 3, 2018 - link
Regarding Cinebench and system tests, it's clear that premium built notebooks like Microsoft's surface products, or even the Asus Zenbooks, will have better results than the Swift 315, as the components quality and thermal solutions are way higher than the Swift's. Most plasticky midrange notebooks with Kaby Lake R chips score lower Cinebench results than the 2700U when coupled with a random nonchalant thermal solution from the likes of Acer, Asus or any of the major OEMs. The problem with Raven Ridge, is that it can't feature on higher end designs, due to the lack of LPDDR support, and therefore it won't benefit from the advantage of being on a truly premium system, with great cooling, a big battery, full cutting edge connectivity, best-in-class NVMes etc.. It's condemned, at best, to the high midrange tier, with tradeoffs and sacrifices here and there.Spunjji - Friday, May 4, 2018 - link
I'm pretty sure it's less the LPDDR support and more mindshare / marketing dollars that keep AMD out of the high-end products.tn_techie - Friday, May 4, 2018 - link
I think that the Ryzen brand has proved itself over the last 12 months. There's a lot of excitement around it, and its reputation is actually sky high. That's why I don't think it's the old mindshare issue, with people automatically recognizing AMD based products as low-end. However, consumers associate high-end CPUs with the premium notebook offerings. And as long as you're unable to showcase your products in the XPS, Spectre, Zenbook, Surface etc.. lineups, you won't be granted the full recognition you deserve. And the lack of LPDDR support is the main hurdle here.Try putting a 2700U in the chassis of an XPS 13 for example. Battery life will be disappointing, but performance would be outstanding.
Jimster480 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
The battery life of the XPS13 is very disappointing... especially since the Spectre and Meltdown bugs... I can barely get 4 hours out of my XPS13 just browsing in Firefox...Its basically a useless disaster of a laptop with poor performance for anything outside of web browsing.
Intel knows it and they will pay billions to keep the ryzen chips out of something like the XPS13.
LPDDR vs DDR4 really isn't a major factor when it comes to notebook battery life. It may sacrifice an hour or two but considering the actual tested battery life of basically every intel machine post these patches for the CPU bugs.... well I think the two would be on par with the Ryzen maybe even pulling ahead.
Jimster480 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
Exactly! There is no disadvantage to Ryzen that keeps it out of the premium sector other than that its made by AMD and Intel is throwing marketing dollars at companies to make sure AMD doesn't see the light of day.