Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is attractive, powerful with a great battery… and a bit pricey

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Two Minute Review

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is an easy recommendation outside of its price tag. It’s light, slim, and pretty attractive in its one colorway. It also comes with a touchscreen and an incredibly smooth 360-degree hinge that makes putting it in tent or tablet mode very easy outside of swinging around a 14-inch piece of hardware. If you’re looking for one of the best laptops with 2-in-1 capabilities, I think this laptop fits right in.

It’s surprisingly powerful for a laptop that relies on integrated graphics (rather than a discrete GPU) – I was able to do some semi-serious gaming on it, though with some compromises – and it comes with a battery life that competes with the best.

Besides the lacklustre sound quality, which I expect on even the best Ultrabooks since they’re so thin, the main issue I have with the laptop is the price tag. Considering everything I’ve mentioned above, as well as the included AI apps, I don’t think the laptop is overpriced. But at about a grand and a half, it’s not quite the value proposition that I expect from Acer, either. Of course, knowing the company, that price will probably come down before long.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Price & Availability

• How much does it cost? $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150)
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it?Available in the US and UK

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is available for $1,499.99 / £1,399 (about AU$2,150) in the United States and the United Kingdom. It doesn’t seem to be available in Australia at the time of writing, but Acer does have a landing page for the model, so that might change in the very near future.

If you’re wondering about what kind of upgrades you can make or configurations you can choose from, you’re in for a rude awakening. There’s just one version of this laptop on the market, and it comes with the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU (with 80 tops), integrated Adreno graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD.

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 might be a bit heavier and have issues with its stylus storage, but it comes with a nicer OLED screen for the same price (it’s actually available at a lower price through some retailers at the time of writing). Plus, it has a few different configurations if you want more RAM or SSD.

The Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) might not be a Windows laptop or a 2-in-1, but it is still the standard that we compare most Ultrabooks to. It’s attractive, easy to use, and lightweight, with great battery life. Plus, it starts at a lower price tag of $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,799.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: specs

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI may only come in one configuration, but its Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100 with 12 cores (boost up to 4.0GHz) and 80 TOPS NPU (neural processing unit), integrated Qualcomm Adreno graphics, and 16GB of RAM are more than enough power for an on-the-go 2-in-1 laptop like this. The 512GB SSD is good, though it would be nice to be able to upgrade to more storage.

Since there’s only one configuration, there’s no upgrading the screen either, which has a 1920×1200 16:10 ratio touch screen that can support up to 120Hz refresh rate. Likewise, it’s only available in Cobalt Blue.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Design

• Attractive build
• USB-C port on either side
• Keyboard is good but not great

I say that it’s only available in Cobalt Blue, as if that’s a bad thing. In fact, it’s a very attractive dark-ish metallic blue aluminum chassis that’s accented on the lid with silver etchings, giving it an almost space age feel. I like it.

I also like the fact that not only is the port selection pretty comprehensive but that it spreads the ports pretty evenly. Each side has a USB-C port so you don’t have to worry about your orientation to an outlet when you need to charge up – something that invariably happens when I’m reviewing a laptop that uses USB-C to charge and then puts them all on one side.

Along with the two USB-C ports are two regular USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a headphone jack. There’s also on the right side the stylus and its built-in carriage. I always seem to knock off styli that magnetically clip on the side of a laptop so having it tucked away is pretty nice.

The screen may be just 1920x1200p but it looks pretty sharp nonetheless. Maybe it’s its 300 nits of brightness. The screen is also a touch display and feels responsive to the touch. I find the large touchpad to be just as responsive, not to mention is pleasant to use thanks to Acer using Corning Gorilla Glass.

The quality of the keyboard can make or break laptops like this – remember Apple’s butterfly keyboard? Thankfully, the feel of the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI’s is pretty good. There’s a decent amount of travel so I don’t get that cramped feel from ultraslim keyboards. While writing this very review, I never found the keyboard fatiguing.

I will say that the keycaps are flat, and I wish they had a little form fitting concave shape. The keyboard switches also are linear. Since this isn’t a mechanical keyboard, I would have liked a little softer touch. Still, overall, I think it’s good for a thin portable laptop like this.

Lastly, the 360 hinge for its 2-in-1 capabilities is smooth, so switching to tablet or tent mode is as quick as it can be, maybe only hampered by the size of the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI, which might be on the smaller side for a laptop but is pretty big for a tablet.

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Performance

• More powerful than expected
• Sound quality is thin (no low end)
• Lots of AI apps

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI benchmarks

3DMark: Fire Strike x64: 7,610; Time Spy x64:2,977; Night Raid (Arm): 36,577; Steel Nomad (Arm): 783
GeekBench 7: 2,836 (single-core); 17,403 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy:15.04
Handbrake 1.11.1:3:15
CrossMark: Overall:1,559 Productivity:1,421 Creativity:1,767 Responsiveness:1,412
Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p):49.562 fps; (1920x1200p) 50.223 fps
Far Cry 6 (1080p):26.087 fps; (1920x1200p) 24.880 fps
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 16:11:40

The Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is supposed to be a light and portable laptop, not a heavy hitter. Despite that, it has a good deal of power for everyday use. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E78100 processor may be the more entry level CPU from the company, but it has plenty of juice. The included 16GB of RAM helps too.

Browsing, streaming, and all the day-to-day work barely pushes this laptop. And if you do want to push the Swift Spin 14 AI, it can keep up to a degree. Since I don’t do 3D design or video editing, my way of pushing a computer is testing with gaming and I did that here.

I ran Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Grand Theft Auto 4,and Little Kitty Big City on this laptop and found that the laptop could mostly keep up. If you look at the benchmarks, you’ll see that a game like Far Cry 6 runs at about 25 fps depending on settings. That’s not great, but it’s playable, and that was the case with Clair Obscurand Grand Theft Auto 4.

I was able to play them without getting so frustrated that I wanted to quit, but they definitely pushed the system to where the framerates were mediocre and there was some screen tearing. Little Kitty Big City had no issues.

Again, this is not a gaming laptop. The point, though, is that this laptop can handle more than one would expect of one with just integrated graphics and a slim form factor.

Where I think the slim form factor has a bigger impact is in the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI’s sound quality. Could you load up a playlist on Spotify and enjoy while browsing holiday shopping? Sure, but there’s not room for big speakers so there’s no low end leaving me listening to pretty thin audio. That said, it doesn’t sound harsh, and the laptop does support DTS:X and spatial audio to external devices.

AI is a central part of this laptop if the name didn’t give it away. The Qualcomm CPU comes with 80 TOPS NPU so it can do quite a bit locally (a lot of the laptops I see have around 50). Of course, Copilot is a press away and has hands-free capabilities. It’s not quite as conversational as Google Gemini, but it’s close enough.

There are a number of other Acer-specific apps such as LiveArt for making personalized stickers and Purified View that give even deeper fine-tuning to what you look like during a video call beyond the usual Windows 11 settings including making you look like you came out of an animated Richard Linklater movie.

Of course, you need to download the Acer Quick Panel, which I would have assumed should be preloaded on the laptop, to get access to Purified View. Acer Purified Voice, which can reduce background noise and boost your voice, also need to be downloaded. You can also download a smart phone app to use your phone’s camera called Acer Phone Webcam.

AcerSense is an app that does come preinstalled that functions as the proprietary utility software. But I appreciate it because, beyond changing power and fan settings, I can do wellness checks on the hard drive, RAM, and battery (or all of them at once).

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Battery life

• Very impressive battery life
• Charges quickly if not quite fast charging

The battery life on laptops are getting pretty outrageous (in a good way). We typically see brands like Apple leading the way with models like the MacBook Air 13 (M5), which itself lasts 15 and a half hours. It used to be impressive when you could get eight, just enough to last a full work or school day.

With that in mind, the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI is just plain impressive. In our benchmark, it lasted 16 hours and almost 12 minutes. Take that, Apple. During use, I found the battery life to hold well, so that I could use it and really do some intensive tasks and not worry about it dying on me. Of course, if you plan on gaming or doing some demanding editing, expect to get significantly lower battery life. But still getting eight hours while pushing the laptop is pretty good.

I didn’t notice any fast charging-specific capabilities, but the laptop does charge up relatively quickly at a percent per minute pace. Consider that if you charge the laptop from empty to 20%, you should be able to get an additional four hours of use.

Should I buy the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI?

Buy it if…

You want a bunch of AI features
Yes, all Windows laptops these days come with Copilot. But, Acer has included a bunch of additional apps, some of which need to be downloaded (for free) after the fact that take advantage of the CPU’s NPU.View Deal

You need a long battery life
The battery life on this laptop is about as good as it gets on a laptop, making it ideal for those that need a computer to last a whole work day and more without access to power.View Deal

You want an attractive 2-in-1 laptop
This laptop looks good in its aluminum Cobalt Blue styling. Plus, its smooth hinge and touch screen makes 2-in-1 use easy.View Deal

Don’t buy it if…

You’re on a budget
At a grand and a half, it’s not exactly cheap. If you’re on a budget, there are cheaper 2-in-1 options. You’ll just have to compromise on performance or AI features.View Deal

You want a good sounding laptop
We really shouldn’t be expecting a lot out of a laptop’s sound quality (just get a good pair of earbuds or headphones), but if that’s important to you, there are (some) options out there that are better.View Deal

Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review: Also Consider

If our Acer Swift Spin 14 AI review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider…

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 goes for the same price, but comes with a higher resolution OLED display. It is a little heavier and the stylus just magnetically clips onto the side of the laptop, making it easy to lose.

Read our fullHP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 review

Apple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5)

The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) is, like just about every MacBook Air before it, the trendsetter for Ultrabooks, setting the standard in laptops trying to strike a balance between performance and portability. It also has a very long battery life and starts at a lower price point than the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI.

Read our fullApple 13-inch MacBook Air (M5) review

How I tested the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI

• Tested for a couple weeks
• Used it for work, gaming, and streaming
• Messed with its AI capabilities

I used the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI for a couple weeks. I used it for work, including typing up this review (along with the requisite online research). I used it to stream video. I even did some semi-serious gaming. I played around with the AI as well.

After spending time with the Acer Swift Spin 14 AI, it’s clear that this is meant for those that want a portable 2-in-1 laptop that prioritizes AI capabilities and battery life.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.