acerSwift 3 Thin & Light Laptop, 14" Full HD IPS, AMD Ryzen 5 4500U Hexa-Core Processor with Radeon Graphics, 8GB LPDDR4, 256GB NVMe SSD, WiFi 6, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint Reader, SF314-42-R7LH

I've had this laptop for about a week and I have to say that for this price point this is a difficult machine to beat. Super snappy processor. Solid build quality. I actually quite like the keyboard, which has a light but satisfying "click" to keystrokes. The fingerprint reader is a nice feature as well.This thing runs pretty quiet, which is a new thing for me. I've been using a custom-built PC for quite a while, which is filled with fans and sounds like it. This thing barely feels like it's on while I'm using it.This laptop has handled everything I've thrown at it with absolute ease. I even booted up an older game and while it did get a little toasty, it didn't miss a beat. I wouldn't call this a "good" gaming option, but, it'll certainly allow you to play some older games if the mood strikes you. I will say that playing this game for about an hour definitely drained the battery pretty quickly. Just something to keep in mind.I haven't tried using the speakers extensively, but they seem fine. I use headphones 99% of the time anyways, and I had zero issues hooking up my bluetooth headphones. I haven't tried the webcam either, but I'd be curious how much it drains the battery and puts strain on this machine.For 90% of generic computer users, this laptop will absolutely fit your needs. It's not going to change your life. It's not going to knock your socks off. It will handle everything that an average user will throw at it, however. For the price point, I couldn't be more satisfied.Here are my only gripes:Is the screen the best thing I've ever seen? No. But I'm perfectly fine with that tradeoff. I'm not a graphic artist and I'm not doing image editing on this laptop. I'm using this to do web browsing, occasional coding, and watching the videos. For these use-cases, I couldn't be happier with the performance.The bloatware is a pain. You will probably need to take a solid 30-45 minutes after first boot just cleaning out the trash that Acer puts on the machine. Is it really that big of a deal? No. But it's annoying.Watching lots of video or using resource-intensive software (eg. games) can drain the battery pretty quickly, from what I've observed. Casual web browsing, word processing, etc. doesn't seem to put a dent in battery life though. If I wanted a gaming laptop, I would have gotten a gaming laptop. That's not what this is, and I'm fine with that.Whoever thought it was a good idea to put the on/off key in the spot of the delete key should be thoroughly ridiculed. Infuriating to keep putting the laptop into sleep when trying to delete something.

It’s impossible to break down every little thing I love about this laptop, but I’ll try my best.Design- It has a simple and professional look. The laptop itself is super light but not flimsy. They managed to make a 2.5lb body that feels sturdy and rigid. The keyboard has a relatively shallow travel but still feels tactile and not at all squishy.Display- I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the screen and I honestly can’t see why. It’s bright enough to be used outside, and has pretty solid color accuracy. The input lag is higher than some other displays I’ve seen, but enabling Radeon Anti-Lag through AMD’s GPU drivers helps reduce the lag and make the display more smooth and responsive.Performance: AMD’s dominance has officially extended to the laptop market. This is by far the fastest CPU I’ve seen in an ultrabook. It consistently boosts to over 4GHz while remaining under 70C. Its 8 cores shred all workstation and productivity tasks faster than most desktops while only having a 15W TDP. The integrated Vega GPU outperforms Intel‘s integrated graphics by a mile, and allow this little beast to run most modern games at 60fps with around medium graphics. The fact that it only has 8GB of ram may be off putting to some, but I would rather have 8GB of dual channel fast ram than 16GB of single channel slow ram. The high speed and dual channel allow the processor to access a level of performance that it simply can’t with slower ram or a single stick.Battery: I’ve never tested the maximum battery life for myself, but I can confirm that after 8 hours of use I still had about 40% left in the tank. I can confidently take it with me anywhere without even considering having to bring a charger in my bag.Price: I still have a hard time believing that this thing is only $650. It easily outperforms laptops that cost twice as much, and doesn’t have to compromise on features or build quality to do so. I highly recommend this to anyone who’s looking for great performance without breaking the bank.