The World's Thinnest Laptop: A Review of the Acer Swift 7

As I gaze at this laptop, I am reminded that it holds the title of the world's thinnest laptop, a title that is often transferred between different companies and product lines due to advancements in technology. The Acer Swift 7, currently holding this title, boasts a remarkable thickness of just 9 millimeters, making it a very thin device indeed.

In terms of build quality, I am impressed by the laptop's overall construction. Made from milled aluminum, it exudes a sense of premiumness and durability. However, one must consider that its ultra-thin design poses inherent structural integrity challenges. Nevertheless, Acer has managed to achieve an impressive balance between form and function.

The target demographic for this product is not as vast as one might expect. The price point starts at $1700, which is quite steep considering the market offerings in similar form factors. However, it's essential to note that the ultra-thin design is a significant selling point, even if it means compromising on certain aspects.

The screen of the Acer Swift 7 is an impressive 14-inch 1080p touch panel with bright and vibrant colors, making it an excellent choice for media consumption. The keyboard, while not exceptional in terms of layout, is surprisingly good, with a comfortable typing experience despite some minor complaints regarding the placement of certain keys.

One notable feature is the presence of a fingerprint sensor on the side, which I have found to be somewhat finicky. Despite my usual fondness for fingerprint sensors, this particular unit has been plagued by missed reads and errors, suggesting it might be a software issue rather than hardware.

The components within the laptop are decent but not particularly high-powered, with a focus on energy efficiency rather than raw processing power. This approach is understandable given the constraints of an ultra-thin design, but it may limit its appeal to those who require more substantial performance.

Another area where the Acer Swift 7 falls short is in its trackpad. The lack of tactile response and precision makes it difficult to use for drag-and-drop operations or other tasks that rely on accurate cursor control. I find myself frequently encountering miss clicks due to the unregistered mechanism, which is a significant drawback given the importance of this feature.

The price premium for this product is substantial, with a starting point of $1700. While Acer's pursuit of thinness is commendable, it raises questions about the value proposition when compared to similar devices from other manufacturers, such as the Razor Blade Stealth or LG Gram, which offer comparable experiences without the extreme cost and compromises.

Ultimately, my experience with the Acer Swift 7 has left me with mixed feelings. While I appreciate the innovation and effort that went into creating this ultra-thin laptop, the compromises and limitations it entails make it difficult to recommend for most users. As technology continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how manufacturers balance the pursuit of thinness with the need for balanced performance and practicality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey, how's it going Dave 2d here?This laptop here holds the current title of the world's thinnest laptop and that is a title that gets transferred between different companiesDifferent product lines because some company will make a really thin laptopIt's the world's thinnest and then a few months later. Some company will shave off a millimeter hereMillimeter there and just it bounces around between the different brands as to who has the world's thinnest at that timeRight now the Acer Swift 7 has the thinnest title and it's a 9 millimeter thick laptop actually a little bit less than thatif you put it into perspective, there are smartphones that are thicker than this likeIt's a very thin device. The build quality is quite goodIt's obviously a form factor that is going to inherently be more difficult to keep structural integrityBecause it's so thin but they've done a really good job with itIt's milled aluminum and it's made well now the target demographic for a product like this isn't huge right not everyone's gonna be buying somethingsuper thin just for the sake of buying something thin you got to really need or really want something that looks like this andI meanThere's some compromises we'll get to those in a little bit but there's a lot of good stuff going on here as wellSo the screen is a 14 inch 1080p touch panel. It's bright with vibrant colors great for media consumption. It's biggerSo instead of the 13.3 inch screen that we often see in most ultrabooksIt is a touch bigger, but visually it's not a huge difference. The keyboard is also quite goodI expected this keyboard to be not great because it's such a thin deviceTraditionally really thin laptops have kind of mediocre keyboards. This one's pretty good. My one complaint is the layoutThere's just a few keys that feel out of place. For example, the Delete and backspace keyThey're really close together and I was making a lot of mistakes when I first started using this keyboardSame with the page up and page down keys. They're just right by the arrow keysIt's just a real tight cluster of stuff that you can hit by accident and it's a very good and comfortable keyboardBut that layout takes a while to get used to there's also a fingerprint sensor on the sideI usually like fingerprint sensors on Windows devicesI can't even think of one that I haven't liked this one for whatever reasonI'm just getting a lot of missed reads and errors like I wasn't able to log in consistently with my fingerProbably one out of every two or three tries at best so it could be a software thingI hope it's not a hardware thing. But this particular sensor on this review unit wasn't great the components on the inside areDecent there's nothing in here that's particularly high-powered. It's geared more towards energy efficiency and just low energy consumptionThere's also a SIM card in here for constant 4G LTE access it even has an e SIM optionThe batter in here is also goodI'm getting around eight hours of use with the screen at 250 nits, and it's charged via us PCSo the performance on this device is okay. It's actually powered by cable a qui processor. So that's the seventh gen stuffIt's fanless and it'll handle any kind of light computer tasks like browsing email media consumption stuff like thatBut don't expect any kind of heavy lifting nowThere are some compromises when it comes to making thin and light devices like thisParticularly something as thin as this so stuff like ports. There's only two USB portsThey don't support Thunderbolt 3 and there's no use ba ports in terms of the speakers. They're located on the bottomThey don't sound particularly great. They don't get particularly loud. They're I mean, they're ultra book speakers when you compare themSomeone like the MacBook with 12-inch MacBooksimilar in size well similar ishThey're both really thin but the 12-inch MacBook speakers just blow these out of the waterThen you have stuff like the webcam, which is located at the bottom of the screen on the bezelIt's something that we see in a lot of thin and light devicesBut that's just one of the minor compromises you have to make when it comes to stuff like thisThere are some bigger ones though some bigger compromises them inMy opinion are almost deal-breakers for this particular device. The big one for me is the trackpadThis is a trackpad that does not have any moving partsSo the bun mechanic or rather the click mechanic is not even a click. It's a tapSo I've been using this device for a little bit over a week, and I've been using the trackpad frequentlyI can't get used to itIt's something that I feel like if you're used to any kind of tactile response with your trackpadYou will find it very difficult to use thisIt's not so much the tactility like that's annoying that it's not there, but it's the imprecisionSo if you want to do drag and drop it's very difficult to do it on this track patternI often find that I'm getting miss clicks or justunregistered clicks because of the mechanism and I think this is a result or this reason why this trackpad is like this isbecause this laptop is so thin I feel like they couldn't put that mechanism of a click or of acantilever or any kind of like depression deviceInto this super thin form factor and like to me that's not worth itlike if you're gonna do thisIf you're gonna build a device like this that cost this kind of moneyThis this is one of the pillars of use, right?This is a very very important part of any kind of laptop experienceAnd if this is no good the trackpad the whole experience feels a little bit shaded and that leads me to my second thingBecause this thing is so thin the price premium on this product is huge. This starts at $1700That is a lot of money and when you look at the market and you kind of see what else is out there in thisKind of form factor. There are other devices out there like the Razor Blade Stealth the XPS 13 the LG GramThey're very similar in overall experience to something like this not as thin but it's still very very portableSo you're paying a pretty big premium on this just because of the ultra thin form factor?And it's cool that acer or other companies out there are kind of just in that pursuit of thinnessIt's coolBut when you step back for a second and kind of look at the overall like reason is this really that usefulLike is there someone out there that really needs something so thin that they can you know, what?What's what's the major benefit of something that is so thin compared to somethingThat's a little bit thicker like fractionally thicker but doesn't have the compromises like an extremely high price tag and a trackpadThat does not click like that's... this feels weird like really really weird, okayOverall thoughts on this device. I love the fact that acer is trying something like this thin is cool and maybe in the futureWe'll have the tech to kind of make everything work with clickableTrackpads and better performance and all that stuff in ultra thin devices like thisBut right now I really feel like that pursuit of thinnessneeds to chill out for a second because now we're getting to the point ofCompromised product and I just don't recommend this thing for most people. Okay. Hope you guys enjoyed this video thumbsif you liked it, subs if you loved it. See you guys next time\n"