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Acer Swift 14

Acer Swift 14 (2023) Laptop test

June 28, 2023
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We put the Acer Swift 14 (2023) through our rigorous DXOMARK Laptop test suite to measure its performance both at sound, camera and display.

In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview

Key specifications include (as given by the manufacturer):

  • Physical specs : 310.5  x 213.3 x /14.95  mm
  • Display : 2560×1600 IPS, 425 nits, 100% sRGB, Touch
  • Webcam : 1440p QHD

Scoring

Use-case and feature subscores included in the calculations of the global score

Acer Swift 14
Acer Swift 14 (2023)
94
camera
Exposure
72

93

Texture
34

54

Color
57

76

Noise
66

83

108
display
Readability
48

84

HDR
61

95

SDR
72

84

120
audio
Playback
111

149

Capture
132

133

Duplex
153

Best

Pros

  • In video call, good handling of colors (particularly skin tones and target exposure)
  • In video call, excellent SNR performance with high level of noise reduction
  • Great directivity, focused on voices in front of the laptop’s screen
  • Great handling  when voices overlap

Cons

  • In video call, camera has difficulty adjusting exposure to a moving subject
  • Voice intelligibility impaired in some languages in playback because of excessive treble, lack of bass and unrealistic distance rendition
  • Subpar video experience in SDR due to limited color gamut and lack of contrast
  • No HDR panel
  • High reflectance, making the laptop difficult to view in backlit situations
  • Strong and inconsistent compression, pumping and distortion while listening to music or watching videos
  • Lack of bass and overall harsh timbre performance

The Acer Swift 14 (2023) put in a great performance for both camera and audio in our video call use cases, but its performance for both display and audio in our multimedia tests was very limited.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Laptop tests: For scoring and analysis in our laptop reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluations under controlled lab conditions and real-life scenarios.
(For more details about the  Laptop protocol, click here.)
The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Acer Swift 14 (2023) overall & use-cases scores

Video Call

125

Acer Swift 14 (2023)

144

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro, 2023)
i
About DXOMARK Laptop tests

DXOMARK's Video call use case is a score that evaluates how a device handles video calls and videoconferencing in multiple conditions. This score focuses on the camera performance and the capture and playback rendering of voices. Read more about how we test the use cases of Video call score here.

The camera on the Acer device handled colors well (especially skin tones) and had good target exposure. Exposure showed instabilities when there was movement on-screen, however, and noise was visible in low light. The Acer’s audio system performed very well, with good noise reduction, great directivity, and great handling of duplex scenarios. While vocal timbre was good on capture, voice playback had too much treble and a slight lack of bass, plus unrealistic distance rendition that could impair intelligibility in some instances.

Camera

94

Acer Swift 14 (2023)

135

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the camera subscores for the video call use case:

Camera scores comparison
Camera texture acutance on Deadleaves with illuminance levels
This graph shows the evolution of texture acutance with the level of lux measured on a Deadleaves chart.

The following graphs show the objective measurements performed in our camera labs:

Camera visual noise evolution with illuminance levels
This graph shows the evolution of spatial visual noise with the level of lux. Spatial visual noise is measured on the visual noise chart in the video noise setup. DXOMARK visual noise measurement is derived from ISO15739 standard.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.
Target exposure on face with illuminance levels in HDR conditions
These measurements take place on a setup combining realistic mannequins and a backlit panel simulating high dynamic range conditions. This graph shows the evolution of lightness measured on the forehead of the realistic mannequin with the level of lux, for multiple lighting conditions. The lightness is measured in L*. Delta EV specifies the difference of luminance in stops between the face and the light panel simulating HDR conditions.

Audio

140

Acer Swift 14 (2023)

144

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the capture subscores for the video call use case:

Audio capture scores comparison

The following graphs show the frequency response, distortion and directivity in capture, recorded in our semi-anechoic room:

Audio capture directivity
Directivity graph of the laptop microphone(s) when capturing test signals using the camera app. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) over the angle of incidence of the sound source (normalized to the angle 0°, in front of the device).

Music & Video

105

Acer Swift 14 (2023)

154

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro, 2023)
i
About DXOMARK Laptop tests

DXOMARK's Video and Music use case score evaluates the capability of a device to reproduce multimedia usages such as videos, movies and music playback in indoor conditions. This score focuses on the display performance and audio-playback rendering. Read more about how we test this use case here.

At 20 nits, minimum brightness was high enough to make viewing unpleasant in low-light conditions. Along with somewhat desaturated colors, the display’s video color gamut did not match BT-709 (SDR), and a lack of contrast especially affected dark tones. Colors were overall slightly desaturated, and high reflectance made the device hard to read in backlit situations.

Multimedia audio playback was heavily impacted by strong and inconsistent compression, pumping, and noticeable distortions even at medium volumes. A lack of bass and overall harsh timbre performance in playback made for an unsatisfactory audio experience.

Display

108

Acer Swift 14 (2023)

156

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the display subscores for the multimedia use case:

Display scores comparison

The following graphs show the objective measurements performed in our display lab:

Display gamut coverage for video contents
Laptop
Video gamut SDR
Laptop
Video gamut HDR
The primary colors are measured both in HDR10 and SDR. The extracted color gamut shows the extent of the color area that the device can render. To respect the artistic intent, the measured gamut should match the master color space of each video.
Display reflectance measurement (SCI)
Measurements above show the reflection of the device within the visible spectrum range (400 nm to 700 nm). It includes both diffuse and specular reflection.
Display reflectance profile
Display brightness uniformity
0.615
cd/m²
0.622
cd/m²
0.635
cd/m²
0.595
cd/m²
0.612
cd/m²
0.608
cd/m²
0.563
cd/m²
0.545
cd/m²
0.581
cd/m²
Laptop Distribution of brightness (min)
503.4
cd/m²
495.8
cd/m²
505
cd/m²
490
cd/m²
503.7
cd/m²
483.8
cd/m²
458.1
cd/m²
459.3
cd/m²
470.4
cd/m²
Laptop Distribution of brightness (max)
This illustration shows the brightness measured on nine zones of the display for minimum brightness (left) and maximum brightness (right) for SDR content.
Display SDR EOTF measurement
This graph represents the rendering of contrast (gray levels) for SDR video content, measured in the dark. We expect to be close to the 2.2 or 2.4 gamma references.
Display peak brightness for video contents

Display white point
Laptop
This graph represents the color temperature of white content, compared with the reference (Daylight illuminant D65) measured in the dark on video at minimum and maximum brightness.

Audio

102

Acer Swift 14 (2023)

152

Apple MacBook Pro 14" (M2 Pro, 2023)

The following chart presents the playback for the multimedia use case:

Audio playback scores comparison

The following graphs show the frequency response, distortion and directivity in multimedia playback, recorded in our semi-anechoic room:

Audio playback frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency emitted by the laptop when playing a pure-sine wave in an anechoic environment.
Audio playback Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise

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