Acer Swift 314in (2022)

What it lacks in finesse, this highly portable 14in laptop makes up for in power, storage and value for money

- TIM DANTON

PRICE £749 (£899 inc VAT) from currys.co.uk

The days when you had to spend over a grand for a high-quality laptop are thankfully long gone, and this 2022 update to Acer's Swift 3 range shows why. You aren't buying a wide-gamut panel or a cutting-edge design, but it lacks very little else.

Certainly not speed. This is one of four systems this month to feature a Core i7-1260P, and Acer extracts even more from this excellent chip than anyone else - including Intel with its NUC Pro (see p57). A score of 5,809 in PCMark 10 emphasises that it will tear through day-to-day tasks for years, while a multicore result of 10,273 in Geekbench 5 is almost 2,000 more than Intel managed. In fact, Intel's showcase for the SOS 1260P only bested the Swift 3 in two tests: the PC Pro benchmarks, where it scored 302 to the Acer's still strong 215, and Cinebench R23's multicore test where it won out with 10,761 to 9,442.

The Swift 3 gained sweet revenge in our gaming benchmarks, with a 20% advantage in 3DMark Time Spy over the Intel PC, which it carried on to Metro Exodus, F1 22 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. In the latter, I saw a playable 37fps at 1080p High settings.

Gaming at the screen's native 1440p resolution is inevitably off the cards with demanding games such as these, but a 2,560 x 1,440 panel in an affordable laptop is great to see. Whites look clean, especially if you pump up the screen to its peak brightness of 339cd/m², and Acer employs an effective anti-glare coating, too.