Acer Swift 14" 3 Silver 2021

The Acer Swift 3 is impressively light at 1.20kg, landing in the 89th percentile for compactness. But the 8GB of RAM sits at the 14th percentile and reliability is a worrying 10th percentile. At $900 USD, you're paying a premium for Linux Mint and portability while accepting some serious compromises.

The Ryzen 7 4700U is an 8-core, 8-thread chip that boosts to 4.1GHz, and paired with Radeon Graphics it handles everyday Linux workloads without breaking a sweat. But let's be real about the numbers: the CPU sits at the 37th percentile in our database, which means most modern laptops are faster. The integrated Radeon Graphics lands at the 43rd percentile for GPUs, so don't expect to game on this thing beyond light indie titles or older esports at low settings. The 512GB NVMe SSD is a solid middle-of-the-pack performer at the 52nd percentile, and boot times in Mint will feel snappy.

The 8GB of RAM is the bottleneck. At the 14th percentile, it's one of the weakest configurations we track. For a Linux machine running a lightweight desktop, 8GB is workable today, but open a dozen browser tabs plus a code editor and you'll feel the swap file kick in. The Wi-Fi 6 AX200 is a nice touch, and the USB-C port with DisplayPort and charging support gives you some flexibility, but the port selection overall is just average at the 44th percentile.

Against the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, this thing gets absolutely demolished on performance, screen quality, and reliability, though it does win on price and weight. The Lenovo Legion 5i and ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 are gaming machines with discrete GPUs that make the Radeon Graphics here look like a calculator, but they're also heavier and pricier. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 and MSI Raider are in a completely different performance class. The Swift 3's only real advantage is that 1.20kg weight and the Linux Mint preinstall. If you don't need those two things specifically, every competitor on this list is a better buy.

At $900 USD, this is a tough sell. You're paying for the compact form factor and the convenience of Linux preinstalled, but the specs don't back up the price. The 8GB of RAM at the 14th percentile is the kind of spec we'd expect on a $500 machine, not a $900 one. The 512GB SSD and Ryzen 7 are fine, but the reliability score at the 10th percentile makes that $900 feel like a gamble. If you're a Linux user who values portability above all else, there's some appeal here, but most people would be better served by buying a cheaper Windows laptop and installing Mint themselves.

The Acer Swift 3 with the Ryzen 7 4700U is a weird little machine. On paper, that 8-core chip sounds like a beast, but our database puts it at the 37th percentile for CPUs, which is solidly middle of the pack these days. The real story here is the form factor: 1.20kg and 0.63 inches thin puts it in the 89th percentile for compactness, and that's the kind of number you feel every time you toss it in a bag. The 512GB NVMe SSD is about average at the 52nd percentile, but the 8GB of RAM lands at a rough 14th percentile, which is going to hurt sooner than you think.

The Linux Mint angle is the differentiator. No Windows tax, no bloatware, just a clean OS that runs great on modest hardware. The 14-inch 1080p IPS display sits at the 41st percentile for screens, which means it's fine but nothing to write home about. And the reliability score? 10th percentile. That's a red flag we can't ignore, even if the 4.8-star customer rating from a tiny sample of 4 reviews suggests the people who bought it are happy so far.

Skip this if you need more than 8GB of RAM, because the 14th percentile ranking means this configuration will choke on heavy multitasking. Also skip it if reliability matters to you, the 10th percentile score is one of the worst we've seen and that's a gamble at $900 USD. If you want to play games or do any GPU-accelerated work, the 43rd percentile Radeon Graphics won't cut it. And if you don't specifically need Linux Mint preinstalled, buy a Windows laptop with better specs and install Mint yourself for less money.

The Acer Swift 3 with Ryzen 7 4700U is a niche product for a niche audience. If you're a Linux user who wants a sub-1.3kg laptop with Mint preinstalled and you don't mind 8GB of RAM, this works. But the 10th percentile reliability score and 14th percentile RAM ranking are hard to swallow at $900 USD. The compactness is genuinely impressive at the 89th percentile, but that's the only standout metric. For most people, this is a pass.