Acer Swift 1 SF114-34 Review - Ultra-Portable Bargain. But is Pentium Silver N6000 good enough?

The Acer Swift 1 SF114-34 is one of the 2021 Black Friday bargains, with backlit keyboard, fingerprint reader, NVMe SSD and IPS display all for under £300. But is the combination of Intel Pentium Silver N6000 and 4GB RAM good enough for the average user?

0:00 Introduction
1:41 Appearance
2:31 Ports
5:32 Keyboard and Touchpad
7:43 IPS Screen
8:27 Pre-installed apps
9:58 Hardware Configuration and Tests
13:33 Is Pentium Silver N6000 good enough
14:36 Minecraft
15:58 Conclusion

[lukasdive]

Just Ordered this for 233€
Thanks for the Video 👍🏻

[RMintOptions]

I had the x-32 (N5000) for 3 years and the left corner screw broke. I loved it so much (fanless!) that I bought this current x-34 (N6000) for $229 Acer website Dec 2022, dual-booting W11 and Linux Mint (just assign 8gb swap file to alleviate the 4gb soldered RAM) on WD Green SSD 1TB for $59.99 (Dec 2022), so cheap to care about swap "shortening" SSD life. Swift 1 made by Lenovo would be a dream.

[ecm]

Got one of these a few years ago and it was a thin aluminum chassis and I just saw this model today in a shop--one with the N5100 chip-- and it felt metallic for sure. Are you certain it's plastic?
Thanks for the detailed overview. This notebook certainly does offer a lot for the price.

[andrNZ]

Thanks for your review. It in retrospect stacks up my choice despite buying without research. Apart from SSD size, I am happy with it.

[stuartthurstan]

Nice review. How much free space was there on the included 128gb when the machine arrived? I'm very tempted for my daughter as a first computer for her, but I'm also thinking about an immediate upgrade to a 250gb SSD.

[andrewcrossley]

Did you keep it or sell it?
I’m picking one up today from John Lewis in the U.K. As a JL member they gave us a big discount to make it £216 and with a 2 year guarantee and, as you say, a one year office licence.
The case is all metal (aluminium) according to Acer and John Lewis. The screen is 250 which is good for the money given an early 2015 MBP retina is only 300. The SSD can be replaced. There is a video online where the reviewer put a fast 1TB SSD in.
I’m off on a business trip combined with a bit of R&R and needed a very cheap ‘access port’ to my high end office work station (16 gb, i7, good graphics card). Hence having a good HD screen, decent battery life and the capability to drive a second portable HD screen (brilliant Asus M16 AC which is also IPS working from USB and weighs only .8kg) is important, as well as a bit of off line editing of a major presentation I need to deliver. So for me a fast Wi-Fi card a good keyboard and clear screen are the major factors.
I was originally planning to take my new MBP13 from work but that cost 10 times more and I’d be unhappy leaving it in the boot of a hire car or 6 hotel rooms over 2 weeks.
So for me, as a dummy workstation, it looks ideal. There is nothing close for the money. My work also uses full on MS Office online so any PC and screen works with that. Horses for courses as they say.
UPDATE - Now set it up. Screen is excellent and doesn't reflect unlike lots of glassy looking IPS panels. Keyboard is great and it works well with the Asus 15.6 inch external. As its the same resolution the external is far clearer in its native resolution (same as Acer) that with my MBP.

[warriorking]

I have bought same machine giving me so much pleasure ❤️❤️

[sophiableich]

Fully recommend this for Linux usage (Ubuntu). Works 100 % perfectly.

[kevanhart]

i have an acer swift 1 laptop and it's pretty good so far. i've always been concerned however how the device simply gets really warm underneath even though that shouldn't be much of a worry at all.

[miroslavbrabec]

So passive cooling. Thank you for test and this information.

[mallatratt]

Got mine off amazon black Friday deal just come today over a week late, but got here so on charge at moment should be OK for my needs

[harcovanhees]

For grandma bought one, exact model was: SF114-34-C13R, with a Intel Celeron processor model N5100. It has 4 GB memory and and 128 Gb type Flash (no SSD), both not upgradable.😢

[eoghanwaldron]

Hey,
I actually bought this laptop for my mom previously but it's struggling at the moment with her current use. Would the vivobook with the i3 you did a video on be enough of an upgrade to justify the additional price? Thanks

[kisi]

They really crippled this, no upgrade from 4Gb RAM, utterly daft. Would have chosen this over an Asus because of the X WiFi and backlit keyboard, but sadly the memory ruins it.

[hanzseneich]

This is okay if use use one app at a time, never use Office, google, youtube, spotify at the same time. the heating will the CPU overtime

[amzodh]

Hey, I’m new to the channel but I’m considering getting this laptop but 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage for close to £470, do you think this is worth it (I’m a student if that helps!)

[Aetila]

I was looking for such a laptop, but darn, barely any ventillation...and why the heck did they place the status-LED on the side, I always used to look at it and check what's going on when charging, starting an application and so on...that's a no-go.

[jordanpaige]

I know you said it would this be suitable for it also be for roblox? Currently have one on sale for 230. Thinking for my daughters first laptop. Hope you find time to reply. 😁

[anarkhos]

Hi.. When you touch the middle of the touchpad hard with your finger, does it sound? It's like there's a space under it.. I have such a situation, I couldn't decide if I should change it or is it normal..

[mason]

I actually have an HP laptop with the same CPU, 8 gigs of ram and a 256GB SSD. If I could describe the experience with one word, that word would be "frustrating". I'm not sure if it has a problem, but the processor loves to throttle to terrible clock speeds (405 megahertz is a number I often see in HWMonitor) with just Chrome open for whatever reason. I'm not sure if it is the processor's fault (doubt it) or the laptop's design. Also 1.1 gigahertz (base speed) is slow enough, let alone 400 megahertz (I have even seen it as low as 340 megahertz)