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Read Mashable’s full review of the Acer Swift X 14 (2024).
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Sturdy, speedy, and plentiful with ports, last year’s Acer Swift X 14 is my top choice for students who need a Windows laptop — even over its AI-powered successor. It’s ideal if you prefer Windows to Mac, or if you can’t use MacBooks for compatibility reasons.
Notably, it has the dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card that some engineering programs mandate. That also makes it much better for PC gaming than a MacBook (though if you play often enough to warrant an actual gaming laptop, I have a separate recommendation for that later on).
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While this 14.5-inch creator laptop isn’t the newest or swankiest PC on the market, it’s certainly one of the most practical — and it doesn’t demand an uncapped budget. Its Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor from last year got a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 13,386, outpacing all of the current-gen Intel laptops we’ve tried except for a $2,119 Lenovo model. It does tend to run a little loud, but that feels like a fair trade-off considering it’s zippier than 81% of the models in our current database.
That CPU is accompanied by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPU that makes the Swift X 14 capable of running specialized software and games. We got eight hours and 32 minutes of usage out of our RTX 4070 testing unit, which is below our median battery life for all Windows laptops but good for one with discrete graphics. That exact model was out of stock at the time of writing, but RTX 4050 and 4060 variants are readily available for $1,299.99 and $1,499.99, respectively. The 4050 base configuration has 512GB of storage, which is perfectly adequate for most students; if you’re more of a power user, go for the 4060, which has a full terabyte.
The Swift X 14 might be a little too practical in the looks department for some people — it’s a very plain gray device — but its build quality is “excellent,” said Mashable’s Gedeon. It’s equipped with a decently springy keyboard, a large, soft touchpad, and a 120Hz OLED display that’s vibrant and buttery smooth. Gedeon called the latter “a visual treat” in her review. Connectivity-wise, you get a nice blend of modern and legacy ports to work with, including an HDMI port and a microSD card slot.
Acer sells a newer, slightly cheaper version of the Swift X 14, the Swift 14 AI, but it’s powered by ARM processors that college students should avoid. It doesn’t have a dedicated GPU, either.
