The Acer Swift X is back for 2022, and now has Intel Arc graphics

At a product-packed CES presentation, Acer has announced plans to refresh its brilliant Swift X laptops early in 2022. 
 
The 2021 Acer Swift X received a five-star rating from us when we reviewed it. It was a laptop that could satisfy everyone from gamers to creatives and its successors look set to follow suit by refreshing the internals while keeping the slim design and light weight that made the previous generation such a hit with us last year. 
 
For starters, Acer has decided to go all in on Intel this time around, with new 12th-generation Intel processors in both the 14- and 16in versions (with up to 14 cores), ensuring both qualify for the Intel Evo seal of approval. Although the former sticks with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 or 3050Ti GPU, the latter hands a debut to the new kid on the GPU block: Intel Arc. 
 

While something of an unknown quantity at this point, Acer does say that the larger laptop’s extra space has been used to “squeeze in a bit more cooling power” with dual fans, copper heat pipes, an air inlet keyboard and a larger side exhaust port, which points to a chipset that could be pretty powerful once the graphical intensity hots up.

Interestingly this time around, Acer has opted for a 16:10 aspect ratio on the laptops’ IPS displays this time around, and that means there’s a resolution bump for each: 2,240 x 1,400 for the 14in version and 2,560 x 1,600 for the 16in model. The bezels surrounding each are extremely narrow, allowing for a 92.22% screen-to-body ratio.  

The laptops will be arriving in the late February to early March window, with prices starting at £999 for the 14in machine and £1,099 for the 16in version. Given past pedigree, you wouldn’t bet against the machines entering our list of the best laptops you can buy once we’ve put them through their paces.

In June, Acer will turn its attention to the cheap-and-cheerful market with a trio of Chromebooks. While the Chromebook 315 (£299) and 314 (£349) are fairly standard 14- and 15.6in Intel-powered Chrome OS devices, the £599 Acer Chromebook Spin 513 looks a more interesting proposition. A convertible with a 2,256 x 1,504 13.5in screen, the computer’s versatility could be appealing to plenty of people, even if the eight-core MediaTek Kompaio 1380 processor could concern some used to Intel chips powering their laptops. 

These new lines will appear alongside refreshed RTX-powered Nitro 5 and Helios 300 gaming laptops, so it seems that Acer is keen to stamp its brand on every part of the portable PC sector. We’ll see how successful it is over the coming months when we’re able to benchmark each bit of hardware ourselves.