The Acer Swift Blade 14 is one of the lightest laptops I’ve ever seen

Sub-1kg laptops are not particularly big news, but I’ve rarely seen one go below 900g. Well Acer’s new Blade 14 portable (SFB14-53CF) has gone 100g better than that, breaking the 800g barrier and coming at a weight of 799g.

That’s 71g lighter than the Asus Zenbook A14, another laptop that barely bothers the backpack at 870g, and picking it up it feels barely heavier than a (slim) stack of A4 paper.

Acer Swift Blade 14 specifications

Not only is this laptop incredibly light, it’s also very slim at 13.5mm (the model with the IPS display is even thinner at 12.9mm) and it packs a fair punch when it comes to performance. Under its skin is a choice of third-generation Intel Core silicon, with the top-end model coming with a Core 7 350 CPU and the lowest spec a Core 3 304. Your other choices are a Core 5 320 and Core 3 304. It hasn’t been confirmed yet which of these are coming to the UK.

These processors are backed by up to 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage and with a 50Wh battery to go with all that the Swift ought to deliver pretty decent battery life as well.

The display looks impressive. Again, there’s a choice here, this time of three displays: either a 3K OLED effort (2,880 x 1,800) with 100% DCI-P3 coverage and 400 nit brightness, a 1,920 x 1,200 OLED with 100% DCI-P3 coverage, or a rather dimmer, duller 300 nit 1,920 x 1,200 300 nit IPS panel with a mere 45% NTSC gamut coverage.

Those displays are surrounded nicely slim, 4.3mm bezels and despite the oh-so slim chassis, there’s plenty of connectivity scattered around the edges of the machine: a pair of USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 ports (with power delivery and DisplayPort Alt mode support), one USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 (data only) and a 3.5mm audio jack.

The worry of course with any laptop this light is build quality. But I you definitely don’t need to worry too much on that front. The screen backing does feel a little bendy but it doesn’t creak or crack as you manipulate it and the body of the machine feels nice and tightly put together.

It’s built from a combination of magnesium alloy and carbon fibre and, in fact, it feels far more robust than it has any right to be. I’m not kidding here: it’s stiff and unyielding and also has a pleasing matte finish to it, not that you’re going to need the extra grip this affords because it’s so inconsequentially light.

I really like the way Acer has designed this laptop, too. It’s available in “marshmallow white” or “marshmallow blue” and both look and feels rather swish.

Acer Swift Blade 14: Early verdict

As piece of engineering, the Swift Blade 14 is a highly likeable thing. It’s light enough to sling in your backpack and barely register its presence. It appears to be nicely made, there’s plenty of productivity and it should have enough in the way of performance and battery life to keep most users happy.

And despite the inexorable price rises we’ve seen across the past year, Acer has somehow managed to keep the cost of the Swift Blade 14 below £1,000; only a penny below, but you can’t have everything.

I, for one, can’t wait to get my hands on one so I can give it a thorough workout. Unfortunately, there’s going to be a bit of a wait, because it isn’t coming out until December 2026. I hope it will be worth the wait.

Written By

Jonathan Bray

Head of reviews at Expert Reviews, Jon has been testing and writing about products since before most of you were born (well, only if you were born after 1996). In that time he’s tested and reviewed hundreds of laptops, PCs, smartphones, vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, doorbells, cameras and more. He’s worked on websites since the early days of tech, writing game reviews for AOL and hardware reviews for PC Pro, Computer Buyer and other print publications. He’s also had work published in Trusted Reviews, Computing Which? and The Observer. And yet, even after so many years in the industry, there’s still nothing more he loves than getting to grips with a new product and putting it through its paces.

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