Acer Swift 3: A Big Screen on a Modest Budget

The Swift 3 is the perfect laptop for writers and students.

- By Matt Smith

Big laptops are back in style. Once all but abandoned, 16 and 17-inch laptops are once again widely available. Most models are expensive, however, and that’s especially true of 16-inch machines.

Enter the Acer Swift 3 SF316-51. This mainstream 16-inch laptop has plenty of display real estate and a slim profile yet carries a mid-range MSRP of $999. Online retailers have sold it for as little as $849. That’s an alluring price for a large, capable laptop, but there’s a catch. Battery life is less than stellar and performance falls behind when it comes to more demanding apps. If you can live with those trade-offs, the Swift 3 has a big screen and is priced reasonably.

SPECS AND FEATURES

The Swift 3 SF316-51 packs a lot of value, episcally when sold below its $999 MSRP. It has an Intel Core i7-11370H with four cores, plus 16GB of RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive. That’s a lot of RAM and storage for the money.

CPU: Intel Core i7-11370H

Memory: 16GB

Graphics/GPU: Intel Iris Xe

Display: 16-inch 1080p LCD

Storage: 512GB PCIe solid state drive

Webcam: 720p

Connectivity: 1x USB-C (with DisplayPort