Acer simplifies its Swift laptop lineup for 2023

No shade on Acer before now, but I’ve always found its laptop naming scheme to be a little bit obtuse. For instance, can you tell me the qualitative difference between Acer’s Swift 3 and Swift 5 without looking? To address this, the company has dumped its odd-numbers system in favor of categorizing everything by screen size. So, here at CES, Acer is now showing off the Swift Go 14 and 16, as well as the Swift 14 and the Swift X 14 — although, on reflection, that’s still a lot of Swifts, isn’t it.

The Swift Go models are the successors of the Swift 3 series, mainstream machines with an eye on keeping things thin and light. There are two models, both of which get the option of three different displays, all of which are 16:10. The 14-inch unit gets the option of a (deep breath) 2,880 x 1,800 90Hz OLED display, a 2,240 x 1,400 IPS LCD or a 1,920 x 1,200 IPS LCD. The bigger sibling, meanwhile, gets the choice of a 16-inch 3,200 x 2,000 120Hz OLED, a 2,560 x 1,600 IPS LCD, or a 1,920 x 1,200 IPS LCD (one of which will be touch, but the spec sheet I have doesn’t say which one.)

Nestled inside, you’ll find the usual raft of spec-to-order 13th generation Intel Core processors, including the option of an H-series chip instead of a U. These, Acer say, will be able to run at full pelt thanks to the new-and-improved cooling in the new machines. That will be teamed up with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to 2TB of SSD storage, while both models have USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, a microSD-card reader and a 1440p webcam. If you’re looking to snap one up, you’ll have to wait until May for the 14-inch model and June for the 16-incher, with prices starting from $850 for the former and $800 for the latter.

In the middle of the pack, you’ll find Acer’s suffix-free Swift 14 (formerly the Swift 5), of which the company has little to talk about, compared to its siblings. That’s a shame, because it might also be the best-looking, with the dark green and copper model destined to become an object of unbridled desire. Weighing in at 2.64 pounds, the Evo-certified machine offers a choice of 13th-generation Intel Core processors. And you’ll get the pick of two different touchscreens, a 1,920 x 1,200 panel or a glitzier 2,560 x 1,600 model. Connectivity-wise, it’s also blessed, with two USB-C, HDMI-out, 3.5mm and a pair of USB A sockets, perfect for those of us who haven’t upgraded all our accessories. If this model catches your fancy (have I mentioned how good looking it is) then it’ll hit these shores in April, with the base model priced at $1,400.

Last, but quite obviously not least is the flagship Swift X 14, although there’s less that’s new and gosh-darn exciting to mention about this unit. It’ll offer H-series Intel Core chips paired with a new GeForce RTX GPU, the name of which hasn’t yet been disclosed. Here, the company says that the NVIDIA Studio-rated machine will get the benefit of lots of new cooling, thanks to a new air inlet keyboard that draws air in between your fingers. You’ll be staring into either a 14.5-inch 2,880 x 1,800 120Hz OLED display or a 14.5-inch 2,560 x 1,600 IPS LCD unit. And, much like the other machines in the refresh, you’ll get a 1440p webcam to capture the full extent of your beauty as you share it with the world. This model will land in the US in April, with the base model priced at $1,100, although I’d imagine any half decent spec will push that figure up pretty swiftly.