What you need to know
- Acer has announced the Swift 14 AI (SF14-11) Copilot+ laptop, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips.
- The Swift 14 AI features a 14.5-inch display with QHD+ resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, as well as a 1440p webcam with IR and private shutter.
- The laptop has a 75Wh battery capacity, which Acer says provides “all-day battery life.”
- The Swift 14 AI is expected to launch in North America in July, with a starting price of $1,099. It is expected to be launched in the EMEA market in June, with a starting price of 1,499 euros.
Acer today announced the Swift 14 AI (SF14-11) as its first PC Copilot+. It’s part of the next generation of Windows on ARM laptops, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips. Each of them has 45 TOPS performance for artificial intelligence tasks, which is enough to reach Microsoft’s new Copilot+ benchmark.
Acer expects to launch the Swift 14 AI in North America in July, starting at $1,099. As for the EMEA market, the wait won’t be that long as it is expected to launch in June with prices starting at €1,499.
Swift 14 AI (SF14-11)
Price: from $1,099 at Acer
CPU: Snapdragon X Elite
X1E-78-100, Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100
GPU: Qualcomm Adreno
NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon
working memory: Up to 32 GB LPDDR5X-8533
SSD: up to 1 TB PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe
Display: 14.5 inches, WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS 120Hz, touch optional
Webcam: QHD IR
Wireless: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
port: 2x USB-C w/DP, 2x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1x audio combo, HDMI-output 1.4
Battery: 75 Wh
Dimensions: 12.7 x 8.9 x 0.63 in
3.7 lb (1.68 kg)
The Swift 14 AI comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-78-100) or Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-64-100) system-on-a-chip (SoC). The chips are paired with up to 32GB of LPDDR5x-8533MHz RAM and up to 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), with the system powered by a 75Wh battery. Acer claims all-day battery life, which shouldn’t be a stretch if Qualcomm’s performance claims are accurate.
The X Elite (X1E-78-100) chip is the base Elite option from Qualcomm, with a 12-core Oryon processor (CPU) clocked at 3.4 GHz, an Adreno integrated GPU with 3.8 TFLOPS, and a Hexagon neural processor unit (NPU) with 45 TOPS artificial intelligence performance.
Acer also offers the Snapdragon X Plus, which is largely the same as the X1E-78-100 except that it has two fewer Oryon CPU cores. This will no doubt be the SoC available in the entry-level Swift 14 AI, starting at $1,099.
Regardless of the configuration, Acer includes a 14.5-inch screen with a resolution of 2560×1600 (QHD+) and an aspect ratio of 16:10. It uses an IPS panel with 100% sRGB color reproduction, a refresh rate of 120 Hz and EyeSafe 2.0 certification. Acer lists the touch function as an option.
Above the screen is a 1440p webcam with IR for facial recognition via Windows Hello, as well as a shutter for added privacy. Dual speakers are built into the bottom panel of the laptop and come with DTS:X audio tuning. Wireless connectivity is handled by Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4; ports include dual USB-C, dual USB-A 3.2 (Gen 1), HDMI 1.4 and a 3.5mm audio jack.
The laptop’s backlit keyboard has a Copilot key for quick access to Copilot+ features, and the touchpad has an AI activity indicator that lights up on the touchpad whenever Copilot is in use. The Swift 14 AI is made of an aluminum and recycled plastic body that is only 0.63 inches (15.9 mm) thin. The computer weighs 3.7 pounds (1.68 kg), which keeps it within the range of what I would consider comfortably portable.
Acer’s Swift 14 AI is a Copilot+ computer at an attractive price
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Acer has long been a brand name for budget computers, and it looks like that will continue with its first computer, the Copilot+. I feel that the starting price of $1,099 should be very tempting for many users who want to try Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X chips and Microsoft’s Copilot+ Windows features without spending big on additional premium options.
Of course, that starting price probably won’t include the more powerful 12-core Snapdragon X Elite, but even the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus has a 45 TOPS-powered NPU for local AI acceleration. This is exactly what is needed for Copilot+.
It’s not clear how much RAM and storage the entry-level models will include, but Acer lists only one screen with optional touch functionality. It’s not slacking off. With QHD+ resolution, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB color, it should be a comfortable display for most tasks.
I also like how Acer didn’t cheap out on the webcam. We’ll have to see how good it actually is when we get our hands on the Swift 14 AI for testing, but with a 1440p resolution and IR for face detection, it should be more than adequate for video conferencing.
I’m not sure how the AI light indicator on the touchpad will work, but I don’t mind Acer trying new things. I’ll be happy as long as there’s an option to disable it if it turns out to be too much of a nuisance.
What is Copilot+ and what does it mean for computers with artificial intelligence?
You’ll be hearing a lot more about AI PCs and Copilot+ now that Microsoft, Qualcomm, and various laptop makers, including Acer, have introduced this revolutionary wave of new hardware and software.
Looking at AI computers, these are devices that include an NPU designed specifically for local AI acceleration. This helps take some of the load off the CPU and GPU, which ultimately provides a better experience when AI is involved. While a lot of AI power is sourced from the cloud via an internet connection, this next generation of AI computers will be able to do a lot more at home on the device.
This is where Microsoft’s Copilot+ brand comes into play. It’s the new umbrella term for next-gen AI features in Windows 11, and it also applies to laptops like the Swift 14 AI that have NPUs with at least 45 TOPS performance. That means Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips are the only hardware to meet the new benchmarks so far, with Intel and AMD expected to catch up later this year.
The new AI features available only on Copilot+ PCs look pretty exciting. Most impressive is Recall, a feature that lets you search for anything you’ve seen or done on your computer in any application. If you need to quickly find, say, a conversation or a website, Recall will be able to help.
Live Caption will enable real-time English translations in live or pre-recorded video from 44 different languages, and Auto Super Resolution will be great for gamers looking to improve resolution and increase frames per second. Cocreator gets improved local images and text generation, and Windows Studio Effects also improves. Not all new AI experiences will be available right away, but they are expected this year.