The obsession with light laptops has become, well, an obsession. No one wants to carry heavy equipment around; and if you were like me, a good 10 years ago, I dreaded carrying my laptop and my school books around my college campus. Better yet, some days it became a difficult decision if I even wanted to put that burden in my bag at all. Would something that weighs a mere 2.99 pounds, and a .57-inch profile engage me at that point? The answer is not only “of course!”, but where can I get it? Well, you and I can get it from Acer, whose super-sleek new ultrabook from its Swift series, the Swift 5, may aid our portability woes. The new Swift 5, within it's itty frame, does not skimp on performance, a decent screen, nor a great competitive price.

If you look at the Acer Swift 5, you may say to yourself, “is this a MacBook Air look-alike?”. Then, if you had the option to go and actually pick it up in your hands, your mind will surely be blown once you realize how light it actually is. Now, how did Acer pull this one off? This is always the question when a new laptop is in the race as one of the lightest and thinnest out there. Well, by creating a brand-new magnesium-alloy build, for one. Then, take the 14-inch Full HD IPS touchscreen (that squeezes inside a 13-inch laptop), the internal hardware, consisting of Intel’s Core i5 CPU processor, and a stable amount of memory and storage, and you get a lovely and delicately put together creation.

Yes, powering the new Acer Swift 5 system is in fact the new, 7th generation Kaby Lake processors- in this case, the Intel Core i5-7200U chip, and for graphics, Intel’s HD Graphics 620. This is accompanied by 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and a 256 GB SSD. Adding to its high-quality display, you’ll find a backlit keyboard, and a hinge area finished in silver. Consumer experts could get technical (which is what they’re supposed to do), and notice that the Swift 5’s bezel isn’t as thin as competitors, and as far as backlighting on the keyboard, it isn’t “particularly even”. As far as ports, you’ll notice a USB-C for charging, 2 USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI socket, a 3.5mm headset jack, as well as an SD card slot. Also, battery life can range anywhere between 8.5 hours to (an optimistic) 13 hours.

For a price starting at $649.00, Acer’s Swift 5 identifies closely to the Swift 7, which runs closer to a grand at base configuration. This is a bang for your buck, indeed, because when comparing it to its big brother, it has quite similar performance, a similar slim build, and the same FHD IPS display. Duly noted, is how the Swift 5’s price-range teeters very close to more premium laptops, such as Dell’s XPS 13 9343, which is priced considerably higher (with an MRSP of $1,199), and seen as one of the best XPS machines ever made. Yet, both devices are similarly equipped, so what’s the deal? The deal is, Acer made the Swift 5 luxurious as much as it could, while maintaining a stable build, and thinness to the level of “wow”. I know I’ve said it before, but if it’s possible for mid-range laptops, such as these, to be configured with gorgeous screens, CPUs worth using, and long battery lives, then why aren’t more companies doing it? I think it’s catching on.