Acer Swift 7 is incredibly thin, light and small

Besides bringing some crazy gaming and VR gadgets to its press event at the IFA 2018 technology conference on Wednesday, Acer is also pushing the envelope when it comes to making computers as thin and light as possible. 

The company showed its new Swift 7 laptop, which it says is the thinnest laptop in the world. 

The Swift 7 is both amazingly light (less than 1kg (2.2 pounds), thin (less than 1cm (0.394 inches), and has extremely small bezels around its screen, giving it an incredible 92 percent screen-to-body ratio. 

For comparison, Huawei’s MateBook X Pro has a 91 percent screen-to-body ratio, which it achieves by hiding the webcam inside its keyboard. It’s unclear whether the Swift 7 even has a webcam; Acer didn’t mention it, and I couldn’t spot it during the presentation. Acer says it managed to reduce the Swift 7’s size by using materials like magnesium and lithium, but wouldn’t go into details. 

The Swift 7 isn’t a toy-like machine like the netbooks of yesteryear, though. It has a 14-inch screen and an 8th gen Intel Core i7 processor, though other specs were omitted at the presentation. 

One thing the Swift 7 definitely won’t do is decrease the confusion regarding Acer’s Swift line of products. Acer also has a Swift 5 which is also incredibly light and comes in 14-inch and 15-inch sizes (I’ve held the 15-inch model in my hand and it really is so light that you can’t believe there’s a computer inside). And the old Swift 7, which came in 13.3-inch and 14-inch sizes, was very thin but not very small (see comparison above). The new Swift 7 is a very different machine, though we’ll have to wait for all the details to see how it fits into Acer’s lineup. One thing is certain, though: If it’s thin and light you need, the Swift 7 is the king of the hill — for now. 

There’s no word on pricing and availability for the new Acer Swift 7 at this point.