Laptops

Acer unveils its thinnest, lightest and most powerful laptops yet

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The super-light Swift 5 leads the charge for new Acer laptops at IFA 2018
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The super-light Swift 5 leads the charge for new Acer laptops at IFA 2018
Acer
The Acer Swift 5 weighs in at just 990 grams or 2.18 pounds
James Holloway/New Atlas
The Acer Swift 5 is made from a special magnesium-lithium alloy to maintain lightness
James Holloway/New Atlas
The lightweight Acer Swift 5 still manages to pack in plenty of ports
James Holloway/New Atlas
The Swift 5 was shown off on stage as part of Acer's IFA 2018 show
Acer
The Swift 5 lasts 10 hours between charges, according to Acer
Acer
The 15.6-inch screen on the Acer Swift 5 runs at a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution
Acer
Acer also showed off the Swift 7 on stage, under 1 cm (0.39 inches) thick
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The Aspire 7 is another upgraded laptop Acer has revealed at IFA 2018
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The Aspire 7 isn't as thin or light as Acer's other offerings, but it packs plenty of power
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The Acer Aspire 7 features a 15.6-inch, 3,840 x 2,160 resolution screen
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On board the Acer Aspire 7 is 4 GB of graphics memory
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The Aspire 7, like Acer's other new laptops, gets updated with the latest 8th-generation Intel processors
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The IFA 2018 tech expo is underway in Berlin and New Atlas has been checking out some of the kit on show – which includes new updates to Acer's Swift 7, Swift 5 and Aspire 7 laptops. Together, these new notebooks are some of the thinnest, lightest, and most powerful computers Acer has ever put out.

We've seen previous incarnations of these laptops before, but they're now slimmed down even further, packed with more powerful components, and featuring a design that sets new levels of style – at least in Acer's eyes.

To start with the new Acer Swift 7, the 14-inch laptop features thinner bezels than ever before, bringing the screen-to-body ratio up to 92 percent – that's a lot of screen. Weighing less than 1 kg (2.2 lb), and coming in at under 1 cm (0.39 in) thick, Acer says it's the world's thinnest laptop.

The latest 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processors are inside, but what we don't know is any more of the specifications, the release date, or the price – but if Acer pushes out more details later on, we'll add them here.

There is more detail on the Acer Swift 5, which according to Acer is the world's lightest 15-inch notebook, coming in at 990 grams (that's 2.18 lb). There are brand new 8th-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors inside, plus a maximum of 16 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of SSD storage on board.

The Acer Swift 5 weighs in at just 990 grams or 2.18 pounds
James Holloway/New Atlas

Part of that lightness is due to the special magnesium-lithium alloy that Acer has made the laptop out of. The manufacturer also says the computer will go 10 hours between charges.

The 15.6-inch touchscreen display runs at a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, with a screen-to-body ratio of 87.6 percent – not quite up to the levels of the Swift 7. It'll almost certainly be cheaper though, with pricing starting at $1,099 in the US and €1,099 in Europe when it goes on sale (in January 2019 and November 2018 respectively).

Also on show at Acer's IFA 2018 event was the Aspire 7. The key selling point of this laptop is performance rather than thinness or lightness. As well as 8th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, the laptop packs in Radeon RX Vega M GL graphics, and 4 GB of graphics memory. That's to power the 15.6-inch display, available with a 4K resolution.

Despite all the power on board, the laptop weighs in at just 1.5 kg (3.3 lb), so shouldn't weigh you down too much while you're on the go. As with the Swift 7 though, Acer hasn't revealed a price or release date at the time of writing.

Several other Acer laptops have received updates today, including the more mid-range Swift 3 and Aspire 5 models, and the Spin 2-in-1 models, with Acer taking the opportunity of IFA to refresh pretty much its entire laptop line-up with spec bumps and design tweaks – all in time for the approaching holiday shopping season.

New Atlas is on the floor at IFA 2018 in Berlin and we'll bring you more news and product launches as they happen.

Source: Acer

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