We've already seen HP's first go-round with AMD's Raven Ridge mobile APU, and now Acer is entering the fray with mobile Ryzen variations of its mainstream Swift 3 notebook. The machines' all-metal bodies, backlit keyboards, and svelte 0.74" (1.9 cm) profiles are carried over from the Intel versions, but the Intel Core processors and optional Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics in those systems give way to four-core, eight-thread Ryzen chips with integrated Radeon Vega graphics.
The main difference between the two Ryzen-powered Swifts is the APU inside. The $750 SF315-41-R8PP packs a Ryzen 5 2500U APU with 2 GHz base and 3.6 GHz boost clocks to go along with Radeon Vega 8 graphics. An extra $200 nets the SF315-41-R6J9 and its 2.2 GHz Ryzen 7 2700U processor. That chip boosts all the way up to 3.8 Ghz and features integrated Radeon Vega 10 graphics. We don't know if these machines will have mobile XFR enabled, as it was in the HP Envy x360 we tested, so performance could vary depending on the TDP Acer chooses to implement.
For those without AMD model number flash cards, the Ryzen 5 2500U's Vega 8 is an IGP with 512 stream processors within eight compute units, running at 1100 MHz. The Vega 10 in the 2700U cranks the clock speed up to a 1300 MHz and piles on a total of 640 SPs in 10 CUs. Both Ryzen Swifts have 8 GB of DDR4 memory and 15.6" IPS displays with a resolution of 1920×1080. The Ryzen 5 model has a 256 GB SSD of indeterminant interface and manufacture, and the Ryzen 7 variation gets a roomier 512 GB drive.
These are laptops in the year 2017, so the inclusion of 802.11ac Wi-Fi and SD card readers should just about go without saying. The I/O cluster includes a pair of USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, a single USB 3.1 Type 1 Type-C port, one USB 2.0 connector, and an HDMI port.
The machines measure 14.6" wide, 10" deep, and 0.74" thick (37 cm x 26 cm x 1.9 cm) and weigh in at 4.85 lbs. (2.2 kg). At least some of that weight comes from the four-cell 3320 mAh battery. The Swift 3 SF315-51-518S with an Intel Core i5-8250U and otherwise comparable specifications has identical dimensions and weighs a bit less at 4.41 lbs. (2 kg).
As we noted, the Swift 3 SF315-41-R8PP with the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U APU rings in at $750 and the Swift 3 SF315-41-R6J9 is priced at $950. For comparison's sake, a similar Intel machine with integrated graphics and a 256 GB SSD lists at $700. Acer didn't provide ship dates for the Ryzen versions of the Swift 3, but we'd expect these systems to be available soon.
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