The Acer Swift 3 offers a more budget-friendly option and is lighter and more portable, making it suitable for general use, with decent battery life and a touch screen. Its performance is also adequate for everyday tasks and light engineering work. On the other hand, the Razer Blade 17 is much pricier but provides superior performance, especially for 3D rendering, machine learning, and intensive gaming, thanks to its powerful processor and high-end graphics. It also has a larger, high-resolution screen, but it's heavier and has shorter battery life, which could be a drawback if you need to use it on the go frequently. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Acer Swift 3
Very good portability
Very good battery life
Advantages of the Razer Blade 17
Very good for general use
Excellent for engineering and design
Very good for gaming and AI
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Very good overall display quality
Very good overall build quality
Excellent speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.7/10
8.5/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
309.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
486.0 nits
12.0 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
5.5 Hours
7.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
8.9/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
6.7/10
The Razer Blade 17 is very good for general use, while the Acer Swift 3 is good.
The Acer Swift 3 is appreciated for being very portable and having a solid battery life, making it a good choice for general use, while the Razer Blade 17 offers exceptional performance with a high-end CPU and graphics, a larger and higher-resolution screen, and more RAM for more demanding tasks, albeit with less portability and a shorter battery life.
Gaming and AI
6.3/10
8.6/10
3.7/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.2/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
No
SUPPORTS DLSS
Yes
No
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
Yes
8.7/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
7.2/10
The Razer Blade 17 is very good for gaming and AI, while the Acer Swift 3 is only fair.
The Acer Swift 3's gaming and 3D abilities are limited by its integrated Intel Iris Xe GPU which can't match a dedicated GPU's power and it has a standard 60Hz screen refresh rate, while the Razer Blade 17 excels with a top-tier Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti GPU and a high 144Hz screen refresh rate, providing smoother visuals and better handling of graphically intensive tasks. Screen quality and CPU are also factors, but it's the significant GPU advantage and higher refresh rate of the Razer Blade 17 that mainly set these two laptops apart for gaming and 3D performance.
Engineering and Design
7.1/10
9.1/10
7.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.2/10
3.7/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
9.2/10
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
The Razer Blade 17 is excellent for engineering and design, while the Acer Swift 3 is good.
The Razer Blade 17 offers superior performance for engineering and design, thanks to its more powerful CPU, higher-capacity GPU, and double the RAM of the Acer Swift 3, along with a higher resolution and larger screen, which provides better screen quality for detailed work.
Content Creation
7.6/10
8.5/10
7.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.2/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
The Razer Blade 17 is very good for content creation, while the Acer Swift 3 is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.6/10
8.5/10
7.1/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
9.2/10
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
7.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The Razer Blade 17 is very good for software development, while the Acer Swift 3 is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
6.8/10
8.6/10
14.0in
SIZE
17.3in
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2160
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
IPS
60Hz
REFRESH RATE
144Hz
309.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
486.0 nits
The Razer Blade 17 has a better screen than the Acer Swift 3 for general use, gaming and AI, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
For general use, the Acer Swift 3's screen offers a pleasant visual experience due to its adequate resolution and brightness, while the Razer Blade 17 enhances this with superior sharpness and illumination, catering to diverse everyday tasks. In engineering and design tasks, both laptops provide striking and precise color representation, essential for detailed work, but the Razer Blade 17 likely edges out with a wider color range. However, when it comes to gaming and 3D applications, neither laptop excels due to lower refresh rates, which are crucial for smooth motion and fast-paced visuals, a downside for immersive gameplay and fluid animation work.
Battery
12.0 Hours
5.5 Hours
The Acer Swift 3 has 12 hours of battery life. The Razer Blade 17 has 5.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Very Good
Fair
14.0in
SIZE
17.3in
2.7 lbs
WEIGHT
6.0 lbs
0.6in
THICKNESS
0.7in
The Acer Swift 3 has very good portability, while the Razer Blade 17 has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.4/10
8.5/10
The Razer Blade 17 has very good build quality, while the Acer Swift 3 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$500
$4,300
$0
$1,000
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
The Acer Swift 3 has a price of $500 and the Razer Blade 17 costs $4,300.
"With the Swift 3, Acer delivers a 14-inch laptop with a sleek, slim metal chassis. The latter is of high quality and sturdy enough for everyday use, which is a real plus point among the 700-Euro (~$798) models. A new feature is Thunderbolt 4 in the Type-C format for peripherals or even displays (DisplayPort via Type-C). Unfortunately, a card reader is still missing, and the RAM is completely onboard, so there are no upgrade options here. Acer's 14-incher is affordable, yet it does everything most would want from a truly mobile laptop: Long battery life, a great display, quality, sufficient ports, light weight, and low noise and heat emissions."
"Our test configuration of the Blade 17 targets gamers and creative professionals. A Core i9-12900H processor, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU (175 watts TGP after the BIOS update, 16 GB of VRAM), and 32 GB of working memory equip the laptop for video processing, rending, and 4k gaming at the highest level. In addition, a fast PCIe-4 SSD (1 TB) ensures short load and storage times. With the Blade 17 (Early 2022), Razer delivers a successful and powerful work device for creative professionals. But this also has its price."
Get a great deal on the Acer Swift 3 or the Razer Blade 17
About Acer
Acer is a prominent Taiwanese electronics brand which makes a wide range of laptops, with multiple product lines catering to personal use, gaming, and business use. They are renowned for having exceptional value for money, as they frequently offer good specifications at a lower price than other manufacturers.
About Razer
Razer is an American-Singaporean technology company. Razer is best known for their Blade series laptops, well known for their strong performance and sleek design. Although Razer charges a premium price tag for their laptops, buyers can expect a stealthy laptop with clean fit and finish and strong performance. All of their models offer great portability and build quality compared to other gaming laptops.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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