Fight of the $350 laptops: Acer Swift 1 vs. Gateway Ryzen 3 3200U

We had been making an strive out for factual but seriously cheap laptops for a while now. Acer’s $650 Swift 3 is an stunning resolution for fee range laptops within the under-$700 fluctuate, but we have been in spite of the entire lot itching to receive one within the nearly nonexistent sub-$400 class. To that terminate, this day we’re taking a glimpse at two of Walmart’s most fascinating—a $378 Acer Swift 1 and a $350 Gateway GWTN141-2.

Both of those are serviceable if cheap laptops, however the Gateway, despite being the more fee effective mannequin, could be the determined winner for most of us. Or now not it is more noteworthy, more repairable, more upgrade-able, and in our testing, a piece more official as wisely.

Acer Swift 1 SF114-32

We did now not in actuality intend to verify or review the Swift 1—we ordered a Walmart Motile 14, with a Ryzen 5 processor for handiest $350. However Walmart has an heart-broken tendency to actual throw in any identical product when it runs low on stock, and the Swift 1 is what obtained sent in its plot—with out a notification, either by email or in our epic at Walmart.com, and no forms within the field either.

There’s handiest a 30-day return/exchange window on laptops at Walmart, but Issues Came Up, and we did now not starting up the field till after that window had shut. Discovering that our Ryzen 5 laptop had magically grew to change into into a Pentium Silver (roughly Celeron-class) laptop and there wasn’t one thing shall we produce about, it did now not spark joy… but it is mute an under-$400 laptop, and we’re right here to verify and review cheap laptops, fair correct?

Bodily, the Swift 1 strongly resembles a decrease-terminate Chromebook. Or now not it is miles now not particularly lightweight, but it be fairly slender, and its silver-skinned factual looks are unassuming. On the plus facet, it has a metal chassis, now not plastic; on the minus facet, that chassis is extremely thin and with ease zigzag up. When we disassembled the Swift 1, despite being extremely cautious and the expend of a mute plastic spudger, we mute zigzag the coolest facet a dinky bit while getting the motivate panel off.

The supreme feature of the Swift 1 is its fast boot times—that you’ll want to well presumably search files from a cool boot to receive to the Home windows 10 desktop in around 11 seconds, including POST. Sadly, the high efficiency ends there—the Swift 1’s Pentium Silver CPU, 4GiB RAM, and 64GB eMMC storage mix for a pretty lackluster skills.

All the pieces on the Swift 1—rather than the battery, the Wi-Fi chipset, and one unpopulated, SATA-handiest M.2 slot—is soldered on, unrepairable, and un-upgradeable. What you settle on is what you receive, and it in spite of the entire lot works till it breaks.

Gateway GWTN141-2

We went into testing the GWTN141-2 with a mixture of enjoyment and trepidation—on paper, a Ryzen 3200U map for $350 is a full deal. However in be aware, we would discovered that the contemporary Gateway line is—like the horrible $140 EVOO EV-C-116-5—manufactured by Shenzhen Bmorn Skills and imported by EVOO.

We’re happy to say that the GWTN141-2 is now not a repeat of the EV-C-116-5’s epic. The Gateway’s Ryzen 3 3200U CPU changed into as soon as now not dinky by wicked thermals or factory underclocking, and it performs as you would search files from from taking a glimpse at public leaderboards. The Gateway offers an supreme faster chilly boot than the Swift—we timed it at eight seconds from energy button to Home windows desktop.

Persevering with the Gateway’s epic of “Hi there! No longer injurious,” the 128GB SSD could well be an piquant Chinese language imprint you receive by no approach heard of, but it be a real M.2 NVMe SSD that will likely get replaced or upgraded. Even when the 4GiB RAM the map comes with is soldered to the board, there’s an empty DIMM slot on hand. There’s even an empty M.2 SATA-handiest slot, with a easy-receive admission to panel for that slot on the motivate.

The most convenient real flies within the GWTN141-2’s ointment are its cheap plastic chassis and its equally cheap Realtek 8821CE Wi-Fi.

The plastic extinct for the chassis is noticeably softer than that you’ll want to well search files from for a laptop; it feels more like a kid’s toy than a real laptop, and it even felt a piece tacky to the contact on first unboxing. (Your mileage could well vary, right here—it troubled me, however the Spousal Belief changed into as soon as “No topic, it be stunning.”) On the plus facet, the plastic chassis felt sturdy ample to outlive deal of disassembly and reassembly, now not like the Swift 1’s razor-thin aluminum facet panels.

The Realtek Wi-Fi is serviceable if dead under Home windows, but this could well presumably motive severe complications for anyone making an strive to install Linux—and never like many of the GWTN141-2’s gear, it be soldered to the board and never replaceable.