Costco Members: Acer Swift 3 14" Laptop: Ryzen 5 4500U, 512GB PCIe SSD, 8GB RAM $529

Soldered RAM, damn. for the price and CPU i was just about to jump on it.

Wish it was 16gb of ram

Quote from PurpleDime976 : Soldered RAM, damn. for the price and CPU i was just about to jump on it.

I couldn't find in the product description if it's soldered RAM. Where did you find it?

I think this listing is inaccurate. It says there are 2 Type-C ports, but according to Costco's website the 3.2 Gen 1 is actually Type-A.

Regardless, not a bad deal. Wish the RAM was upgradeable.

Quote from enantiodromia : I couldn't find in the product description if it's soldered RAM. Where did you find it?

I couldn't find it on the website either, but the teardown on this page claims it's soldered and not upgradeable. https://laptopmedia.com/highlight...e-options/

Quote from baerok12 : I couldn't find it on the website either, but the teardown on this page claims it's soldered and not upgradeable. https://laptopmedia.com/highlight...e-options/

8GB LPDDR4 RAM

LPDDR RAM is always soldered by design.

plain DDR4 has not technical requirement to be soldered, really no clue why some vendors do thta.

"There is also a USB Type-C port that utilises the latest USB 3.2 Gen2 standard. The latter supports both DisplayPort and USB Power Delivery (PD), meaning that the device can output audio and video while being charged."
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Ace...302.0.html
Thus using a USB adapter you could use two external monitors at the same time. Although the one this was for had a Ryzen 7 but the same motherboard.

Had this then returned it. Screen was very dim and colors looked very off from my experience. Batterylife was very good, easy to carry at 2.65lbs, the 1 backlight keyboard setting helped but sometimes made the silver keyboard letters harder see with White light shining through it. Ryzen 4500u is great around this price,finger print sensor always worked using my index finger, the Lid is definitely metal but the entire bottom,keyboard,and trackpad definitely felt like Plastic to me, I don't know if Acer claims that the entire laptop is metal build but it definitely didn't feel like it from my experience. Overall a great mid-range laptop if you would feel content with the below-average screen, I just couldn't accept this screen to look at every day, but who knows, it may look just fine to your eyes. Costco makes returns very easy and hassle free within 90 days just to let ya'll know.

Quote from mwgrad : 8GB LPDDR4 RAM LPDDR RAM is always soldered by design. plain DDR4 has not technical requirement to be soldered, really no clue why some vendors do thta.

One less person they gotta pay to insert 1000's of RAM chips into a motherboard. Hopefully it's dual channel 😬, not a chance

Arrived yesterday. The overall performance seems to be quite snappy and now I'm looking at AMD processors in general. The screen was sufficiently bright in my opinion and keyboard's color didn't bother me too much. The fast charging USB-C is nice and build felt good. Here are the two issues:

-Touchpad requires significantly more pressure to mouse click. It required just enough that puzzled me why. The other thing about it is that the touchpad towards the top was flush with the wristrest, but at the bottom, it was close to 1mm lower which again is a bit puzzling. It's a fairly minor issue.

-The camera doesn't have built-in shutter and is basically not good. Grainy and low resolution. This was enough for it to be a deal-breaker. With the amount of time spent on Zoom calls, I want a good camera.

A real shame I will be returning this because of the camera. At this point, all laptops should have a good camera since videoconferencing is commonplace. If the camera isn't a big deal, this is a nice one at a good price.

Check your email. Costco offered me a $100 coupon off a purchase of $500 or more on costco.com today. I plan to apply for a Chase Freedom Flex card and charge it to get $200 bonus.

8gb soldered? This isnt macbook trash. Thanks apple for spreading this.

I have purchased it last week, however ended up returning it. Is it bad? No. But hear me out:

1. This indeed is Swift 3 model BUT there are some differences between revisions of this laptop. Lineup probably gets yearly refreshes, so your experience may vary.
2. This particular model is lacking DTS sound which I found with other Swift 3 models at other stores. I am unsure if those were older or newer SKUs - body was very similar though.
3. The touchpad. While it is beyond acceptable - its quality is lacking in comparison to different revisions. The click is not as subtle - also it is impossible to click using area in bottom corners. Trackpad plate does move but it won't click. It works fine in all other areas though.
4. Acer appears to be mixing types of displays. It may state it is an IPS, but color reproduction and brightness can be different. This one unfortunately is lacking on both fronts. I'm hearing Acer stepped up their display game in 2021 model. I compared brightness with similarily priced Acer 3 Spin and Spin does have brighter display and better colors.
5. This model also lacks keyboard brightness levels - it is either on or off. I have an older Swift 3 at home that does allow to make backlight either stronger or weaker. I personally think Acer has been cutting corners with this one.
6. Speaking of corners - laptop doesn't feel as nicely finished as other, older revisions. Finish is a touch grainy and edges are not super smooth. This wasn't an issue before.

Will you be disappointed? No! It is a good laptop.
However, after comparing head to head with Asus Zenbook 14 Q407IQ-BR5N4, I felt like I didn't spend my money right. Asus has brighter screen, better colors, smaller form factor, nicer keyboard with 3 levels of brightness, additional GPU from nVidia (gimmick, I know) and way bigger and nicer touchpad.

Again, above might be limited to this particular SKU, you may run into a better finished and equipped Swift 3 on your way. Good luck!

Is there a need for USB 2.0 port any longer, given 3.0 is backward compatible? That said, I'll order one once I receive my Chase Freedom Flex card. I have a few legacy applications on CD's. How do I install them on this laptop? TIA.