Measuring a mere 9.98mm thick, Acer's new Swift 7 ultraportable certainly knows how to make a good first impression. It's the world's first laptop to break the 10mm thickness mark, after all, and its svelte, streamlined chassis looks stunning in the flesh. It weighs almost nothing, too, tipping the scales at just 1.12kg.
It puts Acer's previous flagship laptops to shame – its old Aspire S range never looked this lovely. Indeed, I much prefer the Swift's aluminium unibody design, and its golden sides and interior contrast beautifully with its black matte lid, giving it that ultra-premium look without the sharp edges and copious amounts of glass.
Its innards, however, aren't as highly specified as you might think. For instance, while it will come with Intel's latest seventh-generation Intel Core i processors, the most powerful model will come with only an i5 chipset rather than an i7. Similarly, its 13.3in IPS display only has a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, rather than a hi-res 3,200 x 1,800 display like the XPS 13. Not that the Swift really needs all those extra pixels, as the screen still looked perfectly sharp when I saw it for myself. It also comes with Acer's Bluelight Shield, making it easier on your eyes late at night.
The other delightful addition to the Swift 7 is its enormous touchpad. Taking up almost a third of the remaining keyboard tray, it's absolutely huge, providing plenty of space for touch gestures and general swipes. It's beautifully responsive, too, and its integrated buttons have a very pleasing click action, making it a great substitute if you're lacking a mouse.
The keyboard looks and feels great as well. There isn't a huge amount of travel, but each key is very well spaced and gives a good level of tactile feedback. I can definitely envision myself typing on it for a long period of time, but we'll have to wait and see how it fares during testing once we get one in for review.
Of course, with such a small chassis, the Swift 7 is pretty short on ports, coming with just two USB Type-C connectors in addition to a 3.5mm headphone jack. Still, given how flexible USB Type-C is, you should be able to connect the Swift 7 to an external display with the right adapter, as well as benefit from fast data-transfer speeds. You will, however, lose one USB Type-C port when you're charging the device, as there's no dedicated power connector.
Fortunately, it doesn't look as though its slender dimensions will have a negative effect on the Swift 7's battery life: Acer's claiming up to nine hours for a single charge. Again, we'll be putting those figures to the test once review samples arrive, but it should, in theory, get you through a long working day.
Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out, either, as the Swift 7 is due to launch in the UK next month. Acer doesn't have UK pricing just yet, but the European price has been confirmed as 1,299 euros, putting it firmly in XPS 13 territory. It's certainly got a lot to live up to, but with its super-slim chassis and gorgeous looks, I'm confident that Acer might just be able to pull it off come October time.