Acer

A pair of new Swift 3 laptops should hit the market at around the same time. They’ll both support WiFi 6 and have Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, along with a backlit keyboard, SSD storage and support for up to 16GB of LPDDR4X memory.

The SF313-53 has a 13.5-inch display that boasts 2K resolution, a 3:2 ratio and a 400-nit brightness rating. It’s designed for portability as well — it’s just 0.63 inches thick and weighs 2.62 lbs. That model has a battery life of up to 18 hours and it starts at $800.

The SF314-59 is the same thickness and weighs just slightly more at 2.65 lbs. It has a 14-inch Full HD, 16:9 display, and the base model $700. Both laptops should be available in November.

There are no major changes from the existing models beyond the processor, although the Swift 3 is coming to market earlier than expected. To refresh your memory, the Swift 3 weighs in at a light 2.6 lbs with a fast-charging battery Acer says will run for 11.5 hours on a full charge.

The Aspire 5, meanwhile, gets the 6-core AMD Ryzen 5 4500U mobile processor with Radeon graphics for faster app-loading and smoother multitasking — useful for the model’s massive storage capabilities of up to 2TB HDD. The Swift 3 will be available in April starting at $630, while you’ll have to wait until June for the slightly more affordable Aspire 5, which will start at $520.

The PCs aren’t radically different beyond the CPU changes, although that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The Nitro 5 still boasts a 1080p display, CoolBoost to prevent overheating in gaming sessions and a reasonably slim (if slightly flashy) body. The Swift 3, meanwhile, has a 180-degree folding display and shouldn’t burden you between its 0.71-inch thickness and 3.2-pound weight.

Acer hasn’t outlined the configurations, ship dates or pricing for the AMD-powered versions of either system. It often provides that info shortly before release in a given region, though, so you’ll have a better sense of the laptops’ worth before too long.