When comparing HP Pavilion X2 vs Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-57CP, the Slant community recommends Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-57CP for most people. In the question“What are the best laptops for programmers who travel/digital nomads?” Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-57CP is ranked 4th while HP Pavilion X2 is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Acer Swift 3 SF314-51-57CP is:
The Swift 3 performs quite well for the price and laptop class it belongs to. Everyday tasks are handled without problem, multitasking is not a problem neither, and it can also play some lightweight games (DoTA, LoL, Team Fortress 2) at decent framerates as well as some more demanding software such as Photoshop and Matlab without overheating the hardware or lagging.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Decent performance
The Intel Core M3-6Y30 and Intel HD 515 Graphics, paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD offers very good performance for its price. The Core M is ranked below an i3 processor, however not by much. The bigger difference is that the Core M is designed to be used with passive cooling (no fans) and draw very little power, making it ideal for mobile machines that require more performance than the Atom series.
Pro Lots of ports for a tablet
The X2 has a USB Type C port (used as the charging port), as well as a USB 2.0 port, Micro SD card slot and mini HDM. All of these ports are located on the tablet's right side near the bottom.
Pro Great speakers
The front facing speakers help a lot to make music an immersive experience on the Pavilion X2. They offer sufficient bass, as well as clear trebles.
Pro Good keyboard
While small (about 25% smaller than the average keyboard), the keys offer 1.47mm of travel and require 55g to actuate - both typical for higher end laptops.
Pro Good design
The Pavilion X2 is an attractive looking laptop, or even tablet is you choose to remove it from the keyboard. There is no latch for the keyboard - it's held in place by magnets. Small stabilizers on the keyboard prevent the top from bouncing too much.
Pro Good performance for the price
The Swift 3 performs quite well for the price and laptop class it belongs to. Everyday tasks are handled without problem, multitasking is not a problem neither, and it can also play some lightweight games (DoTA, LoL, Team Fortress 2) at decent framerates as well as some more demanding software such as Photoshop and Matlab without overheating the hardware or lagging.
Pro Great trackpad
The trackpad is a bit larger than average and feels great to the touch, albeit a bit rougher than most trackpads out there. It performs really well with standard swipes, taps, and gestures and has no stuttering or jumpiness.
Pro Great build quality
For an entry model, the Acer Swift 3 has great build quality. The chassis is solid and there's absolutely no bending in either the chassis or the hood. The outer case is built from aluminum and the inner chassis is made of plastic.
Pro Upgradeable storage
Unfortunately the CPU and RAM are soldered on the motherboard so they can't be upgraded, however the storage is not and can be easily swapped and upgraded if one needs to do so.
Pro Portable
The Swift 3 is a pretty light and compact laptop. It weight around 3.35 lbs and is 0.7″ thick. The screen size is 14" which is well within the small category as far as laptop screens go.
Pro Decent keyboard
The keys have a slightly concave shape and a soft finishing which makes them feel great to touch and they also provide pretty good feedback.
Pro Good battery life
The Swift 3 can get a good 10 hours of use (sometimes even more) with simple tasks such as web browsing or watching videos. This is true for both the models with i3 and i5 CPUs.
Cons
Con Little storage
The storage caps out at 128GB, and the SD slot can only add another 32GB. This is plenty if you look at it as a tablet, but that's not much storage for a primary laptop.
Con Lackluster display
the 12" 1920x1080 touch screen doesn't offer competitive color range, and at max brightness is dimmer than most of its competition. It's resolution is high, giving it an advantage over many other laptops in its price range
Con Comes with some bloatware
The Swift 3 comes with some bloatware out of the box which may influence performance.
Con Fairly noisy
The Acer Swift 3 has two small fans which sit on the CPU and GPU. Unfortunately they are rather agressive and start spinning even at low temperatures. Even something as simple as opening a browser will prompt both fans to start spinning quite fast. If you also keep in mind that both these fans have a fairly high pitched hum, then it's soon clear that this laptop is not the quietest on the market.