Jim Sterlter
We’ve been looking for a good but seriously cheap laptop for a while. The Acer’s 50 650 Swift 3 is the best choice for a budget laptop in the under-range of the Cer 700, but we’re really scratching to find one in the almost non-existent sub 400 category. For that, today we look at two of Walmart’s best – an 8 378 Acer Swift 1 and a $ 350 Gateway GWTN141-2.
Both of these cheap laptops are serviceable, but Gateway, despite being a less expensive model, will be a clear winner for most people. It’s more powerful, more repairable, more upgrade-capable, and a little more reliable in our testing.
| Specs at a Glance: As reviewed | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Acer Swift 1 SF 114-32 | Gateway GWTN141-2 | ||
| O.S. | Windows 10 Home (S mode) | Windows 10 Home (S mode) | |
| Screen | 14 inch IPS FHD (1920 × 1080, 250nits) | 14.1 inch IPS FHD (1920 × 1080, 190nits) | |
| C.P. U.S. | Pentium Silver N5000 | Raisen 3 3200U | |
| GPU | Intel UHD 605 | AMD Vega 3 | |
| Ram | 4GB DDR4 (soldered, non-expanded) | 4 GIB DDR4 (soldered, with a blank DIMM slot) | |
| HDD | 64 GB EMMC (Sandisk DF4064) |
128GB NVM M2 (Netak S573N) |
|
| Networking | Intel 9560 2×2 Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0 |
Realtech 8821CE 1×1 Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2 |
|
| Ports |
|
|
|
| Size | 12.7 “x 9” x 0.6 “ (323 x 229 x 15 mm) |
13.1 “x 8.9” x 0.8 “ (333 x 226 x 21 mm) |
|
| Weight | 2.9 lbs (1.3 kg) | P. 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg) | |
| Warranty | 1 year limited | 1 year limited | |
| Extras | Fingerprint reader, 720p camera |
Fingerprint reader (in touchpad), 720p camera |
|
| Price as per test | 8 378 on Amazon And Walmart | Wal 350 at Walmart | |
Acer Swift 1 SF 114-32
-
Thanks, the -f-putting Dingilo Yellow Post logo is no longer on your face about Swift 1 Cold Boot on the desktop in about 11 seconds.
Jim Sterlter
-
We found the keyboard very unreliable. It makes maximum use of the Swift 1’s chassis, so it doesn’t feel too stretched – but we already know that some of you will hate the compressed arrow key layout.
Jim Sterlter
-
DC barrel jack, full-size HDMI out, USB-C, 2x USB 3.0 Type-A.
Jim Sterlter
-
SD card slot, mm.mm mm audio dio commbo jack, USB 2.0 Type-A, power and HDD LED, Kensington LC slot.
Jim Sterlter
-
If you want to get into the Swift 1, you need a set of torque bits. But there’s no reason to get bored unless you’re replacing the battery or, we think, Wi-Fi – because everything else on the board is soldered.
Jim Sterlter
-
Once you remove the back panel (very carefully, due to the thin aluminum side panels), there’s not much to see, except Wi-Fi, something active cooling, and sockets.
Jim Sterlter
We didn’t really intend to test or review the Swift 1 – we ordered the Walmart Motil 14, which had a Rison 5 processor for only $ 350. But Wartmart has an unfortunate tendency to throw away any similar product when it runs low on the stock, and the Swift 1 has been sent in its place – without notice, via email or in our account at Wartmart.com, and not in the bank. Paper
There is only a 30-day return / exchange window on the laptop at Walmart, but things have come up, and we didn’t open the window until that window closed. Discovering that our Raizen 5 laptop has magically turned into a Pentium Silver (roughly Celeron-class) laptop and we can’t do anything about it, it didn’t spark the joy … but it Is There are still less than 400 laptops under, and we’re here to test and review cheap laptops, right?
Physically, the Swift 1 looks like a lower-end Chromebook. It’s not particularly lightweight, but it’s fairly thin, and its silver-skinned good looks are modest. On the plus side, it has a metallic chassis, not a plastic one; On the minus side, it’s the chassis Extremely Thin and very easily folded. Despite being very careful when we disassembled the Swift 1 and using a soft plastic sudger, we bent a little to the right, getting the rear panel getting cracked.
The best feature of the Swift 1 is its fast boot times – you can expect to get cold boots on Windows 10 Desktop in about 11 seconds, including POST. Unfortunately, the high performance ends there – the Swift 1’s Pentium Silver CPU, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of EMMC storage combine for a beautiful display experience.
Everything on the Swift 1 is soldered, removable and un-upgradable, with the exception of the battery and Wi-Fi chipset. You get what you buy, and it works until it’s broken.
Gateway GWTN141-2
-
We have to give EVO credit for one thing – they nurtured the gateway branding with that waper wrapper.
Jim Sterlter
-
We feel that some of you will be excited about that uncompressed arrow key layout.
Jim Sterlter
-
The fingerprint reader on the gateway is built into the touchpad – this was a new one on us. Note the black square on the top left.
Jim Sterlter
-
Kensington LLC slot, DC barrel jack, USB 3.0 Type-A, Full-size HDMI out, USB Type-C.
Jim Sterlter
-
SD card slot, 3.5mm audio dio commbo jack, USB 3.0 Type-A.
Jim Sterlter
-
Look, a mystery! It may seem pointless at first glance, but at the top there is actually an M2 slot. I think I would have pulled the whole back rather than trying to mess up despite being in this small panel.
Jim Sterlter
-
The gateway is very easy to disassemble; Just loosen the Phillips screw and pop items. The plastic chassis felt strong enough to withstand a few disintegrations.
Jim Sterlter
-
Looking a little closer, we see an active cooling system, an empty DDR4 DIMM slot, a captured M2 NVM slot, an empty M2 SATA slot and unfortunately a soldered Realtech Wi-Fi chipset.
Jim Sterlter
-
On the left, we currently see an empty M2 slot, which is just an STA. In contrast, the captured M2 (including C: drive) is a silkscreen PCI / SATA.
Jim Sterlter
We went to test the GWTN141-2 with a combination of excitation and girdle on paper, the Raizen 3200 U system for $ 350 is a big deal. But in practice, we have found that the new gateway line is like the $ 140 EVU EV-C-116-5 EV manufactured by Shenzhen Bormon Technol by G and imported by EVO.
We are happy to say that it is GWTN141-2 No Repeat the story of EV-C-116-5. Gateway’s Raizen 3 3200U was not limited by CPU, substandard thermals or factory underclocking, and it does as you would expect to see public leaderboards. Gateway offers even more intense cold boot than the Swift – we timed it in eight seconds on the Windows desktop with the power button.
Continuing Gateway’s story “Hey! Not bad,” the 128GB SSD may be a fantastic Chinese brand you’ve never heard of, but it’s a real M2 NVM SSD that can be replaced or upgraded. The 4GiB RAM that comes with the system is soldered to the board, there is an empty DIMM slot available. There’s also a blank M.2 SATA-only slot, with an easy access access panel for that slot on the back.
The only real fly in the ointment of the GWTN141-2 is its cheap plastic chassis and just as cheap Realtech 8821 CE Wi-Fi.
The plastic used for the chassis is significantly softer than you would expect for a laptop; It looks more like a child’s toy than a real computer, and it felt a little harder to touch at first unbinding. (Your mileage may vary, here-it bothers me, but the spoofy opinion is “whatever it is, that’s right.”) . Thin aluminum side panels.
Realtech Wi-Fi can serve if it’s slow under Windows, but it will cause serious headaches for anyone who wants to install Linux, and with most of the GWTN141-2’s gear, it solders the board and is irreplaceable.
