I’m a laptop reviewer and this is the most colorful display I’ve seen — MacBook Pro, who?

Finding a phenomenal laptop without spending an excessive amount of money isn’t easy, but that decision rests on what you need it for. Some feature mind-blowing specs for gamers, hyperfast performance for creators, or convenient software for business folk. But when the prize at the center of your mind is consuming any and all forms of media in the best way possible, you’ll want a great display. Whether you’re knee deep in the latest TV shows or films, your window into these worlds should not be lackluster or dim.

Enter the Acer Swift Go 14: Packed with a 14-inch 2,880 x 1,800-pixel OLED display, its specs on paper already made our mouths water with anticipation. But practical testing proved that no expectations could have prepared us for the power stuffed into this thing: The Acer Swift Go 14 isn’t just the best display of 2023 — it is the second most colorful screen we’ve seen throughout more than 30 years of testing laptops, only surpassed by the MSI WS65 9TM from 2020. 

The Acer Swift Go 14 has the best display of 2023 

I’m a teensy bit of a fanatic when it comes to display quality. While some might call me picky for how much I obsess over high nits of brightness and hypnotizing levels of color depth, there’s no reason why everyone shouldn’t be. After all, our screens offer an organized view into everything our electronics are capable of. What use is a console without a TV, a movie theater without a projector, and of course, a laptop without a screen?

The Acer Swift Go 14 is the perfect response to all movie lovers seeking a gorgeous avenue into watching their favorite media. It reached as high of a score as 175.7% on the DCI-P3 color gamut, soaring miles past the category average of 107.5%.

Perhaps you’re thinking you’ll get by just fine watching films on the latest MacBooks, but compare this to the Apple MacBook Pro M2, which boasts a DCI-P3 score of 77.5%. Even the absurdly expensive 16-inch MacBook Pro M2 Max only hit 83.7%, even though the model we reviewed cost $5,299.

I reviewed the Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 8) a couple of months ago and was floored by its display, but even its leading score of 142.1% couldn’t stand up against the Swift Go 14. In a similar vein, the Dell XPS 15 9530 (137.9%) was similarly demolished..

While the Swift Go 14’s display brightness isn’t the highest, it still manages to hit an incredible 395 nits. This is less than the 13-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro (475 nits and 447 nits respectively), but it overshadows the Yoga 9i (353) and XPS 15 (371 nits).

It’s not as bright as the MacBooks, yet its combination of a still gloriously luminscient screen combined with the most colorful display I’ve ever seen, it easily solidified itself as the best display of the year and one of the greatest laptop screens we’ve tested.

A great display isn’t everything, but the Swift Go 14 is also an excellent choice for cost-conscious consumers, currently available for $1,049.99 on Acer’s website. This makes it cheaper than everything we’ve compared it to thus far, like the Yoga 9i ($1,699), 13-inch MacBook Pro ($1,899), and XPS 15 ($2,799). Cheaper and better? I can’t believe my eyes!

And if you’re worried about performance, don’t be: The Acer Swift Go 14 performed excellently in the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test with a multi-core score of 11,815. This is miles ahead of the category average (6,998), Yoga 9i (9,954), and 13-inch MacBook Pro (8,911). 

Even the XPS 15, which is nearly three times the price, only did a little better with a score of 12,171. Of course, the more than five grand 16-inch MacBook Pro demolished with a score of 15,044, but even then, is that high enough to justify spending $4,350 more?

Bottom line 

The Acer Swift Go 14 champions the most vibrant screen I’ve seen, and in our tests, it achieved the second highest DCI-P3 score of any display we’ve ever tested. And even then, the MSI laptop that sits in first place was a workstation that cost $3,499. Considering Acer has managed to soar so high up in the ranks for a price less than three times that, it’s hard not to be wildly impressed.

The Swift Go 14 isn’t just perfect for movie lovers, but it also is inexpensive and performs excellently, making it an easy pick for all lovers of gorgeous displays. With a price point that destroys its leading competition alongside performance that is better in most instances, it’s hard to say no to Acer’s latest masterpiece for film lovers.