Acer is going for the productivity angle with its latest Swift 3 ultrabook.

This laptop's 13.5-inch screen has a 3:2 aspect ratio, making it taller than the typical 16:9 displays. Users can view more of a Web page or a document without having to scroll down.

While the 3:2 aspect ratio can be traced to the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 (2014), only a handful of vendors - such as Google, Huawei and now Acer - have introduced 3:2 notebooks.

Compared with premium 3:2 computers from Google and Microsoft whose prices exceed $2,000, the Acer Swift 3 is more affordable.

My review set, which has a mid-tier Intel Core i5 processor with 16GB of system memory and a 1TB solid-state drive, is priced at $1,698 (after a $200 discount) at Acer Singapore's online store.

The Swift 3 has a matte silver metallic body that appears resistant to smudging from fingerprints.

At around 1.2kg, the laptop is very handy. It also feels fairly sturdy, despite not having a unibody aluminium chassis as the Apple MacBooks do.

Despite its mainstream pricing, the Swift 3 does not lack the latest technologies. For one, it boasts a refreshed, entry-level Nvidia GeForce MX350 graphics chip that was launched in February.

The Swift 3 also supports Wi-Fi 6 for the fastest wireless speeds, has a Thunderbolt 3 port that transmits data at a higher rate than USB 3.0 and comes with a bright, crisp display.

This 2,256 x 1,504-pixel display does not support touch. It does have excellent viewing angles, and its matte finish reduces glare and reflections.

Like most of the latest notebooks, the Swift 3 has narrow screen bezels. The Web camera lacks an infrared camera component for facial recognition. Instead, a traditional fingerprint sensor is available at the bottom right corner of the keyboard.

The keyboard feels deeper and has more travel than some of the Acer ultrabooks I tested previously. It has a white backlight with two levels of brightness.

A sign of the cost constraint the Swift 3 is operating under: Its touchpad is not as smooth as the glass-covered ones in premium notebooks. It also feels slightly creaky and loose when I click on it, though it is large, roomy and ideal for multi-touch gestures.

Because of its modest Core i5 chip, the Swift 3 scored 2,817 in the PCMark 10 test. In comparison, the latest Surface Pro 7 (with an Core i7 processor) managed 4,233 in the same benchmark.

But the Swift 3 has a much longer battery life than the Surface Pro 7. It clocked eight hours and 42 minutes in a video-loop battery test at maximum brightness, compared with the Surface's five hours and 47 minutes.