Ultra-thin, stylish and all the power to satisfy your mobile needs. We got our hands on one Acer Swift 3x. This ultra-portable package packs a powerful combination of the 11th Generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor and Intel® Iris® Xe MAX Graphics discrete GPU. All of these packaged in an all-metal chassis worth MYR 4,599 (as tested).
It is thin, not Swift 5 thin, but thinner than most textbooks. The Steam Blue colourway is also stylish. But does it give you all the power you need on-the-go though. We put it through its paces to find out if this ultra-thin, stylish package has all the power that you really need out of it. Of course, we want to know if its worth your MYR 4,599 too.
Remember the Mac guy, the old Apple ads that pits the Mac up against Microsoft PCs. The Mac guy, Justin Long is back on YouTube. Now though, he is not the ‘Mac guy’. Instead, he is just Justin (no pun intended). Like before, Justin is comparing Macs against PCs.
Instead of roasting Microsoft Windows and PCs though, Justin is taking a stab at Apple instead. When I say Justin, Intel is taking a stab at Apple’s Mac ecosystem. The result is some hilarious shorts that tells you to buy a PC instead of a Mac.
Macs vs. PCs have been an age long debate since the dawn of personal computing. Yes, all computers can trace back their origins to the machine that broke the German Enigma encryption device. If you do not know what that is, watch ‘The Immmitation Game’, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and get up to speed.
Personal computing was brought forth by Steve Jobs with his Macintosh and later Bill Gates came with Microsoft Windows. Since then, the never-ending war between the two giant platforms started. Even today, people are divided between the two giants.
Here is the thing, Intel has never gotten involved in the fight between PC and Mac. They have always been a neutral bystander fighting their own fight with their rival, AMD. To be fair too, most of the Mac devices that has come for the past 5 years have been sporting Intel processors, so they should have no reason to take a stab at Apple’s best sellers.
Something did change a little bit in the past year though. Apple introduced their very own Apple M1 System on a Chip (SoC) for their own Mac platforms. The SoC is used across all the Apple product range too. That is basically Apple’s way of saying, we want to be independent of a third-party hardware vendor.
The change in Apple’s direction and the addition of their new chips also means less sales for Intel. They had to respond to that, in some ways. They respond in the best way they know how, throw money at it. But they did not just throw money at the problem. They threw money to also increase awareness and brand images of their partners. They have always done so, especially when it comes to gaming products, and more recently the Intel ECO ultra-portable notebook platforms.
The fight between Mac and PC may never end, but at least it brings us some hilarious moments to enjoy. It also brought out some humour from the competing brands. Competition between the two parties also means that it brings out the best of each other to better serve their own respective users. In the meantime though, enjoy Intel’s stab at Mac.
