The Acer Nitro 5 is Acer’s latest gaming laptop, and it could be a powerful mid-range contender. It offers a lot of bang for your buck with an 8th gen quad-core processor, the newest Nvidia GPU offering from the green team, and a 1080p display. To find out more about Acer’s new entry in their budget line of gaming laptops, keep reading! Acer usually positions its Acer Nitro gaming laptops as a budget line, but the Ryzen Acer Nitro Acer’s latest gaming laptop offers a lot of bang for your buck. This time around it has an Acer offering The Acer Nitro is Acer’s latest gaming laptop and could be a powerful mid-range contender. It offers a lot of Acer Nitro Acer offers its Acer Nitro gaming laptops as a budget line, but with the Ryzen Acer typically positions its Acer Nitro is Acer’s latest laptop and it could be a powerful mid-range contender.
The Acer Nitro 5 is a powerful, mid-range contender this time around with its Ryzen 7 processor and RTX 3070. It has a slightly higher price point than we’re used to seeing from the line though when you add in that only 15″ configurations offer 1440p resolution–which does make sense as their target audience will be gamers looking for more performance than budget laptops can provide!
The Acer Nitro 5 is a laptop that looks to take on the best gaming laptops around, but for some reason still sticks with its outdated design. It’s got strong performance and competition from other top brands at an affordable price point so it might just do what you need.
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Design of the Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 hasn’t gotten much of a makeover since the last one we reviewed, but as bezels continue to sleekly slim and aesthetics become more modern- fairer bodied laptops start looking gaudy by comparison. It has plenty of chamfered edges with red accents that try emphasize power; unfortunately these details are quickly revealed for what it really is: an overpriced laptop addicted to fingerprints on its cheap plastic shell due largely from poor build quality.
The Acer Nitro 5 has a lot of logos and generic sci-fi theming all over it, plus an unimpressive red fan grill. The keyboard also has large blocky letters which can be overwhelming to look at with its own separate font for WASD keys as well!
The thin bezels on this Acer Nitro 5 are more than welcome, but they don’t quite live up to the competition like other models. The screen looks less generous due to its 2560 x 1440 resolution and 1 cm-long horizontal edges next door that take away from what might otherwise have been an awesome-looking gaming laptop!
The Acer Nitro 5 is one of the biggest and bulkiest laptops we’ve seen compared to similarly spec’d rivals. At 1431 x 1004, it’s longer than three other gaming laptop models: The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 (1402 x 10173), Asus’ROG Zephyrus M16(1398x 950 ). And even though its thickness makes up for much of that length by comparison with thinner types; this heavy-hitter still manages an impressive 1 inch on edge.
The Acer Nitro 5 has a lot of ports that are distributed fairly well. It’s got two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A Connections, an RJ-45 Ethernet connection and also includes 3.5mm Headphone/Microphone Jack as well as slot for Kensington Lock on either side! My only complaint is how it plugs into the back with just one power cable but other than this small issue everything else works great.
Gaming Performance on the Acer Nitro 5
Setting up an Acer Nitro 5 with mid-range specs, we found it to be a consistently fast gaming computer. Competing against more expensive machines that also pack RTX GPUs and laptops equipped with Intel processors for less money each day of testing gave us strong performance across our suite of games in general but not always top-dog status among these competitors’ offerings—a situation where one may come out ahead thanks largely due its stronger GPU or higher processor count (or both).
The Acer Nitro 5 is the best gaming laptop for 1080p at 75 fps, but its competitor in the same resolution benchmarks with 2560 x 1440 and 1600 shows that it’s only just over half as fast. The Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition manages 88fps on these tests–better than both versions of Tomb Raider running simultaneously.
The Acer Nitro 5 took the lead in Grand Theft Auto V’s very high benchmark, running at 93 fps at 1080p and 55 fps at 1440p. The Alienware only hit 82 fps at 1080p, while the Zephyrus ran at 86 fps at 1080p and 50 fps at 1600p. The ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition actually found itself bringing up the rear here, with an fps of 71.
The Nitro 5 took the top spot in a number of tests. At 1080p, it scored 84 fps and 1440 was only 55; while running at 1600 resolution 50FPS is where this laptop delivers its best performance. The ROG Strix G15 Advantage had lower scores than expected with 81fps recorded by Asus’ test lab on their benchmarking program (it varies greatly from person to person).
The Acer Nitro 5 was able to keep up with the game at medium settings, but couldn’t compete against other laptops in terms of performance. It hit 57 fps for 1080p and 39fps 1440P when compared with rivals such as Alienware 53FPS(950m), Zephyrus 58 FPS (1080)and ROG Strix G-15 Advantage edition 70FPs .
The Acer Nitro 5 pushed all the way past its rivals, coming out on top with a fps rating of 68 at 1080p and 49 at 1440p. The Alienware ran 66fps while Zephyrus had only 43fps in 1600P resolution. However it was not able to keep up against one other laptop so if you plan on playing Borderland 3 then go for something else.
The Acer Nitro 5 was shockingly consistent across resolutions in my anecdotal testing. While playing Control, I averaged between 55 – 60 fps on the high preset and had no issues at 1080p or 1440p when turning ray tracing on; noise levels were minimal during gameplay as well with only a slight fan breeze now and then blowing hot air onto my hands from its side vents while gaming for long periods of time (but never enough to make me uncomfortable).
The Acer Nitro 5 ran the Metro: Exodus benchmark for 15 runs in a row on RTX settings to test how it performs over an entire gameplay session. The average frame rate was 51 fps across these tests, and our gaming laptop’s performance rates highly with other laptops when playing games like Fortnite or PUBG Mobile.
Productivity Performance on the Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 we reviewed had a Ryzen 7 5800H processor, which means it benefits from AMD’s excellent productivity power. The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 config went with the same chip while our top pick for game streaming was also the Intel Core i9-11900H in some cases.
Despite the stacked competition, Acer’s Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop scores high in synthetic tests for general performance. It received an 8k on Geekbench and 1g470 points on single core benchmarks when compared to its closest competitors: The Alienware with 7288 multi-core results and Zenith 1400x 1080p resolution screen which reported 1267 fps average frame rate during gaming sessions at 60 FPS maximum setting.
The Nitro 5 takes the lead in our file transfer speed test, where it moves 25GB of files 754 MBps. The Alienware had an even greater rate with 874Mbps and was only bested by Zephyrus’ 567Mbps. Strix’s 340MBps placed them at a slower pace than other competitors.”
In the Handbrake test, our Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop was able to finish transcoding a 4K movie in 6:42. The Alienware 13 touched down at 7 minutes and 05 seconds–slightly slower than before! Strix just barely lost out on this benchmark by 1 second with its speed of 6 min 57 secs while Zephyrus finished slightly faster still (6min56).
Display of Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 has an impressive 15.6-inch IPS screen, and we were impressed with this laptop’s high refresh rate of 165Hz when playing games or watching videos. The resolution is also 2560 x 1440 – it’s not surprising that higher resolutions are becoming more common in computing devices because most people have screens larger than 16:9 these days!
Ranging from brighter conditions like sunlit landscapes to darker scenes such as nighttime cityscapes, pictures looked sharp without any noticeable pixels; there really isn’t anything bad I can say about how well this LCD performed while being used by myself over personal use at home.”
I used this screen to watch a trailer for F9: The Fast Saga, and found that the bright reds and yellows on cars were pleasing. Blacks also held up well without washing out at 75 degrees; they had depth too! But there was some glare when watching in low light so be mindful of your surroundings if possible or turn down those lights before entering into any sort of viewing experience with these screens foremost in mind.
The Acer Nitro 5 covered 84.5% of the DCI-P3 spectrum, only losing to a laptop with an AMD Ryzen processor across our test candidates. That device had coverage that reached 87%. The ROG Zephyrus M16’s display was much lower at 75% and so too were those from Asus’ Strix G15 Advantage Edition model (76%).
The Acer Nitro ‘s screen registered at an average 271 nits of brightness in our tests, which was the lowest out of all laptops we tested. The ROG Strix laptop only had 280 nits and even beat it by about 20%. To make up for this deficiency though, you get a 165Hz refresh rate as well!
The brightest laptops were 599 Zephyrus (for some odd reason) or 479 nit LCD panels found on more expensive models – but they come at a price point that most people would rather avoid paying.
Keyboard and Touchpad on Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 has the ugliest keyboard I’ve seen on a laptop yet. Its font looks like someone put an Instagram sci-fi filter over Arial and it just doesn’t make any sense that they would give special treatment to WASD keys while Arrow Keys are still in this disorienting pop-out state with their white sides sticking out more than usual against all black keycaps.
The 4.2 x 3 inch precision touchpad is just a bit more sensitive to the touches than I’d like but it’s still possible for me to input multi-touch gestures such as two finger scrolling and three button app switching without the struggle!
Audio on the Acer Nitro 5
I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the Acer Nitro 5.
The bottom firing speakers are pretty bad, but they still manage to play at least some of your tunes without any background noise interference or distortion from too much bass. The volume can be an issue though; even when turned all the way up to max brightness (which is what gives me this headache), songs would never extend past my office walls unless I Pumped it up to around 70% which helped make things more bearable – not 100%.
The Acer Nitro 5 is a laptop with sound quality that leaves other laptops in its dust. I was able to hear every detail and bounce off the walls, even when playing at maximum volume for myself alone! The bass on this computer has no equal- it will literally shake your teeth if you don’t have some type of headphones attached (I recommend getting something decent).
The Acer Nitro 5 has a variety of sound processing presets that you can choose from for different types of games. I found the music preset worked best when playing Montero, but if I wanted to change things up there are other options like movie and voice as well which would emphasize certain aspects depending on what type they’re using in my specific game or application at hand!
Upgradeability of the Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 is an easy laptop to open and has plenty of configurability. Just unscrew the 11 screws (we used a PH0 bit), gently pry off its case, then dive into this warren for your RAM upgrades or storage needs – there’s room for 2 DIMMs as well as what looks like an HDD bay next door!
Acer Nitro 5 Webcam
The Acer Nitro 5’s 720p webcam is a great tool for making video calls with your coworkers, but it can’t do so in low-light or when there are too many colors present. However this shouldn’t pose much of an issue as the photo quality still looks good even without perfect lighting conditions!
Acer Nitro 5 Battery Life
The Acer Nitro 5 is a beastly gaming laptop that lasts over five hours in our benchmark, which continually runs OpenGL tests and browses the web with 150 nits of brightness. That’s much more than most laptops can claim! It even streams video for upwards to nine continuous hours–quite impressive given how bright this thing gets while doing so without hindering its performance at all either thanks to an exclusive IGZO LED panel technology used only by MSI on their latest models (and no other manufacturer). Give it high marks too since not many competing products are able to make such advancements when compared side-by-side here today.”
Heat on the Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 is a well-performing laptop that manages to keep cool during our testing of streaming video and gaming, but it gets warm when tested with Metro: Exodus.
The Acer Nitro 5’s touchpad registered 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit, the center of its keyboard (between G and H) reached 85.1 fahrenheit, while measuring 1 inch from it towards the back did reach 91%.
The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop’s touchpad, keyboard and general numbers were all pushed up to 85 degrees Fahrenheit after our testing. The hottest spot on the device was once again found near its back at 132°F (55 Celsius), which is why we recommend keeping this area cool during use if possible.
Software and Warranty on the Acer Nitro 5
The Acer Nitro 5 has a lot of pre-installed software. On top of Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Spotify, it’s got promotional installs for Dropbox Express VPN privacy service FigLeaf, and an esports social networking app called Planet9 by default. There are even weirder apps like Product Registration in other programs which could have been folded into regular use instead.
There are some useful programs packed in here! Cyberlink’s Acer-branded photo and video editing apps, for instance. Plus you can install App Explorer which will let you run even more bloat on your computer without being remorseful about it—cyber security matters too.
One of the best features about this device is being able to adjust audio, power plans and fan speed with a single tap. You can also open GeForce Experience from here which will give you access to your favorite games in an instant as well.
The Acer Care Center is where you can find drivers, view your serial number and clear up disk space. DTS:X Ultra might be a little extraneous as it has the same audio control functions of Nitro Sense but with one exception; enabling DTS Sound Unbound for headphones which I found useful in my testing process so that’s something not too many people would miss if disabled here either way though – instead we should probably make sure all these features are turned on beforehand.
The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop is equipped with a powerful graphics card, but we were surprised to find AMD Radeon Software on the device. This could be because it uses an Nvidia GPU under the hood – you can still monitor your performance and control settings for certain games though from here! In terms of warranty coverage, this laptop comes with one year of limited repair or replacement service through its manufacturer at any time during that term (unless otherwise specified).
Acer Nitro 5 Configurations
The new AMD Acer Nitro 5 laptop has three configurations to choose from, each with different internals. We have the Ryzen 7 5800H processor and an RTX 3070 GPU in ours for $1699; there’s also a 17-inch model that costs just as much but comes equipped with an RTX-3080 graphics card instead of 1080p.
The 15-inch Acer Nitro 5 has a Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU, an RTX 3080, and 32GB of RAM. The best part is that it costs $2299!
If you’re looking for something cheaper, Acer has a current-generation Intel Nitro 5 with the Core i7-11800H and RTX 3050 Ti at $1,099. Plus there are 10th gen laptops with that same body but 1080p screens available at low price points around or below 1000 dollars too!
Bottom Line
Acer’s Nitro 5 is a solid performer, but it’s not for everyone. It has an ugly keyboard and screen that are difficult to look at when working on the computer in general (the one part where its accuracy falls short). However, if you’re just looking to want something plain enough to do work without breaking your bank account then this might be a perfect fit!
The biggest concern with this laptop is the price. Normally, Acer Nitro is a budget line but at $1,699 it’s actually more expensive than its Alienware counterpart! Granted thanks to an active sale for over 50% off on laptops that have been going strong now we were able to test one out and found many features better than what was offered by their competitor – which will set you back only about 1/2 of what they are charging right now if purchased new from them or even less when looking into deals online (like ours!). So without further ado here’s our conclusion: “if performance matters go ahead buy yourself something reliable.”
The Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop is the best gaming laptop on this list. With its 1440p screen and powerful processor, it can keep up with any competition in 2018 even when playing games at high settings! It doesn’t have as good of a performance for less money though; you’ll need to purchase an external graphics card or spend another $1,849 if the user wants a better experience than us (but we highly recommend getting one).
The Acer Nitro 5 is a budget-friendly gaming laptop with an emphasis on performance. With its lightning-fast processor and 1440p resolution, it’s our most consistent mid-range AMD option for now! The only downside? Its design doesn’t seem as aesthetic compared to other machines out there – but we still think you’ll love what this machine has going for itself in terms of gameplay quality.
