lcd panel acer nitro 5 an515-53 color accuracy pricelist

The Acer Nitro 5 has a typical budget gamer design, with a plasticky look and a black and red color scheme. The keyboard"s backlight only lights up in red, and there are also red accents around the WASD and arrow keys. There are air vents on both sides of the laptop and the back.

The Acer Nitro 5 feels well-built. It has a full plastic construction that feels solid, with just a bit of flex in the keyboard deck and screen. The hinge is sturdy, similar to the Dell Alienware m15 R3 (2020) in build and solidity.

The Acer Nitro 5"s serviceability is excellent. It"s very easy to access the internals, as you only have to remove some Philips screws, pull a few clips, and pry it open. There are two memory slots; the laptop supports up to 64GB of memory. Our unit has a single 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD, and there"s room for one more, as well as a slot for a 2.5-inch storage drive. There"s an HDD mounting kit (cable and screws) included in the box.

1080p is a typical resolution for 15.6-inch displays. It looks decently sharp, although you can see individual pixels if you"re close enough. All three displays look the same in terms of sharpness, so you only have to choose the refresh rate you want.

The Acer Nitro 5 has three screen refresh rate options: 60Hz, 120Hz, or 144Hz. The 60Hz panel"s response time is very slow, causing noticeable ghosting behind moving objects. For the best gaming experience, it"s best to go with the 120Hz or 144Hz panels, as they"ll likely have a faster response time. Unfortunately, none of the displays support variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing.

The 60Hz display has a good contrast ratio, better than the 700-1000:1 contrast on most IPS panels. However, it"s still low compared to VA and OLED panels and isn"t ideal for dim settings because blacks look grayish in the dark. The 120Hz and 144Hz displays will perform similarly.

The 1080p 60Hz screen"s brightness is okay. It"s fine for most indoor settings, but it isn"t bright enough to fight glare in very well-lit or sunny environments. It gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which is great for dark room viewing because as it causes less eye strain. The 120Hz and 144Hz panels will likely perform similarly.

The reflection handling is decent. It struggles more with direct reflections, so it"s best to avoid having bright lights shining directly on the screen. It isn"t too bad when viewing light-color content with the screen is at max brightness, but it makes dark-color content hard to see.

The Acer Nitro 5 AN515 has an okay horizontal viewing angle. The image looks dimmer and more washed out from the side. It"s good enough for sharing the screen with someone else as long as you don"t need perfect image accuracy.

The 60Hz panel has bad color accuracy out of the box. Most colors are inaccurate because the panel has a narrow color gamut and can"t display all the colors in the sRGB color space. The white balance is also visibly off, and the image has a slight reddish tint due to the warm color temperature. The gamma doesn"t follow the sRGB curve; most scenes are too bright and dark scenes are slightly over-darkened.

The 60Hz screen has a bad color gamut. It doesn"t even have full sRGB coverage, the color space used in most content, and it has even worse coverage of the wider color spaces, like Adobe RGB, DCI P3, and Rec. 2020, making it a poor choice for viewing HDR content or media creation. Luckily, there"s an HDMI port if you want to use an external desktop monitor. The other panels will likely perform similarly.

The Acer Nitro AN515"s backlight is only flicker-free if you set the screen brightness to maximum. However, the flicker frequency below maximum brightness is very high and isn"t noticeable.

The Acer Nitro 5"s keyboard is sub-par. Although it has stable keys with a good amount of travel and feels good to type on, it sometimes doesn"t register some keystrokes, which causes more typos when typing and can be a dealbreaker for some gamers. The layout is fairly standard, though, so it doesn"t take long to adapt to it. The backlight has four levels of brightness, which you can control directly from the keyboard. There"s a "Nitro" button where the NumLock usually is to launch the Nitro app, which lets you access power settings and fan controls, as well as monitor system temperatures. If you want a similar gaming laptop with a better keyboard, check out the HP Victus 16 (2021).

The Acer Nitro 5"s speakers are good as far as laptops go. They have very forward mids but no bass whatsoever. They"re also a bit piercing on some sounds, like sibilants and cymbals. They aren"t ideal for listening to music, but they"re fine for spoken content.

The webcam"s video quality is sub-par. The image is too dark, lacks fine details, and the colors aren"t true to life. Audio is clear over the microphone, but there"s static in the background, which can be annoying. If you want a similar budget gaming laptop with a better webcam, check out the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2021).

The Acer Nitro 5 AN515 has a decent port selection. One of the USB-A ports supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed(up to 10Gbps) and can charge a mobile device even when the laptop is in sleep mode, while the other two USB-A ports only support USB 3.2 Gen 1 transfer speed (up to 5Gbps). The USB-C port supports USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed. Unfortunately, you can"t use the USB-C port to charge the laptop or connect an external display. The Ethernet port has a maximum speed of 1Gbps.

All of the available options are high-power CPUs typically found in gaming laptops and mobile workstations. In GPU-limited games, there isn"t much performance difference between these four CPUs since parts of the CPU will likely be idle. However, if you play open-world games or other CPU-intensive games, there"s a benefit in going with a six or eight-core CPU. More cores will also allow you to do other things without affecting gaming performance too much, like streaming or playing music in the background. If you want a similarly sized laptop that"s equipped with newer AMD Ryzen 5-series CPUs, consider the HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop 15 (2021).

Both GPUs are entry-level graphics processors that can get you around 60fps at 1080p in modern AAA titles, albeit with some tweaks in the graphics settings. The Ti variants in NVIDIA"s lineup usually perform a bit better than the non-Ti variants, but the difference isn"t huge. If you want a gaming laptop with more powerful GPU options, check out the Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 6 15 (2021).

You can configure the Acer Nitro 5 with 8GB, 12GB, or 16GB of memory. It"s best to get 16GB for gaming because 8GB might cause stuttering in some games. Having more memory also gives you more headroom if you want to stream or play music in the background.

You can configure this laptop with 256GB or 512GB of storage. It"s best to opt for more storage because constant writing and erasing of data causes wear and tear on the SSD, reducing its lifespan. However, since the SSD is user-replaceable, you can get a 256GB configuration first and upgrade it yourself later on. There are three storage slots: two M.2 and one 2.5-inch.

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600H in our Acer Nitro 5 has an impressive score in the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. It has enough processing power to handle light productivity tasks, gaming, and even heavy workloads, like video encoding. The Ryzen 7 4800H has much better multi-threaded performance and is a better choice for those running heavily multi-threaded applications. The Intel Core i7-10750H will perform similarly to the one we tested in the Dell Alienware m15 R3. The i5-10300H has roughly the same single-thread performance as the i7-10750H, but its multi-thread performance is worse because it only has four cores.

The GPU compute score is great. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 performs a little worse than the 1650 Ti, but not by much. Both GPUs can handle demanding tasks like image processing, although you might see some stutters here and there, especially in VRAM-heavy applications.

The AMD Ryzen 5 4600H"s Cinebench R23 score is excellent. The AMD Ryzen 7 4800H performs similarly in single-thread workload tests but much faster in multi-threaded because it has more cores and threads. The Intel Core i7-10750H performs better in the single-thread test than the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H but lags in the multi-thread test. The i5-10300H is the slowest when it comes to multi-thread performance.

Regardless of which configuration you get, it"s almost always better to render 3D models using the GPU rather than the CPU. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 and 1650 Ti are generally pretty close in performance. The GTX 1650 Ti is a little faster than the GTX 1650, but the difference isn"t night and day.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti in our Acer Nitro 5 performs well in the Basemark GPU test. It can get you around 60fps in most modern titles, but you"ll likely have to lower some graphics settings to get there. The GTX 1650 is a slightly weaker GPU, so you might have to lower the graphics settings further to get smooth and consistent frame rates.

The 256GB SSD"s performance is excellent. The system boots up, launches apps, and loads games very quickly. The sequential write speed is good but is more towards the lower end of NVMe SSDs, so writing a large amount of data to the drive is slow, like when installing a big game. If you choose to add a 2.5-inch SATA storage drive, the games installed on that drive will take longer to load because SATA drives are generally much slower than PCIe NVMe SSDs. The speed of the SSD may vary depending on the size, as larger SSDs tend to perform better.

The Acer Nitro 5"s battery life is great. You can easily get through an eight-hour day of light productivity on a full charge, as the system switches to the integrated graphics to extend battery life. However, gaming consumes significantly more power, so you"ll almost always need to plug it in when gaming. Battery life varies greatly depending on your usage.

Borderlands 3 runs poorly on the Acer Nitro 5. The average is well below 60fps at 1080p with "High" settings, and the frametimes are very inconsistent, causing lots of stutters. You need to lower the graphics settings to get a smooth experience, whether you get the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 or 1650 Ti. It"s primarily a GPU limitation, so you might not see much difference with a more powerful CPU.

All configurations of the Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop can deliver smooth gameplay in Civilization VI with some minor tweaks in the settings. The turn time is okay with the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, and we expect the Intel Core i7-10750H to be similar. The AMD Ryzen 7 4800H will give you the fastest turn time, though only slightly, while the Intel Core i5-10300H will have the slowest.

CS:GO runs very smoothly on the Acer Nitro 5. It"s an older title that typically runs well on most gaming systems, so every CPU and GPU configuration of the Nitro 5 can provide a smooth experience.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a graphically demanding title, even for current hardware. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti maintains close to 60fps at the "High" settings, but there are noticeable stutters. Regardless of the GPU you choose, you need to lower the graphical settings to get a more stable 60fps. The large frame time spikes in the graph are scene changes.

The Acer Nitro 5"s thermal and noise performance is okay. It gets a bit toasty under load, causing a hot spot around the number 0 on the keyboard. It isn"t a problem for gaming as most people position their hand closer to the WASD keys, but it might be a bit uncomfortable when typing. The fans get fairly loud, though probably still tolerable for most people. Intel CPUs typically run hotter than the AMD Ryzen CPUs, so you can expect to hear the fans working for longer periods on the Intel models.

The Acer Nitro 5"s performance over time is outstanding. Neither the CPU nor GPU gets very hot, and even though there"s some performance loss, it"s only a few percent, which isn"t noticeable. There"s plenty of thermal headroom, so it"s unlikely that the other CPUs will suffer from significant performance loss. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 performs similarly to the GTX 1650 Ti.

The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop comes with pre-installed software, including:Norton Security Ultra: Virus and malware protection. You only get a free trial; you need to pay for a subscription to continue using it.

Long Life. Acer"s Nitro 5 AN515-44 is a combination of the best of both worlds: A powerful AMD Ryzen CPU paired with a high-performance Nvidia Turing GPU. Find out in our review how well these two get along.

Acer’s Nitro 5 refresh is available in two basic configurations: The AN515-55 equipped with an Intel Comet Lake processor, and the AN515-44 featuring an AMD Renoir processor.

Despite the fact that the case is made almost entirely of plastic, the new Nitro 5 looks and feels fairly premium. The lid in particular looks strikingly similar to real aluminum. The combination of black surfaces with red highlights (keyboard, touchpad, etc…) reminds us of various MSI laptops, and it hits a good balance between boring and playful.

Rigidity was decent except for the not particularly sturdy cover. The base unit only warped after applying a significant amount of force. Build quality was also on a par with its competitors, and thus at a decent level. A maximum display opening angle of 150 degrees should suffice for most users.

As is expected of a modern laptop, Acer opted for narrow albeit slightly wider bezels than those found on some of its competitors. Nevertheless, the Nitro’s footprint of 36.3 x 25.5 cm (14.3 x 10 inches) turned out to be fairly compact for a 15-inch device, as did its maximum height of just 2.4 cm. Thanks to its moderate weight of no more than 2.2 kg it is even portable to a certain degree.

Lenovo Legion Y540-15IRH-81SX00B2GE Dell G5 15 5590-PCNJJ Acer Nitro 5 AN515-44-R5FT HP Omen 15-dc1020ng Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52-79TY DIN A4 ❌

365 mm / 14.4 inch260 mm / 10.2 inch26 mm / 1.024 inch2.2 kg4.85 lbs364 mm / 14.3 inch273 mm / 10.7 inch23.7 mm / 0.933 inch2.7 kg5.98 lbs363 mm / 14.3 inch255 mm / 10 inch24 mm / 0.945 inch2.2 kg4.8 lbs360 mm / 14.2 inch263 mm / 10.4 inch25 mm / 0.984 inch2.3 kg5.11 lbs361.4 mm / 14.2 inch254.2 mm / 10 inch23.2 mm / 0.913 inch2.3 kg5.09 lbs297 mm / 11.7 inch210 mm / 8.27 inch1 mm / 0.03937 inch5.7 g0.01257 lbs

Connectivity, and external ports in particular, is one of the areas where Acer had to cut corners. Neither DisplayPort nor a card reader are available, and Thunderbolt 3 is nowhere to be seen either. On the left-hand side we find a Kensington lock, an RJ45 port, two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and a 3.5-mm headphone jack. Those are accompanied by a single USB 3.0 Type-C port, a third USB 3.0 Type-A port, and an HDMI port for connecting external displays to at the right-hand side. Given that all ports sit pretty centered on both sides using a mouse can get quite challenging and arduous depending on the amount of cables plugged in.

Despite its budget price, the Nitro does not require any compromises in regard to communication. While wired connections are handled by a Killer E2600 Ethernet controller, wireless protocol support is plentiful thanks to Intel’s AX200 Wi-Fi 6 modem offering fast Wi-Fi transfer rates of more than 1,300 Mb/s both when transmitting and receiving data. Due to our recently improved test setup those numbers are not comparable to older test results. In order to future-proof our setup we switched from an AC to an AX router (Netgear Nighthawk AX12).

Included in the box are a few leaflets with general information, a mounting frame for the vacant 2.5-inch slot, and a pleasantly lightweight (ca. 340 g / 0.75 lbs) and compact (ca. 13.5 x 7 x 2.5 cm / 5.3 x 2.75 x 1 inches) 135 W power supply.

Given the lack of a maintenance opening, the entire bottom case needs to be removed in order to access the internal hardware, which requires the removal of a total of 11 Philips screws. Once removed you get access to the battery, the wireless communication module, two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, as well as two M.2-2280 slots and one 2.5-inch storage bay. The cooling solution for the soldered CPU and GPU consists of two fans connected by various heat pipes, and it is not completely isolated from each other.

Based on the marketing material on Acer’s website some of the more expensive Nitro 5 models feature an RGB-backlit keyboard. However, the AN515-44 has to make do with a red backlight underneath Acer’s well-established gaming keyboard. It offers a well-defined touch and feel as well as a solid overall layout safe for the combined Insert/Delete key. Furthermore, the German keyboard layout fused the left Shift key with <>| as well as the Return key with #, which while uncommon and confusing at first did not cause any issues after some getting used to.

The red-framed touchpad’s footprint of 10.5 x 7.5 cm (4.1 x 3 inches) is more than adequate for a 15-inch laptop. Its smooth surface ensures great gliding capabilities, and its precision was at an acceptable level. As expected, various gestures are supported, for example pinch by zoom or two-finger scrolling. The sound it makes when triggering the buttons is rather loud and clattery, and it could have used some additional fine-tuning, particularly considering that overall keyboard clatter is very low.

In the past, displays with more than 100 Hz were mostly limited to expensive high-end laptops. Nowadays, more and more budget gamers are equipped with these high-frequency panels.

Overall picture quality is rather poor. In addition to a dim backlight (270 nits on average) we also found its color-space coverage (61% sRGB) and its response times to be lacking. In return, its black level of 0.25 nits and resulting contrast ratio of 1,150:1 were adequate.

ℹDisplay response times show how fast the screen is able to change from one color to the next. Slow response times can lead to afterimages and can cause moving objects to appear blurry (ghosting). Gamers of fast-paced 3D titles should pay special attention to fast response times.↔ Response Time Black to White

In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 19261 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

As can be seen on the screenshot below the preinstalled Nitro Sense tool did not offer too many settings or tabs. A well-organized user interface allows you to adjust fan speeds, select a power plan, and monitor CPU as well as GPU temperatures, load, and fan speeds. When running our tests, we left all settings on default resulting in automatic fan speed adjustment and Acer’s optimized Balanced power plan selected.

First things first: AMD’s Ryzen 5 4600H offers a breathtaking price-performance ratio. The hexa-core CPU is manufactured in a 7 nm lithography process and supports up to 12 simultaneous threads thanks to SMT.

When running our benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 4600H practically wipes the floor with its Intel competitors. In CineBench R15 multi-thread it scored around 20% faster than a Core i7-9750H. Compared with the

According to PCMark 10, our review unit scored somewhere between other devices equipped with a GTX 1650 Ti or GTX 1660 Ti, and an i5-9300H or i7-9750H. Subjectively, the 15-inch device felt very fast and snappy at all times, be it application launches, load times, boot times, or file transfers.

In order to present the powerful CPU with a worthy storage device Acer opted for a PCIe SSD. Sequential transfer rates north of 1,000 MB/s in both read and write may not be the cream of the crop but still more than enough for everyday use. Our review unit was equipped with a 512 GB large SK Hynix BC511 SSD. If you need more storage space, you can either add a second M.2 SSD or use the included mounting bracket to add a traditional 2.5-inch hard disk drive.

Truth be told we are somewhat disappointed by the GTX 1650 Ti despite its overall decent performance. Looking at the benchmark results reveals that the DirectX 12 GPU can only perform slightly better than a “regular”

Given the overall very similar specs this does not come as a huge surprise. After all, both Turing GPUs feature 1,024 shaders with access to 4 GB of VRAM and a 128-bit interface. The only difference is that the Ti model features GDDR6 instead of GDDR5 VRAM.

The Nitro 5 AN515-44 was developed with price-sensitive gamers in mind that might not necessarily insist on running every single game on the display’s native resolution of 1920x1080 on maximum details. Accordingly, recorded frame rates in less-demanding games such as

Noise-sensitive users might have to look elsewhere. While the fans are either completely off or running at low speeds resulting in a fan noise of 32-34 dB(A) when the device is idle, they quickly rev up to 46-49 dB(A) under load and necessitate the use of a headset. Only the Dell G5 5590 was even louder.

dB(A)0102030405060708090Deep BassMiddle BassHigh BassLower RangeMidsHigher MidsLower HighsMid HighsUpper HighsSuper Highs2036.131.230.431.833.72539.333.631.633.434.33128.929.228.427.531.14041.136.237.333.939.8503634.732.334.537.76332.628.229.231.431.8802826.32625.728.410025.624.925.423.727.612527.823.624.322.428.616029.725.62822.730.320028.824.222.921.930.22502824.121.721.429.931529.622.421.519.731.440032.42822.819.43450031.625.624.318.733.963032.825.326.11835.680034.12322.517.936.2100034.522.72018.43712503723.220.618.239.9160038.323.121.217.940.9200036.921.519.217.439.9250036.41918.317.738.9315036.118.618.217.839.8400029.818.217.817.733.5500028.31817.917.630.9630026.517.817.617.630.4800023.317.817.617.625.71000021.417.717.717.622.51250021.817.717.617.419.71600021.317.517.517.318.2SPL46.433.732.430.149.3N5.221.81.46.3median 29.7median 22.7median 20.6median 17.9median 31.4Delta4.13.33.11.44.2hearing rangehide medianshow medianFan NoiseAcer Nitro 5 AN515-44-R5FT

Temperatures recorded during our The Witcher 3 test indicate that the fans could easily be running slower than they are. CPU and GPU temperatures of around 60 °C each hint at quite a lot of thermal headroom. In our unrealistic stress test performed by running FurMark and Prime95 simultaneously we recorded temperatures of up to 71 °C for the GeForce GTX 1650 Ti and 85 °C for the Ryzen 5 4600H, both of which are also more than adequate for this load scenario.

The case peaked at 49 °C at the top and 50 °C at the bottom, which is fairly typical for a gaming laptop. Idle temperatures were very low, and the case did not exceed 30 °C.

(-) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 49 °C / 120 F, compared to the average of 40.4 °C / 105 F, ranging from 21.2 to 68.8 °C for the class Gaming.

Sound was mediocre at best, and sound quality was pretty comparable overall to the Predator Helios 300, both of which showed a distinct lack of base. At least the Nitro 5 gets significantly louder (79 dB(A) vs. 69 dB(A)).

dB(A)0102030405060708090Deep BassMiddle BassHigh BassLower RangeMidsHigher MidsLower HighsMid HighsUpper HighsSuper Highs2031.832.12533.433.33127.530.34033.9345034.530.26331.430.88025.727.210023.726.512522.42616022.733.420021.940.525021.454.131519.753.840019.463.250018.762.46301871.480017.969.8100018.469.2125018.270.4160017.969200017.468.1250017.767.3315017.866.2400017.760.4500017.661.3630017.661.5800017.664.41000017.664.51250017.463.11600017.356.1SPL30.179.1N1.444.3median 17.9median 63.1Delta1.48.232.93432.934.832.934.834.932.234.932.431.932.429.830.129.832.829.532.826.627.826.626.125.826.131.926.331.939.62439.636.823.836.841.922.341.951.621.751.658.620.358.655.419.555.459.118.559.166.318.466.369.218.269.263.817.663.861.617.461.663.317.463.357.217.557.261.217.661.262.817.762.860.417.960.463.417.963.464186461.417.961.461.717.861.75417.95475.230.375.235.41.435.4median 60.4median 18median 60.47.82.27.8hearing rangehide medianshow medianPink NoiseAcer Nitro 5 AN515-44-R5FTAcer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52-79TY

Acer’s 15-inch Nitro 5 is living proof that modern gaming laptops can be powerful yet very energy efficient at the same time. Despite its hexa-core CPU, the Nitro 5 only consumed between 5 and 13 W when idle. Both of its 9750H-equipped competitors consumed two to three times as much energy. Under load, it required between 69 and 124 W of energy, which was also excellent.

Thanks to its combination of switchable graphics and low power consumption the Nitro 5 offers excellent battery life. Despite its comparatively small 57 Wh battery it managed more than 13 hours of runtime in our idle test at minimum display brightness, and close to 9 hours in our Wi-Fi test at medium brightness. The only device capable of keeping up in our comparison group was the Dell G5 5590.

Disregarding some of the corners Acer had to cut, such as the dim display with poor color-space coverage or the device’s poor connectivity, the Nitro 5 AN515-44 is a very attractive and versatile budget device. Thanks to long battery life and a comparatively lightweight and compact case it can even be considered somewhat portable.

The Acer Nitro 5, a budget gaming laptop under $1,000, is a carefully curated rig that makes the right concessions to attract bargain-hunting gamers. Acer wanted to offer consumers a decent graphics card at a wallet-friendly price, so it sacrificed a premium build quality and a bright, colorful display to make room for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU.

The Nitro 5 isn’t for bougie gamers — I’m talking to you pretentious players who wouldn’t touch an all-plastic laptop with a ten-foot pole, fancy folk who believe dim displays are for peasants, and CPU snobs who only use the latest processors. These types would balkat the thought of using this gaming rig. This Acer laptop is for down-to-earth gamers who are willing to accept a few trade-offs in favor of a better discrete graphics card.

If you turn your nose up at lackluster screens, odd keyboard layouts and cheaply built gaming rigs, you may not be satisfied with the Nitro 5. However, if you’re a sucker for crimson-and-onyx motifs, impressive mid-range GPUs and decent VR performance at an affordable price, the Nitro 5 is an excellent choice.

The Acer Nitro 5 starts at $829.99 and comes with a quad-core Intel Core i5-10300H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB NVMe SSD and a 15.6-inch, 144Hz display.

My review model costs $999 and comes with the same storage and display, but swaps out the processor, graphics and memory for a hexa-core Intel Core i7-9750H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, and 16GB of RAM, respectively.

An attractive red hinge with the word “Nitro” connects the display to the deck. Acer adorns the Nitro 5 with red-trim accents around the keyboard keys and touchpad. The Nitro 5’s chassis is made out of plastic — and it shows. If you press down on the lid, you’ll notice some flex and a lack of sturdiness. The palm rest is more solid than the lid, but certainly still feels cheap. One of the trade-offs you’ll make with this budget gaming laptop is build quality.

At 4.9 pounds and 14.3 x 10 x 1 inches, the Acer Nitro 5 is lighter than its three budget gaming rivals: the Asus ROG Strix G15 (5.3 pounds, 14.2 x 10.8 x 1 inches), Dell G5 15 SE (5.5 pounds, 14.4 x 10 x 0.9 inches) and the Lenovo Legion 5 (5.4 pounds, 14.3 x 10 x 0.9 inches).

The Nitro 5 does not have Thunderbolt 3 support, a microSD card slot nor a mini DisplayPort. If you need more ports, we recommend checking out our best laptop docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs pages.

I played Hitman 2, navigating through a Colombian jungle to take down a drug cartel. I loved how the display accurately showed Agent 47’s transition from the muggy wilderness — cloudy with a misty haze — to a less humid environment with muddy streets and run-down brick homes. Of course, being that the Nitro 5 is equipped with a 1080p screen, it won’t win any awards, but I was pleased with the game’s visuals on Nitro 5’s IPS display.

I hope you don’t sit near a bright window — Nitro 5 is pretty darn dim. The Acer laptop’s display emanates only 245 nits of brightness, which is dimmer than the average budget gaming laptop (271 nits). The ROG Strix G15 (251 nits), G5 15 SE (301 nits) and Legion 5 (287 nits) are all brighter than the Nitro 5, but not by much.

With a Delta-E score of 0.33, the Nitro 5 is less color accurate than the 0.3 score of the average budget laptop (the closer the score is to zero, the better). The Nitro 5 is also less color accurate than the G5 15 SE and Legion 5, which share a Delta-E score of 0.26, but the Acer gaming rig defeated the ROG Strix G15’s score by a hair (0.34).

The keyboard’s island-style, red-and-black color scheme panders to my personal tastes — I have a weakness for crimson-and-onyx motifs. I even love the red backlighting, which has four brightness tiers. Unfortunately, if you’re not a fan of red-backlit keys, you’ll be disappointed to know that the Nitro 5 doesn’t feature customizable RGB-key lighting, so you’re stuck with red. You can always turn off the red backlight, but the dark-red symbols superimposed on black keys are a tad difficult to see.

The Nitro 5’s 4.2 x 3.1-inch touchpad is fine, offering a satisfactory clicking experience. It’s also responsive to Windows 10 gestures, like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing. However, when I don’t have a gaming mouse handy, I prefer touchpads with dedicated left-and-right buttons. While playing Dishonored 2, I found myself landing on the wrong side of the touchpad, causing me to accidentally fire my pistol and alert nearby enemies of my presence. I had to run for my life — so much for stealth gameplay.

While playing Dishonored 2 on the Nitro 5, I preferred the Gaming General preset, which provided well-balanced sound for both the characters’ voices and the background music. Dishonored 2 is one of those games where you’ll need to rely on sound to detect whether an enemy is nearby, and of course, being that the Nitro 5 is a budget gaming laptop, it won’t offer a surround-sound experience. Overall, the speakers are simply OK.

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest, 1080p), the Nitro 5 hovered around 52 frames per second, which outpaced the budget gaming laptop average (36 fps). The ROG Strix G15, powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 1650 Ti GPU, fell short against the Nitro 5 (40 fps). The G5 15 SE, armed with an AMD Radeon RX 5600M GPU, also fell short of the Acer gaming rig (45 fps). The Nitro 5 finally met its match with the Legion 5. Powered by a GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, the Lenovo laptop offered the same score as the Acer laptop (52 fps).

The Nitro 5 averaged 67 frames per second on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (Very High, 1080p), which crushed the 48-fps category average. The ROG Strix G15 could only muster 44 fps. The G5 15 SE and the Legion 5 also failed to reach the Nitro 5’s glory with just 56 and 64 fps, respectively.

On the Metro Exodus benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), the Nitro 5 climbed to 47 fps, beating the 36-fps category average. The ROG Strix G15 only offered 30 fps. The G5 15 and the Legion 5 came close to the Nitro 5 with 46 fps and 42 fps, respectively, but the Dell and the Lenovo laptops couldn’t surpass Acer.

If you’re wondering whether the Nitro 5 can handle VR, you’ll be happy to know that the Acer gaming rig slew the VRMark Orange Room benchmark with a score of 7,116, sailing past the average budget gaming laptop (5,415). The Nitro 5 also defeated the ROG Strix G15 (5,259), the G5 15 SE (7,237) and the Legion 5 (5,013).

Despite its obsolete CPU, the Nitro 5 served up a score of 5,435, which beats the category average (4,696) and the Core i7-10750H processors inside both the ROG Strix G15 (5,168) and the Legion 5 (5,325). However, the Nitro 5 couldn’t keep up with G5 15 SE’s AMD Ryzen R7 4800H CPU, which outputted a spectacular score of 7,715.

The Nitro 5 took 11 minutes and 41 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p on our HandBrake benchmark, failing to surpass the category average (11:25). The ROG Strix G15 (10:28), G5 15 SE (6:43) and Legion 5 (10:05) were quicker than the Acer gaming rig.

When we ran the file transfer test, the Nitro 5’s 256GB SSD duplicated 4.97GB of multimedia files in 18 seconds at a transfer rate of 301 megabytes per second. This is a tinge faster than the category average (285 MBps). The Nitro 5 also beat the 512GB SSDs inside the ROG Strix G15 (129 MBps) and the Legion 5 (200 MBps). However, the Acer laptop couldn’t keep up with the G5 15 SE (452 MBps), which also sports a 512GB SSD.

The Acer gaming rig lasted 7 hours and 6 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test (continuous surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness), which outlasted the average budget gaming laptop (6:56). The Nitro 5 also has more endurance than the ROG Strix G15 (5:11). The G5 15 SE (7:14) and the Legion 5 (7:13) lasted 8 minutes and 7 minutes longer than the Nitro 5, respectively.

After playing a 15-minute, 1080p YouTube video, the Nitro 5 remained relatively cool under the hood, showing off the advantage of its plastic chassis. The Acer laptop’s center (88 degrees), touchpad (76 degrees) and underside (87 degrees) all hovered below the 95-degree comfort threshold. Again, the hottest location was the underside (near the vents), reaching 91 degrees.

You’ll also find Acer properties such as Acer Product Registration, which offers discounts and exclusive offers, Acer Collection S, an app store, and Acer Care Center, a platform that runs system updates, tuneups and diagnostics.

The Acer Nitro 5 is a solid budget gaming laptop with competition-beating frame rates and VR score. However, there is one laptop that consistently kept outperforming the Nitro 5 during our testing: the Dell G5 15 SE.

The $829 G5 15 SE kicked the $999 Nitro 5’s butt. The AMD-equipped Dell gaming rig sports a punchier display, more storage, zippier file-transfer and video-editing rates, and better overall performance.

On the plus side, the Nitro 5 crushed the G5 15 SE — and its other rivals — when it comes to gaming frame rates, offering an average of nine more frames than the Dell laptop. It also surpassed all of its competitors on the VRMark Orange Room benchmark.

If decent VR performance and higher frame rates appeal to you, get the Nitro 5, but if you prefer a better display, a blisteringly fast CPU and more storage at a sub-$1,000 price tag, the G5 15 SE is the better option.Acer Nitro 5 (Core i5-12500H and RTX 3050 Ti): Price Comparison

However, Acer does offer the Nitro 5s in a multitude of configurations. This article is about the updated 2020 15-inch Nitro 5, code-name Nitro 5 AN515-55, in its higher-tier version with the 10th gen Intel i7 processor, RTX 2060 graphics and a FHD 144 Hz display with 100% sRGB color coverage.

I’ve gathered all my thoughts and impressions on this product down below, however, keep in mind that most of our findings apply to the other 2020 Nitro 5 variants as well, with some differences in the performance, thermals, and noise for the lower tier configurations. That means that you will find most of this article useful no matter the Nitro 5 model you’re specifically looking at, and we’ll update with links towards our other reviews once we get to test those as well.

Much like the previous generations, this 2020 Nitro 5 is entirely made out of plastic. It doesn’t feel cheap, but it’s also not as nice as the metallic Acer Predator options, starting with the Nitro 7.

I appreciate that Acer ditched the faux carbon-fiber patterns and red accents on the lid used on some of their previous Nitros, as well as the fact that they implement muted Acer branding elements on this generation. However, those black smooth surfaces are incredibly prone to showing fingerprints and smudges, both on the lid and on the arm-rest, and you’ll constantly have to rub this laptop clean if you care about these aspects.

Despite the all-plastic build, this Nitro 5 feels sturdy, with a strong screen and little flex in the lid or keyboard deck. It’s also fairly compact and lightweight, at a little over 5 lbs in this variant.

As far as the practical aspects go, I will complain about a few details, such as the fact that the status LEDs are annoyingly placed just beneath the screen and the front lip and corners are too sharp for my liking. For the most part, though, this is a fine laptop. Acer put grippy feet on the bottom, implemented a hinge that allows one-hand operation and can get the screen to about 160 degrees on the back, and placed a fair selection of ports on the sides.

Acer offers this Nitro 5 series with either a red or an RGB keyboard, and we have this latter variant here, normally reserved for the higher-tier configurations.

It’s also a good typer that should appeal to most of you. The feedback is a bit stiffer than I’m used to and not as mushy as I remembered from the previous Nitros, and that’s a good thing.

Acer offers a couple of different screen options for the Nitro 5 series. Once more, our sample gets the higher-tier variant, which is a fine IPS FHD panel with 144 Hz refresh rate and fairly good response times.

This is a solid choice for gaming and daily use, with 100% sRGB color coverage, wide viewing angles and almost 400-nits of brightness at its highest setting. Blacks are fairly washed out, though, and that also impacts the overall contrast.

Our test model is a top-specced configuration of the Acer Nitro 5 in the 2020 AN515-55 model, with an Intel Core i7-10750H processor, 32 GB of DDR4 3200 MHz RAM, 1 TB of storage and dual graphics: the Nvidia RTX 2060 dGPU and the Intel UHD within the Intel platforms, with Optimus.

Before we proceed, keep in mind that our review unit is an early-production model with the software available as of late-July 2020 (BIOS v0.14, Nitro Sense 3.00.3138, GeForce Game Ready 451.67 drivers). While certain aspects might change with future software updates, our results should be mostly what you’ll get with the retail models as well.

Spec-wise, the 2020 Nitro 5 tops at a 6Core Intel Comet Lake i7-10750H processor available on this sample, with i5 models offered on the lower-end models. AMD Ryzen configurations are also available in some markets, but we’ll cover those in a separate article.

The updated Intel platform supports up to 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. Our configuration gets 16 GB of RAM in dual-channel, and there are two DIMMs available inside. As for the storage, our unit gets a single WDC PC SN530 drive. There are two M.2 slots on this laptop, as well as a 2.5″ bay.

For the GPU, what we have here is the standard Nvidia RTX 2060 non-Super graphics chip from 2019, in the 80W variant. I would have expected some power variation between the performance modes available in the Nitro Sense control app, but switching between Balance or High Performance doesn’t seem to change anything on our sample. In both cases, the CPU stabilizes at 45W in demanding loads, and the GPU runs at its stock 80W settings.

Both the CPU and GPU are soldered on the motherboard, but the memory, storage units, and wireless chip are accessible inside for upgrades. For that, you’ll need to take out the bottom panel, hold in place by a couple of Philips screws. I have to add that the 2.5″ bay lacks the required connector on our unit, and there’s a good possibility that Acer will not include it if you opt for a configuration without an installed HDD. Looks like a standard connector that you can easily find online, though.

Before we talk about real performance in demanding loads, I do have to mention that this Nitro 5 is a fine everyday laptop for multitasking, browsing, and video.

On to more demanding loads, we start by testing the CPU’s performance by running the Cinebench R15 test for 15+ times in a loop, with 2-3 seconds delay between each run.

The i7 processor quickly stabilizes at around 45+W on the High Performance setting, which translates in frequencies of 3.5+ GHz and temperatures of 95+ C, with scores of 1070+ points, and quiet fans at only 40-41 dB at head-level. There’s plenty of headroom on this implementation, and Acer could decide to allow it to run at higher power on this profile, the same way they allow it on their Helios and Triton lineups that we’ve tested.

Undervolting is disabled on this sample, and I couldn’t figure out how to enable it in BIOS. That’s unfortunate, as undervolting would have surely helped here, based on our experience with other Acer 10th gen notebooks.

Switching over to the Balance profile power doesn’t have any impact on the performance and thermals on this sample, which is one more reason why I’d expect the retail units to perform a little bit differently. The CPU is however power limited at 25+W on battery, with matching scores. Details below.

To put these findings in perspective, this Nitro 5 performed poorer than the other 15-inch implementations of the i7-10750H platform that we’ve tested, and that’s due to the stock 45W power-limit and lack of undervolting support. I’ve also added two competing AMD Ryzen 4800H models in the chart below, options available in this Nitro’s price range, just for a ballpark comparison of the kind of CPU performance gap you can get with the AMD platform these days at around $1000.

With that out of the way, we then went ahead and further verified our findings with the longer Cinebench R20 loop test and the gruesome Prime 95, on the High Performance profile. The CPU runs at 45+ W on both tests, with fairly quiet fans and solid temperatures of around 75-80 degrees C.

We also ran our combined CPU+GPU stress tests on this notebook. 3DMark stress runs the same test for 20 times in a loop and looks for performance variation and degradation over time, and this unit passed it fine. Luxmark 3.1 fully loads both the CPU and GPU at the same time. The CPU stabilizes at around 45W and 90+ degrees C, with the GPU running at around 80W and 82+ C.

The HWinfo logs below show the CPU and GPU speeds and temperatures in Witcher 3 and Far Cry 5 on the High Performance power profile, with the laptop sitting on the desk.

You can also manually adjust the fan’s speed in the Nitro Sense app, if you’re looking to better balance thermals and noise. However, without undervolting support or the possibility to cap the CPU in Throttlestop, I don’t think you will get it to run at lower than high-80s based on our experience with this sample, at least not in the latest generation AAA titles. Repasting might help, though, but that’s not for everyone

Acer didn’t skimp on the thermal design of this 2020 Nitro 5 configuration, implementing a cooling solution with two fans, four radiators, three heatpipes, and sufficient thermal plates spread on top of the components and secondary electronics. That’s a step-up from the design on the previous 2019 Nitro 5 lineups, and much closer to the kind of cooling normally implemented on higher-tier products, such as their Predator Helios 300 lineup.

With this sort of thermal design, I’m somewhat surprised by those high CPU temperatures in this chassis. Make sure to look into a few other reviews, maybe there’s something wrong with our sample. I’ll update this section once we get to review a few more Nitro 5 configurations.

With games, the fans ramp up to 43-44 dB on Auto, or 49-50 dB on their Max setting available in the Nitro Sense control app. Here’s a quick summary, at head-level.

As far as outer shell temperatures go, this Nitro runs cooly with daily use, but heats up a fair bit with gaming. With the fans on Auto, we measured temperatures in the high 40s around the arrow keys, and mid 50s in the right side of the keyboard, but the WASD region stays cool at mid to high 30s. Switching over to the Max fan profile shaves a few degrees of the hottest regions, but doesn’t drastically change things.

*Daily Use – streaming Netflix in EDGE for 30 minutes, Balance Profile, fans at 33-37 dB*Gaming  – High Performance – Auto fans – playing Far Cry 5 for 30 minutes, fans at 43-44 dB

The speakers fire through cuts on the underbelly and don’t expect much from them. We measured volumes of around 73-75 dB at head-level, and experienced average to poor sound quality, with little at the lower end (on the Music profile in Nitro Sense). You’ll most likely want to hook up some headphones with this.

For some reason the CPU didn’t clock down the way it should on our sample, thus I’d expect the retail versions to run more efficiently and offer around 3-4 hours of daily multitasking, 4-5 hours of light use and 5-6 hours of video on a charge.

This Nitro 5 configuration comes with a compact 180W power-brick, and that’s what you’ll also get with the GTX 1660Ti models. The battery fills up in about 2 hours and USB-C charging is not supported.

This top-end configuration with the 144 Hz screen, the i7 processor and the RTX 2060 graphics chip goes for around 1350 EUR in Germany and 1150 GBP in the UK, but I couldn’t find it in the US just yet.

However, Acer offers this in a multitude of other versions, starting from 899 EUR/799 GBP for the i5 model with GTX 1650Ti graphics, while the i7 model with 1660Ti graphics is available for 1199 EUR/999 GBP. Careful about those screen options, though. If possible, I’d definitely pay extra for the 144 Hz 100% sRGB panel on this sample.

The RTX 2060 variant tested here might not be the most popular version of this laptop, as it’s nearly as expensive as the 2060 variant of the higher tier Predator Helios 300, but the 1660Ti and 1650Ti models are worth more than a look. Acer cleaned-up the design, upgraded the thermal module, keyboard and screen options, and also updated the hardware specs with these Nitros.

On the other hand, the high CPU temperatures with games, paired with only limited performance in CPU-heavy loads, plus the poor speakers and smudge-prone black plastic build are some of the aspects that could lead you towards something else. But even so, the 2020 Nitro 5 lineup is competitive in its segment, where some compromises have to be made to hit the lower price tag.

The Nitro 5  is Acer’s entry-level series of gaming notebooks, built mostly on Intel Core H hardware and Nvidia dedicated graphics, with few exceptions of AMD Ryzen variants.

We’ve spent time with a mid-range configuration of the 2018 Nitro 5 line, with a Core i5-8300H quad-core processor, 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, dual-storage and Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics, and we’ve gathered all out impressions in the following article.

The 2018 update changes very little on the outside, that’s why we’ll reference our review of the 2017 Nitro 5 where required and mostly focus in this article on the parts that are influenced by the new platform: performance, thermals, acoustics and battery life.

The Nitro 5 is a 15-inch laptop laptop with a plastic-built chassis and outer-case, as well as a fairly simple design, at least in comparison to most other gaming notebooks available out there.

That aside though, the 2018 Nitro 5 is identical to last year’s mode in terms of construction and ports selection, and you can find our in-depth opinions about these over here.

There’s however a different panel on this 2018 version of the Nitro 5. It’s still a fairly average IPS panel, but from a different manufacturer and slightly improved over the Chi Mei model we’ve seen on our 2017 test model.

The calibrated color profile is also available for download over here, in case you want to address the slight white balance and gray level imbalances available out of the box.

This is where things get interesting. The 2018 Nitro 5 is available in a few different configurations, starting with Coffee Lake quad-core processors, 8 GB of RAM and Nvidia 1050 series graphics. Our test model is a mid-level variant built on the Core i5-8300H processor with 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics and dual storage, with a SATA M.2 SSD and a regular 2.5″ HDD.

The CPU is the big novelty here. As you’ll see from the results below and this dedicated article, the i5-8300H is a quad-core processor with HyperThreading and higher clocks than the older KabyLake i5-7300H, which means it’s much faster in everyday use, especially in those tasks that can benefit from the increased number or working threads. In fact, the i5-8300H is faster in most cases than last year’s i7-7700HQ, at a fraction of the cost.

Of course, the same can be said when running daily activities like browsing, editing documents and watching video content, which this Nitro 5 handles flawlessly, while running cool and fairly quiet as well.

We also tested a few games, and you can find the results below, again compared to what we got on last year’s Nitro 5 with the i7-7700HQ processor and Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti graphics.

The i5-8350H should have no impact in gaming performance when compared to an i7-7700HQ configuration, but will help in some titles when compared to an i5-7300HQ variant, given its extra multi-core performance capabilities.

The cooling solution on the 2018 Nitro 5 hasn’t changed from last year’s implementation. It uses two fans grouped together and two heatpipes that spread on top of the CPU and GPU.

It doesn’t work as well with more demanding tasks and gaming. We didn’t notice any performance quirks, so the cooling can keep the i5 CPU and the GTX 1050 Ti GPU at bay, but they reach pretty high temperatures (90 C for the CPU, 70+ for the GPU). At the same time, the fans can get fairly noisy, peaking at 50-51 dB at head-level, which means you’re going to need headphones to cover them up.

The speakers on this laptop are identical to the ones on the Aspire 7, Aspire 5 and Predator Helios 300 and are just average. We measured about 77 dB max volume at head level, and the sound coming out of them is decent, but rather tinny and with very little low end.

Acer puts a 48 Wh battery on the Nitro 5, which is on the lower-end of the class, but also similar to what most other alternatives withing the price-range offer.

Our model came with a 135 Wh power brick and a full charge took around 2 hours. The Power brick is pretty standard and weighs about 1.1 lbs (500 g), including the attached power cable.

$849 on the other hand will get you the 20-30% faster GTX 1050 Ti graphics chip, as well as a 256 GB SSD instead of that HDD, which makes a big difference in everyday use. That’s in fact the configuration I’d opt for, and later add a HDD if I’d need more storage space.

The pricing will, and the Nitro 5 is very aggressively priced in most regions, able to tackle rivals like the Lenovo Legion Y520 and the updated Legion Y530, Asus TUF FX504 or the Acer Aspire 7. It out-prices the Dell Inspiron Gaming and Dell G7 Gaming, the Asus TUF FX505, or the Asus ROG GL553 variants with similar configurations, albeit these are overall nicer laptops with better screens, better builds, quieter fans and larger batteries.

So at the end of the day, if you’re on a budget and want the best hardware specs money can buy in a mid-range gaming laptop, paired with a decent screen and good keyboard in a fairly nice shell, the Nitro 5 should be on your list. Just be aware of its quirks and make sure you can live with them before taking the plunge.

That’s about it for this review of the 2018 version of the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-52. Let me know what you think about it and get in touch if you have anything to add or any questions.

With a lightning-quick 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms2 response time, your game sessions will be fluid, unbroken, and unmatched. Now you can land those reflexive shots with pinpoint accuracy and minimal ghosting.

The newly refined chassis comes with a few extra tricks up its sleeve in the form of dual- fan cooling, dual-intakes (top and bottom), and a quad-exhaust port design. For extra control, pop open the NitroSense utility app for extra control and take command over fan speeds, lighting, and more.

Spice things up with the 4-zone RGB keyboard1 and take command of the inner workings of the laptop via the dedicated NitroSense Key. The WASD and arrow keys are also highlighted for easy visibility for those clutch moments.

With the Intel® Killer E2600 Ethernet Controller, Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6 AX1650i, and Control Center 2.0, you have all the tools you need to clear out the online competition. You deserve the low latency and reliable connection that only Killer networks can provide.

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The Acer Nitro 5 is Acer’s budget gaming laptop line, available in configurations starting with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 and an Intel Core i5 up to the model we reviewed. Inside, the Nitro 5 has two M.2 SSD slots (one comes with an SSD pre-installed) and an HDD SATA bay.

With an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card and an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX processor, the Acer Nitro 5 is about as good as it gets for laptop performance. Even the most demanding games, like Cyberpunk 2077, run over 45 frames per second at maxed-out 1080p graphics settings with ray tracing. Whether you need a laptop for the best big-budget cinematic games or strenuous 3D modeling, the Nitro 5 will fit the bill.

The Nitro 5’s top-line CPU, GPU, and 32GB of RAM are excellent for demanding real-world tasks like 3D rendering and film production. When we encoded a 13-minute 4K film to 1080p in Handbrake, it only took six minutes 17 seconds. Meanwhile, rendering a 3D image in Blender took three minutes 26 seconds with the CPU and six minutes 15 seconds with the GPU. Compared similarly configured laptops like the Asus ROG Strix G15 AMD Advantage Edition, which has the same CPU and an AMD Radeon 6800M GPU, and the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, which has a Ryzen 7 CPU and an RTX 3070 GPU, it keeps pace—only a few seconds slower in each Blender test, but up to 60 seconds faster in the Handbrake test.

This laptop"s gaming performance is unsurprisingly stellar, too. Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a fairly demanding game, runs at 108 fps at 1080p on the highest graphics preset. By comparison, the base Acer Nitro 5, which packs an Nvidia GTX 1650 and AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, runs Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 45 fps.

But compared to some of its competitors, the Nitro 5 is a tad slower. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro—despite its technically weaker hardware—ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 110 fps; the MSI GE76 Raider, which has an Intel Core i9-11980HK processor and another RTX 3080 graphics card, pushed Shadow of the Tomb Raider to 119 fps. On the other hand, the Nitro 5 runs Control at 108 fps on the 1080p high graphics preset while the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro runs at 86 fps and the Asus ROG Strix G15 AMD Advantage runs at 96 fps.

Lower-specced laptops like the Legion 5 Pro have near equivalent performance to this Nitro 5 in most games because Acer implemented a power cap of 95 watts on the GPU. Compared to the full-powered RTX 3080, a lower-powered version needs less cooling and is less taxing on the laptop’s battery, but its performance is slower.

Even though this is the highest-end Nitro 5 available, it looks more like a budget laptop. The design is no-nonsense, with an all-plastic black and red exterior that’s stiff and sturdy. The red accents are glittery yet subtle, and the logo blends in with the lid. It’s not the sleekest laptop design, but it feels like it can withstand any wear and tear for several years.

The Nitro 5 has a bulky chassis due to Acer’s utilitarian approach, but the extra bulk serves a purpose. The chassis stays cool even when running near max load, around 35-37.7 degrees Celsius (95-100 degrees Fahrenheit), which is about skin temperature. The internal fans and heat sinks are also quite big, which somewhat helps keep the noise down. The benefits aren’t huge compared to the clever cooling solutions in thinner gaming laptops, but they work.

Accessing some of the laptop’s internals is really simple, too. If you remove the screwed-on bottom cover on the underside of the laptop, there’s an empty slot for a 2.5-inch HDD, support for a second M.2 SSD, and two RAM modules (they’re not soldered down, but the motherboard can’t handle more than 32GB of RAM anyway). The components are all fairly modular, which makes it easy to upgrade your storage or RAM down the line.

The Nitro 5’s keyboard doesn’t rival a business-first laptop like the Dell XPS 13’s, but it’s serviceable for regular use. It’s a full-sized keyboard, with keys that are a little mushy but ultimately easy on the fingers thanks to their low actuation force and large size. I quickly became accustomed to the fairly standard keyboard layout, although the NitroSense button near the number pad, which brings up the Acer control panel, threw me off occasionally because I would sometimes accidentally press it.

A lot of gaming laptops make you choose between resolution, refresh rate, and color accuracy on the display. The Nitro 5 strikes in the middle with a crisp 2560 x 1440p QHD high-refresh screen that’s reasonably color accurate and vibrant. While the screen covers the sRGB color gamut, it doesn’t meet the full gamut for HDR viewing.

It’s a little dim at 305 nits, but it otherwise looks great for games, movies, and work. If you’re mostly concerned about the monitor’s gaming aptitude, it delivers a 165Hz refresh rate which makes games look fluid and play smoothly.

With the RTX 3080 graphics card and Ryzen 9 processor, even games like Cyberpunk 2077 can play above 60Hz with ray tracing enabled. If you’re an esports gamer, get ready for 165 fps on maxed-out graphics settings on games like Apex: Legends, Final Fantasy XIV and Fortnite.

This laptop is hard to fit in a backpack thanks to its enormous 0.94 x 14.3 x 10-inch proportions and 5.1-pound weight, but there are more reasons to keep it at home. It doesn’t have the worst battery life we’ve seen in a gaming laptop, but with barely over four hours of battery life to go on, the Nitro 5 won’t make it through the day if you can’t recharge in the middle. When some gaming laptops get up to nine hours of battery life out of them—like the Asus ROG Strix AMD Advantage—it stings to settle for so little.

This top-line Nitro 5 is very, very expensive (over $2,000) and quite bulky. Normally, big, powerful, and expensive laptops like this wouldn’t have GPU performance capped, but Acer did just by limiting how much power the GPU gets—which makes our eyes wander elsewhere. There are pros to limiting power consumption, as we mentioned above, but limiting the graphics card’s max power only helps extend the battery life if you’re gaming on the go, which most users won’t, especially with the battery life so short on this particular laptop.

It also helps keep chassis and internal temps down, but the GPU in this Nitro 5 can take a bit more heat and so can the chassis: it barely goes above skin temperature on the outside, and the RTX 3080 maxes out at about 87 degrees Celsius. There doesn’t seem to be a good reason to limit the RTX 3080’s power consumption unless an extra 10W of power does indeed raise temperatures outside of the ideal threshold.

The Nitro 5 is a budget laptop at heart, and while we liked some aspects of its minimalist design, gaming laptops in this price range often have per-key customizable RGB keyboards, adjustable fan and CPU speeds, high-speed ports like Thunderbolt 4, and all-metal construction. The Nitro 5 has none of that. You get a red-backlit keyboard, a fan speed monitor, and an okay collection of ports (3 USB-A ports, one USB-C port, an ethernet port, and an HDMI 2.1 port). On a laptop this powerful, a Thunderbolt port or a faster USB-C port would have been awesome to have to connect more monitors, external SSD storage, or a docking station.

Meanwhile, the chassis design works but isn’t particularly special. Chunky laptops have fallen out of favor as processors run more efficiently and cooling solutions become more compact, but the Nitro 5 is almost an inch thick and weighs over five pounds. The chunkiness does make it easier to keep the thermals down, but the bezels around the screen are also thick and old-fashioned—almost an inch at the bottom and about a quarter inch on the sides—whereas other gaming laptops in the same class have slimmer, modern bezels.

Also, if you hoped the Nitro 5 would at least make an awesome work-from-home laptop, you will be sorely disappointed with its grainy and poorly-processed 720p webcam.

If the only thing you care about is getting a laptop with a high-end CPU and GPU, then this Nitro 5 is the cheapest option on the market at $2,299.99. It is a good laptop where it matters: it can run basically anything, its display is fast and crisp, its keyboard is comfortable, and the chassis can withstand a bit of roughhousing. However, there are better value gaming laptops that can perform as or almost as well as this Nitro 5.

The Asus ROG Strix G15 AMD Advantage Edition, which packs the same Ryzen 9 5900HX processor and an AMD Radeon RX 6800M only costs $1,649. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, which has a lower-tier Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card, costs $1,529.00. They cost over half a grand less, but they trade blows with the Nitro 5 in gaming, 3D rendering, and film encoding—all three performed virtually the same in our benchmarks. As if that weren’t enough, they’re also thinner, come with more premium features (like customizable RGB lighting), and have better battery life.

The Nitro 5 is among the best gaming laptops in terms of raw performance. However, performance isn’t everything, and the Nitro 5 offers neither the best value nor the best features for the money. It’s the cheapest laptop with an RTX 3080, but as we already mentioned there are other gaming laptops that perform as well or slightly better than the Nitro 5 and cost hundreds of dollars less. Some also have other features like fully programmable RGB keyboards, all-metal construction, or a thinner profile. Unless you need a laptop with an RTX 3080 at the cheapest price possible, you have better options than the Acer Nitro 5.