As we all know that gaming hardware is pretty much pricey, and hardcore gamers have to look for various factor before buying a laptop and pay a handsome price for good gears, still one can purchase Acer Nitro 5 – a good gaming laptop at an affordable price. It has been designed by Acer especially for the gamers who are budget minded. If you are planning to buy a new laptop, then you should check-out our Acer Nitro 5 Review. Today, we will shed some light on its specs and features which makes it a gaming beast.
Acer has released several models of Nitro 5 with different specifications, and these have been specially designed for budget gamers. The base model of the laptop will cost around 900 Euros (~ $1,055) and will have a Core i5-8300H processor and NVidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Graphics as the GPU, but its standard model is available under $800. Acer Nitro 5’s standard model comes equipped with 8GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics card, a powerful processor, dual-fan cooling system, a comfortable keyboard and a 1080p screen which is worth staring. However, it does not come equipped with a flappable screen. Before we go ahead, we want you to have a look at its pros and cons.
Pros
- It provides impressive graphics performance at an affordable price
- It comes equipped with Coffee Lake Core i5 CPU with Hyper-Threading
- Its Keyboard is comfortable with above-average speakers
Cons
- Heavy and bulky
- Battery life is average
- Relatively dim, non-touch display
- At maximum graphics settings, it offers low FPS.
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Verdict
The verdict of our today’s review is that Acer Nitro 5 is a beautiful and powerful gaming machine which is capable of providing strong gaming performance. Acer has designed the laptop especially for the gamers who are looking for a solid machine at an affordable price. The laptop comes equipped with NVidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Graphics card and a powerful processor. Without wasting much time, let’s move towards our Acer Nitro 5 review.
Contents
A Comprehensive Review of Acer Nitro 5 – A Gaming Laptop
Price and Availability
At present, Acer Nitro 5, the gaming beast is one of the most affordable gaming laptops available in the market. The base model of the laptop is available under $800; it comes equipped with Intel Core i7-8750H processor, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB memory, 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD and 256GB SSD. Acer has priced its Nitro 5 close to its rivals including Dell G3 15 which is also available under $800. However, it doesn’t offer a good number of options of ports for connecting various devices.
Design
Talking about the looks and design of the Acer Nitro 5, it is not at all stylish and boring, but there are few things that we liked the most in terms of its design. Its trackpad, backlight, red trimmings on the keyboard are few specs that give it a look of a real gaming device. It measures 15.4*10.5*1.1 inches in size and weighs around 5.14 pounds. A shiny black colored Acer Logo is etched on its display.
The screen lid of the laptop is made completely out of plastic; Acer has incorporated a faux carbon fiber weave into the design of the top cover and the keyboard deck to improve its look. The top cover including the area around the screen consists of a bezel that gives us a feeling that we are gaming on a powerful PC.
In order to add some contrast, there is a red display hinge bar on the laptop which is durable and sturdy. The amount of connectivity ports that the laptop comes equipped with is the most amazing part. Besides this, the laptop has a comfortable keyboard and a user-controllable cooling system. However, it is recommended to clean it carefully as it is prone to fingerprints and smudges.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The best part about the Acer Nitro 5 is its keyboard. Though the keyboard has nothing special to be talked about, it is quite comfortable with backlight and red symbols. The backlight of the keyboard automatically turns on when plugged in. Besides being comfortable, the keyboard is fast and responsive, reliable and sturdy. And when tested for the performance, we did not notice any lags and accidental presses. It makes the keyboard of Acer Nitro 5 best suitable for gaming.
The worst part about the gaming laptop is its trackpad. It sits a little left of center, below the keyboard. Though one expects a lot from trackpad when it comes to a gaming laptop, the trackpad of Acer Nitro 5 failed to satisfy our gaming needs.
Display
The 15.6-inch display of Acer Nitro 5 is quite amazing with a resolution of 1920x1080p. For the price that the laptop comes for, the display is vivid and sharp enough and will wow most of the gamers out there. The non-touch display on the base model was a bit dim, and it barely exceeded the minimum standard for comfortable viewing. Though it did not look much dim in a closed indoor room, when we opened the windows of the room, it was somehow dark.
Talking about the viewing angles of Acer Nitro 5, the angles on its IPS panel were excellent and fair. It was not something that could wow the gamers but was decent enough. When we tested the display against inverted colors, we did not find any issue when we viewed the display from extreme possible angles. It gives a premium tone to the laptop. But when we viewed the 15.6-inch IPS panel from the side, the screen looked dim.
Ports
The Acer Nitro 5 has some of the decent selection of ports that we have seen in any of the budget gaming laptops that we have reviewed until now. On the left-hand side, it has an Ethernet port, a USB 3.1 Type-C Gen. 1 and USB 3.0 Type-A, one HDMI 2.0 port, and an SD card reader.
The laptop has a charging port and two USB 2.0 ports on the right side. Besides this, it also has two audio jacks. Though Nitro 5 offers several connectivity ports, we would have loved the laptop more if it would have some more USB 3.0 ports and also a Thunderbolt 3 port. Overall in today’s Acer Nitro 5 review, we would like to say that the ports provided are decent for the price that the laptop is available.
General performance
Coming to the overall performance of the laptop, it performs well with good battery life. When we tested it against some gaming-focused tests, it performed low in some situations due to the thermal throttling. Besides this, the laptop was capable enough to perform speedy multitasking like Lenovo Legion Y530, and it offered a frame rate of 30FPS at its best settings.
Gaming performance
Acer Nitro 5 is one of the best gaming laptops under 800 USD. We tested our Nitro 5 with Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and NVidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Graphics against several latest AAA games. When tested against the Tomb Raider, the game at 1920x1080p resolution offered 53.7 FPS when everything in the settings was set to ultra.
When we tested the laptop against Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the laptop struggled a bit at 1920x1080p resolution, but still, it managed to provide 47FPS when everything was maxed out.
In order to push the limits, we tested the machine against latest the Rise of the Tomb Raider and noted that the laptop struggled pretty much hard at 1920x1080p resolution, and somehow managed to provide 39.2FPS at their best setting which is quite decent.
Considering the specs and the price of the laptop, the overall gaming performance of the Acer Nitro 5 was pretty much great, and it met our expectations at the end. The laptop managed to provide good and playable FPS when we tested the laptop against the latest AAA games.
Conclusion
We will conclude our Acer Nitro 5 review saying that the laptop is one of the best gaming laptops under 800 USD. It has been designed specifically for gamers, and the machine is capable enough to provide unbeatable performance when it comes to gaming. The battery life of the laptop is also decent. It is one of the best affordable gaming laptops that we gave reviewed until now. With Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and other premium specs, the laptop is a feast for the gamers, and they can play all latest titles at good FPS without spending huge cash.
