Acer Nitro 5 review: Is this seriously affordable gaming laptop powerful enough?
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Easy to ignore the flawsAcer Nitro 5 review: Is this seriously affordable gaming laptop powerful enough?
Portable 1080p PC gaming for $640. 
Acer's Nitro line provides gamers budget options for desktop PCs, accessories, and laptops similar the Nitro 5, which I've been using for a little more than than a calendar week. For internal performance hardware, at that place are plenty of Intel and NVIDIA options bachelor, though fans of AMD can instead opt for something similar the review model I have hither, with a Ryzen five 2500U processor (CPU) and Radeon RX 560X discrete graphics (GPU). At but $640 the hope of 1080p gaming might be enough to sway you lot to buy this laptop, and while it does fulfill its role, there are certainly some cut corners that you should be aware of.
Budget gaming laptop
Acer Nitro 5
From $640
Bottom line: The Nitro 5 provides performance for decent 1080p gaming, and its cut corners tin can likely be ignored thanks to a truly inexpensive price.
Pros
- Affordable
- Easy-access RAM and storage
- Enough of ports including USB-C
- Intel and AMD hardware options
- Supports MU-MIMO
Cons
- Slow HDD
- Touchpad placement is slow
- Blurry webcam
Acer Nitro 5 technical specifications
| Category | Spec |
|---|---|
| OS | Windows x Home |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen v 2500U Upwards to 3.6 GHz Four cores |
| RAM | eight GB DDR4 |
| Storage | one TB SATA 7,200 RPM Travelstar HDD |
| Brandish | fifteen.six inch IPS FHD (ane,920 x 1,080) 60 Hz refresh rate |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon RX 560X 4 GB GDDR5 VRAM |
| Ports | Two USB-A 2.0 I USB-A 3.0 I USB-C 3.1 HDMI 2.0 RJ45 Ethernet 3.five mm audio SD carte reader |
| Audio | Dual stereo speakers Dolby Audio Premium Acer TrueHarmony |
| Wireless | Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A 802.11ac (2 x 2) MU-MIMO Bluetooth four.two |
| Camera | Forepart-facing 720p |
| Keyboard | Backlit with numpad |
| Touchpad | Precision |
| Battery | Four-cell Li-ion |
| Dimensions | 15.35 inches ten ten.47 inches x i.05 inches (389.89 mm ten 265.94 mm x 26.67 mm) |
| Weight | 5.51 pounds (2.v kg) |
Acer Nitro 5 design and features
The Nitro 5 weighs in at v.51 pounds and is but more than than an inch thick, with a chassis made primarily from black plastic. The design isn't every bit in your face up as a lot of gaming laptops, sticking with a relatively normal — if slightly bulky — body. It has a thick row of vents forth one half of the dorsum edge (the other half looks the same though is not vented), and the lid has a brushed-metallic look that gives it some distinction. Give-and-take of warning to anyone who likes a clean device, this laptop constantly picks up fingerprints and smudges. The unmarried wide swivel is red for some emphasis to friction match the red lining around the touchpad, and though it's not as impressive on a laptop that weighs this much, the lid tin exist opened with one hand.
There's a lot of room for ports on a laptop this size, and Acer has taken full advantage. On the left is Ethernet, USB-C iii.1, HDMI 2.0, USB-A 3.0, and an SD card reader, and on the correct are 2 USB-A 2.0, a iii.5 mm audio jack, and a barrel-way charging port. Birthday this is a decent pick of ports that will permit you connect all your peripherals without getting too jammed up, and it's especially nice to run across USB-C on a laptop this price.
The bottom of the laptop can be removed entirely later taking out fifteen screws, but Acer has a couple of like shooting fish in a barrel-access panels overtop of the dual RAM slots and 2.five-inch storage bay. The review unit'south hard-disk drive (HDD) takes up the bay here, but there is a slot for an M.2 SATA solid-country drive (SSD) if y'all accept off the larger cover for later upgrades. Besides on the bottom are two down-firing speakers that aren't bad if you detect yourself without a headset, just for best consequence, you'll want an culling.
Overall I don't mind the blueprint of the Nitro five, even if it does wait a scrap dated compared to, say, Lenovo's Legion Y530. The angled front end corners don't exercise much for me, especially when they clip off the edges of the lid's bezel, but there are certainly far bulkier and aggressive gaming laptops out there that y'all'd pay a lot more for. If you lot prefer something in the middle of subdued and aggressive, I think the Nitro 5 will please.
Acer Nitro 5 display
A killer brandish isn't really expected in a laptop this cost, but it nonetheless has to live up to a certain standard that gamers demand. The xv.6-inch not-touch display here has an IPS console for wide viewing angles, a 60 Hz refresh rate (which substantially matches what the Nitro 5'southward hardware can put out for modern games), and decent color that doesn't immediately seem washed out upon opening the chapeau. It could be a lot brighter, and if yous're frequently gaming in well-lit rooms, yous might wish you lot could crank up the backlight further than it allows.
I tested color reproduction and got back 69 percent sRGB and 52 percent AdobeRGB. For a budget display, these numbers are pretty much what's expected. While gaming I didn't notice the color equally much as the chunky bezel, which hits about an inch on all sides. Later using it for a few gaming sessions, I don't think this brandish in a $640 laptop poses a problem. It'due south not going to really wow you lot, just it's perfectly functional.
Acer Nitro five keyboard and touchpad
The Nitro five's keyboard has a blood-red backlight to match the other red accents, as well as WASD keys that have a red border to better standout when backlit or nighttime. There'south enough room for a total number pad on the right side, and all keys have adequate, comfy spacing. Key presses are soft and comfortable, specially if you plan on using this laptop for a bit of productivity during the day. While gaming, though, they might be a flake too soft for some people'south taste, every bit they don't provide much feedback as to when activation happens.
The Precision touchpad is big plenty to match the rest of the laptop and provide plenty of infinite for gestures. It has a satisfying click and tracks well, but its off-center placement is a pain. With a left paw on the usual WASD keys, your palm is going to constantly rub against the touchpad and the low it sits in. About, if not all, gamers are going to disable the touchpad in lieu of an external mouse anyway, only that'southward not going to gear up the annoyance of feeling it under your hand at all times.
Acer Nitro v gaming and VR
A gaming laptop's worth ultimately comes down to how much functioning it can put out compared to the asking price. While the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U CPU and Radeon RX 560X GPU likely wouldn't exist prime number choices for hardcore gamers looking for the best possible performance, they are affordable options that are nevertheless capable of delivering a 1080p experience.
Despite having the correct ports, this laptop isn't cutting out for VR unless all you're interested in is regular Windows Mixed Reality. Information technology'southward much better suited to playing popular esports titles or modern AAA games on lowered settings, hit betwixt thirty and 60 frames-per-second (FPS). I played Dying Lite and Path of Exile to see how well the Nitro 5 holds upward during regular play; the former averaged 34 FPS on "Best Performance" settings, while the latter averaged 69 FPS with a mix of Low and Medium settings.
While gaming, the bombardment is going to drop fast, then you lot'll want to carry the bulky power adapter with you. You'll become at most about i.5 hours while gaming, and between four and five hours when going well-nigh regular tasks.
Inside, the laptop has a dual-fan cooling arrangement that uses heat pipes to pull hot air out and abroad from the GPU and CPU, and it seems to piece of work well enough. When under heavy load you lot volition probably experience some thermal throttling and some hot spots on the chassis, but information technology wasn't anything we oasis't seen, even from laptops that cost much more. Acer has included NitroSense software that gives you some control over power and fan speeds, as well as providing CPU and GPU temperature readouts.
3DMark
Time Spy (Higher is better)
| PC | GPU | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro 5 | Radeon RX 560X | one,959 |
| Lenovo Legion Y730 | GTX 1050 Ti | ii,568 |
| Dell G7 xv 7588 | GTX 1060 | 3,792 |
| Lenovo Legion Y530 | GTX 1050 Ti | 2,330 |
| Acer Predator Triton 700 | GTX 1080 | 5,809 |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus | GTX 1080 | 5,551 |
3DMark
Fire Strike (Higher is better)
| PC | GPU | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro five | Radeon RX 560X | 5,416 |
| Lenovo Legion Y730 | GTX 1050 Ti | 6,890 |
| Dell G7 fifteen 7588 | GTX 1060 | x,029 |
| Razer Blade 15 | GTX 1070 | 13,560 |
| Lenovo Legion Y530 | GTX 1050 Ti | six,864 |
| Acer Predator Triton 700 | GTX 1080 | xiv,572 |
| MSI GS63VR | GTX 1060 | 9,874 |
VRMark
Orange Room (College is ameliorate)
| PC | GPU | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro five | Radeon RX560X | ii,982 |
| Lenovo Legion Y730 | GTX 1050 Ti | three,742 |
| Dell G7 xv 7588 | GTX 1060 | five,969 |
| Lenovo Legion Y530 | GTX 1050 Ti | 3,931 |
| Acer Predator Triton 700 | GTX 1080 | viii,592 |
If you're looking for a laptop to handle VR, yous'll probably desire to look elsewhere considering this number is below what's expected of a Rift-capable PC.
Acer Nitro 5 general performance
Fifty-fifty at this price, you might want to utilize your gaming laptop for regular tasks during the mean solar day, and the Nitro 5 holds upwardly well in this regard. The biggest result here is the deadening SATA HDD, only at least that can exist remedied by opting for a model with 256 GB SSD or by replacing the HDD yourself post-purchase.
CPU
Geekbench 4.0 Benchmarks (Higher is better)
| Device | CPU | Single core | Multi core |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro v | Ryzen 5 2500U | 3,539 | viii,967 |
| Razer Blade 15 (Base of operations) | i7-8750H | four,962 | nineteen,285 |
| Lenovo Legion Y730 | i7-8750H | 4,793 | 19,085 |
| Dell G7 fifteen 7588 | i7-8750H | four,897 | 21,245 |
| Razer Blade 15 | i7-8750H | 4,872 | 17,910 |
| Lenovo Legion Y530 | i5-8300H | 4,729 | 14,967 |
| Acer Predator Triton 700 | i7-7700HQ | 4,834 | 15,298 |
| ASUS ROG Zephyrus | i7-7700HQ | 4,322 | 13,213 |
The single core score was expected, though I thought the four cores in the Ryzen 5 2500U would put up a bigger number. Keep in heed that the table hither shows more often than not Intel Core i7 CPUs as competition.
PCMark
PCMark Home Conventional three.0
| Device | Score |
|---|---|
| Acer Nitro 5 | 3,427 |
| Lenovo Legion Y730 | 3,731 |
| Dell G7 15 7588 | 3,853 |
| Lenovo Legion Y530 | iii,546 |
| Acer Predator Triton 700 | 4,205 |
There'southward nothing out of the ordinary hither. I didn't notice any hiccups when using the laptop for ordinary tasks.
HDD
CrystalDiskMark (Higher is better)
| Device | Read | Write |
|---|---|---|
| Acer Nitro 5 | 126.7 MB/s | 123.9 MB/s |
| Lenovo Legion Y730 | 3244.8 MB/s | 1335.4 MB/s |
| Dell G7 15 7588 | 521.5 MB/s | 303.4 MB/s |
| Razer Blade 15 | three,272 MB/due south | 1,458 MB/s |
| Lenovo Legion Y530 | 1,330.nine MB/s | 560.four MB/s |
| Acer Predator Triton 700 | 3,353.5 MB/south | 1,859.3 MB/s |
| Razer Blade Stealth | one,281 MB/s | 1,330 MB/south |
If you're serious most this laptop, consider spending about $80 more than for a model with an SSD. That, or promptly do your own swap to go rid of this incredibly slow storage.
Should you buy Acer'south Nitro 5?
The Nitro 5 makes mail service-purchase upgrades piece of cake with carve up panels for storage and RAM on the back — withal you can remove the back comprehend entirely to get at all the hardware — and bombardment life isn't awful if you keep it in the realm of gaming laptops. The placement of the touchpad is one of my biggest gripes here, and that'due south a good thing considering the shortcuts commonly taken by a budget laptop.
If you're a longtime PC gamer looking for the side by side slap-up laptop, you'll no incertitude desire to look elsewhere for something with more ability and a more refined design. Anyone who wants to go into gaming while keeping costs downwardly can probably look abroad from the downsides and focus mainly on the price tag and the acceptable operation it will buy you. For more than options that aren't necessarily inexpensive, be certain to check out our roundup of the best gaming laptops.
Budget gaming laptop
Acer Nitro five
It has its flaws, but the Nitro 5'southward price is right.
If yous're a casual PC gamer who wants to stay mobile, the Acer Nitro 5 is a inexpensive way to go your hands on 1080p performance. Optional AMD hardware is a bonus for anyone who'd rather steer clear of Intel and NVIDIA.
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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/acer-nitro-5-review
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