Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop
USD
Pros
- Type-C USB
- Fast NVMe SSD
- Full HD IPS display
- Fairly comfortable input devices
- Decent build
Cons
- Dark screen
- GTX 1050 can be beaten by Radeon RX 550
- Single color keyboard back light
- Computing task
- Heavy
In This Article
Verdict
Everyone would admit that the hardware specs of Acer Nitro 5 are highly appraisable, especially for the price. For all casual gamers being addicted to play the latest gaming titles, this Acer gaming notebook will be a perfect choice of all time.
However, other than that with limited battery power and poor performing quality you cannot call it in the main stream but yes of course for regular subpar usage things can be done with it.
For different regions, specs may differ. This is one of the benchmark Laptop in case of budget, but in case of the technical attributes like keyboard, flexibility, heaviness and even getting hot at times. These things are making it a reason for not taking it.
Acer Nitro 5 & Variant Laptops Price
Introduction
To be specific, Acer Nitro 5 is one of the budget-friendly options delivering you remarkable gaming experience.
The laptop offers a series of reasonable features under least expensive price tag, including 8GB of RAM and SSD storage.
Powered by streamlined GPU and 7th Gen Intel Core processor, the Nitro 5 gaming laptop suits the basic needs of all beginners as well as higher expectations of proficient gamers.
The 15.6 inch gaming laptop features an IPS Full HD screen which appears great to look at. For graphics-intensive gaming, top notch display specifications are extremely needed to play a major role.
You will find the RAM inside the machine easy to access and upgradable to meet your future preferences.
Moreover, its spectacular, cutting-edge design is more than enough to make you fall in love with the device.
Buy for: Fast NVMe SSD and full HD IPS display.
Beware of: Single color keyboard back light and bit heavy.
Best uses for: Gaming, interior design, photo editing, architecture students, SolidWorks, running The Sims 4, Zbrush modelling artists, PUBG, ARMA 3, DOTA 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive, Digital Combat Simulator, Elder Scrolls Online, Faster Than Light, GTR Evolution, Guild Wars 2, Gunpoint, Halo, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death, Katawa Shoujo, Just Cause, King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame, Lands of Lore: Guardians of Destiny, Revit and many other purposes.
The alternatives:
Specs Details:
- Brand: Acer
- Hard Drive: 256 GB
- Hard Drive Type: Flash Memory Solid State
- RAM: 8 GB
- RAM Type: DDR4
- Processor: Intel Core i5-7300HQ
- Processor Speed: 2.5GHz
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX
- Screen Size: 15.6 in
- Processor Brand: Intel
- Product Dimensions: 15.3 x 10.5 x 1.1 inches
- Weight: 5.51 pounds
- Operating System: Windows 10
Reliability
Acer gaming laptops are all equipped for entry-level gaming fanatics and expert gamers.
The devices pack advanced CPU and graphics processor coupled with immense size of RAM and specious HDD or SSD feature.
The brand has introduced bold design options at every distinct price tag. If you have a look at Predator 21 X and Predator Helios 300 and draw comparisons between these popular variants offered by the brand, you will feel the same.
At the same time, the premium gaming laptops of Acer are well known in offering solid and user-friendly software. Find out best laptop brands list.
The Acer gaming notebooks come with GTX graphics for an affordable cost. As far as display is concerned, you can choose a 17 inch Acer gaming laptop for wider and greater viewing experience.
Performance & Gaming
The Nitro 5 can boast of having a 7th Generation Intel Core i5-7300HQ chipset under the hood.
The processor works at a speed up to 3.5GHz to manage your needs and expectations. Powered by such high end processor, Acer Nitro 5 offers incredibly fast and hassle-free performance without any occasional hang or lag.
So you have endless freedom to download and play games quickly & smoothly, stay active on social media or stream videos as well.
Being a gaming laptop, it cannot lack a powerful graphics processor. The device houses NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card which holds a dedicated GDDR5 VRAM of 4 GB.
Only fast graphics can ensure smooth & great gaming for every enthusiast and that is why the Nitro 5 offers the best & most efficient graphical power to compete with other gaming models available on the market.
Another brilliant feature of the laptop is its dual fan cooling system. Powered by the Acer Coolboost technology, the dual fans provide increasing fan speeds and great cooling ability.
This is a value-added unique feature which enables you to regulate the cooling process manually, especially at times of heavy usage when the machine needs an extra boost.
Benchmarks
CPU
1. Intel Core i5-7300HQ has an average CPU mark of 5099 on the CPU Benchmark and we all know that the results of this site are based on PassMark software. The single thread rating of this Quad Core processor is 1965.
The experts of this website have analyzed a total of 3326 samples and they have found that the margin of error in this processor is low. The overall rank of this processor is 1246. AMD Ryzen 5 3500U is one of the closest competitors of this Intel processor.
This AMD processor has a single-thread rating of 1978. Although there is a very negligible margin, still the AMD processor is better than this Intel counterpart. So we can say that the HP Pavilion that is equipped with the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U can deliver better and smoother performance than the Acer Nitro 5.
2. On UserBenchmark, the Intel Core i5-7300HQ has got an average bench score of 66.5%. The experts of this benchmarking site have analyzed 1358 processors and this one has captured 425th position.
3. GreekBench 5 is another very popular benchmarking site. According to this site, the Intel Core i5 7300HQ has a single core score of 844 and its multi-core score is 2672. These are not very promising scores. There are many i5 processors that score better than this one.
GPU
1. On the Videocard Benchmark, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti has an average G3D score of 6307. This processor has an overall rank of 210 and 651 is its average G2D mark. This Nvidia graphics card is not very popular now.
Thus, it doesn’t rank very high on the ‘G3D Mark Relative to Top 10 Common Desktop Videocards’ list. This site’s value-related chart also places this GPU at a low place. This GPU is not the best match for a high-end gaming PC, however, it can be used for casual gaming and watching HD videos.
2. There is a 3D mark rank of 128 for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. The 3DMark Time Spy Graphics Score is 2341 for this graphics card.
3. In UserBenchmark, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is ranked 141st out of 681 GPUs of this class with an average bench score of 30.9%.
Design
The Nitro 5 offers a robust futuristic design including hard edge, sleek lines as well as angles.
The keyboard and trackpad having red outline & backlit feature are designed to set the device apart from other models, making it highly noticeable.
The main chassis and lid of the laptop are made of carbon fiber to give an outstanding look and feel.
The device overall measures about 15.3 x 10.5 x 1.1 inches and weighs just 5.51 pounds.
You will find a 15.6 inch IPS display sandwiched between its lid and keyboard and also surrounded by wide bezels.
A 720p webcam is situated just above the display to help in video conferencing through the hours.
It may appear quite heavyweight, though you have to remember that Acer Nitro 5 is a gaming laptop, not of mainstream type at all.
Along with backlit WASD keys and crimson hinges, the device looks sleek & excellent, more for its lid having a polished finish as well. On this ground, the laptop is able to steal your heart just at one glance.
Display
The Nitro 5 sports a 15.6 inch Full HD IPS display to provide an unforgettable visual experience all the time.
It holds the native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The LED-backlit widescreen ensures utmost brightness and crispness as the photos appear sharp on its Full HD panel to soothe your eyes.
You can easily identify the different textures while watching various films or enjoying different gaming titles.
Even in case of bright lighting, the matte panel on the laptop functions well to take you to the next level.
As far as the technical features are concerned, several testing have proved that the display is able to reproduce average sRGB color gamut, also having a mediocre brightness level.
Storage Features
This Acer gaming laptop packs 8GB DDR4 Memory to support your favourite gaming titles.
The size of RAM integrated in the machine is decent for the price. The 8GB of RAM keeps motivating you in winning the battle too fast and conveniently without any interruption.
Moreover, you can keep multiple browsers open for monitoring other activities while playing online simultaneously.
As for internal storage, the laptop is giving you an SSD or Solid State drive option of 256GB in size.
This is another noteworthy feature for such budget gaming laptop as SSD costs much higher than a Hard Disk drive (HDD). SSD helps the device perform faster to some extent while securing plenty of files in its spacious store.
However, you may choose 1TB HDD instead of 256GB SSD too, in order to shorten your investment.
Additional Specs
Ports: as a budget gaming laptop, the Nitro 5 accommodates a surfeit of ports and essential connectivity. On its left side, you will find the maximum ports.
These include a USB 3.0, a USB 3.1, an HDMI port, a Kensington lock, a Gigabit Ethernet and an SD card reader.
The right side of the laptop is a home to dual USB 2.0 ports, a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack, a power port and double blue LED indicators for power & charging status.
Battery Life: the battery capacity of the Nitro 5 is a bit average for such budget-friendly gaming device. It can perform up to 8.5 hours on single charge with lower to moderate usage.
On the contrary, the laptop holds a solid heat management system under the hood. Heat management becomes a more unavoidable concern for gaming experts than home users because most of the modern gaming titles consume huge power while running.
Keyboard & Trackpad: the Nitro 5 comes with an Iron-red colored backlit keyboard as it illuminates the keys and helps you work or play comfortably on the device in acute darkness or low lighting condition.
The keys offer a soft feel to touch while the trackpad is responsive enough to manage your activities at times of gaming.
Audio: audio quality & features draw your attention the most when you look for the best & suitable gaming laptop for your level.
The device is well equipped with Dolby Audio Premium and Acer TrueHarmony sound system to create a long-lasting impression all around. Check out Acer Nitro 5 Details.
Just delve deep into every detail of your favourite movie or keep enjoying every moment of gaming battle while getting immersed in its pure audio effect.
Webcam: you can observe a brilliant webcam just above its 15.6 inch display. The webcam has an HD resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels as well as HDR support which is truly commendable for the price.
Under any outdoor lighting conditions, the camera ensures average brightness & sharpness of images. However, the image may appear quite grainy when you chat over a video.
What Do Users Think?
Our experts talked to Acer Nitro 5 users and compiled their opinions here.
Most of the users have admired the thermal performance and dual fan cooling system of Acer Nitro 5.
However, according to some gamers, the laptop could have more efficient keyboard with great clicky feel. The webcam is not up to the expectations of all users.
But you can ignore some of its comprising drawbacks if budget is a primary concern to you.
Apart from gaming and watching movies, you can conveniently do other non-gaming activities like typing, image or video editing, streaming music, preparing presentation etc. with utmost ease.
Expert gamers find its performance highly impressive, even at times of other power-consuming tasks as well.
Our Testing & Analysis Report
When we tested the i5 7300 HQ processor of our review model of Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop, we found that it is nothing exceptional.
On CPU Benchmark, this processor scored 5099 points on average, and on PassMark software, the single thread performance was rated 1965.
On UserBenchmark, the average bench score of the processor was found to be 66.5% and its single and multi-core performance on GreekBench 5 was found to be 844 and 2672, respectively.
The graphics card too was found to be quite powerful but our technical analysis team had nothing spectacular to boast of. On the Video Card Benchmark, the average G3D score of the GPU was 6307.
When we tried playing some high-end games at high settings, we found that it is not quite a match for the other GPUs that support playing such games.
It scored 2341 points on the 3DMark Time Spy Graphics Score, and on the UserBenchmark, its average bench score was 30.9%.
However, while playing games and typing a few docs on the laptop we found that the keyboard and the trackpad both are quite responsive allowing comfortable and fast typing and easier navigation.
The screen of this laptop also did not impress us much with its brightness level staying under 300 nits in our Delta E color accuracy and deviation tool and colorimeter.
Its downsides became more evident when we played games like Guild Wars 2, Gunpoint, Halo, Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death, and others. Making it brighter did not help even.
The battery, on our test, did not show it was different from any other in a gaming laptop. On our battery rundown test, it lasted for about 5 to 6 hours, which was even lower for more intense computing and gaming.
Questions & Answers:
Acer Nitro 5: Is it a good laptop?
This is a great device that has a very balanced specification. With any easy to moderate level task, this Acer laptop can deliver smooth processing. But for high-end gaming, this PC is not the best option.
Is there a touch screen on the Acer Nitro 5?
There is an IPS display panel on this laptop. Its quality is also good.
Can you add an HDD to the Acer Nitro 5?
Yes, there is an empty slot for a 2.5 inches harddisk. You can easily place an HDD there.
Can you mount an additional SSD to the Acer Nitro 5?
There is only one slot for SSD on this laptop. And that is occupied with the initial 256GB SSD. If you need more SSD capacity, then you need to replace this initial SSD.