Acer Nitro 5 Review: A Stand-Out Budget Gaming Laptop

It ’s not a reach to say we ’ll probably seenew gaming laptops with grown and better computer graphic cards soon with 2021 and CES right around the turning point . That ’s all well and good for anyone who require the latest and greatest , but many citizenry would opt something that just right enough — aka something on a budget . These laptop may count more than five pounds , they may not have the right presentation or the best keyboard . They get the job done though , and they do their job well , which is why I ’d be well-chosen to recommend Acer ’s Nitro 5 to anyone who wants something that can do it all , but does n’t require to spend an sinful amount of money on a gambling laptop .

TheAcer Nitro 5is the case of laptop I would have loved to have in college . At 5.07 pounds , it ’s light enough to gestate around in your haversack , but it ’s dimension are thick enough so you do n’t have to occupy about it sliding around on your desk . Even at that weight , it ’s still sort of brick - like with 14.3 by 1.02 by 10 - inch dimensions . It would be squeamish to have that height under an inch at the very least , but it still comes with attractive features that budget laptops normally would not in the past times , like a 1080p , 144 Hz IPS display . It ’s a more - than - satisfying gaming laptop computer for $ 1,100 .

Acer Nitro 5

Photo: Joanna Nelius/Gizmodo

What is it ?

Acer ’s budget gaming laptop

Price

$ 1,100

toll , value , most of the components

No Like

Just 512 GB storage

The Nitro 5 has just the right-hand amount of embrasure , too : one USB 2.0 , two USB - A 3.1 , one USB - C 3.1 , Gigabit Ethernet , audio line out , earphone jack , and one HDMI port . Some $ 2,000 - plus laptops have less ports than that ! This laptop is n’t built for streaming , but if you desire to plug in a wired mouse , a headset , and a standalone mic to align with your friends over several round of Apex Legends , you may do that . There ’s also Bluetooth 5.0 support , and a build - in 1280 x 720 webcam plus mike .

The last - gen Intel processor is n’t that big of a via media compared to the Nitro 5 ’s full package . The Core i7 - 9750H performance is definitely not as debauched compared to the 10th - gen . But I ’d rather sacrifice a bit of performance that only amount to small decrease in frame rates or a few extra second of processing or shipment meter alternatively of DRAM , warehousing capacity , or a ray - draw graphics card . The 512 GB SSD is middle - of - the - road for the overall cost of this laptop computer , but it can easily be upgraded down the blood line . Games ’ filing cabinet sizes are massive these days , so any tier of play laptop should fare with at least a 1 TB SSD . That ’s one of the biggest drawback to the Acer Nitro 5 , but again , it ’s a budget laptop . Concessions require to be made somewhere .

The Nitro 5 also come with an RTX 2060 , which is also a last - gen graphics circuit card , but has the performance you ’d expect in a laptop at this price . gambling on a budget commonly requires some ritual killing , but the Nitro 5 is the best potential combination you could get for the price . It ’s leading . Acer does offer a Nitro 5 rendering with a Ryzen 7 4800H and a GTX 1650Ti for exactly the same Mary Leontyne Price , though . The Ryzen is the in force of the two CPUs , but most biz rely to a great extent on the GPU , and the RTX 2060 ’s performance is miles ahead of the GTX 1650 Ti . Again , I ’d rather give a bit of CPU performance than a lot of GPU operation , peculiarly since the Intel and AMD models have the same glasses otherwise for the same monetary value .

For reference , the Core i7 - 9750H has slightly beneficial performance as the Intel i5 - 10300H in theGateway Creators Serieswe of late test , scoring 5186 in individual - pith performance on Geekbench 4 , just 12 spot high than the Gateway . Not surprising since they both have the same 4.50 gigahertz boost clock . Multi - Congress of Racial Equality was no contest between the two though ; the i7 - 9750H has 6 - cores/12 - threads and the i5 - 10300H has 4 - cores/8 - thread . The Nitro 5 patently scored a lot higher .

When it come to our common Handbrake and Blender tests , the Nitro 5 was about 15 - 20 seconds faster rendering 3D range and transcoding a 4 K TV to 1080p 30 fps , which have between 12.5 - 13.5 minute for each task . The Nitro 5 was a tad slower than the Gateway in the Blender GPU trial though , by about 20 seconds , even though both have the same GPU .

Gaming - wise , The Acer Nitro 5 was by and large faster than the Gateway . Although the more GPU - intensive the game , the smaller the departure . In Overwatch , the Nitro had a 30 Federal Protective Service lead at 1080p on ultra over the Gateway , 195 to 165 Federal Protective Service . Far Cry 5 was 86 to 72 fps , Total War : Warhammer II 67 to 59 fps , Shadow of the Tomb Raider 69 to 63 Federal Protective Service , and Metro Exodus 46 to 47 fps with ray tracing off , and 37 to 38 Federal Protective Service with ray tracing on . Those two extra burden in the ninth - gen CPU are by all odds being put to use .

As for battery liveliness , the Acer Nitro 5 is slenderly above norm compared to other gaming laptop computer . Acer push up to an 8 - hr barrage fire life on the Nitro 5 , but our test showed an average of six hr . That ’s nearly the same as theMSI Creator 15,Razer Blade 15 Advanced , andAsus ROG Zephyrus G14 . It thump the Gateway by an hour , theAsus Strix Scar G15by an 60 minutes and 15 minutes , and theRazer Blade Pro 17by two and a half hours . Suffice to say , the Nitro has decorous battery life .

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And that brings me to thermals , which I , surprisingly , do n’t have much to complain about . Intel ’s 10th propagation of laptop processors run notoriously red-hot , and that ’s mostly my independent complaint of all the gaming laptops I have tested in 2020 . Sometimes that heat makes the chassis too live , and then it ’s downhill from there . Intel ’s 9th - genesis of laptop processors fair well , but just a bit . I saw processor temp reach a max of 93 C ( 199.4 F ) , which do some thermal choking according to HWInfo , but it never collide with the maximum temperature of 100 degree Celsius ( 212 F ) . Skin temps never broke 50 C ( 122 F ) , so I could game for long geological period of fourth dimension comfortably .

If price is your turn one priority , and you ’re all right with getting some previous - gen parts , the Nitro 5 is one of the well - specced gaming laptops that you may get for $ 1,100 . Acer makes a few forfeiture to get the best toll to performance proportion possible , and it passably much nail it .