Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review: Is It The Best Laptop Under $700?

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review: Is It The Best Laptop Under $700
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The Acer Nitro 5 offers an excellent gaming experience for less than $700. Its mid-range Ryzen processor, as well as access graphics card, are a winning combination, and it has a respectable battery life to boot. Let’s discover more about this laptop via Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review below.

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review
Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review

Regarding budget gaming laptops, there are numerous factors to consider, including battery life, price, display quality, ergonomics, cooling, and performance. The Acer Nitro 5 prioritizes price and performance while settling for adequate battery capacity and cooling. Competitors with higher prices, such as the Lenovo Legion 5 or even the Asus TUF A15, may have significantly smaller bodies or greater displays and keyboards, but the Nitro 5 does the job.

Acer’s latest Nitro 5 is a powerful machine with a starting price of $669. The base model includes an AMD Ryzen 5 processor from the current generation, a generally older (but still competent) 8GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, and 256GB of storage. Some may feel restricted by the RAM but also storage, but those having to look for ray-tracing or 4K gaming will be disappointed. Upgrading to a model with an RTX 2060 or GTX 1660Ti will set you back $300 or more, and the only way to get more storage space or RAM is to upgrade to a more expensive graphics card or processor.

What We Enjoy – Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review

Here are the things that we satisfy with this laptop.

It can maintain fps in a variety of AAA games.

While there are many traditional & ultrabook laptops with discrete graphics options, they are rarely maximized for gaming. The Acer Nitro 5 is designed first and foremost for gaming, with daily laptop tasks designed around that principle. The Nitro 5’s Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card has been one of Nvidia’s cheapest consumer cards, but it performs like a much more expensive card.

We played a wide variety of games on the Acer 5, from e – sports to AAA cinematographic adventures. Regardless of graphics, the laptop produced a high number of frames per second. The Nitro 5 averaged 45 frames per se on the Ultra graphics preset as well as 1080p resolution in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a heavy AAA game. That’s not bad for scenic exploration.

If you set the graphics to medium, you’ll get 60 frames per sec with little loss in visual fidelity. Poorly optimized games, such as Cyberpunk 2077 or The Medium, may struggle to reach 60 frames per sec on the Nitro 5, but they should be capable of reaching 30 until patches remove inefficient code.

If esports and some other fast-paced games are more important to you, the Nitro 5 is an excellent choice. In games like Overwatch and Genshin Impact, the laptop makes full use of its 60Hz panel, very seldom dropping below 60 frames per sec even on the highest graphics settings. World of Warcraft,  Fortnite, CS: GO, and Valorant all should play without the need for a hitch, with a viewing experience very far exceeds any of it you’d get from a laptop with a graphics chipset.

It is capable of handling multiple tasks at once.

It is capable of handling multiple tasks at once.
It is capable of handling multiple tasks at once.

When you’re not channeling all of your energy into graphical glory, the Nitro 5’s AMD Ryzen 5 processor is a monster in terms of central processing. Considering the low energy usage, the Ryzen 5 is capable of handling almost any task, from a 40-tab Chrome site to a 30-layer Photoshop file. The Nitro 5 has no concept of lag. Even at setup, the laptop takes no more than fifteen seconds to get up and running.

This level of CPU performance isn’t distinct to the sub-thousand computer market, but there aren’t many laptops with such a potent CPU/GPU combination. Some laptops, such as the HP Pavilion gaming edition and the Asus TUF A15, challenge the Nitro 5’s budget gaming crown, but their higher prices are due to upgraded design features rather than performance improvements.

The Nitro 5 provides options.

Unlike many modern laptops, the Nitro 5 has an abundance of ports. This laptop has three USB ports,  an HDMI port, a USB-C port, and an ethernet port, allowing you to connect whatever peripherals you require. If you don’t like ethernet or wires, the Nitro 5’s WiFi 6 and Bluetooth ensure that connections are lightning fast. Its 720p webcam is adequate, but you should use your microphone if possible.

NitroSense, Acer’s built-in software, allows you to experiment with the fan speeds of your processors to find a happy medium between quiet fans as well as cool processors. You can adjust the fan speeds of your CPU and GPU, as well as track their temperatures but also load over time. While NitroSense does not provide the basic information and customizability of other software, such as AMD Ryzen Master and Intel Extreme Tooling Utility, it is straightforward to use.

The battery life is sufficient.

If you are not near a power outlet, you can even use the Nitro 5 for up to 5 hours while surfing the web. It’s less than half the time of an ultraportable like the M1 MacBook Air, but it’s comparable to more expensive gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 or the $3,000 Razer Blade 15 Advanced.

What we dislike – Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review

What we dislike - Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review
What we dislike – Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review

Let’s see what makes us not like this laptop.

The design is clumsy and simple.

Many gaming laptops have downsized as processors became more efficient, as they don’t require that much space to breathe to remain under critical temperatures. The Nitro 5, on the other hand, keeps things simple as well as features a thick, space form factor that is too much for its components. It’s one of the clumsiest gaming laptops we’ve tasted in a long time, measuring 0.9 inches thick and weighing 5.5 pounds. This is not a laptop for everyday use.

The Nitro 5’s red-on-black color palette screams game player, which is a trend that other laptop computers are abandoning. I think the color scheme is fun, but the explained type red backplate & keyboard betray the laptop’s high price.

The built-in speakers are inaudible.

And many use headphones to concentrate on a game or film, but it’s great to take them off and listen to speakers on occasion. When the Nitro 5 boots up a game, its fans flutter too noisily to hear its quiet voices, which easily survive it above normal conversation volume.

You do not want to listen to these speakers. They’re extremely tinny, having killed any mids as well as muddling any bass that might have been present in the audio. Beautiful soundtracks devolve into soulless mush, necessitating the use of an internal speaker for such apps. Even a low-cost Bluetooth speaker is a significant improvement over the laptop’s default sound.

The image is dim and muddy.

Cheap gaming laptops have been stereotyped as having poor battery life and poor display quality. The Nitro 5, unfortunately, follows this last trend, with a matte showcase that replicates muddy colors at lights. Contrast is also poor, with blacks appearing lit even when the display is set to maximum brightness. The display, on the other hand, is visually pleasing and allows you to play for hours. If you find that the Nitro 5’s screen isn’t accurate enough for your needs, you’ll have to forego the graphics card as well as spend more money on an ability to compete for a laptop with a better screen.

The keyboard but also trackpad are both subpar.

The trackpad and keyboard aren’t bad enough to be dealbreakers, but they’re also not great. If you have big hands, the Nitro 5’s small trackpad, as well as smaller keys, may feel confining. The red backlit keys make reading the keys difficult, and touch typists may find it difficult to adjust to the weirdly spaced keyboard. It would make a huge difference if the laptop got rid of its nearly complete and enlarged trackpad by an inch.

Should You Purchase It?

Yes. If you’re searching for a gaming laptop that won’t break the bank, the Acer Nitro 5 is a good option.

It can be hard to find a suitable laptop for under a grand which can handle the demands of a AAA game. For many people, the Acer Nitro 5 will fill that void, offering an acceptably potent Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card as well as an AMD Ryzen 5-4600U processor for very well under $800. If you’re using it away from such an outlet, you can surf the web for five hours. At $669.99, it is one of the least expensive gaming laptops on the market, but its performance competes with laptops that are two, or three more expensive.

the Acer Nitro 5 is a good option
the Acer Nitro 5 is a good option

While the chassis of the Nitro 5 does a great job of staying the interior cool, it is not for everyone. This 15.6-inch laptop is just an inch thick but also weighs 5.5 pounds, making it difficult to transport if you commute frequently. While its screen is adequate for gaming, its lack of color accuracy will limit your ability to do any visual work. The tiny keys on the keyboard and also the small trackpad may take some getting used to, but it provides reliable tracking as well as actuation that outperforms other budget laptops.

You will not find a cheaper gaming laptop with the raw performance of the Nitro 5, but other reasonably priced gaming laptops would then give you a different price, performance, and feature balance to consider. For just over a thousand dollars, the base Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 offers a svelte form factor, an excellent screen,  and a great experience while also still packing an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card and a much more powerful AMD Ryzen 7-4800HS processor. In the meantime, the $700 HP Pavilion gaming laptop has nearly the very same specifications as the Nitro 5, so it should conceivably perform similarly, but we haven’t had the opportunity to test it yet.

In conclusion

If you’re tired of the poor framerates that are common on laptop computers with integrated graphics, the Acer Nitro 5 will revitalize your gaming sessions. In this regard, it outperforms ultrabooks, but you’ll have to make concessions for this cost-efficient laptop. If you don’t mind a bulky body or a distinctly average display, the Acer Nitro 5 will make you as well as your wallet very happy.