Acer Nitro 5 Review
Acer wins the race with flying colors by introducing Nitro 5 as an entry-level gaming laptop. To look for an affordable laptop with the hope of finding an all-in-one experience can be tiring. So with few options available, nitro 5 is not only in budget but also a casual gamer’s dream in terms of performance. Although the laptop comes with some sacrifices, as you can expect from any laptop under $700, it is a much better choice as a midrange and pocket-friendly laptop with decent specs. As the laptop can handle most of the modern games, it delivers better performance than other gaming laptops at a much higher price range.
Now let’s review the laptop in detail to find out if the hype about this machine is true or not.
 Good value for money Dual fan cooling system Good battery life Plastic body Bad audio Cannot handle the latest AAA games on high quality |  |
Design
From the first glance, the laptop is an eye-catcher with its attractive black color and red linings. Acer Nitro 5 has nice gaming aesthetics with the dimensions of 14.31 x 10.04 x 0.96 inches. The body is mostly plastic, but it doesn’t feel cheap as you would expect. The laptop gives you a premium feel. The hinge is quite stiff, and you may need both your hands to open the laptop. The Nitrosence key, WASD keys, and touchpad all are redlined to make them stand out even with the switched-off keyboard. With a weight of 5.07lbs, you may find it difficult to carry around all day. The thin bezel of less than an inch artfully makes the screen look wider.
Keyboard
Now, the keyboard is the best you would find in this class of laptop. The keys are well spaced and easy to work for extended periods. The red-backlit keyboard has an intense look, suiting a gaming laptop. You can carry on your gaming during the dark too. The backlit keyboard is a versatile option. It may be perfect for you if you are a writer. You can use Nitro to scribble down your brian storming even in the dark.
Moreover, the keys are comfortable and not at all mushy. You will easily spot a Nitosence key above the Full-sized numeric pad. The nitro key controls all the functions controlling the keyboard backlit timing and fans. The only problem is that keys switch off after being idle for about 30 seconds and light up when any key is pressed. You can easily solve it with Nitrosense app and disable the function, but keeping the keyboard lit up all the time may cause a massive gap in your battery timings.
Touchpad
Most gaming laptops are notorious for the bad quality of their touchpads, irrespective of their price. Acer Nitro5 is no different. It has one of the worst touchpads you can find in gaming laptops. Acer has placed it annoyingly to the left for an unknown reason. The touchpad is sloppy and has a stiff feel to it. You will find buttons 1 and 2 at the front left and right sections of the touchpad respectively. This set of buttons is not less than a nightmare. Both buttons are not only hard to press but also result in many missed presses. For gaming, it’s better to use a proper mouse or a joystick.
Camera
The laptop has a 720p camera with the highest settings of 30fps. The picture is not only grainy but also of low quality. That is enough to judge its poor resolution. If you want to use nitro 5 for videoconferencing, you need to think otherwise. Our recommendation is to use an external webcam.
Display
The display of this laptop is much better than the other gaming laptops in the same price range. The 15.6″ Full HD Widescreen IPS Display gives a sharp and clear picture. However, it comes as a shock when you find that the display is not very effective during dark scenes. You can expect this result as its IPS display. With faster response time, color accuracy, and better contrast of the display, you also experience a less than average contrast ratio and unclear picture during dark scenes.
Furthermore, the viewing angles seem slightly narrow. You’ll need to concentrate a little harder while watching a movie with dark backgrounds. It’s not a touch screen as you surely won’t expect in a gaming laptop.
Audio
If you like the display, then be ready to be disappointed with the audio. The sound cracks at a higher volume. The fans are too loud to listen to the game sound properly. Our advice: plug in the headphones to listen properly.
Ports
The best thing about Nitro 5 is the abundance of ports offered in the design. It has an HDMI out, 2 USB 3.0, a USB-C, a USB 2.0, an ethernet port, an earphone jack, a power input. The exhaust vents are incorporated in the design and look trendy.
Storage
SSD
The 256GB PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive is a big plus of Acer Nitro 5. The durable Solid-state drive boots faster, offers better computing performance and has less power consumption. You may call it a perfect choice for a gaming machine as it lacks motors and produces less heat and noise. On the other hand, you may never want to lose data as it will be permanently deleted. Plus SSD has a short life expectancy so be ready to replace it after short spans.
RAM
The RAM is a 8GB DDR4, but it doesn’t fulfil the requirement for the best gaming experience. For better performance, you will need to upgrade the RAM to 16 GB. Sensing the need, Acer has left the slot for the upgrade.
Performance
The Acer Nitro 5 houses a 9th generation Intel quad-core i5 processor (4.1 GHz), which proves as a good choice for a midrange gaming laptop, although since the Acer Nitro 5 only has 8GB RAM and when coupled with the 9th generation quad-core Intel i5, you may not be able to enjoy some latest AAA games. So if you wish to run high-resolution games you need at least 16GB of RAM with this processor to run correctly. With games like Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Rise of the Tomb Raider, the laptop struggles to maintain steady 60fps at high revolution. The frame rate keeps on dropping to 30fps at ultra settings. Similarly, for games like PUBG and Fortnite, you’ll need to tone down the gaming setting to play it without the lags.
On the other hand, you would expect a much better result with a less demanding game such as Nier: Automata. No doubt it works well at ultra settings. However, you’ll observe the same drop in fps resulting in lags and pauses at crucial times. Any game older than Nier like Quantum Break would run smoothly and without any decrease in frame rate. Most of the problems in quality rise during the cooling of the laptop.
Besides gaming, you would find this laptop working well for casual web browsing and some mid-level video editing. The GTX 1650 card comes in handy while photo editing using Photoshop. Overall, the laptop’s performance is excellent when you compare it with the price you are paying for it.
Cooling system
Most gaming laptops don’t have a very sophisticated cooling system when they heat up quickly during intensive gaming. The best feature of Nitro 5 is the dual-fan cooling system. The exhaust ports incorporated within the design keep the temperature under control. The Nitrosense app controls the fans and heat management system. Acer has also provided the utility to the gamer to keep track of the processor’s temperatures.
With all this said, there is a downside too. The fans start when the CPU gets hot. At about 80C, the fans are quiet. Once the laptop hits the temperature of 90C, which can be pretty quick, the fans get so loud that they overtake the game sounds. Also, while cooling, there is a sudden drop in the quality. The game running at 90fps would drop to 20fps, and change can badly affect your gaming experience.
Battery
Acer claims the Lithium-ion battery of the Nitro 5 to run up to 10 hours. Our experience with the laptop doesn’t confirm it. The battery runs for more or less 4 hours on power saver mode. So, by any standards, this battery time is less than average. For intensive gaming at power saver mode, it is even less than three hours. So, during longer sessions of intensive gaming, it would be better to keep it plugged.
Final verdict
Acer Nitro 5 is a gaming laptop with good value for the price. It is not solidly built as an intense gaming device, but it can handle most of the challenging games out there.
You would like to buy it if you are starting as a gamer or want something within the budget. The laptop has a high-resolution screen, and you can enjoy binge-watching with good battery as a casual user. The dual-fan cooling system is ideal for intensive gaming and worth the price you pay for the machine. If you are willing to compromise a bit on the quality of your gaming experience, then this is a laptop for you.
Conversely, a serious gamer would avoid Nitro 5 as the GTX 1650 is just an entry-level graphics card that cannot handle AAA titles to their full potential. The bad touchpad and sudden drops in performance are enough to put you off. It would be a wise decision to spend more and find something better.