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These days, everything is more expensive; that much is certain. You may expect to spend more for goods, even gaming computers, due to inflation, delivery delays, chip shortages, and whatever else is going on in the world. We haven’t previously found the Nitro 5 gaming laptop selection from Acer to be all that interesting. In reality, several of our evaluations with the lowest ratings have been of earlier Nitro 5 versions.
But for the past two weeks, we’ve been evaluating the most recent Nitro 5, which has contemporary internals and a relatively dull design, if there is such a thing as a nice boring design. The newest Nitro 5 isn’t a gaming laptop we’d immediately disapprove of, but perhaps we are jaded or have come to appreciate a more relaxed approach to design. Actually, the complete opposite. also you can learn our article on Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review.
Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review: Design
We are happy to inform that this year’s Acer Nitro 5 has a more sophisticated design than last year’s, which had a dated appearance. Cleaner designs, thinner screen bezels, and no weird angles have replaced the angled parts and red accents. Although creating a more streamlined, cleaner laptop is not very novel in the gaming business, it does mean that the Nitro performs better when compared to rivals like the Asus TUF Gaming A15 and Dell G15.
The Acer’s panels have some give, which is to be anticipated for the price, but the laptop is easily sturdy enough to be thrown into a bag without worry. Two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports are located on the device’s right side, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, an audio jack, and a Gigabit Ethernet output are located on its left edge. There is a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port at the back that can be used to power the laptop as well as handle Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort, and 5V/3A device charging. There is also an HDMI 2.1 socket that is future-proof.
Internally, The Nitro has dual-band 802.11ax wireless, Bluetooth 5.2, and a webcam. Regrettably, there is no card reader, fingerprint reader, or facial recognition for Windows Hello. However, that is sufficient to manage the majority of circumstances, and neither rival provides meaningful advancements. The Asus includes an additional USB-C port but only uses HDMI 2.0b and has one less full-size USB port. Regarding connectivity, the Dell is similar to the Acer.
Keyboard and touchpad
You have lots of room to roam about on the spacious keyboard. Compared to a typical laptop, the keys are thick and offer a pleasing level of resistance when depressed. Because they feel flimsy in comparison to the mechanical keyboards we adore, we have frequently stated that we are not the biggest admirer of laptop keyboards. However, the Nitro 5’s keys feel excellent and solid. One of the top laptop keyboards we’ve ever tested is on the Nitro 5.
The Nitro 5 has some additional flair thanks to the 4-zone RGB lights, which is a wonderful addition. By tapping the special NitroSense key on the keypad, you may enter the “NitroSense” UI, which allows you to adjust the backlight colors. You can change the backlight’s brightness, the color of each keyboard zone, and whether the lights are static or dynamic through this menu.
The customization options are sure to appeal to RGB lighting enthusiasts. You may, however, simply change the backlight to white and call it a day if you’re as boring as we are. The touchpad is a lot smaller than the roomy keyboard. The touchpad was simple to operate and intuitive despite its size. It proved to be a good touchpad and responded nicely to all of our gestures without any problems.
Display
The Acer Nitro 5 display, with its 15.6-inch size and 1080p resolution, isn’t particularly fascinating on one level, even though the maximum refresh rate of 165Hz is a little more than what we typically see at this price point. This is still a fantastic screen, even though it lacks OLED or Mini LED technology and a Quad HD resolution. Rich colours and a contrast ratio of 1226.4:1 (356.7 nits) are more than sufficient to provide stunning visuals in games like Borderlands 3, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
In addition. It works just as well for streaming movies or binge-watching Netflix. Its hidden strength is the refresh rate, which allows you to go well beyond 60 frames per second if your CPU and GPU have the necessary processing capacity. The action is sometimes so silky smooth that lowering some detail settings is worthwhile because you won’t notice the resolution. Any subjective impressions are supported by our test results.
We assessed sRGB coverage at 99.4% and the more difficult DCI P3 gamut at 75%. Even remarkable is the colour accuracy, which has an extremely low Average Delta-E of of 0.36. On this device, you might easily edit SDR images and movies, albeit the default Full HD resolution might be a hindrance. also you can check our article on Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review.
Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review: Audio
Unfortunately, the bottom-firing speakers of the Nitro 5 are blaring out a real silent riot. The sound was poor when we listened to Ross Lynch’s rendition of “Teenage Dirtbag.” Even the chorus was too little to encompass our tiny workspace. Despite this, the guitar, vocals, and drumming could all be heard separately. Bass, meanwhile, was scarce to nonexistent. The bass guitar has a standard guitar’s feel to it.
When characters started chatting to one another in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, we could hardly hear them and had to put on subtitles because the wind was muffled as we crossed the rivers. Our axe didn’t sound particularly powerful when we started attacking some fools. It appeared as though we were striking a training dummy rather than a real person. Although there is some audio software onboard, it is really simple. You may customize a few presets in NitroSense, including the Shooter, RPG, Strategy, Movies, Music, Voice, and Automatic modes. For the testing, we left it set to Automatic.
Graphic and gaming
Two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid and Time Spy, are used to gauge the visual performance of Windows PCs (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Two more GFXBench 5.0 tests that are conducted offscreen to accommodate various display resolutions and stress OpenGL operations.
Additionally, we do two real-world game tests using the F1 2021 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla built-in benchmarks. These are an amalgam of open-world action-adventure games and simulations. We test Valhalla twice at various image quality settings as well as F1 2021 with and without DLSS anti-aliasing from Nvidia. In order for results to be fairly compared between computers, we run these tests at a 1080p resolution.
The RTX 3060 GPU isn’t quite at the top of the heap, but it has consistently shown itself to be a very strong alternative, and this is no exception. The most demanding recent games may require you to lower a few settings, but given that the Nitro 5 can even push Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to 69 frames per second on average at highest settings, you’d be in excellent condition with this system for a long.
Performance
The circulation is one of the most significant but underappreciated components of any gaming laptop. No matter how advanced the specifications, if the ventilation is poor, your PC is certain to fail. However, the Acer Nitro 5 features a strong configuration with dual-fan cooling, quad exhausts on each side, and even an additional air intake above the keyboard. This equates to a very nicely cooled device that hasn’t overheated in the endless hours we’ve played with it.
Most graphically intensive games operate rather smoothly while playing on it in terms of performance. Without the use of ray-tracing and integrated graphics, we tested it using the video games Total War: Warhammer III and Cyberpunk 2077, and both were able to maintain 30–50 frames per second (FPS) in Ultra settings and 70–130 FPS in Low settings. It seems logical that this laptop can compete given that its benchmarks are actually a little higher than those of two of the other budget rivals.
The sound system, which consists of two 2W speakers, does a good job of enhancing the pictures. The music and sound effects are immersive and effectively compliment the images, despite not being particularly ground-breaking. The red illumination is always a lovely touch, especially during late-night gaming sessions, and the keyboard is smooth, quick, and satisfying to use.
Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review: Battery life
Although the Acer Nitro 5 is a superb game performer, its battery life is severely compromised. In this market, poor battery life is not uncommon, but the Nitro 5 is substantially poorer than average. Yes, that is accurate. On a flight from Seattle to San Francisco, the Acer Nitro 5 will hardly have time to view a movie.
Though less impressive, real-world performance in light use was better than that, clocking in at roughly three hours. Still, it makes sense. A tiny 51 watt-hour battery powers the laptop. That is smaller than what is present in many compact, lightweight devices. Simply said, the hardware’s power requirements have overwhelmed it.
Heat
The back underside of the Nitro 5 reached a temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit during our typical heat test, which entails passing a heat gun over the laptop after streaming 15 minutes of Full HD videos on it. Most people find it uncomfortable to hold objects in their laps at temperatures above 95 degrees for a lengthy period of time. you can read our article on Acer Nitro 5 (2022) review.
One degree separates The Nitro 5 from reaching that pinnacle. However, when playing games, it runs much hotter, with Metro Exodus: Enhanced Edition causing the back underside to reach 122 degrees. It’s advisable to keep the Nitro 5 on a desk or other flat surface while gaming because this is almost 20 degrees above our test’s comfortable level.
Configuration options
The Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-58-5046) we examined is a Best Buy exclusive and will be available there starting in June 2022 for $899. With a 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 144Hz display, a 12th generation Intel Core processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of SSD storage, this inexpensive gaming laptop offers competitive performance.
Acer will also produce a variant version of the Nitro 5 with a more potent Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU. The cost of the laptop is $1,329, but if you purchase it directly from Acer and make use of one of our Acer coupon codes, you might be able to get it for a little less.
Conclusion
While many people looking to purchase gaming laptops fantasies about having the most expensive systems available, Acer has produced options for those with somewhat less budgets. For those looking to start PC gaming, the Acer Nitro 5 is still a reliable entry-level option. The speakers and display aren’t quite as good as those in more expensive models, but they’re still on par with those in comparable budget and mid-range laptops. Even though the Nitro is primarily made of plastic, the new appearance is far more traditional than certain previous models. The quantity of software Acer has crammed on here may be the main problem. Some of it is helpful, but most of it is bloatware that buyers won’t have requested and may need to spend time deleting.