Acer Nitro 5 review: Is a budget gaming laptop powerful enough?

Since its launch, Acer's Nitro product line has always been a trusted name for tight budget gamers but still wants to buy for themselves desktop systems, accessories and laptops. suitable gaming hands, and Nitro 5 is also a product that is not out of that trend.For internal hardware and performance, there are many options (Intel and NVIDIA) for you to choose from.However, AMD fans also have their own notable options, such as the Ryzen 5 2500U (CPU) processor and discrete graphics (GPU) Radeon RX 560X.With a selling price of only $ 640 (approximately VND 15 million), and the ability to play 1080p full HD games, Acer Nitro 5 is one of the most notable names in the market for laptops and laptops. Cheap gaming in particular.However, there will be a few things you should know before deciding to withdraw the wallet for this product.

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General information

Price from 15 million.

Advantages:

1. Good price.
2. Storage and Ram memory are highly flexible, easy to install and upgrade.
3. Diversified connection ports, including USB-C
4. Many hardware options Intel, NVIDIA and AMD
5. MU-MIMO support

Defect:

1. Only use HDD
2. The touchpad position is not reasonable
3. Webcam quality is not good

Detailed specifications (standard version):

1. Operating system: Windows 10 Home
2. Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2500U, four cores, up to 3.6GHz
3. RAM: 8GB DDR4
4. Storage hard drive: 1TB SATA 7200 rpm, Travelstar HDD
5. Screen: 15.6 inch IPS FHD (1,920 x 1,080).60Hz refresh rate
6. Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX 560X.4GB GDDR5 VRAM
7. Ports: 2 x USB-A 2.0, 1 x USB-A 3.0, 1 x USB-C 3.1, HDMI 2.0, Ethernet, 3.5mm audio jack, SD card reader
8. Stereo dual speakers, support high-end Dolby sound effects, Acer TrueHarmony
9. Wireless connection: Atheros Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A, 802.11ac (2x2), MU-MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2
10. Front camera: 720p
11. Backlit numeric keypad
12. Accurate touchpad
13. 4 cell Li-ion battery
14. Size: 15.35inch x 10.47inch x 1.05inch (389.89mm x 265.94mm x 26.67mm)
15. Weight: 5.51pounds (2.5kg)

Design and features

A little about the appearance, the Nitro 5 weighs about 2.5kg and is only one inch thicker, accompanied by a frame made mainly of black plastic.In fact, the design of this product is not the same as many gaming laptops as we know it.In other words, Acer Nitro 5 has a pretty 'gentle' style with a square body that doesn't have many accents, if not a bit bulky.It has a row of thick vents placed along the rear half edge (the other half is similarly designed although there is no vent) and the metal hinge makes a difference, avoiding feeling feeling too monotonous.This hinge is also the only position in the case of the machine painted red, suitable for the red lining around the touchpad (touchpad), which adds a bit of 'gamer' element to the product. Products.And although it looks quite fragile when installed on such a heavy-duty computer, this hinge still allows you to open the computer easily with one hand, which is a small plus point of the device. suffered.The warning for those who always appreciate the cleanliness and sleekness that this laptop will be extremely dirty and fingerprints, so pay close attention to regular cleaning.

There is plenty of room for ports on a laptop of this size and Acer has made the most of it.The left side of Acer Nitro 5 is Ethernet, USB-C 3.1, HDMI 2.0, USB-A 3.0 and SD card reader.On the right, there are two USB-A 2.0 ports, 3.5mm audio jack and barrel-style charging port.In general, supporting multiple connection ports is a good option for gaming laptops because the ports will allow you to connect to a large number of your peripherals.Also, it's great to see the appearance of USB-C on a laptop at this price.

The lower part of the laptop can be fully opened after you remove all 15 screws on it, making it easy to remove and repair or upgrade hardware devices. .Looking inside the compartment you will see two dual RAM slots and a storage compartment about 2.5 inches wide.The manufacturer's hard disk drive (HDD) will be used by default here, but there will also be an additional slot for the M.2 SATA (SSD) solid-state drive for you to upgrade as needed.In addition, at the bottom will be the installation position of the two low-noise speakers.These two speakers are not bad quality, but in order to be effective and experience the best gaming experience, you will need an alternative solution, be it headphones or desktop speakers for example.

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Overall, we won't care much about Nitro 5's design, even if it looks a bit outdated compared to other products, such as Lenovo's Legion Y530.But at this price, you have to accept the trade-off, the eye-catching position, the performance will be slightly reduced and vice versa.Beautiful bad will depend on the taste of each person but to be fair, the Acer Nitro 5 design and features are not really bad at all.

Visibility

You should not expect a real screen top on this product, especially at this price point, it all stops at an acceptable level.However, saying so is not to underestimate the ability of this laptop to show images, it will still meet certain standards required by gamers.The 15.6-inch touch screen is equipped with an IPS panel for wide viewing angles, a refresh rate of 60Hz (which is basically relative to what Nitro 5 hardware can bring to modern titles. ), giving the display color quite clear and vivid.In addition, this screen's excellent brightness will also be a plus that you should keep in mind.

The color reproduction test was done on Acer Nitro 5 screen and the results were 69% sRGB and 52% AdobeRGB.For screens on a cheap product, these figures can be said to exceed the expectations of many people.Overall, it will not really surprise you about the display quality, but will ensure the most basic requirements.

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Keyboard and touchpad

Nitro 5 keyboard will have a red backlight to match other red accents on the device.In addition the WASD keys will also have a red border to stand out more when there is a backlight or is turned on in the dark.There will be enough room for the number keys on the right and the distance and width of the keys are quite complete and comfortable.The keys on the Acer Nitro 5 also feel quite soft, good bouncing for the relatively 'hands-on' input experience.However, while playing games, they may be a bit soft for some gamers' tastes, so, for the best gaming experience, the advice here will still be to use a separate keyboard. whenever possible.

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The touchpad is large enough to fit the overall design of the laptop and is enough to provide plenty of space for touch gestures.However, the position of the touchpad is really a problem.With a left hand on the usual WASD keys, your palm will constantly rub against the touchpad.Most, if not all of the gamers will be indifferent to using this touchpad, they will definitely choose a removable mouse.This is also a note that Acer should overcome in the next generation product lines.

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Experience gaming and VR virtual reality

After all, the core value of a gaming laptop is still the performance it can offer compared to the selling price.Although the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U CPU and the standard Radeon RX 560X GPU on Acer Nitro 5 may not be the option to satisfy fastidious gamers looking for the best possible performance levels, but this configuration still capable of delivering a smooth 1080p gaming experience, and that's enough for 'amateur' gamers.

Although there is enough support for suitable ports, VR experience will not be the strength on this laptop.It is much more suitable for playing popular esport games or modern AAA games at low to medium settings, ranging from 30 to 60 frames per second (FPS).

Note that during game play, the battery will drop relatively quickly, so you should bring a bulky AC adapter with you.You will be able to fight for up to 1.5 hours of gaming and three to four hours when you do common, somewhat tricky tasks, but not a big deal for a gaming laptop.

Inside, this laptop has a dual fan cooling system that uses heat pipes to draw hot air out of the GPU and CPU.In general, this system works quite well, the phenomenon of local overheating is almost impossible.When subjected to heavy loads, you may encounter some problems with thermal self-regulation and some positions on the chassis have a high temperature, but these are completely normal phenomena, which can be captured. Meet on expensive laptops.Acer also has a built-in NitroSense software that provides you with a number of fan and power control features, as well as display CPU and GPU temperature parameters.

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3D points (higher is better)

Device name

GPU

Point

Acer Nitro 5

Radeon RX 560X

5.416

Lenovo Legion Y730

GTX 1050 Ti

6,890

Dell G7 15 7588

GTX 1060

10,029

Razer Blade 15

GTX 1070

13,560

Lenovo Legion Y530

GTX 1050 Ti

6,864

Acer Predator Triton 700

GTX 1080

14,572

MSI GS63VRGTX 1060

GTX 1060

9,874

VR score (higher is better)

Device name

GPU

Point

Acer Nitro 5

RX560X

2,982

Lenovo Legion Y730

GTX 1050 Ti

3,742

Dell G7 15 7588

GTX 1060

5.969

Lenovo Legion Y530

GTX 1050 Ti

3,931

Acer Predator Triton 700

GTX 1080

8,592

If you are looking for a laptop to handle VR, maybe Acer Nitro 5 will not be a suitable name.This score is lower than the requirement of a Rift-compatible PC.

General performance

At this price, you may want to use your gaming laptop for regular tasks during the day and Acer Nitro 5 perfectly handles this problem.The biggest problem here is that the SATA hard drive on the device is not very fast, but at least it can be overcome by choosing a model with a 256GB SSD or by replacing the hard drive after purchasing it.

CPU

Geekbench 4.0 Benchmarks (higher is better).

Device name

CPU

Single core

Multi-core

Acer Nitro 5

Ryzen 5 2500U

3,539

8,967

Lenovo Legion Y730

i7-8750H

3,539

19,085

Dell G7 15 7588

i7-8750H

4,897

21,245

Razer Blade 15

i7-8750H

4,872

17,910

Lenovo Legion Y530

i5-8300H

4,729

14,967

Acer Predator Triton 700

i7-7700HQ

4,834

15,298

ASUS ROG Zephyrus

i7-7700HQ

4,322

13,213

The single-core score completely met expectations, however, the four-core Ryzen 5 2500U should have been a bigger figure anyway.Also, it can be seen here that most Intel Core i7 CPUs will be competitors for Ryzen 5.

Do you buy Acer Nitro 5?

In the segment of cheap gaming notebooks, Acer Nitro 5 can be confident to hold its head high.The beauty of this product is that almost all minus points on the product can be overcome if desired.The configuration is not strong enough?It's easy to upgrade with a smart open-to-open design and CPU compartment with a large space.Unreasonable touchpad placement?Probably not many people want to play games for hours with the touchpad.And finally the device's battery is not weak for gaming computers, and usually no one is fighting the game with the battery!

If you are an experienced PC gamer, looking for a great laptop for ease of travel, you will definitely want to look for something more powerful and more refined. This Acer Nitro 5.In contrast, there is not so much demand for 'heavy players' or eye-catching looks, but simply want to immerse yourself in entertaining moments while not too much budget, Maybe Acer Nitro 5 is the object they are looking for.

What do you think about this laptop?Please share your comments in the comments section below!

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