Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
One thing to note is that there are a lot more configurations with the AMD model compared to the Intel one, which makes us feel like the AMD one is Acer’s preferred version. Oddly, our review unit was equipped with a 1TB Samsung PCI-E NVMe SSD, although the retail model only comes with 512GB of space. Regardless, the SSD I tested performed well in our sequential read and write test, with speeds of 2,127MB/s and 1,615MB/s respectively. Finally, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 will show you what paying up for a smaller, more powerful system will do, and whether the performance gap is worth hundreds of dollars more. Expect it to lead most if not all of these tests, as it's the most expensive contestant. Productivity Tests Make no mistake, the Nitro 5 redefines the sort of gaming performance you can expect for less than a thousand pounds. Combine that with the plethora of upgrade options, the surprisingly efficient and quiet cooling system and a pretty good keyboard, and the Nitro 5 is a surefire success. This Nitro 5 sports a fast 165Hz, 1440p display that looks great in motion when playing shooters like Call of Duty Warzone. I even dipped into playing through the new Doom Eternal DLC, and it was nice to see that the only tearing on-screen happening was Doomguy ripping some poor demon in half.
One final note, however, is that the RTX 3060 Nitro 5 runs a lot cooler and quieter than the previous (GTX 1650Ti) model I tested. Even at max spin, the laptop’s fans aren’t particularly loud. Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-45) review: Verdict The Nitro 5’s potent combination of a 3.2GHz Ryzen 7 5800H octa-core CPU and an Nvidia RTX3060 GPU is frankly astounding for the price, and it came out rather well in our usual array of laptop benchmarking tools. The battery life is a definite plus for this laptop, even if some of the alternatives lasted longer. Budget systems and larger laptops are often either short on runtime or power-hungry, but the Nitro 5 clears a long enough threshold to be a positive. Seven hours off the charger (though your runtime will vary, especially if you play games on battery power) is enough to keep you from worrying about the next time you'll be near a wall outlet.The Nitro 5 comes with Windows 11 pre-installed - with a raft of new features, including DirectX 12 for better graphics, DirectStorage for faster loading and Auto HDR to help enhance visuals in non-HDR games, Windows 11 is the best Windows ever for gaming. Plus, with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, you can play hundreds for games for a single monthly fee. Nestled into this frame is a 15.6-inch display, the longtime standard size. Larger 17.3-inch screens have been around for a long time, with 14-inch and 16-inch screens a more recent trend, but this size represents your go-to, still-portable gaming laptop size. It's an IPS panel with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate.
Explore and enjoy a new level of gaming with the Nitro 5, featuring a powerful Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU combination to provide you with excellent performance. The Nitro 5’s screen is a bit on the weak side and the battery life is verging on the dismal, but other than that it’s hard to fault the Nitro 5 when it offers such stunning performance at such a low price.
Entry-Level Outside, Top Tech Inside
These three things we’re lukewarm about. The camera, which offers video recording at 720p 30fps at its highest setting, is grainy. It’s just fine for web chats, but don’t expect much quality imagery produced here. Turning our attention to the Nitro 5’s gaming benchmarks, it became clear that the GTX 3060 is an ample performer, but it’s a long way from the output offered by its bigger brothers, the RTX 3070 and 3080. The new Acer Nitro 5 looks like it could really redefine what we expect from a mid-range gaming laptop. If Acer nails the performance and build quality, while keeping the price (relatively) low, then it could be on to a real winner. Our final performance tests involve real games. We use the built-in 1080p benchmarks in Far Cry 5 (at its Normal and Ultra image-quality presets) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (at its Medium and Very High presets). Far Cry 5 uses DirectX 11, while we flip the Lara Croft adventure to DirectX 12. These games have become largely CPU-limited even at the more demanding presets, so the differences among this group are minimal. That said, the numbers suggest that the Nitro 5 will have performance to spare for running games at its native 1440p resolution. Battery Rundown Test
Excluding the Predator, this is a tight grouping, with the Nitro 5 appropriately within a few seconds of the lead. Graphics and Gaming Tests The laptop’s sound is a little hyped on the high-end and very echoey, though you could personalize it with the equalizer in the Dolby Audio software. In short, it’s yet another laptop with subpar audio – par for the course, basically (unless you’re Origin). This may be the first Nitro 5 to really make an impression with gamers, especially ones who want a great gaming experience, but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a laptop.
The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the total. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.
Related:
Great Deal 
New Comment