Acer Nitro 5 RTX 2060 Review
|Acer’s Nitro 5 laptops have always been ‘decent’ options when it comes to budget gaming laptops, and this, their almost-newest one, is no different. I’ve got some things to gripe about, and some to rave about, but all in all it’s a reasonable choice. Not the worst, and probably not the best, so let me show you why. But first, if you haven’t already, consider subscribing for more videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday!
Let’s start with what’s good, the performance. This comes from an Intel i7 – my model is the 9th gen 9750H, although the one you can buy now has a 10th gen i7 instead – and for graphics you get an RTX 2060. That’s a great pearing in a laptop at this sort of price. As you might expect, it isn’t a slouch in games, lets take a look.
Temperatures and noise are also pretty good for the price. The CPU, rather predictably, did hit 98°c, and the GPU hit just above 80, but for a 9750H that’s normal. What is impressive is how, relatively, quietly it kept it at bay and if we have a look inside, you’ll see why. One of the 2 heatsinks is about 1/3rd the width of the whole laptop. The vent on the back is open HALF the way across, and there is another heatsink at the side too, admittedly with a fair bit of wasted space next to it but ah well.
While we are inside, let me mention the storage config. My unit somehow came with just a 240GB SSD and nothing else, meaning I couldn’t even install COD MW if I wanted to, let alone my full suite at once, but the one you can buy has 512GB total which is better, but not perfect. Happily though inside you’ll find 2 M.2 slots AND space for a 2.5” drive, as well as a cable to connect one in the box. You will also find 2 easily replaceable RAM sticks in here, in a 2x4GB setup. Oh, and the shockingly small 51Whr battery.
Since we are mentioning less-than-ideal things now, let me present.. The display. Much like MSI’s Bravo 15, this is what I would describe as “piss-poor”. It covers just 63% of the sRGB spectrum, and under half the AdobeRGB and DCI P3 spectrums, meaning even when calibrated, you cannot trust this to be a portable workstation machine.. Ever. This is pointless for video or photo editors, or 3D artists. Way to shoot yourselves in the foot there Acer.
Unlike the MSI model though, it is at least a relatively fast panel, with a Black To White response time of around 6ms, although White to Black is still near 18ms. Ghosting wasn’t overly prevalent, which is nice. Input lag is also… fine.. With a total system result of around 50ms. Playing games on it is fine, enjoyable even, with the keyboard being pretty much all you need, and plenty of USB ports for mice and headsets.
The track pad too is, ‘fine’, as is the keyboard for typing. Nothing special, but nothing wrong with them either. And for me, that kind of rounds up the Nitro 5. It’s nothing special, but there isn’t too many things terribly wrong with it. If you are just looking for a 17”, cheap gaming laptop, this isn’t a bad shout.