A Mid-Range Gaming Machine?
While they may have been lagging behind their competitors in the past, Acer has been making strides in recent years to be able to catch up in hopes of getting the lion’s share when it comes to their sales number. While its Predator gaming sub-brand may be hogging most of the spotlight, they have other laptops that are worth a look as well. One of those notebooks is their Nitro 5 lineup, which has all the brawns of its brethren with a few concessions to keep costs at a minimum. We’ve been using this notebook on the regular for a couple of months now so it’s time to see if this mid-range gaming laptop is worth considering.
Acer Nitro 5Â AN515-51 Specs
- Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor
- 8GB of DDR4 RAM
- 15.6-inch Full HD IPS display with Acer ComfyView
- 126GB SSD + 1TH HDD
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB VRAM
- 4-cell 48Wh battery
- Windows 10 Home Edition
Looks are on the Down-Low
In terms of looks, the Nitro 5 is unquestionably on the conservative side when compared to any Predator series notebook. The lid has a plain brushed aluminum finish that simply bears that brand’s name with a light touch of red at its hinge to break up the monotony of its color palette and even that is a little muted. No bright red accents or flashy logos here and we quite like that about the Nitro 5.
The build quality is excellent as well. It’s been our daily driver for most of our trips out of the country and it’s withstood the trips with no signs of wear. There’s very little flex to its display, just enough to give it a little give to absorb a bit of impact and the bottom, while made of plastic, it quite solid as well.
One thing we liked about the Nitro 5 is that it was lighter than our usual laptop. I usually have to lug around a ton of stuff in my backpack but the heaviest thing still happens to be the notebook I bring with me so it was nice to have something a little lighter to ease the back of this #titolennial.
So-So Display; Audio Meant for Sharing
The display for the Acer Nitro 5 is 15.6 -inch Full HD IPS panel equipped with Acer ComfyView. It’s got 280 nits of brightness and a decent amount of color accuracy for typical use in the office or at home but professionals need to be a little wary if you really need everything to be on point. It’s got great viewing angles if you and your buds need to huddle around the notebook as you brainstorm for a presentation or watching a few shows on Netflix.
The speakers on the Nitro 5 are located on the bottom of the unit and, on their own, they give out a decent amount of volume. It gets a bit of a boost from Dolby Audio Premium to make things sound a little better with little to no distortion when sharing but we wouldn’t recommend having it blare out at maximum volume to keep the speakers intact.
Thumbs Up for the Keyboard and Trackpad
The keyboard of the Nitro 5 is pretty darn good. It has a excellent travel and we’ve busted out quite a number of articles since we’ve gotten this bad boy for review. A little gamer aesthetic shines through with backlit keys in red but it’s not RGB so it’s still not quite as loud and flashy.
The trackpad is also very accurate and has been great when I’ve had to be without a mouse.
