Regardless of lighting levels, every picture I took with the Nitro 5 came out with accurate colors and texture and only minor grain. The Nitro 5’s display is a basic FHD IPS screen, and while it’s not bad, it’s less colorful than most of the other IPS displays I’ve seen. For instance, I was able to score an average 85 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test using the Nitro 5 keyboard, which is 10 wpm higher than my usual score. Also on the bottom are two down-firing speakers that aren't bad if you find yourself without a headset, but for best effect, you'll want an alternative. Its specs are definitely entry-level, but at $669, it’s among the most affordable gaming laptops you can get right now, and one of the best gaming laptops on a budget. Microsoft's Surface lineup has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. That far exceeds the Dell G3 15’s 6:41 battery life and the Omen 15’s 6:13 battery life on the same test. Lighter than some 15-inch gaming laptops. The Nitro 5 also has a photo editor named PhotoDirector for Acer and a movie editor named PowerDirector for Acer. We also returned to Metro: Exodus to stress test the Nitro 5, running its 1080p high settings benchmark on a loop 15 times. You'll get at most about 1.5 hours while gaming, and between four and five hours when going about regular tasks. The Acer Nitro 5 charges through a port on its back, leaving both sides open for accessories and other connections. The biggest issue here is the slow SATA HDD, but at least that can be remedied by opting for a model with 256 GB SSD or by replacing the HDD yourself post-purchase. It also outperformed it on productivity and had the same display color spectrum and almost the same display brightness. The Acer Nitro 5 remains cool during non-gaming use. While it can’t always play games on high settings at over 30 fps, it’s a perfect entry-level gaming laptop for people who don’t need the best of the best. Most, if not all, gamers are going to disable the touchpad in lieu of an external mouse anyway, but that's not going to fix the annoyance of feeling it under your hand at all times. Bottom line: The Nitro 5 provides performance for decent 1080p gaming, and its cut corners can likely be ignored thanks to a truly cheap price. Shop all the best Cyber Monday deals NOW. After using it for a few gaming sessions, I don't think this display in a $640 laptop poses a problem. While gaming, though, they might be a bit too soft for some people's taste, as they don't provide much feedback as to when activation happens. The Precision touchpad is big enough to match the rest of the laptop and provide plenty of space for gestures. While gaming, the battery is going to drop fast, so you'll want to carry the bulky power adapter with you. Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. The most egregious but simultaneously generous Nitro 5 bloatware is Norton Security, which came with 2 years of time on our laptop. I found about 20 programs pre-installed on the Nitro 5 that many users will probably find themselves wanting to remove, including gems like the “User Experience Improve Program.” And the best part is that there’s even bloatware that encourages you to install more bloatware. While gaming I didn't notice the color as much as the chunky bezel, which hits about an inch on all sides. We're LIVE with the Windows Central Video Podcast today at 2:30pm ET, make sure you're there! The Nitro 5 scored 5,262 on our Geekbench 5.0 benchmark, which measures general productivity. That, or promptly do your own swap to get rid of this incredibly slow storage. Unlike similar mainstream laptops like the Dell G3 15, which uses an Intel Core i5-9300H, the Nitro 5 opts for an AMD Ryzen 5 4600U. It … Some of Black Friday's best deals are still available, shop NOW before they're gone, 15.35 inches x 10.47 inches x 1.05 inches. Because The New Mutants makes such heavy use of blacks, this let me immediately identify the display’s strongest quality- its black are effectively deep and do not bleed. Whether you're looking for the newest Surface Pro X or Pro 7 or are willing to settle for a previous generation at an even more discounted price, we've got all the best deals you're going to find around the 'net right here. Thank you for signing up to Tom's Hardware. After streaming 15 minutes of Youtube videos, the hottest part of the laptop- the underside- only registered 88.3 degrees Fahrenheit (31.3 degrees Celsius). The angled front corners don't do much for me, especially when they clip off the edges of the lid's bezel, but there are certainly far bulkier and aggressive gaming laptops out there that you'd pay a lot more for. It's not going to really wow you, but it's perfectly functional. Impressive CPU and 1080p gaming performance for the money Expandable storage Great battery life Wi-Fi 6 support Inside, the laptop has a dual-fan cooling system that uses heat pipes to pull hot air out and away from the GPU and CPU, and it seems to work well enough. Results were closer in our file transfer test, where we track how quickly a computer transfers 4.97GB of files. For a budget display, these numbers are pretty much what's expected. I would like to receive mail from Future partners. There's nothing out of the ordinary here. It is also roughly about as heavy as these competitors as well, weighing 5.3 pounds against the G3 15’s 5.4 pounds and the Omen 15’s 5.4 pounds. Receive mail from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors? It really makes it pop. Despite having the right ports, this laptop isn't cut out for VR unless all you're interested in is regular Windows Mixed Reality. The review unit's hard-disk drive (HDD) takes up the bay here, but there is a slot for an M.2 SATA solid-state drive (SSD) if you take off the larger cover for later upgrades. Word of warning to anyone who likes a clean device, this laptop constantly picks up fingerprints and smudges. It could be a lot brighter, and if you're frequently gaming in well-lit rooms, you might wish you could crank up the backlight further than it allows. Optional AMD hardware is a bonus for anyone who'd rather steer clear of Intel and NVIDIA. The Acer Nitro 5 is roughly on par with mainstream gaming laptops when it comes to size, though it is slightly thicker than some competitors. Here, the game scored an average 40 fps, which was slightly higher than the G3 15’s 38 fps but much lower than the Omen 15’s 61 fps (which isn’t surprising - that’s a step up spec-wise). Compared to previous Nitro 5 models, which had all-black keycaps with red lettering, all the keycaps on this model have red outlines on their sides to help keys stand out. Instead, it just gave the music a slightly artificial, distant quality. The G3 15 is slightly thinner, but aside from that, the Nitro 5 offers almost identical performance at a much lower cost. With a left hand on the usual WASD keys, your palm is going to constantly rub against the touchpad and the depression it sits in. For internal performance hardware, there are plenty of Intel and NVIDIA options available, though fans of AMD can instead opt for something like the review model I have here, with a Ryzen 5 2500U processor (CPU) and Radeon RX 560X discrete graphics (GPU). You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details without your permission. The Nitro 5's keyboard has a red backlight to match the other red accents, as well as WASD keys that have a red border to better standout when backlit or dark. Both the Acer Nitro 5 and the Dell G3 15 only achieved a DCI-P3 color rating of 44.7% in our testing, which fell well short of the HP Omen 15’s 71.8% DCI-P3 color reproduction. If you're serious about this laptop, consider spending about $80 more for a model with an SSD. At full volume, the Nitro 5’s speakers were able to carry across my entire 2-bedroom apartment, so volume wasn’t the issue. Receive news and offers from our other brands? © Instead, the problem was mostly in the bass, as the speakers cut most of the bass track from the song. When I played Control on Nitro 5 for a half hour, I typically landed between 28 - 35 fps on low settings and 28 - 35 fps on high settings. But if we went through every questionable app on this device, this review would be twice as long. For more options that aren't necessarily cheap, be sure to check out our roundup of the best gaming laptops.