Verdict
The Acer Nitro 5 is another satisfying entrance - floor gaming laptop computer in the acclaimed serial publication , with in force operation and DLSS 3 fix up for an underwhelming 1080p screen .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Acer Nitro 5 ( 2023 ) is the latest loop of Acer ’s budget gambling laptop , aim to deliver a decent entry - spirit level specification for playing current microcomputer games , at a price most of us would recall of as affordable .
As with the eternal sleep of this year ’s Nitro image , the big news is the sack from Nvidia ’s ageing RTX 30 serial nontextual matter fleck to the new RTX 40 seriesGPUs , bringing not just the latest genesis ray tracing and tensor tech , but memory access to DLSS 3 with Frame Generation too .
We usually get excited about this stuff when it get along to eminent - end gaming laptop , but if anything it ’s even more all important at the entry - stratum , enable you to extort even higher build rates out of comparatively humbled - ending hardware . And where the RTX 4050 featured here struggled to deliver enough pixels at enough speed to fill the 16 - inch QHD screen on the Nitro 5 ’s higher - end sibling , theAcer Nitro 16 , it ’s a better mates for the 15.6 - inch 1080p screen of the budget model . In fact , the young Nitro 5 does a not bad job of balance out its features and its specification .
This one ship in three versions : the Core i5/16 GB edition available from Acer and reviewed here , plus Core i5/8 GB and Core i7/16 GB chance variable available from Argos for £ 1000 and £ 1300 .
Design and Keyboard
The Nitro 5 follows the same basic purpose as the Acer Nitro 16 , with the same sculpted , wedge - work visibility , chunky vents and gloss - finishing hat , though without the chunky N logotype in the nerve center of the coloured lines .
It ’s clearly a budget play laptop computer , but feels more premium and robust than former modelling , though there ’s a piffling more flex in the lid than I ’d like . The screen background footprint is closely the same as on the Nitro 16 as well .
It ’s also much the same when it come to connectivity , placing one USB - A 3.2 Gen 2 porthole on the unexpended - hand side , along with the Ethernet port and the audio socket , then giving you two more USB - A 3.2 Gen 2 interface on the rightfield . That leaves the single USB 3.2 Gen Type C / THunderbolt 4 larboard at the rear , next to an HDMI 2.1 out and the AC power socket . This keeps the Type A socket ready to hand for a wired gaming mouse or a headset but means trailing cables can run behind a desk , while a USB - C external SSD could lurk out of the way behind the screen .
Acer is usually one of the most bullish manufacturing business when it come to support novel wireless standards , but the Nitro 16 is one of only a few Acer laptops we ’ve reckon recently that does n’t support Wi - Fi 6E. Still , this is n’t a massive deal unless you have a 6E web in your menage .
The keyboard seems identical to what we saw on the Nitro 16 , with the unconditional , satisfying , chiclet keys we ’ve view before on Nitro keyboards , though now with per - cardinal RGB firing . There are no major issues with the layout , though I ’d like to see large and more typical Shift and Ctrl keys on the left - hand side and a small more space around the cursors .
The key themselves also have a slightly soft type action , but this keeps the racket level prissy and low and I ’ve got used to it with a calendar week or so of gaming and typing . At least the action remains consistent across the keyboard and there ’s no bounce underneath , while there ’s enough saltation when you release the key for speedy central commands or touch typewriting . And while I found the edge and flat typing angle somewhat irritating on the Nitro 16 , I did n’t have any issues here .
You do n’t gestate an all - spyglass touchpad on a budget play laptop computer , but the plastic one here feels very bland and dead accurate , though at 105 x 78 mm it ’s smaller than the one on the Nitro 16 , and feel a piddling cramped while entanglement browse and sail WIndows . give up off another marathon session on Baldur ’s Gate III ? You ’ll be reaching for your computer mouse in minutes .
Display and Sound
After the self-aggrandising QHD concealment of the Nitro 16 , the 15.6 in 1080p projection screen of this model can seem a petty underwhelming . That said , it ’s still a smart pick ; even modern PC games still reckon right at 1080p , and the lower resolution gives you more scope to labor up item options or utilize beam tracing without your frame rates falling through the floor . In fact , on sr. games and less demanding eSports titles , you ’ve got a scrap hazard of run into the 144Hz max refresh charge per unit .
All the same , this is a decent 1080p covert rather than a large one . It only cover 60.4 % of thesRGBcolour gamut and a bare 43.2 % ofDCI - P3 , while we measure out the maximum brightness level at 247 nit . That ’s not bright enough for use in direct sunlight or too near a window on a gay day , but it also means that you ’re not getting as vivid or punchy a exhibit as on some higher - final stage gambling laptop . encounter Baldur ’s Gate III and Returnal at night , this was n’t a trouble . It ’s not precisely an HDR presentation , but there ’s enough line and colour to look good . Yet some of that fades away if you ’re run – or working – during day hour . you’re able to see what ’s go on , but it ’s not especially vibrant .
Do n’t get too worked up about the audio recording , either . It ’s box-shaped , low on bass voice and slightly chintzy in the threefold neighborhood , but fine for fooling gaming and movie watching at low volumes , but not really all that immersive . You ’ll have a much rich experience if you put some earpiece on .
Performance
The Nitro 5 combines a 12th - genesis Intel Core i5 - 12500HCPUwith 16 GB of DDR5RAM , a 512 GB WD SN810 PCIe 4.0SSDand the RTX 4050 . The CPU is n’t one of Intel ’s latest , but its 4 performance cores and 8 efficient center can still take on 16 threads at amphetamine of up to 4.5GHz on the atomic number 15 cores and 3.3GHz on the E cores , so you ’ve get more than enough public presentation for most office staff or consumer - grade creative apps .
Having only just moved to Geekbench 6.1 for examination , we can only make modified comparison with similar budget play laptops like theGigabyte G5 2023or theMSI GF63 Thin , but the Nitro 5 pull out front of both on PCMark 10 . It ’s got the chop for piece of work as well as caper .
When it comes to gaming , you could expect 60fps in more demanding games at Ultra setting as long as ray trace is turn off or set to depressed or average preferences . tote up more demanding shaft - traced outcome and those anatomy rates will plummet . For instance , with the RT Ultra preset engaged in Cyberpunk 2077 , you ’ll get just 36fps at 1080p .
The wanton manner around that , of course , is to alternate DLSS 3 with Frame Generation on . This was enough to boost the frame rate back up to 58.65fps , at which item thing look pretty liquid with no serious judders ; not bad for one of the most advance games around running on what ’s entree - level hardware . You wo n’t make much use of the sieve 144Hz refresh rate on that kind of title , but there ’s enough mightiness here to pass Rainbow Six : descent on maxed - out configurations at 117fps .
The Nitro 5 is very interchangeable in spec to the MSI GF63 Thin , while the Gigabyte G5 large number in the ranking RTX 4060 GPU , with 8 GB rather than 6 GB of RAM . However , the RTX 4050 in the MSI and the RTX 4060 in the Gigabyte are big businessman - tighten up , running at 45W and 60W severally with the potential for a 15W cost increase . The RTX 4050 here seems to be running at the maximum 140W , enabling it to couple the G5 on Returnal and Cyberpunk 2077 and leave the MSI trailing in both title .
you may get a further boost by flip-flop from the Default clock f number and cooling to Performance modality in Acer ’s preinstalled NitroSense utility . However , this did n’t seem to give us more than a couple of extra FPS in any form of address , at the toll of a much , much noisier laptop and an alarming level of quiver . Overall , it ’s probably not deserving the trouble unless you ’re in a situation where every last frame counts .
Battery Life
If performance is skillful for the money , the same ca n’t be said of the assault and battery life . The Nitro 5 keep running for just over four hours in the personal computer Mark 10 Modern Office shelling benchmark , which is bad even by the standards of most big - screen gaming laptop computer .
Left to stream Netflix for an hour , it lost 36 % of its charge , meaning that you would n’t get through some of today ’s longer blockbuster movies without plugging into the main . Even spending meter graze and doing promiscuous office work , I found the Nitro 5 would demand to be recharged at lunchtime if it were to get me through a working day . Here both the Gigabyte G5 and MSI FG63 have a meaning advantage , lasting an hour or more on top .
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Should you buy it?
The Core i5 and RTX 4050 give you good performance for a play laptop computer cost around £ 1,000 , and the Nitro 5 is another not bad good example of a well - build up , well - specced budget model .
You ’ll either demand to lift your budget or take a collision elsewhere to feel a gambling laptop with more brightness , copious colour and a higher resolution display . Similarly , the poor battery life will make this a no - go if you plan to expend longer than an hr or two away from the mains .
Final Thoughts
As with previous Nitro laptops , there ’s a sense that Acer has hit the nail the right way on the head . Together , the Core i5 processor and RTX 4050 do a great job of strike effective frame rates on the latest games at 1080p , with DLSS 3 in the wings if you desire to enable beam tracing or if game grow more demanding in a few year ’s time .
Of naturally , Acer has n’t got this market all to itself , and theGigabyte G5is a tempting alternative at a standardized monetary value . However , despite its RTX 4060 GPU the G5 is n’t actually much faster in games , and it ca n’t beat the Nitro where its weak – its projection screen – because its own display is n’t significantly better . The MSI GF63 Thin is slimmer with slimly good battery life , but it has like screen proceeds and the carrying into action is n’t in the same class .
For my money , that makes the Nitro 5 a genuine competition , leave you’re able to hold out with the underwhelming brightness levels of the concealment .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review proceed through a series of uniform stay designed to guess primal thing include physique caliber , functioning , filmdom timber and battery living .
These include conventional synthetic benchmarks and scripted test , plus a series of existent populace check .
FAQs
The Acer Nitro 5 is not a noisy laptop computer , from the strait of the keys to the rooter . The fans are distinctive of a gaming laptop but do become noisy when using the Performance mode in Acer ’s NitroSense software .
When gambling , you ’ll see far better performance if you use the Acer Nitro 5 when stop up into mogul .
Test Data
Full Specs
