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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. In the trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, I could make out some detail in the hundreds of faces staring at the lich-like being during the craned camera shot. But in the wide angle shots of the chaotic cities, lush forests, and volcanic caverns, it looked lifeless. We use two gaming simulations to measure the 3D performance potential of a PC. In UL's 3DMark, we run two tests: Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs), both of them DirectX 11-based. Unigine Corp.'s Superposition is the other; it uses a different rendering engine to produce a complex 3D scene. On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest, 1080p), the Nitro 5 hit 52 fps (74 fps with RTX 3060), falling short of the category average (59 fps) as well as the Katana GF66 (69 fps) and Victus 16 (67 fps).
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. 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). I hit 63 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is slightly below my 68 words-per-minute average. I haven’t typed on a 15-inch laptop keyboard in a while, but the keys are well-spaced and there’s plenty of room on the palm rests for most people. All that raw power dramatically takes its toll on the Nitro 5’s unplugged stamina, though, which is further exacerbated by its small 58Whr capacity battery. In our video rundown test, the Nitro lasted for just 6hrs 30mins before running out of juice. Despite its looks, the keyboard itself is perfectly usable. Keypresses weren’t hard nor were they cushiony, and the keycaps felt stable rather than slippery. I also regularly hit my 77 - 78 words per minute average on 10fastfingers.com. And for what it’s worth, 4-zone RGB might help you tune the aesthetics to your liking just a little bit.There’s also Acer Care Center, where you’ll update drivers, view your serial number and clear up disk space. DTS:X Ultra is a little extraneous, as it has the same audio control functions as NitroSense, but DTS Sound Unbound lets you enable DTS:X for your headphones. That's a useful feature, but this probably could have either been turned on from the start or rolled into another app. The Acer Nitro 5 was reasonably cool during our non-gaming heat test, where we play 15 minutes of streaming video before taking temperatures, but could get warm during our gaming heat test, where we take temperatures during the sixth consecutive run of the Metro: Exodus Ultra benchmark. On the Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the Nitro 5 scored 9,148), nearly doubling the 5,480 budget gaming laptop average. Each with an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU, the Katana GF66 (8,897) and Inspiron 16 (8,031) couldn’t keep up, but somehow the Victus 16 (9,426) excelled. The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage.
The absence of per-key RGB is a bit annoying and the battery life is short, but I’d take those shortcomings given the performance per pound on offer here. 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.
A stupendously powerful gaming laptop for less than £1,000, the Acer Nitro 5 is a no-brainer
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. The Nitro 5 achieved 79 fps (85 fps with RTX 3060) on the Far Cry New Dawn benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), which sped past the category average (72 fps). However, neither model could outpace the Katana GF66 (94 fps) or HP Victus 16 (93 fps). Acer Nitro 5 (2022) performance
It’s actually a little bit thinner and lighter than last year’s Nitro 5 model. This is thanks to some changes Acer has made to the design, most noticeably by slimming down the bezels around the screen. Acer tells us that the screen-to-body ratio is now 80%, with the bezels narrowed to 7.02mm. Not only does this allow Acer to shrink the overall size of the Nitro 5 (2021) without reducing the size of the screen, but it also makes the new Nitro 5 feel more modern and premium. As this is an early hands-on, we weren’t able to test out the performance, but Windows 10 felt snappy while we used it. The included components certainly suggest that the Nitro 5 in any configuration will offer a great gaming experience, and we can’t wait to really put it through its paces. Upgradability is one of the Nitro 5's strengths. Behind the bottom panel are two M.2 slots (one occupied by the 1TB solid-state drive) plus a 2.5-inch drive bay; screws for the latter are in the box. As I noted, the memory is also upgradable; both SO-DIMM slots are occupied in my unit by DDR4-3200 modules. (Photo: Molly Flores) 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 As for the 4.2 x 3.1 inch precision touchpad, it had just a bit more friction than I’d like. Still, I was able to input multi-touch gestures like two-finger scrolling and three-finger app switching without struggle. Audio on the Acer Nitro 5The Acer Nitro 5 we reviewed had a Ryzen 7 5800H processor, which means it benefits from AMD’s excellent productivity power. The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 config we reviewed had the same chip, while the ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition went a step higher with the Ryzen 9 5900HX. The ROG Zephyrus M16 was the one Intel rival we tested, with an also high-specced Core i9-11900H. 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. READ NEXT: Keep things running smoothly with the best laptop cooling pads Acer Nitro 5 review: Design and build quality I listened to Ross Lynch’s cover of “Teenage Dirtbag,” and the entire sound was low. Even the chorus couldn’t fully encompass my small office space. Despite that, the guitar, vocals, and drums were distinguishable from one another. However, there was little to no bass to be found. The bass guitar felt like a regular guitar.
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