I’ve checked out quite a few laptops in my time: Asus, Lenovo, Acer, Razer, Alienware, and one thing the majority of them have in common is wallet-busting price tags. And I get it, squeezing all that incredible tech into a chassis that’s barely an inch thick is going to cost. With average pricing starting at $3000 going all the way up to $7000 in some cases, I’m always curious to see what these brands mean when they call something a budget gaming laptop.
Some brands, like Acer, have a budget lineup that offers devices like the new Acer Nitro 5, which is meant to be cheaper than its flagship Predator offerings. Starting at $1800, you could definitely call the Nitro 5 budget compared to the outstanding Predator Trident 17 X, one of the best gaming laptops of 2023, but costs four times as much. Obviously, there’s a massive difference in spec to justify the cost.
For our review though, I got one of the top-spec Nitro 5 models which comes with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-12650H, 16GB DDR4 memory, a 512GB SSD with room for expansion, and a 15.6-inch, 144Hz, 1080p display driven by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060. That’s a pretty decent gaming machine and it will cost you just under $2300 (though at the time of writing this, I found it on sale at Harvey Norman for just $1500).
For a machine aimed at budget-conscious gamers, aka students, $2000 is still quite a chunk of change, though if you do find it on discount, it could make a lot of sense. But after having reviewed so many premium laptops, I couldn’t help but notice all the compromises Acer made to bring this machine under budget. Despite that, I found the performance to be good, with games running beautifully at the highest settings well above 60fps. In fact, after a few weeks with the Nitro 5, I come away with a favorable opinion, but there is one serious deal-breaker.
Acer Nitro 5 Review
As you can imagine, a budget laptop isn’t going to come with a lightweight, unibody, CNC-milled metal chassis. That’s not to say that it’s cheap feeling or flimsy, something that’s exceedingly obvious when you lift the Nitro 5 out of its box. It has a fully plastic chassis that is really solid and durable and weighs a hefty 2.5 kilograms. Add on the massive 280W power brick, and this one will be the source of many a trip to the shoulder massage parlor if you plan to carry it around in a backpack.
At 2.69 cm or a little over an inch at its thickest, the chassis isn’t as thick as it feels in the hand, but nobody is going to mistake this for a business laptop. The edgy design, flared-out rear vents, and colored streaks on the lid make it plainly obvious what the purpose of this laptop is. I think it looks good for what it is, but I tend to prefer less ostentatious designs.
There is plenty of room for ports, and the Nitro 5 sports an HDMI 2.1, Type-C USB 3.2 Gen2 Thunderbolt 4, a USB 3.2 (Type A, Gen1), 2 USB 3.2 (Type A, Gen 2), and RJ45. The ports are spread evenly around the sides and back of the laptop, which is good for accessibility but can quickly become a cable management nightmare if you want to use this as a battle station.
On the inside, we get a full-size keyboard with a numpad. The keys are membrane and not mechanical, but they feel quite good to type and game on thanks to some great travel and responsiveness. I also like the rubber-like material on the keycaps that dampens impact and feels soothing on my mechanical keyboard-worn fingertips. It’s a gaming laptop, so the keys are obviously RGB, but you don’t get per-key lighting—only four zones across the board that can be individually customized or synced.
The touchpad is well-sized but doesn’t feel great to use. I found swiping and scrolling to be somewhat tedious and janky, but as always, I expect people to use an external mouse anyway. Likewise, I expect most people to use headphones rather than the built-in speakers, which are fine but won’t get you feeling the music or accurately pinpointing enemies in the game.
On to the screen, the Nitro 5 comes with a 15.6-inch, 1080p IPS display with a 144Hz refresh rate. The screen is another area of compromise, and while I couldn’t find the official specs, it’s safe to say that it isn’t the most color-accurate thing in the world. In fact, colors all seemed a bit washed out or muted though while playing games, I can’t say that in the motion of things I was bothered by it. But if you are a design student or doing any kind of color-sensitive work, beware.
That said, the display works perfectly fine for 1080p gaming with its smooth 144Hz refresh rate. I had no issues with tearing or stuttering during gameplay and thanks to the RTX 4060, many modern titles ran easily above 60fps and almost double that with Nvidia’s magical Frame Generation at work.
Not budget performance
Looking at overall gaming and performance, I can’t complain about the Nitro 5. The 12650H was more than capable of handling everyday tasks with ease, and using Windows 11 on the laptop was a smooth, fluid, and responsive experience. In my usual benchmarks, the Nitro 5 landed exactly where I was expecting for a budget laptop.
I was really pleased with gaming performance and the wizardry that comes with the RTX 4060 plays a huge role. Getting over 140fps in Forza Horizon 5 and Dying Light 2 with DLSS 3.5 and Frame Generation was a delight. Even games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Remnant II, and Destiny 2 all hitting 100fps at high settings. I’m not a CoD or Fortnite player, but I can imagine getting 144fps with the right settings is easily doable.
Now, you will find the 5112GB extremely constraining. An installation of Forza Horizon 5 and CoD MWIII will swallow up 300GB, leaving very little for your files and apps. Thankfully, you can expand the disk space because there’s an additional M.2 slot while RAM can also be upgraded to 32GB for even better multitasking performance.
However, it’s not all good when it comes to performance. Even though the Nitro 5 is able to maintain thermals of 70-80C during prolonged gaming, it gets incredibly loud doing so. The Nitro 5 has a new dual-fan cooling with dual intakes on the top and bottom and a generous quad-exhaust port on the back.
Despite this, the fans on this thing are the most atrocious I’ve heard in a very long time. It’s so absurdly loud that you can’t game in any sort of public arena without everyone in a 30m radius giving you death stares for the raucous you will be making. Even with headphones on, you’ll still be hearing the fans roaring.
Then the most grievous of compromises has to be battery life. Acer estimates a 4.5-hour battery, which is already pretty bad, but in reality, I was only able to manage about 2 hours. Yes, the Nitro 5 has a MUX switch which means you can turn off the Nvidia GPU, but that didn’t really yield much for me. That’s a far cry from the exceptional 10 hours I was able to get out of the Asus TUF A16 Advantage Edition which makes the Nitro 5 a horrible choice for students who need all-day power.
Verdict
So there you have it. The Acer Nitro 5 is an intriguing proposition that manages to keep the price down while keeping performance up. It’s got a solid build, great performance per buck with a good typing experience and very importantly, won’t cost you your kidney to buy. But you do buy this with eyes wide open knowing the compromises you’ll have to deal with. It’s quite heavy to lug around to school or Uni, and even worse, you have to carry that heavy charger because the battery can barely get you through the first period.
Additionally, the color accuracy on the screen is wanting so, design and creative students who would otherwise benefit from the RTX 4060 will have to tread carefully. As a total package, the Nitro 5 is a good one and easy to recommend as long as gaming is your priority, and you don’t mind staying close to a wall outlet.
Acer Australia kindly loaned the Nitro 5 laptop to PowerUp for the purpose of this review
