Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-54W follows the path of other Nitro laptops right into the low-mid range of gaming systems. Looks other Nitros it has enough power to handle most E-sports titles (CS:GO, Overwatch, LoL, Rocket League) at high settings. It also has no problem with Fortnite at high settings (and with good FPS), as well as AAA titles at med-high settings (with average, but playable FPS). Prior to this laptop I played on the Nitro 5 AN515-42-R5ED, which I will refer to as the previous gen. Specs Processor – Intel Core i5 9300H - CPU 4C/8T @ 2.4 GHz with boost to 4.1 GHz Graphics – NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 3GB @ 1366 MHz[Discrete] / Intel UHD Graphics 630 Memory – 8GB DDR4 2666 Single Channel (19-19-19-43) Storage – 256GB Kingston SSD (M.2 NVME) Display - 15.6” 1920 x 1080p LED IPS screen Camera – HD (720P?) with dual mics Network Adapter – 802.11AC WiFi adapter / 1X Gigabit LAN Port / Bluetooth 4.2 Radio Ports – 1X USB-C (3.1) / 2X USB 3.0 / 1X USB 2.0 / 1X HDMI / 3.5mm TRRS jacks for headsets Battery – 3815 mAh / 58.75Wh with a claimed 7 hour battery life The Nitro 5 comes with an Intel/NVidia loadout, sporting Intel’s latest 9th Gen i5 9300H. The i5 comes with 4 cores utilizing 8 threads. The 1050 3GB graphics card is a bit older GPU, but still relevant in today’s gaming market. Although behind the 1050ti and newly released 1650/1660ti, it is still a perfectly good card that can play AAA games at relatively good settings. This being a 10 series Nvidia card, you can also hook the Nitro up to an external monitor (HDMI) that supports G-Sync or a certified (by NVidia) Freesync panel. Like most Nitro 5’s, this laptop comes with a single 8GB DDR4 RAM stick. This, for the most part, is enough RAM to play most games without becoming a bottleneck. Storage comes in the form of a 256 GB M.2 NVME drive from Kingston. The display is a 15.6” 1920 x 1080p 60 HZ IPS screen. It appears to be the same display or very close to my other Nitro 5. I again couldn’t find any listed response times for the monitor, so I would assume it would follow the default IPS times of about 5ms. It’s still not the best display out there, but a decent panel that fits the budget and marketed range. Picture reproduction is still clear, colors are decent, and text is sharp (after tweaking). 1080p is still the sweet spot for budget gaming builds, so this panel’s resolution makes perfect sense. The display does not support any adaptive sync technology (Freesync, G-Sync). The color reproduction of the display, like the previous gen, is still lacking. Pictures came out clear, but the colors were a little flat. Games and Benchmarking I ran the Nitro through a series of benchmarks to test its various capabilities. I wanted to get an apples to apples comparison to the last gen, and I already had all of the install files on hand (lazy). Tests included Cinebench R15, 3DMark Time Spy and Skydiver, PC Mark 10, GeekBench, and CrystalDiskMark 6. I have included a screenshot of my raw results table. The results show, as you might expect, that the Nitro floats somewhere in the mid-range. It outperforms my previous gen Nitro with the help of Intel’s newest chip and the onboard NVME drive. Much like with the benchmarks I loaded up the same games to play as I did for my other Nitro. First up was Fortnite. I let it configure to the best settings for my system. The game listed all settings on high with the framerate capped at 60fps. I bumped it up to 120 fps just to see what it would top out at. With that in mind I was able to hit 68-75 fps pretty consistently in squad rumble matches. The only time it took a dip was during heavy CQB with lots of building going on around. Even then I think I saw it dip into the upper 50’s. If I kept the fps locked at 60 I probably wouldn’t have even noticed the dip. Compared to my other Nitro, I had a more polished gaming experience on the same settings. Topping out at 75 fps vs. 45-50 with the same settings. I stuck with Shadow of War for my AAA game benchmark since I still haven’t finished it. I again ran the game at high settings with V-sync on. I played for about an hour, and again I thought it played great – similar to console experience. When I ran the in-game benchmark with my settings it recorded the gaming running at only 37fps – a 5 fps improvement. When I usually play the game on the other system, I drop down to medium settings and get around 46 fps. This system again edged the old one and pulled out 50 fps. The game was still playable at high settings, and for a solo campaign the lower fps didn’t bother me as much. I’ll still toggle back to medium because I tend to notice the lower framerate more than the lowered graphics quality. Design The design of the Nitro has changed a bit with the last refresh. It no longer looks as edgy as it did before. It still looks the part, but it has been toned down. The entire body of the laptop is still plastic, except for hinge components. This keeps the cost down on the laptop and helps with weight. The exterior plastic still has that brushed look to it, giving it a little more upscale appearance. It still has the red accents around the body that gives some pop to the look. I am glad to see one of my favorite little features - the spring loaded expanding ethernet port – is still in use. Acer has done away with is the bevel/angle on top of the laptop cover. The laptop cover (backside of the screen) is now flat. This is part of the toning it down that I mentioned. The laptop comes in at 4.85 lbs and a little under an inch thick. It feels noticeably smaller. The overall size reduction can be seen in the slimmer monitor bezel - down over an inch (1.1”) in width and 0.5” in depth. Like the prior gen the lightweight plastic shell fails a bit when it comes to the structural rigidity of the laptop. The biggest offender is still the lid, albeit not as bad as before. The dimensional shrink surely helps reduce how much leverage you can apply to the screen, but it just comes up a bit short. Still, it is an improvement, so I am happy with that. Keyboard and Touchpad Acer has stuck with the red LED backlight and accents for the keyboard. There have been a couple of changes from the prior version. They have given every key a red accent along the side and fully accented WASD and arrow keys. The keyboard had to slim down a bit as well, so a few keys were narrowed. Most of the width savings came from the number pad and arrow keys. The backlight has seen a change as well. The keys only stay lit for 30 seconds after the last keystroke regardless of your power source (battery or wall plug). The previous Nitro had the ability to toggle the keys on indefinitely if you were plugged into the wall. I don’t currently see a way to change this behavior. The key construction has remained unchanged - low profile and a decent throw length. They have a soft actuation – no clack to them at all. Backlight on - the keys are easy to read and decipher. Backlight off - it is difficult to distinguish the keys in the light, let alone seeing them in the dark. That extra red accent around each key really makes it hard to pick out the letters on the key faces. This is a big step back for me over the old keyboard. You can adjust the brightness of the LED’s with this gen, which is the only improvement I see. The touchpad is a single piece clickable surface with multipoint touch. For standard navigation and browsing this trackpad will do just fine. Its pretty much identical to the last gen, which means I will use a mouse for day to day. Upgradability This gen of Nitro’s brings a little more upgradability to the table. The prior gen had 3 upgradable parts – RAM, 2.5” HDD/SDD, and M.2 SSD. This gen adds a second M.2 SSD to the mix. The back cover has 11 screws to remove before you carefully pry the cover off (I started at the front corners). Once the cover is removed, the 2.5” bay, RAM, and M.2’s are all right in front of you. The Nitro 5 comes with a single 8GB RAM stick as a factory default. For my Ryzen based system that was more of an issue, but Intel processors don’t see as much of performance hit with single channel RAM. The Nitro 5 has a max RAM capacity of 32GB (2 x 16GB). If you want to go with smart investment – another 8GB stick would be perfect, and all you would need. A problem with this system is the lack of storage. I only have 30GB remaining after installing just 2 games and my benchmark programs. My suggestion is a 2TB Seagate Firecuda hybrid drive. It gives you plenty of storage and speed. They run about $80-90 but would be a worthwhile upgrade. Acer bundled the necessary cable and screws for a drive. Don’t be discouraged by the warranty verbiage on these parts. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act allows you to service and upgrade your equipment without violating the warranty. The last upgrade is another M.2 2280 drive – NVME or just standard SSD. These are easy enough and just plug and play. I would think the 2.5” drive would be a more useful upgrade since the $/GB of M.2’s is still very high on the large drives. Final Thoughts This updated version of the Acer Nitro 5 comes to the market at an affordable price point for a mid-range gaming laptop. It has some upscale features (M.2 drive), and has a reasonably priced upgrade path ahead of it. There are only a couple of areas that could use some improvement – better spec’d display, control over the keyboard LED’s, and toning down the keyboard accents. I am happy with the Nitro as a whole, and I think it would be a great pickup for the casual/new gamer. It is a step up over my other Nitro, so I am glad to see the progression of this lineup. Overall, I give it a 4.5/5. It still has a few issues that can’t be corrected (keyboard, display), and a few that can be (storage).

I play the Sims 4 and work remotely from home o this laptop. Money well spent.

This laptop do eveything I need it to I use it as my streaming laptop I also played games on it as well (Overwatch , Rust , New world ) their all beautiful fam can run high some times while playing big mmo but it don’t stop the performance i Recommend it follow me on twitch (lilkaos012) to ask more questions

This Acer NItro 5 gaming laptop is a fairly decent entry-level gaming laptop for casual gamers who aren’t necessarily playing the latest AAA titles. Even if you do end up playing a flagship game like Fortnite, you’ll find generally lag-free performance during gameplay… provided you’re not maxed out on all the graphics, resolution, and detail settings. At medium to low quality settings the laptop can handle nearly all games with smooth, stutter-free cinematics and maintains at least 30 fps throughout gameplay, depending on the title. The bottleneck here is the GTX1050, while technically a mid-range video graphics card, is still the lowest performing card in Nvidia’s GeForce GTX lineup. The draw though is that it can handle the minimum requirements for most gaming while still being cost efficient; great for folks on a budget who need the specs of a gaming laptop but don’t necessarily want to spend extra money on gear upfront. This laptop has a built-in HD webcam, but the quality isn’t great if you’ll be broadcasting your webcam feed any bigger than a thumbnail (in a word, “grainy”); easily solvable by adding-on any number of decent webcams out there. On a related note, the built-in microphone also has low quality so expect it to sound somewhat muffled and far away as well as capture the sound of every keystroke, as the keyboard isn’t super silent either. This makes the on-board hardware less than ideal for streamers. The fan on the laptop also gets pretty loud during graphics-heavy gameplay which you may find competes with the relatively weak output from the on-board speakers, so if you want to get the best auditory experience out of your playtime, headphones are a must. To be fair, the sound from the speakers isn’t terrible, it’s just a bit boxy and small: fine for online video content but certainly not a cinematic experience. Luckily, if you own a decent gaming headset, the laptop has a combo mic/headphone port, requiring one fewer input port for live chat and audio capture while at the same time allowing you to hear the audio at higher fidelity. I do like that this laptop is extremely lightweight, at around 5.5 lbs, thanks to the lack of a card reader and optical drive. It’s also pretty thin, has 4 USB ports (1 USB-C, 2 USB 3.0 and 1 USB 2.0) with one USB 3.0 that is able to charge devices even when the laptop is powered off, which is neat. The WiFi also is zippy, with its dual-band 5GHz/2.4GHz MU-MIMO support to deliver the fastest speeds for up/down streams making downloads of new content very quick, a must have for online gaming. I just wasn't a fan of the DC power plug placement in the middle of the right-hand-side, as with a USB mouse plugged into this side poses a minor crowding issue. The 15.6” IPS monitor is decent, with good color reproduction, deep contrast, and wide viewing angles, but lacks the faster response rate and lower power consumption of a TN panel. At 60 Hz, there is relatively little motion blur up to 60 frames per second, but you won’t get that benefit at any higher than 60 fps. While this generally doesn’t affect the casual gamer, it can make for a worse competitive gameplay experience. The 256 GB m.2 SSD is somewhat limiting, so don’t expect to load more than a handful of titles on it without an external drive. That, or invest in some upgrades like larger/second SSD/HDD (comes with an HDD adapter). It has one extra m.2 slot, HDD bay, and second RAM slot for up to 32GB total memory. The backlight for the keyboard is red and adjustable in brightness but not color. There’s also a dedicated “NitroBoost” button which brings up an application that lets you tweak performance of the CPU/GPU fans for added cooling, though realistically I don’t know how many people would take advantage of that kind of on-the-fly tweaking. For everything other than gaming, it does a fine job, so that I can also use the laptop for work, e.g. word processing, web browsing, media streaming, and video content creation. I don’t have too much trouble using heavy graphics/video processing software like Adobe Premiere although it does occasionally tax the limits of the laptop’s capabilities. Battery life is so-so while gaming. Depending on the game and what peripherals I’m using I get between 2-3 hours of straight play-through time before I get the low power warning. For non-gaming use I get between 3-5 hours depending on the activity (video editing vs. web browsing vs. streaming etc.) My only other pet peeve with this laptop is that it tends to be a fingerprint/grease magnet so if your hands are even a little sweaty, or you just have an oily skin type, expect fingerprints galore all over the brushed matte finish on the cover, smudges on the screen, near the keyboard, on the trackpad… basically everywhere you touch it. If you need to get a gaming laptop that can also handle everyday computing tasks while staying on a budget, I’d say this is a decent buy as it is able to handle all/most current flagship games, again at less than the max resolution graphics. It has all the features you need to get by without breaking the bank and has multiple pathways for you to improve your experience through upgrades and/or peripherals as you spend more on gear or bring in your existing hardware. However, if you’re planning on buying all the extras and upgrades right off the bat then I’d say you’re better off just getting a more powerful laptop with the specs you’re looking for already in the build, for example, the Nitro 5 lineup has builds that include the upgraded GTX1060 video card and extra 1 TB HDD at a marginally higher price tag.

Where to begin really? Design wise, it’s a nice machine. I've always been fond of the Red/Black motif with computers as they just complement each other well. There's enough ports for your typical use, though I wish that it had a DisplayPort instead of HDMI or at least both. The amount of ventilation is impressive as well and because of that I don't foresee anyone running in to many thermal issues. The system has two fans as you can see in the image of the underside. I also tried to include images of the side ventilation as well. The Keyboard layout is very welcoming as you get a full 10-key as well. Not all that common on 15.6" sized systems these days. I do like that the keyboard is backlit as this makes those late night game sessions easier to deal with. Don't get me wrong though, this is a laptop keyboard for whatever that is worth. Most users are going to use a dedicated keyboard and mouse. The touch pad is responsive and never failed in my testing. The border of it is also backlit so you're not having to hunt for it in the dark. I appreciate the inclusion of a Type-C port as many people charge their devices through their computer. The screen, well it's really good. As one of the benchmarks, which I included the result for in the photos was Assassin's Creed Odyssey which is a fantastic game ran OK on this. Even on medium settings it looked great and the screen really does pop in this game. It's quite bright especially when in the scenes where you're facing towards the sun. Darks on it are really good as well. I definitely appreciate that ACER went with an IPS panel, though slower on the response time, it's not gonna be a deal breaker. I think the screen really is the biggest star of this unit. Do bear in mind this is only a 60hz Panel and even with V-Sync on I was seeing a lot of tearing in Odyssey. G-Sync may be able to help with that. Expandability, another big win here. This model ships with 8GB but you can certainly upgrade it, I'd recommend 16GB. Storage on the other hand, You can add another m.2 drive, of which this already has 1 256GB NVME drive in it which I believe clocked in around 1600MB/s on the Reads and around 800-900MB/s on the writes. The startup on it is incredibly quick, as in about 5 or so seconds of pressing power you're at the login screen and then figure another 5 to load the desktop. That's faster than my actual Gaming desktop. Not only can you add another M.2 drive, you can even add a standard 2.5 drive, be it a slower normal SATA SSD or even just a large SATA Mechanical drive for mass storage. Given that this particular model features multiple difference configurations it may be possible to upgrade things like the GPU and the CPU down the road should you need a boost, but that is sheer speculation and don't condone doing so. Performance, this is the stuff that matters. Since this model only has a 1050, performance is going to be just ok. The 1050 is a capable GPU, but it boggles my mind why the 1650 wasn't used in here when the other's feature the 1660 and the 1660 Ti. Even a 1050 Ti would have been a better choice. In my research it doesn't appear there's much if any premium price wise to just put the 1650 in there. It delivers a substantial amount more performance from other reviews I've seen online, upwards of 70%. I think it was a pretty poor choice. I don't foresee running in to issue on the CPU side as the 9300 i5 seems more than capable, it's just really held back by an otherwise sub-par GPU. At this price point I can't say I wouldn't recommend it, but at the same time I can't say I would recommend it. If anything I'd say spend the little more to get the GTX 1600 equipped model as the performance really is that much better. The battery on this thing, it's not gonna last long. In the 15 minutes I had Odyssey open and benchmarking the battery went from 80-60%. I'd reckon you can get about 90mins of gaming time on battery so it's definitely lacking in longevity. Though normal everyday tasks or productivity you could expect double that. Still for the price you're getting quite a bit. With SSD's coming down so much add more storage is a no brainer, same with RAM now being at a new low. The one Image I have attached is the benchmark results for Assassin's Creed Odyssey that was generated from their benchmark report. I figured this was a new enough title to stretch the performance. I figure if you know the render resolution down to around 75% you can improve the performance by a maybe 10-15%.

The main difference between any gaming laptop and regular laptop is the cooling system. Gaming laptops are more CPU and GPU temperature controlling with big copper heat-sink and strong air moving fans. After that, the CPU speed (threads capacity) and RAM capacity are also more required for resources hungry games. Screen resolution is also a plus. The size of the laptop and portability might be important for some people… I’d not care much about the battery life. Keyboard should be in general more gaming look. Sound system should also be better than average. For more other people, the possibility to connect more than one external screen is also important. As for this Acer Nitro 5: The price is really acceptable (compared to other on the market available gaming rigs). It is coming with i5 9th generation 2.40GHz processor. I’d like to have an i7 for sure but i5 is still doing it correctly. As by default, it has 8GB RAM (with 7.85GB usable). Running some games (mechanic simulator, generals, GTA5…) the 8GB was doing just fine. I might upgrade to at least 12GB in the future… Just because of my “nerd” side… Nitro 5 is equipped with GeForce GTX 1050 dedicated 4GB memory. It is really good with 3d rendering and playing games with no hiccups while maintaining high resolution. That was in general for any gaming computer. For this Acer Nitro 5 specific features: I like the Nitro Sense button on the keyboard even though I was confusing it with the NumLock button but it is nice to have it available there when needed. The NitroSensr interface is clear and informative with a lot of useful options and information. The keyboard layout is perfect. Very nice for typing and the distance travel by key is very good. It is not noisy at all. Back light has nice RED color with adjustable brightness. In normal use conditions, the fans make almost no noise. With full blast, the noise is till acceptable. The total weight of the Nitro 5 is kind of light. It might look heavy but nice to carry. It is shipped with Acer Sleeve. Nice and well made. As for connectivity: I like the full size HDMI connector with 2 USB 3 on one side and one old USB on the other side. The charger connector and the headphone jack are on the right side. Not the best place for my taste but that’s ok! Also on the left side you have USB-C and Ethernet connectors. Just a fully loaded machine with all what you can need. Disk storage not on the best size. Originally shipped with SSD 256GB but with ability to upgrade. Acer added in the box the necessary cable to install an extra disk drive. They noted that it should be done by Acer certified center or the warranty might get voided. I’ll mostly upgrade that or add more storage. For now, I’ll try to enjoy my games with the current setup. Nitro 5 comes with Norton security ultra 30 days pre-installed. I am fine with Microsoft win10 protection. Then I’ll mostly remove it from my Nitro 5. Actually, I noticed the mouse pointer getting stuck for short half second. After uninstalling Norton, it is not happening any more. I’d recommend this computer for somebody looking for affordable and nice looking gaming laptop with cool features and good capabilities.

Great laptop for light gaming (Sims, war thunder, Starctaft)

I really like the performance of this system and it's really good to me.

Acer seems to have flooded the budget gaming laptop market as they offer multiple configurations in the sub $800 category -- some substantially below. Variations include AMD and Intel cpus as well as different storage, and different graphics card -- all under the Nitro 5 name. This laptop comes with a very good Intel Core i5 Coffee Lake (8th gen) quad core cpu, 8GB Memory, a 256 GB SSD drive, and an entry level nVidia 10 series gpu: the GeForce GTX 1050. A 256 GB drive is going to fill up quickly. The Nitro does come packaged with a cable and screws for an additional drive, however I'm not sure how to add the drive. The package says to take it to an Acer dealer as doing it yourself might void warranty. Hmmm.... The case is a bit... bulky, and it comes in at almost 6 lbs. The power adapter is also a bit on the bulky side. However, this is a gaming laptop, so it's not necessarily fair to hold that against it. It does come with a laptop sleeve which is nice, but as it's just a sleeve there's nowhere to put the bulky AC adapter. The case has brushed black aluminum look, with red accents. It's a bit subtle as gaming laptops go, but it is indeed good looking. Open it up and turn it on and you will be greeted with a red backlight keyboard. The keyboard has a nice feel and feels solid. The touchpad is.. just okay, but as a gaming laptop most everyone will have a mouse attached. The IPS display is a bit on the dim side, but has good color and decent viewing angles. It runs 60 HZ and does not appear to support any variable refresh rates (Gsync or Freesync) to reduce tearing, although I didn't notice anything extreme. The Nitro 5 comes with a decent number of ports for a budget gaming laptop, with ethernet, USB 3.1 Type C Gen. 1 (up to 5Gbps), USB 3.0 Type A (with power-off USB charging), and an HDMI 2.0 port on the left side, as well as a security lock. No optical drive or SD card reader. On the right, you’ll find a charging port, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, and a combo audio jack. The charging port is right in the middle rather than towards the back or in the back. I don't particularly care for that placement as unless I take the time to route it away, it puts the cord right where I would us my mouse. I ran Tomb Raider's ultra demo, and the Nitro ran it with a solid 52 FPS, which is actually really good in a budget gaming laptop. While you won't be able to run all the newest games with maximum settings at 60 FPS, you should be able to get 30+ FPS, or run 60 FPS with graphics options turned down. Surprisingly, the sound was solid considering it's a laptop. While it won't compare to discreet speakers or headphones, you won't be embarassed if you have to play sounds over the speakers. Battery life was middle of the road, lasting about 3.5 hours running a video loop. You could likely push that to 4-5 hours with the screen brightness turned down. Overall, the Nitro 5 is a bit big and a bit heavy, with middle of the road battery life. But again, this is a gaming laptop and not a compact business laptop. If you're on a limited budget and looking for a gaming laptop that can run the latest games, the Acer Nitro 5 is definately worth considering.

This computer serves all my needs for academic and gaming purposes! I like the red light up keyboard! Really like this computer!

As an all around PC, this Acer is truly great. Thanks to the Solid State Drive, it boots up incredibly quickly and runs multiple work programs and applications with ease. I was initially worried that it is built around an Intel CORE i5 (instead of the CORE i7), but I have had no performance issues and no lag. It is noticeably faster than our Dell CORE i7 laptop, but some of that could be contributed to our Dell's Hard Disc Drive (HDD) and minor RAM differences. Ultimately, his Acer leaves very little to be desired. It can accommodate any accessory as it has USB 3.0, USB C, HDMI, options etc. It even has a dedicated button that launches Acer’s NitroSense program which allows you to view and adjust performance, fan speed, etc. The GeForce GTX 1050 falls into the budget category of video cards, but it is a good value as it offers decent performance for a better than average cost. For casual gamers who want a PC that boots up incredibly fast and can handle all of their work programs, this Acer laptop is a smart buy. But, if you consider yourself a hardcore gamer who wants the performance to play all of the newest flagship games, you are going to need to spend more money for the performance that is required to ensure your laptop will perform well in the future. The laptop does have the ability to be upgraded, but be aware that with this laptop, you are starting in the budget level - so even with upgrades, you will be struggling to keep up with the performance required by the newest games. I appreciate that small details were fine tuned with this Laptop. For example, the screen is easy to lift open & tilt without causing the base to tip. The back-lit keyboard is easy to see in the dark (without being too bright) and the keys have a vague concavity that ensures typing is comfortable. 10 key is present at the edge and the multi-gesture trackpad makes navigation a breeze and an absolute pleasure to use. This laptop is truly a versatile little beast.

It is review time! And we are looking at the Acer Nitro AN515-54 I have had an ample amount of time with the device and I am going to walk you through this gaming laptop. So, let us start off with Aesthetics, Overall this Acer gaming laptop has a nice and simple design with some curvature and with the use of plastic. Yes, I did say plastic but not a cheap feeling plastic and there is plenty of ventilation for when you really start to put it through its paces. Once you have a look at the back you will see the grill and it means that this laptop means business. The black and red theme with this laptop certainly is a nice touch and adds to the overall look and feel of the device. The Nitro has a bit of heft to it and it is evident once you have it in your hand. And in my opinion that is certainly not a bad thing. It weighs in at 5lbs or so. The Panel is a 15.6 inch IPS display and this particular configuration has a full HD display that outputs at 60Hz. :::Specs::: This configuration has some pretty interesting choice of hardware. Inside you will find an Intel Core i5-9300H (2.4GHz Turbo boost of 4.10 GHz) (4 cores, 8 Threads) 8GB of DDR4 2666 RAM (Hynix) with support for up to 32GB of RAM Nvidia GTX 1050 (3GB DDR5) (Hynix) 2X M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe slots I/O X4 USB ports (1 USB 2.0), (2 USB 3.0), (1 USB Type C) HDMI port 1 Gigabit ethernet jack (RJ 45) Wi-Fi 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.0 3.5mm audio jack 720 Webcam Backlit keyboard Performance & Gaming: The i5-9300H is a performer and while it may not be an i7-8700 it still performs admirably and handled every task I threw at it. I was able to play Battlefield, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Trover saves the universe. For the more demanding titles I found that I had gotten the best performance at medium settings and that would be more having to do with the aging GTX 1050. With the exception being Trover saves the universe which runs on unreal engine and isn’t really demanding as the higher end titles. Battery life I was able to get around 4 hours with heavy usage and mixed usage consisting of web browsing and streaming just a little shy of 5 hours. Pros & Cons: Pros: Good battery life Backlit keyboard Upgradability Price Cons: No SD card slot No thunderbolt port Conclusion: This configuration of the Nitro 5 is pretty decent for gaming as long as you are aren’t playing really demanding titles. I may even go as far to say that It may be because of the meager 8GB of ram installed which can be alleviated by purchasing a stick of ram which should help performance. I like the fact that the Nitro 5 is upgrade friendly and it only takes eleven screws to remove the bottom and you can install another M2 drive or a 2.5inch SSD. Not to mention you can easily add more RAM with you only having two slots. If you are a gamer on a budget then this configuration of the Nitro 5 is the way to go. But if you have some more cash to spend then take the next step up with the higher end GTX 1600 series.

A good entry level gaming computer, the Acer - Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 - 256GB SSD is everything you'd need. I also had the prior version with the AMD Ryzen but was able to upgrade to this this version with an i5 intel processor and Nvidia GTX1050. Acer had gaming in mind so they paired the graphics and processor with SSD for fast performance. For any of you using benchmarking app, I used the Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 and you can use my results in the photos to make a comparison. I would recommend this laptop to any beginning gamer or anyone who wants an awesome computer!

This is the 3rd Acer laptop that I have ever owned and each of them has served me well. However, this is the first laptop I've had that was geared toward gaming so I will review it as such. Pros: - This laptop ships with a sleeve to protect and transport it. Very nice touch! - For anyone that buys a gaming rig, the ability to upgrade is key. This unit is extremely up-gradable, whether you want to add more RAM or a second SSD (which is much needed). - While this unit doesn't come with a top of the line graphics card, it is more than powerful enough to run most graphic intensive games out there. I put it through the paces and had excellent frame rates on the beautiful 1080P display. - The omission of a disc drive helps keep the laptop thin and lighter for a 15" model. Cons: - You can always pay more for a model with a larger SSD, but this one comes with only 256GB of storage. That's enough space for only a handful of games so you will find yourself deleting and downloading new games constantly if you do not add a 2nd SSD. But for this excellent price point, you get what you pay for. - The red backlit keyboard looks really cool, but I prefer white back-lighting for functionality purposes. It's tough for me to make out red keys. - I didn't like how the track pad was off-center. If you are looking for a portable gaming rig and don't want to break the bank, this is a terrific option to go with. However, I encourage prospective buyers to go with a model that has 1TB of storage so that you do not need to constantly delete and download new games.

Summary - it's a great laptop for something inexpensive to tote around and play games on if you're not worried about frame rates ! Keyboard - it's better than most keyboards I've used of this type - the keys have a nice bounce to them and arent too mushy. Screen - color accuracy could be better, but it's crisp and bright. Viewing angles are great! Resolution is 1920x1080 (Full HD). Touchpad - nice touchpad! Size is just right and it's very responsive! Materials - meh... This is the only low point I can mention. It's not brittle plastic, but it's not hardened plastic either. The lid scratched a might bit since I got it. Storage - It comes with a 256GB NVMe SSD M.2 drive with a bay for another laptop size drive. The cable for the additional drive is in a plastic bag with a card telling you to bring the drive and the cable to an Acer repair center to have the drive installed. Being that I'm a certified tech and do it for a living, I had no issue installing a secondary SSD after testing the machine's performance. There's also another m.2 slot available if you wish to put in another m.2 drive or intel optane memory to combine with a non-SSD hard drive. Memory - memory is a single 8GB stick of DDR4 with a second slot wide open. Based on everything I read , it's capable of handling 32GB of RAM. Video the included intel 630/nvidia GeForce 1050 GTX (3GB dedicated memory) actually did really well for Battlefield 4 and Battlefield 1 left on Auto settings. The games were playable, still looked good, and since I'm not a framerate geek, I found it completely acceptable! Sound - sound was completely acceptable, but could have been louder. Overall it's a good machine for what you pay for it - no need to fork out over $1000 for a laptop if you're going to not spend all your time gaming on it. I used it at work for a few days as well and had zero problems using it with productivity apps! This machine is really nice!

In my house, I also have a 2018 Acer Nitro 5 (model: AN515-53-55G9). Got this newer 2019 version for my other kid to use and play games on. These are both considered “entry level” gaming laptops and hardcode PC gamers will probably looks at these as cheap toys. But for my teens’ Steam games, Fortnite, and whatever else they play, they run perfectly fine for them. And great performance with a huge screen for if they do homework now and then too. Actually, the 2018 machine ran great for my daughters engineering apps as well (Autodesk Inventor). Geekbench 4 Benchmark Comparison that I ran: 2018 - CPU: 4597/14336 GPU Compute: 86574 2019 - CPU: 4838/15058 GPU Compute: 81553 Pros for the 2018: slightly faster GPU (1050 Ti vs the 1050), easier access to the RAM and 2nd drive for upgrading (though, 2019 not that terrible). Pros for the 2019: slightly faster CPU (i5-9300H vs i5-8300H), MUCH smaller form factor (which is a huge plus), I like the keyboard a bit better as well, and little better battery life. Anyway, which is better…the 2018 or the 2019? Side-by-side, the 2019 is slightly better IMO. If you need to brag about benchmarks for gaming, the 2018 wins I guess. But in actual use, they seem equal in performance to me and the kids so I’d lean towards the smaller size with better battery in this 2019.

The Nitro 5 touches on some major features and leaves room for more but overall a great laptop for beginners in computer gaming. One cosmetic flaw I can't get passed as I type is the darn oil from my skin smears the matte black finish. I don't have oily skin but nonetheless it is there. Anyway, I have been able to load up my profile from other Windows computers so that was neat. I like the graphics and the resolution, now in a time when 4k and 5k screens are coming out I could want more but it does the job. A good reference is my time with Fornite and trying to snap a picture. I tried my best here to get a good picture so I apologize. I play handheld usually but then was able to see the screen in a larger format and fell in love! Downloading was pretty rough to get through, i'm not sure if it was the wi-fi card in the laptop but when I plugged it into the CAT5 cable it sped up the download. Aesthetically it is pleasing and reminds me of a sports car in the form of a laptop. It has this beautiful glowing red keyboard that isn't harsh, matte black finish, when closed the back end of it looks like the grill of a vehicle from Fast and the Furious and for me that is cool. It has sparked conversation and doubters but as I play and show my friends the laptop, I have won them over! Acer Nitrosense and Coolboost are life changing in that you can set the fans to the type of activity you are doing on the computer. So when I was playing my game I tapped the game button and it allocated more power to the cooling system to allow me to better maximize my time online. Pretty neat computer overall and would definitely recommend it for someone who is looking for a bump up in gaming gear or wants to test the waters with PC games.

This is a very fast and relatively light laptop for its size. I was at first skeptical with the Acer Nitro 5 as this was my first actual "gaming laptop", not used to a SSD or the Nvidia GTX 1050 graphic card. Pro: -First Impressions: I wasn't too thrilled with the all black look. Just personal preference as it would be hard to see at night or in the dark. But Acer added a backlit keyboard which was a nice feature. Setting up was easy and fast thanks to the specs on this laptop. Although the screen is 15.6, it doesn't look that large compared to my other 15.6's at home. -Weight: This is a very light computer at only 5.9 lbs and measures thin at 1.1". This is due to the plastic frame, which is also gives me mixed feelings. -Screen: 15.6 inch with FHD ACer ComfyView IPS LCD 1920x1080 screen. I was impressed at how crisp the screen was when playing games or watching videos. Colors were great to view. -Speed: Intl Core i5-9300H processor with 8 GB DDR4 memory. -Graphics Card: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 is great. I'n not too big on playing games on a laptop and I was able to play games like Fortnite, Roblox and others without any hiccups or interruptions. -Backlit keyboard: The color comes in a red backlit keyboard which is nice to see instead of the white or blueish lights. Cons: -Plastic body: Yes, it makes it light but it feels cheap. -Number pad: They cram the keyboard onto the keyboard. I felt that the number pad on the right is too narrow. -Storage size is 256GB PCle NVMe SSD drive. I felt that this was too small, especially for a laptop of this size. Maybe they should've upgraded this to a 1TB. -Office: you get 1 month trial for Office 365 for new customers. I think there should be a 1-year trial. Overall, nice fast computer. Perfect gaming laptop with some personal cons that I felt Acer could've done better with.

The Acer Nitro 5 laptop is a wonderful laptop for daily usage, web surfing, business, email etc. but its not a great laptop for gaming. The GTX 1050 was never a fast GPU even when it was released and it is already a few years old. I am surprised it was paired with an i5 9th gen 9300H which was probably the most impressive part of the laptop as it boost to a solid 4.1GHz, but 3.6GHz with all 4 cores and 8 threads even under heavy load. Comparing against a GTX 1060 and i7-8750H laptop I bought last year for a few hundred dollars more, you get a lot more gaming performance. The numbers below give you some idea of how much more performance you get for a few hundred dollars 1) 3DMark Timespy. Acer Nitro 5 (i5/gtx 1050) = 1638 Acer Aspire 7 (i7/gtx 1060) = 3981 2) Cinebench R20. Acer Nitro 5 (i5/gtx 1050) = 1467cb Acer Aspire 7 (i7/gtx 1060) = 2211cb 3) CrystalDiskMark. Acer Nitro 5 (i5/gtx 1050) = 1623MBs / 882MBs Acer Aspire 7 (i7/gtx 1060) = 3527MBs / 1527MBs You can see the GPU is pretty slow nowadays, half the speed of a GTX 1060 which still competes well against RX 580 or GTX 1660 which are in newer laptops. I would have liked to have seen a GTX 1660 or 1660Ti for a true powerful gaming laptop. The CPU holds its own however and is roughly 2/3 the speed of the i7 8750H which is expected based on core count # of 4 vs. 6. The storage is also slower than expected, I am not sure if the m.2 PCIe slot on this laptop is only x2 or if it is the NVMe SSD that is slower than the max x4 bandwidth you would find on higher end SSDs. The build quality, even though mostly plastic, is good. The laptop keyboard is illuminated RED (not RGB) and the keys feel good to type on. It is light and solid feeling and looking. The display is also excellent and IPS as advertised. The Windows Out of Box experience was a bit annoying as well as it seems it is an OEM Acer installation that forces you to use a Microsoft account instead of a local account. You can undo it later but it is still annoying. Overall its a really nice laptop, I'm just not sure what kind of games you can play well even on a 1080p/60 with just a GTX 1050. TimeSpy was literally a single digit slideshow while the GTX 1060 laptop at least ran it moderately well. If you want a nice looking laptop that can do some LIGHT gaming, I would recommend it, otherwise I would go with something more powerful for just a few hundred more.

PROs: - Despite the budget pricing, there’s definitely some potential under the hood with a 2019 Refresh 4-core i5 Coffee Lake CPU that can clock all the way up to 4.1 GHz, one stick of 8 GB of 2667 MHz DDR4 RAM, NVIDIA’s GTX 1050 for supposedly "modest" gaming at 1080p, and a very snappy 256GB NVMe SSD; all produced some quick and responsive Windowing--I measured 16 seconds from power-up to desktop - Lots of connectivity options with HDMI, GigE NIC, 1 USB 2.0 & 2 USB 3.0 ports, a USB C port, and a 3.5mm combo stereo/mic port - One empty SODIMM slot for more memory, 1 empty M.2 slot for another NVMe SSD, and an empty bay with included ribbon cable for HDD upgrade (though it includes scary warning that proceeding on your own could invalidate your warranty) - Definitely designed with the “gamer aesthetic” in mind that probably brought you here in the first place—aggressive, angular sytled exhaust ports on the back/bottom/side, a VERY carry/LAN party-friendly 5.5 lb weight, red accented “NITRO” hinge, brushed finish on the lid, and red LED-backlights on the chicklet-style keyboard with heavier borders around the directional arrow and WASD keys…speaking of the keyboard, there’s a dedicated Alt-GR key on the right of the spacebar and a set of full-sized directional keys, a rarity on compact keyboards these days - Dedicated ‘Nitrosense’ button (an ‘N’ with fangs on both sides--I guess) brings up a gamer-inspired and actually useful dashboard utility that lets you monitor and adjust fan speed and CPU/GPU temps, adjust power options on battery and AC, keyboard backlight timeout and some other keyboard behavior (sticky and Windows/Menu keys), a shortcut to the NVIDIA GeForce Experience hub, MaxxAudio sound presets (General Gaming, Sports, FPS, Movies, Music, and Voice), and LCD Overdrive which supposedly lets you access 144Hz screen refresh modes (more on that later) - Thankfully, there were actually very few pre-installed add-ons and bloatware; it was easy to manage and free up space given that the included hard drive is somewhat limited to 256GB - Setup was blazingly fast--6 minutes from unpacking to desktop; for grins, I later clocked only 20 minutes for an unattended factory reset (for those of you whose system starts to misbehave down the road requiring a fresh start) - Of those utilities and programs you’ll want to keep, the handy Acer Care hub is a fount of useful information, utilities and shortcuts that provides system hardware overviews, tune-up routines for cleaning the hard drive, optimizing startup applications, tests for memory and SSD performance, software and driver updates and downloads, recovery management, and various Acer support links - For you connectivity tweakers out there, the Acer Network Optimizer allows you to prioritize network traffic and network access with settings for Auto, full customization, or presets configured to prioritize gaming, streaming, or Net browsing - Other helpful utilities included Acer-branded (read: not necessarily fully functional) editions of Cyberlink Photodirector and PowerDirector for photo organization and editing and video editing. You may also find some value in the Acer Collection S application which periodically pops up with curated suggestions of apps and downloads and the Acer Quick Access utility which provides settings for CoolBoost fan control, various levels of blue light reduction, power-off charge mode for the USB ports, power button behavior, and network sharing to use your laptop as a mobile hot-spot - The 1080p 15.6” IPS non-touch LCD screen is clear, bright and perfectly serviceable even from wide viewing angles; it displayed some backlight bleed from the four noticeable spots at the bottom two corners and at the top on both sides of the microphones flanking the center webcam; and the “Bluelight Shield” in the Acer Quick Access utility can cut blue-light emissions to varying levels (adjustable, not just all-or-nothing…that’s a new one) for those of you concerned about your eyesight though the resultant screen cast was too reddish for my tastes - Included neoprene case is big enough for the laptop (though sadly not really suitable for carrying the mouse, adapter or other attachments)...still, an unexpectedly nice inclusion - Fan noise was tolerable though they approached ludicrous levels at full speed—for “regular gaming,” you could tell they were there but it really wasn’t over-the-top - The plastic lid does feel a bit thin though hinge pressure was adequate to hold the lid open at shallow or obtuse angles without flopping closed or laying the screen down flat on its own - 4-cell battery was enough to log a little over 2 hours of GPU-intensive gaming; not bad given the modest price CONs: - A fresh Windows install with all but native Windows and Acer apps & trial versions of Office, OneNote, and 30-day Norton removed = ~205GB; it's fine I guess, especially for app-style games like Cut-the-Rope or some low-overhead eSports games, but a single installation of something like Shadows of War quickly ate through half my available SSD space--512GB really needs to be standard these days in our "nearly all digital" world - The "LCD overdrive" from the Nitrosense hub supposedly activates 144Hz screen refresh but for the life of me I couldn’t access it from any location in the GeForce Hub, Windows Display properties, or via in-game V-sync or FPS cap - The dedicated Nitrosense button is placed EXACTLY where the Num-Lock key is normally placed on virtually any other modern keyboard; coupled with the fact that it's marked by an "N" key and you can imagine how many times I hit the Nitrosense key by mistake and had to wait yet again for the app to load and launch - The 720p webcam is useful for Skype calls but that's about it...pretty noisy if you have aspirations of using it for captures/videos - The InsydeH20 BIOS offers no advanced settings to adjust memory timing, CPU performance, etc...other than installing a little more memory or drive space, what you have is all you're going to get for the life of the laptop - Wireless AC was curiously slow on the same channel as compared to the Netgear AC1900 adapter on the PC sitting next to my laptop (measured via Ookla Speedtest)--despite same ping times, I routinely measured ½ speed or worse download on the Nitro 5 (290Mbps PC vs 152Mbps Nitro 5) and ½ or worse upload (25.49 Mbps PC vs 10.97 Mbps Nitro 5) - The plastic keyboard bezel and brushed-finished lid are real fingerprint magnets--hard to keep clean even with careful handling - I found the touchpad to be weirdly placed...a bit too much to the left for a righty to use even semi-comfortably, and the click activation required pretty long throw while the left-click/right-click regions were notoriously difficult to hit without looking...I was constantly struggling to mouse accurately using the touchpad alone - The empty HDD tray is made of wafer-thin aluminum; while it was easy enough to install a laptop HDD in the tray (DIY'ers note that the grey tab lifts up on the micro-SATA connector, not the black tab as the design might imply), the spinning HDD platters caused the tray to vibrate too loudly for continued use; those of you hoping to install a larger/cheaper HDD to expand game storage might be better served with a less spacious/more expensive but silent/motionless 2.5" SSD Summary review: They say you get what you pay for--no more does that seem to hold true than with the Nitro 5. Sporting the even MORE budget-minded 3GB variant of the GTX 1050 and a postage-stamp sized SSD, this system epitomizes what you'd call "budget-friendly." That's fine, I guess, because you DO have room/time to save up your pennies and extend the life of this laptop with some upgrade-friendly space on the motherboard. But those upgrades will start to erode some of the savings you otherwise realize by settling for bottom-rung specs. So how does the baseline configuration translate into actual gaming performance? Here were my findings on a variety of titles new & old (min FPS, ave FPS, max FPS): Assassin's Creed Odyssey High: 1,33,57 Med: 8,42,71 GeForce recommended (mostly low): 14,52,84 Assassin's Creed Origins High: 12,39,54 GeForce rec (mostly med and <1080p resolution): 14,52,84 Shadow of the Tomb Raider High DX11, DX12, & Med DX12 would not run GeForce rec (low and <1080p resolution): 14,22,36 Tomb Raider (2013) Ultimate: 42,54.2,62 Gefore rec (lower shadow and hair quality): 56,59.9,62 Shadow of Mordor Ultimate: 32.93,47.26,67.53 GeForce rec (high & some med): 49.11,75.31,125.82 Metro 2033 Redux Max quality: 9.98,24.33,163.77 High & 4x texture filtering: 15.47,42.65,223.21 Gears of War Ultimate for Windows Highest settings: 60.01 FPS Call of Duty Infinite High settings: held steady at 60 FPS By and large, the Nitro 5 struggled to maintain playable frame-rates on a few current AAA titles without greatly compromising image quality and/or dropping resolution below 1080p. On some older titles, things started to look a bit better with 60+ FPS cropping up in a few titles even at higher settings. If you have an extensive Steam library with older titles you've been dying to revisit, a very young gamer who doesn't care one lick about image quality, or just want something for casual gaming that can also support your school work, the Nitro 5 probably fits the bill. Just be aware that you'll likely need to spring for some more drive space in the very near future to actually hold your games anyway; and you're always going to be hobbled by what the GTX 1050 can (or can't) do. If you can stomach the expense, I personally suggest you consider the GTX 1650 variant of the Nitro 5 to extend the usable gaming lifespan of your investment just a bit further, especially if more modern gaming titles interest you at all.