You could point at almost any major category in tech these days, TVs,
phones, computers, and you could make the argument that the pace of
technological advancement has slowed and they've gotten boring. But here's one
that's really exciting. Sub $1,000
gaming laptops these days, compared to even models from a couple of years ago,
are amazing. And the new generation of NVIDIA graphics cards is a big part of
the reason. So, the GTX 1650 mobile GPU
is actually priced the same as the outgoing 1050Ti,
but it's got a fair bit more power under the hood. So, if you're a cheap gamer or
even just someone who cares about getting good value for your dollar, we
think you should give the Acer Nitro 7 and especially the Nitro 5 a really good
look. So, let's talk about what they did right and what they left out to keep
these budget beasts affordable.
The look of the Nitro 5 is a bit divisive. Although the overall feel of
the machine is pretty good, and I appreciate the much smaller bezels, the
red accents on the keyboard and the trackpad along with loads of plastic
make the Nitro 5 look a bit toylike. Its
better endowed cousin, the Nitro 7, improves on this a bit with a slightly
more premium screen backing and less red, but it still falls into the trap of
looking like something that a high schooler might think looks pretty dope.
On both models, you'll find heaps of I/IO. They've got four USB ports,
including one type-C, along with headphones, full-size HDMI, and
Ethernet, which you thankfully won't need too often since unlike the Zephris
G502, the 2019 Nitro lineup includes 2x2
Wi-Fi cards by default. Of course, those are minor details. And after that intro,
what everyone wants to know is what kind of performance we can squeeze out of an
$800 laptop. Well, good news. The GTX
1650 put on a really good show, easily
doing out 60 FPS at 1080p in every game
we tried without sacrificing too much eye candy. Compared to the GTX 1050Ti,
we're actually looking at about a 20% improvement across the board. Now,
that's not enough to make for a completely different experience from
last gen, but it is definitely noticeable. So games that previously
were best played on medium settings can now comfortably be set to high. Those
frames don't matter though if there isn't a good display panel to show them
on. And at first it seemed like the Nitro 7 was going to come away with an
easy win here. Its 8-bit panel is brighter, has richer colors, and maybe
even higher contrast than the 6-bit panel found on the Nitro 5. But it turns
out the Nitro 5 has an ace up its sleeve. When we tried overclocking the
display panels using custom resolution utility, the Nitro 7 tapped out where
most laptops do, slightly above 60 Hz.
The Nitro 5, on the other hand, just kept going and going all the way up to a
whopping 90 hertz. Now, I don't want to
guarantee that your Nitro 5 will be able to display that many frames per second.
This is way beyond the official spec, and Acer could be sourcing panels from
multiple vendors. But on ours, games like Overwatch or Rainbow Six Siege
appear noticeably smoother for a tangible competitive advantage. Now, if
you've got a mixed workload that includes some hobbyist level photo or
video editing, the Nitro 7 would still be a better bet. But if you primarily
plan on gaming, in our mind, the Nitro 5 is the clear choice here. Above the
screens, you'll find a webcam, which Acer brands as super high dynamic range.
It looks a little something like this. I wouldn't exactly describe it as super,
but hey, at least they've got one. Zing,
ASUS. Uh, what's more impressive though is the speakers, which got pretty loud
and have a nice full sound. You know, that's another thing that has really
improved a lot on budget gaming laptops, right? Actually, Dell had really good ones a
while ago, but they got worse. Okay, well, back to performance. If you
do plan on using either of these for content creation or professional
purposes, the internal displays on either of them might not be perfect for
that, but there's always the option of hooking up to an external one for color
critical work. So, we checked it out. The i5 processor in our Nitro 5 was very
well behaved. It turboed up to about 4 GHz, settling in at 3 GHz on all four
cores. That is well above base clock. But the i7 model was actually pretty
disappointing. When we put it under an allcore load, the thermals were fine,
but it immediately ran up against a power limit and settled in below its
base clock at 2.4 GHz when hit with a demanding load. Now, thanks to its two
extra cores and its higher boost, it's
still the better processor out of the two. But if we're going to call out
Apple for underbuilding their machines, then Acer needs to expect the same
treatment. Silver lining, um, at least this lack of adequate power delivery
means that neither laptop gets exceptionally loud under load. Both
laptops are equipped with the same keyboard, and it's fine, just like it
was 2 years ago. But in light of recent competition, we think that Acer needs to
seriously think about upgrading their keyboards across the entire lineup. It's
still not terrible, but the keystrokes are a bit on the heavy side with very
little in the way of tactility. So, if you're able to justify the price jump to
a Zephris G502 or an Alienware M15, your
fingers will thank you when you're writing long emails about why you
couldn't finish your assignment because you were busy gaming. As for the
trackpad, it's also fine. Fortunately,
Acer is using the Windows precision drivers, but the chassis flex around the
trackpad makes the clicks feel a bit mushy. Again, an area where I'll accept
it today, especially at this price point, but Acer needs to consider
improving it for next year. The 55watth
battery found in the Nitro 5 and 7 is about what you'd expect in this price
range. And since the components aren't too power- hungry, and actually the
screens on both are a bit on the dim side, you can actually use the Nitro 5
away from the wall for close to eight hours if you're just surfing the web,
with the Nitro 7 coming in closer to 7.
Both laptops feature great upgradability with easy access to RAM, two M.2 drive
slots, and space for a 2 and 1/2 in drive. So, we love this because it means
you don't have to sweat it when you don't have a ton of money today. So, you
select an 8 gig RAM 128 gig storage option hoping that you'll have more
money when you finish your program and you can expand it later. So, then with
that in mind, should you actually buy either of these laptops? Well, the $830
price tag on the Nitro 5 is really hard to complain about. And if you want a
game on a budget, the 90 Hz display overclock will give you a surprisingly
good experience if you get a golden unit like ours. So, that one is coming out of
this review with a full-blown recommendation. As for the Nitro 7,
although the panel is better, it's a tougher cell given that the i7 model
struggles with performance crippling power issues. Now, it's possible that
everything else at this price point will have the same problems. So, I'm going to
end up saying, "Well, pick your poison." But, I kind of doubt it, and we're going
to know for certain soon enough when Dell sends over their new G3. So, thanks
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