30 JANUARY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE383
AFTERTHEBITTERdisappointmentttof the
underpowered, poorly made Nitro5(Shopper
375), Acer’s affordable gaming notebbbook
series wasinneed of redemption.
Happily,that’s exactly whatthe
new Nitro7provides.
This is apricier laptop thanthe
£699 Nitro 5, but it’s clearlycut frommm
finer cloth. Metal coversonthe lid, bbbase and
keyboard prevent the chassis from fffeeling
tooplasticky, andwhile the Nitro 7, likethe
Nitro5,has a15.6in display, it hasasssllliiiggghhhtttlllyyy
slimmerprofileat260x363x23mm.However, it
couldbesmaller still,wereitnot forsome
chunkytop and bottom bezels, and at 2.5kg
it’s prettyheavy,too.ARazer Blade-style
slimline gaming system, this is not.
HARD PRESSED
Forconnectivity, theleft edge is home to two
USB3 ports, one USB Type-C port, an HDMI
output, an Ethernet jack and aKensington
lock slot,while the right side contains a3.5mm
audiojack,aUSB2 port and the power jack.
The lack of Thunderbolt3connectivity is a
shame,but you stillhaveadisplayoutput via
the HDMIport, so all the bases arecovered.
Be prepared to use the3.5mm jack in
particular, as the built-in speakersare
distinctly average.
The keyboardisanimprovement over the
Nitro5:key travel andrigidity areboth fine,
and you candim the backlight, insteadof
simply being able to turn it on or off.However,
many of the same issues remain. Theykeycaps
are made of noticeably cheap-feelingplastic,
and the membrane design lacks thecrispness
of amechanical keyboard.
Pushing down on the keyboard causesthe
platetodepress, afurtherindication of the
cheap build. At least the touchpad works well,
even if its surface lackssmoothness.
ACER Nitro7(2019)
★★★★★
£1,100•Fromwww.box.co.uk
WINDOWS 10 GAMING LAPTOP
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has afast refreshrateof144Hzand includes
Nvidia’s G-Sync technology to regulate
onscreenframe ratesand prevent tearing.
What’s more,Acer has used amatt finish,
which is preferable to thereflective gloss you
often get with gaming machines.
Thedisplay quality is mixed, however.One
positiveisthe maximum luminance of
344cd/m^2 ,which is brightenough even if
you’re playinggames in aroom with harsh
lighting overhead.The contrast ratio couldbe
better,however.At940:1,it’s considerably
lower than the Acer Nitro5’s 1,159:1.
On the plus side,colour reproduction is
decent: we measuredthe panel’s sRGBgamut
coverage at 89.5%. Darker colourstend to be
slightly off themark,especiallygreys, purples
and reds, butthe average delta-E of 1.86
suggestsahigh levelofaccuracy overall.
STAR PLAYER
It’s performancewhere the Nitro7really
shakesoffthe Nitro 5’s failures.The hexa-core
Inteli7-9750H CPU, together with 8GB of RAM,
meantitblew through our4Kbenchmarks
with an image test score of 141, video score of
161, multitaskingscore of 158and 156overall.
That’s not as nippyasthe HP Omen15
(Shopper374)and itsscoreof170,but when
performing daily tasks you wouldn’t notice
much difference betweenthem.
Gamingability is also on apar
with theHPOmen 17,despitethe
Nitrooo7being cheaper.This is the first
laptop we’vetested that includesthe
mobile version of Nvidia’sGeForce GTX
1660Ti, anditwas able to runMetro: Last
Light RRRedux at aslick 130fps at native
1080p resolution,albeit with SSAA disabled
andtheeeHighpreset beingused instead of
Very High.That’s just 7fps behindthe GTX
1070-powered Omen 15,another barely
perceppptible difference.For the money, the
Nitro 7 77 delivers very impressive gaming
performmmance,and the high refresh rate
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smoother thanonany 60Hz display.
Storageperformance is decent, too, with
AS SSD recording asequential read speed of
1,580MB/sand asequential writespeed of
1,367MB/s. Youonlyget asingle 512GB SSD,
not acombination of an SSD and amore
spacious hard disk as on theOmen 15,but
512GB is enough to store afairfew games.
As with so many gaming laptops, sadlythe
Nitro7won’t lastlongonthe road. It could
only endure 3h 20m of video playback –
exactly thesame as theOmen 15, funnily
enough –soyou should alwayskeepthe
charging cable closeby. This is easier saidthan
done,too,asitincludes aheftypower brick.
MADEAMENDS
Other than afew instances where it shows
its budget origins –the keyboard especially –
the Nitro 7isafarmore appealing choice of
gaming laptop than theNitro 5. Performance
is massively improved, andthe display looks
better,too,withmore vibrantcolours and
stronger brightness. As acomfortable
middle ground between slow budget laptops
and morefinely crafted but much more
expensive premium models, we can
recommenditeveninspite of its flaws.
TomBruce
VERDICT
Mid-range gaming laptops can be haaard to get
right, but the Nitro 7findsawinningggformula
SPECIFICATIONS
Windowsoverall
Multitasking
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 84 forperformancedetails
PROCESSORHexa-core2.6GHz IntelCorei7-9750H•RAM
8GB•DIMENSIONS260x363x23mm•WEIGHT2.5kg•
SCREEN SIZE15.6in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,920x1,080•
GRAPHICSADAPTOR6GBNvidia GeForce GTX1660 Ti•
TOTAL STORAGE512GBSSD•OPERATING SYSTEM
Windows10Home•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILS
http://www.acer.com•PART CODENH.Q5HEK.004
3h 20m
158
156
