ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^2019101)
VALUE
ASYOUCANsee from the Razer Blade 15 and
Asus ROG Zephyrus SGX701, some gaming
laptops are attemptingto move awayfrom
chunkydesigns towards slimmer,lighter and
more refined ones. Others are more proudly
stickingwith amore-is-moreapproach,with
desktop-botheringcomponentsand elaborate
coolingsystems with giganticexhaustvents.
As athoroughlyentry-level gaming
laptop,the Nitro 5isneither beautifully
slim nor dramaticallyoversized;it’s a
straightforwardlychunkynotebook that,
unfortunately,doesn’t match its
appealingprice with likeablehardware.
CHEAPESTSYMPATHIES
This particularmodel, with aquad-core
AMD Ryzen 52500U processorand a
4GB RadeonRX 560X GPU, weighs a
back-breaking2.7kg, and that’s not even
countingthe power brick. It’s bulky, too, with
afootprintmeasuring390x266x27mm.
Acer has attempted to brighten up the
boring red and black colour schemewith a
shimmeringchevron pattern on the lid and
palm rest areas, but there’s no hiding behind
the sub-standardbuild materials. The chassis
is plastickyand feels rather cheap,and the
bezels borderingthe screen aren’t flush with
the rest of the device.
On the leftedge is an SD card reader,
USB3 port, HDMI output,USB Type-C port,
GigabitEthernetport and aKensington
Securityslot. On the right are apair of USB2
ports, a3.5mm audio jack and the power
cable socket.Overall,it’s afunctionalset
of connections,but it doesn’t seem
unreasonableto want more,given the
amountof space available.
Even with such avariety of issues, the
Nitro 5’s keyboardand touchpadare the
worst of the lot. Typing is farfrom an
enjoyable experience,regardlessof whether
you’re mashingthe WASD keys in an
energeticgamingsessionor simply
writing an email.
Individualkeypresses feel spongy,
and the overall keyboardlayout is
roughlycobbledtogether.The volume
and brightnesscontrolsare incorporated
intothe arrow keys instead of the toprow,
which isn’t ideal, and the numberpad takes
up alot of space to the right of the keyboard.
Likewise,the blood-redRGB lightingcan
only be turned on and off instead
of graduallydimmed,and there
are no colour customisation
optionsor effects. Typing in general
is hinderedby the laptop’s overall
ACERNitro5
★★★★★
£649•From http://www.currys.co.uk
VERDICT
TheNitro5isfarcheaperthanmostgaming
laptops,butdon’texpectthosesavingsto payoff
sluggishness,so much so that it often failed
to keep up and missedkeypresses, which is
ahuge problemwhen gaming.
Things aren’t much better when it comes
to the touchpad.It often failed to keep up
with gestures,and its surface isn’t particularly
smooth,either.Italso picks up grease quite
easily and feels poorly fitted: simply press
down and the touchpaddrops down much
furtheris necessary.
There’s no redemptionto be found in
the display, as this 15.6in, Full HD panel is
only capableof amaximumbrightnessof
259cd/m^2 –low enoughforglare from light
sourcesto be aserious issue.Anaverage
sRGB colour gamut coverage of only 56.7%
means that colour coverage is exceptionally
undersaturated, and the screen looks very
washedout as aresult, even with acontrast
ratio of 1,159:1, the only good result to come
of our displaytesting regimen.
RUNNINGDOWN
Alow-tier Ryzen 5-poweredlaptop was never
going to competeinthe same ring with
four-figuredgaminglaptops on CPU power,
althoughyou’d still expect it to be reasonably
adept. The Nitro 5achieved an overall score
of 99 in our 4K performancebenchmark,
which is actuallyrather good, comingin
ahead of certain higher-end, non-gaming
laptops such as Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 2,
Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga.
The Nitro 5’s SSD speeds aren’t quiteas
nippy. In the AS SSD benchmark,the 128GB
SATA SSD achieved sequentialread and write
speeds of 477MB/sand 116MB/srespectively.
Both of these lag behind the Nitro 5’s rivals.
Ideally,gaming laptops should be capable
of handlingthe latest games at adecent
frame rate, even if you have to dial down a
fewsettings.Sadly,the Nitro 5’s dedicated
AMD RadeonRX 560X graphicschip simply
isn’t up to the task, managingan average of
only 14fps in the Dirt Showdownbenchmark
at Full HD resolutionwith High graphics
settings.Drop the resolutiondown to 720p
and apply Mediumsettings,however,and
you’ll achieve an average of 58fps.
As forMetro: Last Light Redux, the Nitro 5
reachedan average of only 17fps at native
resolution.Tinkeringwith Acer’s NitroSense
software didn’t help the experience,and in
fact made things worse when we switched
the laptop from High performanceto the
Maximumperformancesetting:this,
confusingly,droppedthe game down to 8fps.
GAME OVER
If the Acer Nitro 5has asaving grace,orthe
closestthing to it, it’s battery life. In our video
playback test, the Nitro 5lasted 5h 21m before
needingto recharge,which is apretty decent
result foragaming laptop.Ofcourse,that’s
still not along time in the granderschemeof
things, and you’ll get even less time away
from the mains if you’re runninggames and
not just playing video.
Youhavetobecareful when shopping
forabudget gaminglaptop.Ifyou spend
halfasmuchasyouwouldonatop-end
notebook you might expect half the
performance,but the Acer Nitro 5
doesn’t provide anythingclose.Not
only does this budgetgaminglaptop
fail to run games at playable frame rates, but
the Nitro 5falls short in every other area.
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
#1