If you are looking to score a great deal on a new Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop, I have great news for you; right now you can save $150 on the excellent Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop on Amazon. Play your games wherever you want and take advantage of the incredible speed of the 256GB NVMe SSD, 144Hz IPS display, and more.
PROS
- Impressive CPU and 1080p gaming performance for the money
- Expandable storage
- Great battery life
- Wi-Fi 6 support
CONS
- Skimpy 256GB boot SSD
- Hard-to-read keyboard
- No SD or microSD slot
Undercutting the Under-$1,000 Set
While both the Nitro 5 and Bravo 15 benefit from AMD’s new “Renoir” CPU architecture, there’s only so much Acer can do with a $330 lower price. Besides packing a six-core Ryzen 5 versus an eight-core Ryzen 7, the Nitro 5 has 8GB of memory versus 16GB and a 256GB rather than 512GB NVMe solid-state drive. The smaller SSD is the biggest practical cut for most folks; it will make it tough to install many games. But unscrewing the bottom panel reveals welcome room for expansion: a second M.2 slot for another SSD, plus a 2.5-inch drive bay for up to a 2TB hard drive. There’s a drive cable in the box.
Graphics are powered by a 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, so the Acer naturally falls short of gaming laptops with the GTX 1660 Ti. Since you won’t see frame rates much in excess of 60fps, the IPS screen sticks to the generic 60Hz refresh rate instead of supplying a 120Hz or faster panel.
On the laptop’s left flank, you’ll find two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a Killer Ethernet port, an audio jack, and a security lock slot. Another Type-A port joins a USB-C 3.2 port and HDMI video output on the right. The AC adapter plugs in at the rear. Acer forgot an SD card slot. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth handle wireless communications. (The Wi-Fi 6 support is a nice surprise in a budget machine like this one.)
Ace for the Bucks
I compared the Nitro 5’s performance to that of four other gaming laptops. All are among the more affordable we’ve tested lately, but it’s important to note that only the MSI GL65 9SC is down in the Acer’s price range: The MSI Bravo 15 and Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i are about $1,000 each, while the Dell G5 15 SE is in the $1,200 ballpark. You can see their (mostly superior) specs in the table below.