Acer offers two different configurations of its newest Nitro 5 refresh laptops: The AN515-55 uses Intel’s Comet Lake processors while the AN515-44 runs on AMD’s Renoir processors.
AMD Ryzen 5 4600H would be a good choice if you are looking to save some money. In terms of performance, this hexa-core processor is able to stand up against Intel’s Core i7-9750H in much more expensive laptops when put head to head! Alternatively, the AN515-44 can also be purchased with an even more powerful Ryzen 7 4800H – which was used in earlier models of my computer as well!
Our review unit came bundled with a newly released Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, which has proved to be quite good for gaming at max settings. Though it is only able to perform marginally better than its predecessor, it still does wonders given the fact that you can find one online for about $250. To take advantage of its benefits though, you will need a computer equipped with an equally powerful processor and plenty of storage space if you want to comfortably play games such as Fortnite or Black Ops 4 on high graphics settings without lag.
Case
Despite the fact that the Nitro 5 is largely made of plastic, the new laptop looked and felt pretty luxurious. The lid especially looked strikingly close to real aluminum, an aesthetic only matched by my favorite laptop brands such as MSI. With all these sleek blacks interspersed with blood-red accents throughout (keyboard, touchpad, etc.), this laptop was perfect for people who love minimalism but also need a dash of fun thrown in sometimes.
The cover of this laptop was less than sturdily made and could bend if enough pressure was applied to it. The base part warped after being put under some stress, but otherwise build quality is acceptable given the price range it falls into. Display angles are pretty wide at around 150 degrees so most people should find it satisfactory.
Despite being wider than some of its competitors, Acer’s laptop bezels were narrower than those expected of a modern laptop. Nonetheless, the Nitro’s footprint of 36.3 x 25.5 cm (14.3 x 10 inches) was fairly small for a 15-inch device; so too was its height at only 2.4 cm – which makes it light enough to carry around for long periods without much difficulty at all!
Input Devices
Keyboard
Though the manufacturer does not advertise it, the higher end models of their Nitro 5 series features RGB-backlit keyboards. Acer’s well-known gaming keyboard only has a red backlight on this model. Though it has a good feel and definition, there are some exceptions from its general layout such as combining the left Shift key with <> as well as merging Return with.
One of the most helpful features was having access to brightness and volume control on the cursor keys – which are especially beneficial for those who type without looking at their keyboard. It can be quite frustrating, however, if you’re left handed or have small hands. Chiclet keyboard…
Touchpad
The rectangle shape of the touchpad has a size of 10.5×7.5cm which is sufficient for my 15 inch laptop. The smooth surface allows easy gliding, and its precision was adequate enough. Various gestures are supported such as pinch zoom or two finger scrolling which work well enough but could be improved upon for an even smoother experience since there isn’t too much other noise coming from other buttons on the keyboard – there’s just this one occasional click from clicking on the mouse itself which can get annoying sometimes.
Display
Performance
This laptop can be found in the upper middle range of gaming laptops – it is not cheap, but it offers top-notch performance. One downside however, is that while its CPU provides enough headroom for most high-end games, its graphics card doesn’t quite make up for this lack; some demanding games are too much for it already. However, one good thing about this machine is that you can upgrade it; specifically adding more RAM would be helpful here – try increasing the RAM to 16GB or even 32GB if you want an extra boost when running new releases!
Processor
First things first: AMD’s Ryzen 5 4600H offers an unbeatable price-performance ratio. In addition, this laptop boasted impressive clock speeds and a hexa-core CPU manufactured in a 7nm lithography process. Its best score was under perfect conditions at 4.0 GHz but usually it averaged out to around 3.7 GHz even with heavy loads on all of its processors. It wasn’t too surprising then when its performance started to drop a little bit every so often; this is normal for laptops because they don’t typically last long in terms of power output.
GPU Performance
Despite its satisfactory performance, GTX 1650 Ti was a little underwhelming for us. Comparing it to the benchmarks shows that this graphics card is almost on par with a regular GTX 1650 when it comes to DirectX 12 performances.
Gaming Performance
The Nitro 5 AN515-44 has been designed for the gamer who does not want to play everything at its native resolution of 1920×1080 on max settings. The result is that it can only run games like FIFA 20 very well, but struggles when it comes to other more demanding or less optimized games (like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Borderlands 3). At higher resolutions things go from bad to worse; specifically 2560×1440. These high resolutions are typically too taxing for graphics cards with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti GPU.
Temperature
Temperatures during our Witcher 3 testing suggest that the fans are running at a much lower speed than what they’re capable of. Our CPU and GPU hit temperatures near 60 degrees Celsius, meaning there is still plenty of headroom left before overheating. Even when we subject it to an unrealistic stress test by running Furmark and Prime95 simultaneously – which caused our GeForce GTX 1650 Ti to reach 71 degrees Celsius and Ryzen 5 4600H to hit 85 degrees Celsius – all these numbers were well within the safe range.
Battery Life
The Nitro 5 offers a long battery life due to its switchable graphics and low power consumption. With a 57 Wh battery size, we managed over 13 hours for our idle test at minimum display brightness, and about 9 hours for our Wi-Fi test with moderate display brightness.
Verdict
Featuring Ryzen 5 4600H and GeForce GTX 1650 Ti, the Acer Nitro 5 AMD Edition is a great value for users on a budget.
The first 2 new AMD-based laptops, the RX 5500M and GTX 1660 Ti models, are starting to make their way into the $1,000 category of gaming laptops. These machines could offer a greater GPU capability than what was previously available at this price point; so they’re something worth waiting for if you want high-end graphics but aren’t willing to spend too much money.
Despite its shortcomings such as a dim display with poor color-space coverage or its lack of connectivity, Acer’s Nitro 5 AN515-44 is an attractive and practical budget device. It manages to come off as light and compact for being able to run for long periods without needing charging which makes it seem semi-portable.
