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61 reviews for Acer – Nitro 5 15.6″ Gaming Laptop NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 – 256GB SSD – Black
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Description
Acer Nitro 5 Laptop: Lose yourself in the absorbing multimedia experience delivered by this Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop. The Intel Core i5 processor ensures a lag-free performance, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card delivers immersive visuals on the 15.6-inch Full HD display. This Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop has 8GB of RAM for seamless multitasking.
Features
Windows 10 operating system
Windows 10 brings back the Start Menu from Windows 7 and introduces new features, like the Edge Web browser that lets you markup Web pages on your screen.
15.6″ Full HD display
The 1920 x 1080 resolution boasts impressive color and clarity. IPS technology for wide viewing angles. Energy-efficient LED backlight.
9th Gen Intel® Core™ i5-9300H mobile processor
Smart quad-core, eight-way processing performance. Intel Turbo Boost Technology delivers dynamic extra power when you need it, while increasing energy efficiency when you don’t.
8GB system memory for advanced multitasking
Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to smoothly run your games and photo- and video-editing applications, as well as multiple programs and browser tabs all at once.
Solid State Drive (PCI-e)
Save files fast and store more data. With massive amounts of storage and advanced communication power, PCI-e SSDs are great for major gaming applications, multiple servers, daily backups, and more.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics
Backed by 3GB GDDR5 dedicated video memory for a fast, advanced GPU to fuel your games.
Weighs 4.85 lbs. and measures 1.1″ thin
Thin and light design with DVD/CD drive omitted for improved portability. 4-cell lithium-ion battery.
HDMI output expands your viewing options
Connect to an HDTV or high-def monitor to set up two screens side by side or just see more of the big picture.
Wireless/Wired connectivity (WiFi 5 – 802.11 ac)
Connect to a Wireless-AC router for nearly 3x the speed, more capacity and wider coverage than Wireless-N. Backward-compatible with all other Wi-Fi networks and hotspots.
Built-in HD webcam with two microphones
Makes it easy to video chat with family and friends or teleconference with colleagues over Skype or other popular applications.
Backlit keyboard for easy typing in dim or dark locations
Touchpad with multigesture support.
Additional port
Headphone/microphone combo jack.
Note: This laptop does not include a built-in DVD/CD drive.
Intel, Pentium, Celeron, Core, Atom, Ultrabook, Intel Inside and the Intel Inside logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
Specification
Key Specs
-
Yes
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15.6 inches
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No
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Storage TypeSSD
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Total Storage Capacity256 gigabytes
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256 gigabytes
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8 gigabytes
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
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2.4 gigahertz
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Intel 9th Generation Core i5
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Processor Model Numberi5-9300H
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Windows 10 Home
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7 hours
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Battery TypeLithium-ion
General
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Product NameNitro 5 15.6″ Gaming Laptop – Intel Core i5 – 8GB Memory – NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 – 256GB Solid State Drive
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BrandAcer
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Model NumberAN515-54-54W2
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ColorBlack
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Color CategoryBlack
Feature
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No
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Touchpad TypePrecision
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Yes
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Air
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64-bit
Ports
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Headphone JackYes
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Number of USB Ports (Total)3
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Number of USB 2.0 Type A Ports1
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Number of USB 3.0 Type A Ports2
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Number of USB 3.1 Type C Ports1
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Number of HDMI Outputs (Total)1
Display
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15.6 inches
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1920 x 1080 (Full HD)
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No
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Display TypeFull HD Widescreen LED
Storage
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Storage TypeSSD
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Total Storage Capacity256 gigabytes
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256 gigabytes
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PCIe
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None
Memory
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8 gigabytes
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DDR4 SDRAM
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8 megabytes
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32 gigabytes
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Number Of Memory Slots2
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No
Graphics
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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050
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Discrete
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GPU BrandNVIDIA
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3000 megabytes
Processor
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Processor BrandIntel
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2.4 gigahertz
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Intel 9th Generation Core i5
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Processor Model Numberi5-9300H
Connectivity
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Internet ConnectivityEthernet, Wi-Fi
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Yes
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None
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No
Network
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Wireless-AC
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Ethernet10/100/1000
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10/100/1000
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Number Of Ethernet Ports1
Compatibility
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Windows 10 Home
Included
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Built-In WebcamYes
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None
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Numeric KeypadYes
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Included SoftwareAcer NitroSense
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Additional Accessories IncludedPower adapter, sleeve, HDD upgrade kit
Power
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7 hours
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Battery Cells4-cell
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Battery TypeLithium-ion
Dimension
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Product Height1.1 inches
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Product Width14.3 inches
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Product Depth10 inches
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Product Weight4.85 pounds
Audio
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Audio TechnologyWaves MaxxAudio®, MaxxBass®, MaxxVolume®, MaxxDialog
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Speaker TypeStereo speakers
What's included
- Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-54W2
- 4-cell battery
- Power adapter, sleeve, HDD upgrade kit
Support
Related products
Pro: -First Impressions: I wasn't too thrilled with the all black look. Just personal preference as it would be hard to see at night or in the dark. But Acer added a backlit keyboard which was a nice feature. Setting up was easy and fast thanks to the specs on this laptop. Although the screen is 15.6, it doesn't look that large compared to my other 15.6's at home.
-Weight: This is a very light computer at only 5.9 lbs and measures thin at 1.1". This is due to the plastic frame, which is also gives me mixed feelings.
-Screen: 15.6 inch with FHD ACer ComfyView IPS LCD 1920x1080 screen. I was impressed at how crisp the screen was when playing games or watching videos. Colors were great to view. -Speed: Intl Core i5-9300H processor with 8 GB DDR4 memory.
-Graphics Card: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 is great. I'n not too big on playing games on a laptop and I was able to play games like Fortnite, Roblox and others without any hiccups or interruptions.
-Backlit keyboard: The color comes in a red backlit keyboard which is nice to see instead of the white or blueish lights.
Cons:
-Plastic body: Yes, it makes it light but it feels cheap.
-Number pad: They cram the keyboard onto the keyboard. I felt that the number pad on the right is too narrow.
-Storage size is 256GB PCle NVMe SSD drive. I felt that this was too small, especially for a laptop of this size. Maybe they should've upgraded this to a 1TB.
-Office: you get 1 month trial for Office 365 for new customers. I think there should be a 1-year trial.
Overall, nice fast computer. Perfect gaming laptop with some personal cons that I felt Acer could've done better with.
Overall this Acer gaming laptop has a nice and simple design with some curvature and with the use of plastic. Yes, I did say plastic but not a cheap feeling plastic and there is plenty of ventilation for when you really start to put it through its paces. Once you have a look at the back you will see the grill and it means that this laptop means business.
The black and red theme with this laptop certainly is a nice touch and adds to the overall look and feel of the device.
The Nitro has a bit of heft to it and it is evident once you have it in your hand. And in my opinion that is certainly not a bad thing. It weighs in at 5lbs or so. The Panel is a 15.6 inch IPS display and this particular configuration has a full HD display that outputs at 60Hz.
:::Specs:::
This configuration has some pretty interesting choice of hardware. Inside you will find an Intel Core i5-9300H (2.4GHz Turbo boost of 4.10 GHz) (4 cores, 8 Threads) 8GB of DDR4 2666 RAM (Hynix) with support for up to 32GB of RAM Nvidia GTX 1050 (3GB DDR5) (Hynix) 2X M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe slots
I/O
X4 USB ports (1 USB 2.0), (2 USB 3.0), (1 USB Type C) HDMI port 1 Gigabit ethernet jack (RJ 45) Wi-Fi 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.0 3.5mm audio jack 720 Webcam Backlit keyboard
Performance & Gaming:
The i5-9300H is a performer and while it may not be an i7-8700 it still performs admirably and handled every task I threw at it. I was able to play Battlefield, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Trover saves the universe. For the more demanding titles I found that I had gotten the best performance at medium settings and that would be more having to do with the aging GTX 1050.
With the exception being Trover saves the universe which runs on unreal engine and isn’t really demanding as the higher end titles.
Battery life I was able to get around 4 hours with heavy usage and mixed usage consisting of web browsing and streaming just a little shy of 5 hours.
Pros & Cons:
Pros:
Good battery life
Backlit keyboard Upgradability
Price
Cons:
No SD card slot
No thunderbolt port
Conclusion:
This configuration of the Nitro 5 is pretty decent for gaming as long as you are aren’t playing really demanding titles. I may even go as far to say that It may be because of the meager 8GB of ram installed which can be alleviated by purchasing a stick of ram which should help performance.
I like the fact that the Nitro 5 is upgrade friendly and it only takes eleven screws to remove the bottom and you can install another M2 drive or a 2.5inch SSD. Not to mention you can easily add more RAM with you only having two slots. If you are a gamer on a budget then this configuration of the Nitro 5 is the way to go. But if you have some more cash to spend then take the next step up with the higher end GTX 1600 series.
- Solidly built
- High performing for price
- Expandability space for an additional M.2 SSD and traditional 2.5-inch spinning disk
-...More
- Solidly built
- High performing for price
- Expandability space for an additional M.2 SSD and traditional 2.5-inch spinning disk
- Not much preinstalled bloatware - Good battery life
- Gaming specific A W S D and arrow keys are framed for emphasis
Cons:
- Case is a fingerprint magnet
- Keyboard layout is strange and takes time to get used to
- Could use more preinstalled RAM
- Power tip into laptop is recessed, seems robust but difficult to plug in
Although the clock speed ticked up from 2.3 Ghz to 2.4 Ghz it’s not something you will probably notice. Both are very well designed and very fast at processing games and MS Office applications like Word or Excel. It does have eight processors so it will be quick at multi-tasking as well as super-fast at any individual data processing application. Acer has gotten it right in their design of the internal data bus’s coupled with memory speed and CPU speed so everything blazes along together. The newest generation will run a little cooler according to the specs.
Both have the NitroSense application installed although the newer machine even provides a keyboard key to launch it. This app allows you to manually control fan speeds, view the CPU temperature and modify power plans. It’s very neat although everything can be done automatically. The physical machine has some differences from the earlier version as well. It is smaller, however the screen size is the same, just less bezel, so that is very nice. The power port is in the middle of the right hand side which made way for some cooling ports.
I think it would have been better to keep the power port more out of the way like the earlier version machine. Also the USB port on the right side also is near the middle, so if you use a wired gaming mouse for example, you probably want the port more toward the top end of the keyboard area (and out of the way more) which is again how the earlier version machine is. If you use a wireless mouse of course this doesn’t matter. This is a small design point but I did notice it. Overall the Nitro5 line continues to have a stealthy look and beautiful backlit keyboard. A nice touch is that it comes with a beautiful sleeve to use to carry the machine when you sometimes don’t want to use a more bulky case. Both the older and newer PC’s did great on a quick wireless internet speed-test but the newer one was a little faster on average: 228Mbps vs 233Mbps. My internet connection is only rated at 200 Mbps so it’s nice that the Nitro5’s obviously have excellent wireless electronics installed. Acer does tout the ultra-fast wireless speed and they delivered. The graphics card has 3GB dedicated memory so that is very nice.
You don’t get an SD card slot on the newer one which I do miss since I use devices like dash cams and they use SD cards. The advertising on BestBuy does say it supports SD cards but it does not. The older Nitro did have the SD card slot. However, you can just get an SD/USB adapter that plugs in via one of the USB ports. There is an extra USB-3 port and also a USB port to charge devices even if the PC is off. Also there is a USB-C port which is becoming a necessity anymore. I have found that the Nitro5 build is top rated versus the many PC’s I have used. It is a beautiful machine with lots of power for most any use including ‘medium level’ gaming. The price point is outstanding for a PC with the specs of the Nitro5. I would recommend it highly. Acer has won me over.
Specs
Processor – Intel Core i5 9300H - CPU 4C/8T @ 2.4 GHz with boost to 4.1 GHz Graphics – NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 3GB @ 1366 MHz[Discrete] / Intel UHD Graphics 630 Memory – 8GB DDR4 2666 Single Channel (19-19-19-43) Storage – 256GB Kingston SSD (M.2 NVME) Display - 15.6” 1920 x 1080p LED IPS screen Camera – HD (720P?) with dual mics Network Adapter – 802.11AC WiFi adapter / 1X Gigabit LAN Port / Bluetooth 4.2 Radio Ports – 1X USB-C (3.1) / 2X USB 3.0 / 1X USB 2.0 / 1X HDMI / 3.5mm TRRS jacks for headsets Battery – 3815 mAh / 58.75Wh with a claimed 7 hour battery life
The Nitro 5 comes with an Intel/NVidia loadout, sporting Intel’s latest 9th Gen i5 9300H. The i5 comes with 4 cores utilizing 8 threads. The 1050 3GB graphics card is a bit older GPU, but still relevant in today’s gaming market. Although behind the 1050ti and newly released 1650/1660ti, it is still a perfectly good card that can play AAA games at relatively good settings. This being a 10 series Nvidia card, you can also hook the Nitro up to an external monitor (HDMI) that supports G-Sync or a certified (by NVidia) Freesync panel.
Like most Nitro 5’s, this laptop comes with a single 8GB DDR4 RAM stick. This, for the most part, is enough RAM to play most games without becoming a bottleneck. Storage comes in the form of a 256 GB M.2 NVME drive from Kingston.
The display is a 15.6” 1920 x 1080p 60 HZ IPS screen. It appears to be the same display or very close to my other Nitro 5. I again couldn’t find any listed response times for the monitor, so I would assume it would follow the default IPS times of about 5ms. It’s still not the best display out there, but a decent panel that fits the budget and marketed range. Picture reproduction is still clear, colors are decent, and text is sharp (after tweaking). 1080p is still the sweet spot for budget gaming builds, so this panel’s resolution makes perfect sense. The display does not support any adaptive sync technology (Freesync, G-Sync). The color reproduction of the display, like the previous gen, is still lacking. Pictures came out clear, but the colors were a little flat.
Games and Benchmarking
I ran the Nitro through a series of benchmarks to test its various capabilities. I wanted to get an apples to apples comparison to the last gen, and I already had all of the install files on hand (lazy). Tests included Cinebench R15, 3DMark Time Spy and Skydiver, PC Mark 10, GeekBench, and CrystalDiskMark 6. I have included a screenshot of my raw results table. The results show, as you might expect, that the Nitro floats somewhere in the mid-range. It outperforms my previous gen Nitro with the help of Intel’s newest chip and the onboard NVME drive.
Much like with the benchmarks I loaded up the same games to play as I did for my other Nitro. First up was Fortnite. I let it configure to the best settings for my system. The game listed all settings on high with the framerate capped at 60fps. I bumped it up to 120 fps just to see what it would top out at. With that in mind I was able to hit 68-75 fps pretty consistently in squad rumble matches. The only time it took a dip was during heavy CQB with lots of building going on around. Even then I think I saw it dip into the upper 50’s. If I kept the fps locked at 60 I probably wouldn’t have even noticed the dip. Compared to my other Nitro, I had a more polished gaming experience on the same settings. Topping out at 75 fps vs. 45-50 with the same settings.
I stuck with Shadow of War for my AAA game benchmark since I still haven’t finished it. I again ran the game at high settings with V-sync on. I played for about an hour, and again I thought it played great – similar to console experience. When I ran the in-game benchmark with my settings it recorded the gaming running at only 37fps – a 5 fps improvement. When I usually play the game on the other system, I drop down to medium settings and get around 46 fps. This system again edged the old one and pulled out 50 fps. The game was still playable at high settings, and for a solo campaign the lower fps didn’t bother me as much. I’ll still toggle back to medium because I tend to notice the lower framerate more than the lowered graphics quality.
Design
The design of the Nitro has changed a bit with the last refresh. It no longer looks as edgy as it did before. It still looks the part, but it has been toned down. The entire body of the laptop is still plastic, except for hinge components. This keeps the cost down on the laptop and helps with weight. The exterior plastic still has that brushed look to it, giving it a little more upscale appearance. It still has the red accents around the body that gives some pop to the look. I am glad to see one of my favorite little features - the spring loaded expanding ethernet port – is still in use. Acer has done away with is the bevel/angle on top of the laptop cover. The laptop cover (backside of the screen) is now flat. This is part of the toning it down that I mentioned.
The laptop comes in at 4.85 lbs and a little under an inch thick. It feels noticeably smaller. The overall size reduction can be seen in the slimmer monitor bezel - down over an inch (1.1”) in width and 0.5” in depth. Like the prior gen the lightweight plastic shell fails a bit when it comes to the structural rigidity of the laptop. The biggest offender is still the lid, albeit not as bad as before. The dimensional shrink surely helps reduce how much leverage you can apply to the screen, but it just comes up a bit short. Still, it is an improvement, so I am happy with that.
Keyboard and Touchpad
Acer has stuck with the red LED backlight and accents for the keyboard. There have been a couple of changes from the prior version. They have given every key a red accent along the side and fully accented WASD and arrow keys. The keyboard had to slim down a bit as well, so a few keys were narrowed. Most of the width savings came from the number pad and arrow keys. The backlight has seen a change as well. The keys only stay lit for 30 seconds after the last keystroke regardless of your power source (battery or wall plug). The previous Nitro had the ability to toggle the keys on indefinitely if you were plugged into the wall. I don’t currently see a way to change this behavior. The key construction has remained unchanged - low profile and a decent throw length. They have a soft actuation – no clack to them at all. Backlight on - the keys are easy to read and decipher. Backlight off - it is difficult to distinguish the keys in the light, let alone seeing them in the dark. That extra red accent around each key really makes it hard to pick out the letters on the key faces. This is a big step back for me over the old keyboard. You can adjust the brightness of the LED’s with this gen, which is the only improvement I see. The touchpad is a single piece clickable surface with multipoint touch. For standard navigation and browsing this trackpad will do just fine. Its pretty much identical to the last gen, which means I will use a mouse for day to day.
Upgradability
This gen of Nitro’s brings a little more upgradability to the table. The prior gen had 3 upgradable parts – RAM, 2.5” HDD/SDD, and M.2 SSD. This gen adds a second M.2 SSD to the mix. The back cover has 11 screws to remove before you carefully pry the cover off (I started at the front corners). Once the cover is removed, the 2.5” bay, RAM, and M.2’s are all right in front of you.
The Nitro 5 comes with a single 8GB RAM stick as a factory default. For my Ryzen based system that was more of an issue, but Intel processors don’t see as much of performance hit with single channel RAM. The Nitro 5 has a max RAM capacity of 32GB (2 x 16GB). If you want to go with smart investment – another 8GB stick would be perfect, and all you would need.
A problem with this system is the lack of storage. I only have 30GB remaining after installing just 2 games and my benchmark programs. My suggestion is a 2TB Seagate Firecuda hybrid drive. It gives you plenty of storage and speed. They run about $80-90 but would be a worthwhile upgrade. Acer bundled the necessary cable and screws for a drive. Don’t be discouraged by the warranty verbiage on these parts. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act allows you to service and upgrade your equipment without violating the warranty.
The last upgrade is another M.2 2280 drive – NVME or just standard SSD. These are easy enough and just plug and play. I would think the 2.5” drive would be a more useful upgrade since the $/GB of M.2’s is still very high on the large drives.
Final Thoughts
This updated version of the Acer Nitro 5 comes to the market at an affordable price point for a mid-range gaming laptop. It has some upscale features (M.2 drive), and has a reasonably priced upgrade path ahead of it. There are only a couple of areas that could use some improvement – better spec’d display, control over the keyboard LED’s, and toning down the keyboard accents.
I am happy with the Nitro as a whole, and I think it would be a great pickup for the casual/new gamer. It is a step up over my other Nitro, so I am glad to see the progression of this lineup. Overall, I give it a 4.5/5. It still has a few issues that can’t be corrected (keyboard, display), and a few that can be (storage).
There’s a second NVME slot just waiting for another SSD. And since this 9300H platform is Intel Optane ready, you can either add an Optane stick to improve overall performance or install a large capacity standard NVME device – for superfast secondary storage. But it doesn’t stop there. There is also a 2.5” drive bay in addition to the dual NVME slots. So you can put a hybrid HDD (which I wouldn’t recommend these days…) or a 2.5” SSD for even more added storage – for something like a Steam or Origin game library. My recommendation would be to add that Optane turbo cache stick to the second NVME slot and then throw a 1TB (or more…) 2.5” SSD drive from Toshiba or Samsung – as isolated storage. This not only keeps the primary drive uncluttered and reduces solid state wear cycles, but it keeps games & media off-to-the-side in case you ever decide to upgrade that primary SSD. Think imaging (drive cloning) efficiency. ; ) All-in-all, at this price point – this entry level Nitro 5 laptop is built really solid and has a ton of flexibility. Not what most would expect at a sub-800-dollar price point. Another equally valuable facet to this laptop is the inclusion of the three important Acer applications - Nitro Sense, Care Center and Network optimizer. All three of these apps enable functional tweaking, performance boosts, diagnostics and maintenance.
And they all work without throwing Windows error Events into the Reliability Monitor. No small feat these days. Trust me on this. Upon receiving my Nitro 5, I immediately open the bottom and installed a 2.5” Samsung Pro into the drive bay to provide a place to direct my Steam game installations. Acer was also gracious enough to include the required 2.5” mounting screws and interface cable. Outstanding! The drive upgrade was simple, painless and effective. I installed two games that I consider good demo examples for entry level gaming rig evaluations: Call of Duty WWII Quake Champions… Both of these games are relatively current, game engine tech and can be demanding on mismatched CPUs and GPUs or simply put – on machines not up to the task. No, they are not BF1 or BF5 caliber games – but they are graphically intensive as well as taxing on storage subsystems.
You will not realize how valuable the red backlighting on the keys until you start using a laptop that has it. When you press a key on this laptop right away the key caps light up and you can see what you are typing, very useful especially in low lighting. Also you can set how long you want the keys to stay lit up. Nvidia Geforce GTX is great, just obviously do not go in thinking that this is gonna replace your desktop. Will it play your steam games? absolutely, I have some games that take lots of processor power (Football manager 2019) along with graphical games that are FPS, or single player and all play very very well on this laptop. Actually very surprised how well since I haven't used a laptop for quite some time. Windows 10 is so cool, it I have it automatically syncing between my laptop and desktop so when I log into chrome browser at work its like I never left my house. The processor on my Nitro is a 2.40GHz and it is very responsive and works great, especially coupled with the SSD drive which is nowadays a must if you dont like wasting time. Battery, works very well and lasts a very long time.
It will range obviously, if you are just using it for internet access or word processing this thing will last 10+ hours, if your playing games for me I notice 4 hours sometimes or a little more but I cant give any proper estimates because I usually play games with power supply plugged in. Screen is very nice at Full HD 1080 that you will especially appreciate with many games. And finally going back to the body of the laptop I really like the vents and way this laptop is situated, has some really need design in the back with vent that goes across almost completely and also some vents on the bottom in case you get a laptop cooling pad. This that can be improved? Well its heavy, not crazy heavy but if you have it on your lap you will feel it and also feel the heat after a few hours of gaming. Sound is about what you would expect. I personally like using headphones for some gaming. Overall I love it, it helps me play some of my cloud saves on steam at work for games like No Man Sky, or FM2019 etc. If your a gamer you will enjoy it.
And great performance with a huge screen for if they do homework now and then too. Actually, the 2018 machine ran great for my daughters engineering apps as well (Autodesk Inventor).
Geekbench 4 Benchmark Comparison that I ran: 2018 - CPU: 4597/14336 GPU Compute: 86574 2019 - CPU: 4838/15058 GPU Compute: 81553 Pros for the 2018: slightly faster GPU (1050 Ti vs the 1050), easier access to the RAM and 2nd drive for upgrading (though, 2019 not that terrible). Pros for the 2019: slightly faster CPU (i5-9300H vs i5-8300H), MUCH smaller form factor (which is a huge plus), I like the keyboard a bit better as well, and little better battery life. Anyway, which is better…the 2018 or the 2019? Side-by-side, the 2019 is slightly better IMO. If you need to brag about benchmarks for gaming, the 2018 wins I guess. But in actual use, they seem equal in performance to me and the kids so I’d lean towards the smaller size with better battery in this 2019.
It is coming with i5 9th generation 2.40GHz processor. I’d like to have an i7 for sure but i5 is still doing it correctly. As by default, it has 8GB RAM (with 7.85GB usable). Running some games (mechanic simulator, generals, GTA5…) the 8GB was doing just fine. I might upgrade to at least 12GB in the future… Just because of my “nerd” side… Nitro 5 is equipped with GeForce GTX 1050 dedicated 4GB memory. It is really good with 3d rendering and playing games with no hiccups while maintaining high resolution. That was in general for any gaming computer. For this Acer Nitro 5 specific features: I like the Nitro Sense button on the keyboard even though I was confusing it with the NumLock button but it is nice to have it available there when needed. The NitroSensr interface is clear and informative with a lot of useful options and information.
The keyboard layout is perfect. Very nice for typing and the distance travel by key is very good. It is not noisy at all. Back light has nice RED color with adjustable brightness. In normal use conditions, the fans make almost no noise. With full blast, the noise is till acceptable. The total weight of the Nitro 5 is kind of light. It might look heavy but nice to carry. It is shipped with Acer Sleeve. Nice and well made. As for connectivity: I like the full size HDMI connector with 2 USB 3 on one side and one old USB on the other side. The charger connector and the headphone jack are on the right side.
Not the best place for my taste but that’s ok! Also on the left side you have USB-C and Ethernet connectors. Just a fully loaded machine with all what you can need. Disk storage not on the best size. Originally shipped with SSD 256GB but with ability to upgrade. Acer added in the box the necessary cable to install an extra disk drive. They noted that it should be done by Acer certified center or the warranty might get voided. I’ll mostly upgrade that or add more storage. For now, I’ll try to enjoy my games with the current setup. Nitro 5 comes with Norton security ultra 30 days pre-installed. I am fine with Microsoft win10 protection. Then I’ll mostly remove it from my Nitro 5. Actually, I noticed the mouse pointer getting stuck for short half second. After uninstalling Norton, it is not happening any more. I’d recommend this computer for somebody looking for affordable and nice looking gaming laptop with cool features and good capabilities.