[ntab Configuration]
The Nitro 5 is a budget gaming laptop first introduced to the market in 2016. Since then, Acer has regularly updated the model with the latest available components. The currently reviewed version is the Nitro 5 AN515-54 released in April 2019. This version combines the processing power of an Intel i5 9th Gen processor with a mid-range NVIDIA graphics card.
Price-wise, the laptop can be found between $800 and $1000 at most major online retailers, including Amazon.com.
Configuration specifications:
| Display | 15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz, Matte, IPS-type AUO B156HAN02.1 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-9300H |
| Memory | 8GB DDR4 2667 Mhz (1 x 8GB) |
| Video card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5 (TU117M) |
| Wireless card | Intel Wireless-AC 9560 802.11ac |
| Storage | WD Blue 1TB, 5400rpm, SATA 3.0 |
| Battery | 59 WHr (60.5 WHr usable) |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Pro |
| Full specifications here | |
A local retailer provided the unit, and the machine was used as Acer delivers it. No enhancements or changes were done to the laptop except for installing the operating system.
[ntab Build quality]
Physical size:
| Width: | 362 mm / 14.25 inches |
| Depth: | 259 mm / 10.19 inches |
| Height: | Front: 25 mm / 0.98 inch Rear: 28.5 mm / 1.12 inches |
| Laptop weight: | 2.220 kg / 4.89 lbs |
| Charger weight: | 544 g / 1.19 lbs |
| Laptop + charger weight: | 2.784 kg / 6.13 lbs |
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The laptop chassis is entirely made of hard plastic. The plastic is hard enough to provide a decent amount of sturdiness without any noticeable chassis flex. Even when trying to bend the display by applying pressure left and right, the display housing felt sturdy with minimal flexing.
Access to the laptop’s internal components is relatively easy. It requires the removal of eleven Phillips head screws from the bottom panel and then, with a bit of force, the bottom corner of the panel needs to be lifted. Once removed, all components are there to see and upgrade.
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With the bottom cover removed, the laptop reveals plenty of upgrade options that can rival more expensive laptops and a cooling system that looks adequate for the components inside.
There are:
- two M.2 SSD slot;
- two RAM slots (if the laptop comes with 8GB of RAM, only one slot is used);
- one 2.5-inch storage bay;
- a PCIe slot for the Wi-Fi card;
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Lifting and closing the display might need some improvement as it took several attempts to open it with only one hand. On the positive side, the plastic matte finish of the display chassis improves the grip when holding the laptop.
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Typing on the Nitro 5 keyboard does not have any outstanding issues. The keys felt responsive, and the travel time was short (1.6 mm advertised). But stroking the keys needs a little bit more weight than most users are used to. It is possible that after some months of usage, the wear on rubber domes will reduce the force needed to press the keys.
The layout of the Nitro 5 is standard with a couple of changes made to the numeric keypad. The inclusion of a numeric keypad is a plus since most 15 inch laptops nowadays no longer have one. There is also a unique “Nitro Sense” key that launches the Nitro Sense software.
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For the numeric keypad, the right arrow key is placed where usually the “0” key is and the “-” is one row lower than its usual place. Furthermore, the Nitro Sense key replaces the “Num Lock” key. Consequently, when typing on the numeric keypad, it is easy to press the right arrow key instead of “0” and it will take a while to get accustomed to the unusual position of the “-” key.
Regarding illumination, the keyboard has a red-backlit that cannot be changed. The backlit feels pleasant when typing without looking at the keyboard. Unfortunately, in a dark or poorly lit room, after staring at the display for a while, the red illumination of the keyboard is stressful on the eyes, making it challenging to locate the keys. The primary issue is the high brightness of the keyboard illumination, which is far above similar gaming laptops and cannot be turned down. It would have been better if Acer allowed users to change the keyboard colour or adopt a white backlit for the keyboard.
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The webcam on the Acer Nitro 5 has a maximum resolution of 720p (1366 x 768). The webcam quality is a step up from the Asus FX505 reviewed last month. The image details are much better resolved, and the sensor does a reasonably decent job even in low light conditions. However, it does not compare to the quality of a dedicated web camera, which is far better for streaming and video calls.
The Nitro’s microphone array is a pleasant surprise. Recordings sound “crisp” and have zero distortions.
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[ntab Ports]
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Additionally to the usual ports found in this price range, the Acer Nitro 5 also includes a USB-C 3.1 to ensures that the laptop can connect to other mobile devices.
The ports are distributed following gamer needs, having one USB port on the right side for the external mouse.
There is:
- one RJ45 LAN connector;
- two USB 3.0 Gen1;
- one USB-C 3.1;
- one USB 2.0;
- one HDMI port;
- a standard 3.5mm jack combo for microphone and headphones or speakers;
- one Kensington lock
- a DC-in power connector;
Considering this is a gaming laptop, the three USB ports can be quickly filled by adding an external mouse, a keyboard and a USB flash drive. Of course, the port limitation can be resolved using a USB port hub.
[ntab Display]
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The display model used in this unit is the AUO B156HAN02.1. Unfortunately, it is a mediocre IPS-level panel with a standard 60Hz refresh rate. Brightness is around 250 nits, although it can go up to 269 nits. The colour space barely reaches 60% sRGB colour. It also has some backlit bleed, which is to be expected for laptops within this budget. On the positive side, it has almost perfect viewing angles, and its matte coating enables it to be used somewhat outdoor, especially in the shade.
Unfortunately, due to the quality of the display, photo editing or any other activity that requires colour accuracy is not recommended on this laptop.
Here is a link to the calibrated display profile of the reviewed unit. Because each display is unique, this profile will not perfectly match other displays of the same model. Still, using this profile should give better overall colours.
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[ntab Benchmarks]
|
SCORE |
3611 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 3537 |
| CPU score | 4106 |
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SCORE |
8004 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 9189 |
| Physics score | 11494 |
| Combined score | 3271 |
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SCORE |
22868 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 32242 |
| Physics score | 10042 |
| Combined score | 18084 |
|
SCORE |
24920 |
|---|---|
| Graphics score | 56343 |
| Physics score | 24920 |
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SCORE |
5199 |
|---|---|
| Average frame rate | 113.35 fps |
| Target frame rate | 109.00 fps |
|
SCORE |
364 |
|---|---|
| Average frame rate | 7.93 fps |
| Target frame rate | 88.90 fps |
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SCORE |
1081 |
|---|---|
| Average frame rate | 23.57 fps |
| Target frame rate | 109.00 fps |
| Single-core score | Multi-core score |
| 4694 | 14689 |
| Single-core score | Multi-core score |
| 169 | 771 |
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PCMark 10
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Adobe Premiere 2019 benchmark
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Blender benchmark
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RESULTS (1080P EXTREME)
SUPERPOSITION
BENCHMARK
1828
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RESULTS (1080P HIGH)
SUPERPOSITION
BENCHMARK
4965
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RESULTS (1080P MEDIUM)
SUPERPOSITION
BENCHMARK
6878
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SPECviewperf 13
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Crystal Disk Mark
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[ntab Gaming benchmarks]
During benchmark testing, the lack of a fast storage device like an SSD limits the performance of the Nitro 5. At maximum load, when the system runs out of either RAM or video memory, there are noticeable performance drops when the operating system tries to write to the paging file on the storage device (HDD). Buying the unit with an M.2 SSD drive or acquiring one after-market should alleviate this problem.
| High preset | 3 FPS | 99 FPS | 59 FPS |
| Medium preset | 34 FPS | 106 FPS | 64 FPS |
| Epic preset | 37.9 FPS | 61.9 FPS | 58.9 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 36 FPS | 83 FPS | 51 FPS |
| Ultra High preset | 0 FPS | 55 FPS | 26 FPS |
| Very High preset | 1 FPS | 50 FPS | 31 FPS |
| High preset | 14 FPS | 72 FPS | 44 FPS |
| High preset | 97 FPS | 197 FPS | 139 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 39 FPS | 165 FPS | 76 FPS |
| High preset | 35 FPS | 137 FPS | 90 FPS |
| Extreme preset | 3 FPS | 49.7 FPS | 13.9 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 1.2 FPS | 77.7 FPS | 23.3 FPS |
| High preset | 1 FPS | 83.6 FPS | 29.5 FPS |
| Low preset | 2.9 FPS | 139.47 FPS | 63.3 FPS |
| Epic preset | 69 FPS | 134 FPS | 86 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 8 FPS | 62 FPS | 56 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 16 FPS | 97 FPS | 56 FPS |
| High preset | 17 FPS | 47 FPS | 40 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 28 FPS | 62 FPS | 48 FPS |
| Ultra preset | 15 FPS | 34 FPS | 28 FPS |
[ntab Temperatures]
All temperature measurements were performed at an ambient temperature of 27° C (81° F).
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The cooling system is composed of two fans and two heat pipes that are shared between the CPU and GPU. Both fans are on the right side of the laptop and push air away through its back. The advantage of this cooling arrangement is that the right side of the laptop, where usually the mouse is placed, is not affected by the heat exhaust. However, having all the cooling system on one side of the laptop reduces its efficiency and leads to higher temperatures. Under heavy load, the exhaust temperature did not pass 60°C.
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Under heavy load, the keyboard gets rather hot, especially in the centre of the laptop. As the laptop warms up, the fans gradually increase their speed, but strangely enough, they never reach their maximum potential even under heavy load. The fans maximum rated rpm is 6122 for the CPU (processor) and 5882 for the GPU (video card). However, under maximum load, the fans spin only at 4918 rpm for the CPU and 4615 rpm for the GPU, likely for limiting fan noise. However, the fans can be pushed close to their maximum speed using the “Nitro Sense” software. Even without the “Nitro Sense” boost, the palm rest and touchpad remain close to room temperature with no significant temperature variations between idle and heavy load. When used on the battery, the right side of the palm rest tends to get warm.
Given its surface temperature distribution, the laptop should be OK for long sessions of heavy gaming.
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The processor stress test involves running AIDA64 (CPU, FPU, cache) for 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the processor did not keep its maximum boost frequency for more than a minute despite staying under 80 °C (176 °F). Throughout the test, the i5-9300H frequency hovered between 2.7 and 3.9 GHz. Towards the end of the test, the temperature settled around 72-75 °C and the frequency around 2.7-2.9 GHz. The processor also has a PL2 limit (boost) of 56W and PL1 limit of 45W.
The video card (GPU) stress test involves running Unigine Superposition in a continues loop for 30-minute. By looking at the internal components, the video card cooling solution looked over-engineered from the beginning for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650. Unsurprisingly, the video card reached a maximum temperature of 65 °C (150 °F) with a constant boost speed of 1700 MHz.
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For the combined load test, the system was set to simultaneously run the AIDA64 CPU stress test and the Unigine Superposition GPU stress test for 30 minutes. Most gaming laptops struggle with this test, and surely the Nitro 5 is no exception. At the end of the test, the GPU reached a maximum of 72 °C (162 °F), and the CPU reached a peak of 96° C (205 °F) while barely holding its base clock.
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Finally, the system was put through a full stability test with AIDA (CPU, FPU, cache, System memory and GPU) to push the machine to its limits. The GPU temperature again stabilised at a comfortable 74 °C (165 °F), but the processor struggled to keep its base clock (2.4 GHz). The minimum frequency achieved by the processor was 2.4 GHz, but on average it worked at 3.3 GHz, and the maximum temperature reached 95 °C (203 °F).
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Overall, the laptop seems to have excellent cooling for the video card and is struggling to keep the processor in check under heavy load. The processor still benefits from a decent amount of boost speed even under heavy load, but the temperature often spikes to over 90 °C (194 °F), which is pushing it close to the processor’s maximum safe thermal operating temperature of 100 °C (212 °F). It is strongly recommended to apply higher quality thermal paste on the processor to reduce its temperatures under load.
[ntab Noise]
Unfortunately, under heavy load, the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54 is not a silent machine. Other similar laptops tend to fare a bit better with managing their noise emissions. It might be that Nitro 5, having the fans next to each other, amplifies their noise and makes the laptops sound louder than other machines with similar cooling solutions.
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Under full load, the laptop reaches a noise level of 48-50 dB near the fan exhaust (about 10 cm away from it). While idle, it remains close to the room’s ambient noise of around 25-26 dB. Since the GTX 1650 is not a high-end video card and has low heat emissions when gaming the noise remains within acceptable limits due to low fan rpm. The only time when the fans start to ramp up and become load is in CPU intensive games, like the Witcher 3 Novigrad test (an almost 30-minute test).
On the positive side, the Nitro Sense software can customise the Nitro 5’s fan behaviour. They can be set to Auto, which is the default setting that lets the BIOS increase the fan speed in response to component temperature. On Auto, the fans are never pushed to their maximum speed. There is a Max speed option, which drives the fans to their maximum speed and a “Custom” option which enables users to make a personalised profile for each fan.
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[ntab Sound quality]
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The sound quality of the Acer is a big disappointment. The speakers are on the sides of the laptop, facing downwards, resulting in a sound with lacklustre quality, no bass and over-pronounced highs. To make matters worse, on a hard surface, like a wooden desk, the laptop producers a slight echo. For those sensitive to sound quality, it is highly recommended to buy a pair of cheap headphones with this laptop.
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The position of the speakers also affects their loudness depending on the resting surface of the laptop. A hard surface is required to propagate the speaker sound. On a soft surface for the same sound settings, the laptop is half as loud.
On the bright side, the microphone has excellent quality, with no recorded background noise or hissing.
[ntab Battery life]
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Since most laptops are used on battery for mundane office activities and web browsing, the laptop was tested using a simulated continuous web browsing session over WiFi. The session involved browsing emails/news, social media and multimedia websites, similar to the behaviour of an average user.
The level of brightness was set according to visibility and usability. At 60% brightness (maximum is 250 nits) the laptop provided an enjoyable viewing experience. The sound volume was also set at 50%.
Although the battery is officially rated at 58.7 WHr, the laptop reported a maximum charge capacity of 60.5 WHr. Most laptops usually have a smaller charge capacity than the official one, so getting a slightly bigger battery is a welcomed surprise.
With its 60.5 Whr battery, the laptop lasted just 4 hours. However, with lower brightness settings, it should get up to 5-6 hours.
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Charging the laptop from 5% to 100% took almost 1 hour and 25 minutes with its 150W power adapter.
[ntab Software]
The laptop was provided without an operating system, so Windows was installed by the Noteb review team. From Acer’s set of recommended software, there are two applications worth mentioning.
Nitro Sense
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Nitro Sense lets users adjust the fan speed independently for the CPU and GPU. It also enables tinkering with the CPU clock speeds, having three predefined settings: maximum performance, balanced and power saver. On “High Performance” the BIOS tries to keep the CPU boost clock at its maximum 4-4.1 GHz even on battery, which of course, negatively affects battery life.
Nitro Care
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The Acer Care Center is designed to help users update drivers, verify device specifications, check memory, battery or hard drive health, clean the cache, disable startup applications and even defragment the hard drive. The application can also create restore points or restore the operating system.
[ntab Conclusion]
Pros:
- Many options for future upgrades
- High boost clock while gaming
- No noticeable chassis flex
Cons:
- Disappointing choice of storage (spinning hard drives in 2019 are not acceptable)
- No way to turn off Optimus (switchable graphics)
- The display has low colour coverage (slightly under 60% sRGB)
- Bad speaker design and atrocious sound quality
- The 8GB RAM version is a single channel. Adding another 8GB memory stick is highly recommended for increasing system performance.
At this price range, this configuration is only recommended if an M.2 SSD is bought separately and added in later. A gaming laptop with a slow 5400 rpm HDD as primary storage drive does not belong in 2019. The old HDD technology is recommended as an affordable high capacity storage solution for files that are no regularly used. However, any modern operating systems will run slow on an HDD. The reduced display colour coverage also makes the Nitro 5 unsuitable for content creation. The Nitro 5 AN515-54 is designed for gaming on a budget, and that is where it shines without any noticeable issues.
[ntab Buy]
Acer offers the Nitro 5 in a variety of versions and chassis configuration. The current review analysed a configuration based on the AN515-54 version.
If you find this review and the noteb.com search engine helpful, please consider buying your future Nitro 5 through one of the links included below. Thank you!
Amazon:
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-51M5 – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1650, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD+1TB HDD
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-54W2 – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD
Bestbuy:
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-54W2 – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-51M5 – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1650, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD+1TB HDD
Newegg:
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-75UQ – i7-9750H, NVIDIA GTX 1650, 16GB RAM, 512 SSD
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-51M5 – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1650, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD+1TB HDD
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-526C – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1050, 8GB RAM, 256 SSD
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54-51M5 – i5-9300H, NVIDIA GTX 1650, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD+1TB HDD
[ntab More Pictures]
[ntab Videos]
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