Acer closely matches competitors in South Africa across the performance spectrum, outscored competitors with similar specs, and even outperformed laptops with higher specs on occasion.
This laptop also performs well in terms of noise, which is an area where many gaming laptops struggle. The dual fan and quad exhaust design keeps this gadget from becoming too hot, and the fans don’t get too loud until they’re manually turned up.
The screen is not the brightest or most colourful, which is unsurprising given the price. Such extravagances are reserved for high-end gaming PCs or devices that do not prioritise gaming (or frames per second). Nonetheless, it becomes bright enough for a well-lit room, and the colours are true.
The keyboard’s performance is excellent, especially given the machine’s low purchase price. It provides a lot of travel and a pleasant, if limited, degree of feedback. The keypress outperforms devices like the HP Victus 16 and Dell G15.
This frame houses a 15.6-inch display, which has long been the industry standard. Larger 17.3-inch screens have been available for a long time, with 14-inch and 16-inch panels becoming more popular in recent years, but this size is your go-to, still-portable gaming laptop size. It has a full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) resolution and a refresh rate of 144Hz on an IPS display.
The Nitro 5’s port location is random, but it keeps the HDMI, charging port, and Thunderbolt 4 on the back—shifting the cords out of the way. The overall variety is good, with the three previously mentioned ports joined by a headphone jack, Ethernet, and three USB-A connections.
Another Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) port would have been wonderful, but having this technology on a more affordable device is already a plus.
Overall, the Acer Nitro 5 is a well-designed computer at an excellent price, which is why it is one of the best budget gaming laptops. You won’t get all the bells and whistles that a more expensive device would, but if you want something that will give solid, portable PC gaming above all else, there’s nothing better.