Acer Nitro 5 AN515 (15.6-inch, 2017)

Good selection of ports ; Can run Fortnite, Apex, PUBG etc easily ; Great value for money

Keyboard layout is a little cramped ; Screen quality and brightness is sub-par

An ideal gaming laptop choice for casual gamers only wanting to play battle royale shooters and other less-demanding titles, but in no way a triple A powerhouse.

Excellent build quality ; Decent SSD speeds ; Outstanding battery life and cooling ; Good value

Polarizing aesthetics ; CPU bottlenecks synthetic performance ; GPU won't play games at max settings ; Better value alternatives available

The Acer Nitro 5 strikes a great balance between price and performance. However, it can be heavy and unwieldy, and its looks aren't for everyone.

There are many notable gaming notebooks in the market right now, but few are as affordable and competent as the Acer Nitro 5. Serious gamers will likely look elsewhere, but anyone who wants to dip their toes into next generation VR and PC gaming...

Low price. Satisfactory screen. SSD boot drive in a budget gaming laptop. Easy to add a second SSD or hard drive. Right on the edge of playable 1080p performance at high detail settings.

256GB SSD won't hold many games. Hard-to-read keyboard legends. Balky touchpad. Marginal battery life.

Bottom Line: If you think making an under-$1,000 gaming laptop is tough, try an under-$700 one: The AMD-based Acer Nitro 5 grabs the bottom rung of the 1080p gaming ladder and delivers decent value.

Solid overall performance, decent graphics; Office-friendly design ; Runs cool ; Dull display; Muted, flat audio; Subpar battery life ; The Acer Nitro 5 combines good graphics and solid overall performance at an attractive price, but suffers from short...

Dull display; Muted, flat audio; Subpar battery life ; The Acer Nitro 5 combines good graphics and solid overall performance at an attractive price, but suffers from short battery life and weak speakers.

The Acer Nitro 5 combines good graphics and solid overall performance at an attractive price, but suffers from short battery life and weak speakers.

high-contrast display ; Full HD resolution ; fast NVMe SSD ; good battery runtimes ; AC Wi-Fi ; Type-C USB ; maintenance hatches

dark screen

"Powerful notebook for casual gaming" - this is how Acer describes the Nitro 5 - a very fitting description. The inserted Core i7 processor offers sufficient processing power for all important areas of use. Combined with the GeForce GTX1050 Ti graphics...

Excellent performance ; Lightweight ; Fullsize HDMI port ; Ethernet port ; FHD IPS display with decent viewing angles ; GeForce GTX 1050 Ti option ; Can easily add a second HDD or SSD ; Full size keyboard ; Includes soft laptop sleeve

Plastic shell components ; Typing and touchpad feel a bit soft ; No Thunderbolt ; 256GB SSD option bit small ; Squished number pad/keyboard layout ; Acer UEIP enabled by default sending data back to Acer

Type-C USB ; Fast ; SSD ; IPS display ; Fairly comfortable input devices ; Decent build

Dark screen ; GTX 1050 can be beaten by Radeon RX 550 ; Single color keyboard back light ; Computing task ; Heavy

The Acer Nitro 5 is a good deal when compared to the MSI GV62 7RC. It’s only a little more expensive, but it delivers a leap in gaming performance, a Core i7 processor and a better screen.