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Acer Nitro 5 (2021, AMD) initial review: An affordable, customisable gaming laptop

(Pocket-lint) – The whole pitch of the Acer Nitro 5 is that it can deliver gaming goodness without costing a fortune. When we reviewed the laptop back in June 2020 we said much the same: “[It’s] a pleasing piece of kit for the money, proof that good gaming performance doesn’t necessarily need to cost a fortune”.

For 2021 Acer’s take on the Nitro 5 is to shake up the specification options, introducing AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors – Intel Core i5 or i7 is still an option – along with optional bumps in screen resolution and refresh rate.

So how does the 2021 Acer Nitro 5 refresh stack up? We’ve had our paws on the 17.3-inch mega model to preview what to expect…

Design & Display

17.3-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 360Hz refresh rate
- (15.6in & 17.3in at 144Hz or QHD at 165Hz also available)
Dimensions (17-inch): 403.5 x 280 x 24.9mm / Weight: 2.7kgs
Ports: 3x USB-A, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI, 1x 3.5mm
1x Ethernet port (E2600), Wi-Fi 6 connectivity
4-zone RGB keyboard
DTS X: Ultra Audio

The Nitro 5 comes in two size options: the 17.3-inch model, as seen here; or the 15.6-inch option (not shown). Both offers specifications that are much the same, it’s down to how large a screen you want and how much you want to customise the internals (and, by virtue of that, the overall asking price).

The screen can be decent staple gaming quality – with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) panel shown here with 144Hz refresh rate – or the company has really pushed the options list with up to a QHD resolution 165Hz refresh rate available or a Full HD with 360Hz refresh rate. You’ll obviously need all the power you can get to try and keep frame rates to match the refresh, though, so we suspect the 144Hz option will be the most popular of the lot (and the more affordable).

In terms of design not a massive amount has changed generation to generation though. It’s still fairly obvious that the Nitro 5 is a budget laptop – not just because of the asing price, but based on other features too. The screen bezels, for example, aren’t as thin as those on other more premium gaming laptops that we’ve tested. The screen also wobbles a bit if you type to aggressively.

There are some tweaks though: the charging port has gone from the side of the laptop and is now slap bang in the centre of the rear, which ought to help tidy up those desk-bound gaming sessions. Otherwise there’s no lack of ports overall: three full-size USB meet just one USB-C (we’d have liked two – oh, and there’s no Display Port options either), along with both Killer Ethernet E2600 and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity options.

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Being a gaming laptop, the Nitro 5 comes with a backlit keyboard – but one with some pleasant highlights around the WASD keys and directional arrows. The trackpad no longer has the mean-looking red accent around its outside, but we can take that. The keyboard offers single-press access to Acer’s NitroSense software. From there you can see an at-a-glance view of temperature and load on CPU and GPU, as well as access various power plan modes including power saving, balance and high performance. It’s a really handy button to have.

Hardware & Performance

AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor
- (Intel Core i5/i7 option)
16GB RAM (upgradable to 32GB)
Next-gen Nvidia GeForce GPU
- GTX 1650 w/ Intel option
Acer CoolBoost cooling
Quad exhaust system
256GB/512GB SSD

On the inside the Nitro 5 sports the dual-fan cooling system of its predecessor, called CoolBoost technology, which intelligently adjusts cooling to keep you playing at decent frame rates. Those fans will kick in under little pressure, adding some sound as a result, but that’s typical of such a laptop.

The big change is the AMD Ryzen 5000 processor under the hood, paired with the up-to-the-minute Nvidia GTX GPU. Whether that will be enough to stop the Nitro 5 heating up quite as much as its predecessor we’re yet to see. But it should result in better still performance thanks to the chipset’s architecture.

It’s also worth considering the overall spec when you purchase. The base model comes with a 256GB SSD – sure, it’s fast, but when games these days are over 100GB a piece you’ll fill it up in a matter of moments. Certainly consider the 512GB option as a minimum.

First Impressions

Overall the 2021 Acer Nitro 5 is a more powerful and customisable offering than its predecessor.

It’s an affordable gaming laptop – well, at its entry point – that should still manage to perform under pressure thanks to up-to-date AMD and Nvidia on board, while delivering a great display experience (depending on which of the Full HD/QHD 144Hz/165Hz/360Hz options you pick/can afford!).

Whether the ongoing questions of the series from before – light bleed, excess fan noise, limited battery life – continue here we’ll need to do some more thorough testing. But at this price such foibles are forgivable for all the potential gaming joy the Nitro 5 can bring.

Writing by Mike Lowe.

Acer Predator Triton 300 SE initial review: The everyday gamers’ laptop

(Pocket-lint) – Acer’s gaming laptops span a wide range, so whether you’re looking for something more outlandish or something altogether more discreet, there are plenty of options. If you’re in the latter camp then this, the Predator Triton 300 SE, might house heaps of appeal.

The ‘SE’ – which stands for style edition – is the first 14-inch Predator laptop that Acer has ever made, placing it in a footprint that is more akin to an everyday lifestyle laptop. Indeed, the Triton 300 SE looks every bit like your day-to-day machine, but inside it houses much more grunt than your average.

Design & Display

14-inch IPS LCD, 1920 x 1080 resolution, 144Hz refresh rate, 300 nits brightness
Dimensions: 323 x 228 x 17.9mm / Weight: 1.7kgs
Ports: 2x USB-A, 1x USB-C, 1x HDMI
3.5mm headphone jack
DTS X: Ultra Audio
Fingerprint sensor

This isn’t just any old 14-inch display either. It’s a 144Hz refresh rate panel, giving gamers one of those much-desired features: higher frame-rates and greater smoothness during play (well, if the CPU and GPU can keep up).

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As such it’s not an Ultra-HD display, rather a Full HD panel instead. Again, this is fairly common in gaming laptops of all sizes – and at this 14-inch scale it looks plenty sharp. It’s an IPS LCD so viewing angles are good, but there’s no touch panel control here, so keep those grubby mitts off to keep everything looking extra plush, eh?

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We do wonder why the lower bezel is so pronounced though; it’s a big silvery-grey bar that looks more like what Lenovo was making a couple of years back. We think there’s scope for Acer to squash that down, while maintaining the same screenaspect ratio, to given an even more refined finish.

The overall product’s finish, however, here dressed in a silver-like colour – it’s the only option, but it’s not too spangly or metallic – is generally discreet. The lid has a simple raised Predator symbol logo to the top corner, but no in-your-face text or other logo prints anywhere else to be seen.

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There is perhaps some greater giveaway that this machine has more going on under the hood though: you only need to look at the large vents to the rear to know that it’s ready to pass a lot of air through for the sake of cooling. Still, at 17.9mm thick at its deepest, it’s really not that massive compared to an everydayer.

Open to Triton 300 SE up and the keyboard also has an air of ‘normal’ about it. By which we mean there’s no raised WSAD keys. But, dig deeper, and you’ll quickly see there’s more to it: the typical backlight is a reasonably subtle blue, but there’s full RGB lighting control if you want animations and rainbow colours.

The keys are full-size – the only irritation being the split Enter key (sharing with ‘|’) – in order to open up an additional row to the right side with Predator symbol for quick-access to PredatorSense software and controls, alongside play/pause/skip keys.

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There’s also a Turbo button towards the speaker grille, for quick-access overclocking. Basically all the gamer goodness that you might want access to, but achieved in a more subtle way.

Hardware & Performance

Intel Core i7 (11370H) processor, up to 24GB RAM
5th Gen AeroBlade 3D Fan cooling system
Next-gen Nvidia GeForce GPU
Dedicated Turbo button
256GB/512GB SSD
Wi-Fi 6 (AX1650i)

This setup comes with Intel’s 11th Gen Core i architecture – it’s the i7-11370H here – with up to 24GB of DDR4 RAM. So it’s certainly no slouch if you want to load heavyweight AAA titles.

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Or perhaps you’re a creative who’s looking for that bit extra – as you can pick from Intel Iris Xe or discrete graphics from Nvidia’s brand new GeForce RTX 30 series.

All of that obviously requires more cooling than your average, hence those big vents to the back and side of the device. But we’ve found the fans do kick in with little fuss. Just resting the laptop on a desk and opening a browser saw them intermittently switch on and off – and a little noisily. There are more fan controls within PredatorSense to take extra command, including maxxing them during gaming sessions.

Acer calls this cooling setup AeroBlade 3D – a method that uses the fans to pull air in over the most heat capacitive components (CPU, GPU, RAM) and hold air in chambers to aid with this cooling process.

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We’ve not had the time to test this laptop under full pressure to see how well it will handle various circumstances, nor how long the battery will hold out, but being a gaming laptop with Intel architecture we wouldn’t ever assume it’s going to be a long-laster (Acer claims up to 10 hours use per charge).

First Impressions

So there you have it: the first Predator laptop with a 14-inch screen is basically a business laptop in disguise. It’s this discreetness that’ll be its make-or-break appeal for many.

But don’t let the subtle silver finish and relatively ‘normal’ size fool you: there are the cooling vents, the Turbo button, the high-end innards and all the goodness that you’re likely to want from a gaming laptop. Just wrapped up into something somewhat different to usual.

Writing by Mike Lowe.