Acer Nitro V Review: Best budget gaming laptop with dedicated graphics card

Acer introduced the Nitro V last year to cater to the demand for budget laptops with dedicated graphics. This laptop combines an appealing design with competitive pricing and performance, making it suitable for a wide range of users. With a starting price of $680, it looks like the budget Acer gaming laptop on the market. Read on for a detailed Acer Nitro V review below to know more about it.

Acer Nitro V Review

Design

The Nitro V’s unique exterior design features diagonal patterns resembling a night sky meteor shower. The stylized N logo adds to its allure, while the color-changing effect when tilted enhances its appeal.

Despite being a budget laptop with a dedicated graphics card, the Nitro V remains compact, thin, and lightweight. Weighing just 2.1 Kg and measuring 23.5mm thin, it easily fits into a backpack, making it convenient for everyday use at work or school.

The sturdy hinge of the Nitro V enables easy one-handed opening and a maximum opening angle of around 140 degrees. This enables comfortable adjustment of the screen viewing angle.

The hinge also features an Ergo Lift design, automatically lifting the device to a 20-degree angle when the screen is fully opened. This not only aids in better heat dissipation but also provides a more comfortable typing experience by tilting the keyboard.

The overall build quality of the Nitro V is satisfactory, with a plastic casing that offers decent sturdiness. However, compared to laptops with metal cases, the plastic construction may not provide the same luxurious and smooth feel. Both the exterior and interior surfaces are prone to fingerprints and sweat stains, so it is advisable to keep a soft glass-cleaning towel handy for convenient cleaning if desired.

Connectivity

The Acer Nitro V offers comprehensive connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 6, Gigabit wired LAN ports, USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI 2.1, and three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 10Gbps ports. These ports are convenient for connecting peripheral devices such as mice, and keyboards, and transferring data or exporting images.

Most of the device’s connection ports are located on the left side, which helps avoid tangling cables when using an external mouse and connecting other peripherals like keyboards, USB hubs, mobile hard drives, and memory card readers.

The USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port supports fast data transfer speeds up to 40Gbps, charging, and media transmission. It can also connect directly to other Thunderbolt-enabled computers for fast data transfer up to 20Gbps. Users even have the option to add separate eGPUs to enhance graphics power.

Nitro V’s Wi-Fi 6 connection uses Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX203 card, supporting 80MHz channel width and up to 1.2Gbps speed. This speed is sufficient for the increasingly popular 1Gbps fiber optic internet networks.

During this Acer Nitro V review, I tested it with a 1Gbps internet package and found that it reached nearly the maximum speed, around 980 Mbps. This speed allowed for smooth downloading of games from Steam or downloading Fifa 24 through the EA app, achieving approximately 800Mbps, which is quite impressive.

Display

The Acer Nitro V features a standard display commonly found on mid-range gaming laptops. It features a 15.6-inch Full HD IPS panel with a 16:9 aspect ratio, 144Hz refresh rate, and 3ms response time.

In my experience, the display provides a basic level of quality that is sufficient for common needs. The brightness is moderate, and the colors may seem slightly pale, with not very high contrast.

However, the standout feature of the display is its 144Hz refresh rate, which offers a fairly smooth experience when navigating through applications, scrolling web pages, and especially when playing fast-action games like FPS shooters, racing games, and flight simulations.

The Acer Nitro V has an average speaker system with two speakers supported by DTS X: Ultra technology located at the bottom of the device. They provide a general sound experience. If you require higher audio quality, using a Bluetooth headset or external speakers would be a suitable solution.

Keyboard and touchpad

The Acer Nitro V’s full-size keyboard includes a numeric keypad for convenient data entry.

While it is a gaming laptop, the Acer Nitro V only has a monochrome white backlight system with two brightness levels, lacking the sophistication of RGB LEDs. The keyboard backlight brightness is moderate, which is adequate for working in low light conditions or at night.

The keyboard is designed with reasonable spacing between keys and an easily adaptable layout. However, there are a few points to note. The navigation keys and Numpad cluster are small, while the Enter and 0 keys are condensed. This layout can lead to accidentally pressing the wrong key and may take some time to get used to if you are accustomed to using Numpad keys on desktop keyboards.

On the other hand, the typing experience on the Acer Nitro V is quite comfortable. The keys have sufficient travel and good bounce, providing a pleasant typing feel. The typing sound is not excessively noisy, and the keys have a smooth feel, making it suitable for extended gaming sessions without causing hand discomfort.

The touchpad on the device is of moderate size, offering a comfortable operating space. It has good sensitivity, allowing for smooth page scrolling and zooming operations.

Acer Nitro V review test

Performance

The Acer Nitro V offers a variety of different configuration options to suit different needs and budgets. The range starts from the Intel Core i5-13420H processor and goes up to the Intel Core i7-13620H. The laptop is available with either an NVIDIA RTX 2050 4GB graphics card or an RTX 4050 6GB graphics card. The system offers 8GB or 16GB DDR5 5200MHz RAM and a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. The prices for the various configurations range from $680 to $918.

Our Acer Nitro V review unit has an Intel Core i5-13420H processor, 16GB DDR5 RAM, an NVIDIA RTX 4050 6GB graphics card, and a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

The Core i5-13420H is part of Intel’s Raptor Lake-H Gen 13 family for laptops, featuring 8 cores and 12 threads. It has a single-core clock speed of up to 4.6GHz and consists of 4 high-performance P-core cores and 4 efficient E-core cores. This processor is designed for mid-range laptops, balancing performance and power efficiency to suit thin and light laptops that still require strong performance.

Benchmark tests such as Cinebench R23, Cinebench 2024, Geekbench, and Nitro V all provide good results. The processor can reach a stable maximum clock speed of around 4.2GHz when running single-core tasks and maintains a steady 70W TDP for efficient multi-core performance.

The RTX 4050 graphics card is a popular choice in budget gaming laptops for the year 2023. It offers performance comparable to the previous generation’s RTX 3060 with 6GB of VRAM. This version of the graphics card overcomes the VRAM limitation of previous GTX/RTX xx50 series products, providing a more secure experience when playing AAA open-world games.

Gaming

The Acer Nitro V is capable of comfortably running esports games like League of Legends, CS: GO 2, Valorant, and EA Sports FC 24 (Fifa 24) at the highest graphics settings. These games should provide smooth gameplay and an immersive experience on the device.

When it comes to AAA games like Starfield, the Nitro V still offers impressive performance, allowing for gameplay at medium to high graphics settings, including advanced effects like Ray Tracing. This means you can enjoy visually stunning games with realistic lighting and reflections.

The Nitro V features a speedy 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD from WD. This SSD delivers fast performance, improving the overall experience when it comes to booting up the computer, opening and closing applications, installing games, and loading game screens. Benchmark tests with CrystalDiskMark confirm the drive’s high speeds, with a maximum read speed of over 5GB/s and a maximum write speed of over 3.2GB/s.

One of the strong points of the Nitro V is its upgradability. The laptop has 2 standard DDR5 RAM slots, enabling a RAM upgrade of up to 32GB at 5200MHz. This gives you the flexibility to expand the memory capacity if needed.

Additionally, the Nitro V offers 2 M.2 SSD hard drive slots, allowing for a maximum upgrade of 2TB SSD PCIe Gen 4 with a speed of 16GB/s. This means you have plenty of storage options for your games, files, and multimedia content.

Overall, the Acer Nitro V is highly upgradable to meet your changing needs and maintain optimal performance.

Heat dissipation

To optimize performance in the slim and lightweight form factor of the Acer Nitro V, Acer has designed the graphics card to consume a maximum of 75W of power. This moderate power consumption helps keep the temperature of the card in check, even during heavy usage such as gaming.

When playing heavy games and using the strongest Gaming fan mode in the Nitro Sense management app, the temperature of the graphics card will only be slightly over 70 degrees Celsius. Switching to Daily Use mode can lower the temperature, typically staying below 70 degrees Celsius.

Heat dissipation is crucial for maintaining high performance, and the Acer Nitro V is equipped with a 2-fan cooling system that includes 3 heat pipes and a large heatsink. This cooling system ensures that the laptop operates at lower temperatures, even during intensive gaming sessions.

Even when the GPU is under almost full load during gaming, the temperature remains around 70 degrees Celsius, while the CPU temperature stays around 75 degrees Celsius. This demonstrates the efficiency of the cooling system in keeping the components cool.

One aspect to note is that the location of the heatsink on the right side may blow hot air toward your hand when using an external mouse, which can be a bit uncomfortable during gameplay. The main heatsink may blow some heat onto the screen, potentially impacting the display’s longevity.

Overall, the cooling system of the Acer Nitro V performs well in keeping temperatures under control and ensuring optimal performance, although some minor discomforts may arise due to heat dissipation in certain areas.

Battery life

The Acer Nitro V has a 57 Whr battery, offering decent battery life for regular use. In typical everyday tasks without gaming, the battery can last for about 4 hours. However, this can vary depending on factors such as screen brightness and performance settings in the Nitro Sense software.

During gaming or heavy workloads, the battery life will be significantly reduced to approximately 2 hours. For optimal gaming and work performance, it’s recommended to keep the laptop plugged in.

To achieve the maximum 4 hours of battery life, you may need to make some adjustments. This includes reducing the performance to a lower level, setting the device to Power Efficiency in Windows, and adjusting the fan mode to Quiet and Eco in the Nitro Sense software.

The Nitro V comes with a moderate-sized 135W charger, which is capable of providing sufficient power to the laptop. This charger takes around 3 hours to fully charge the battery.

Overall, while the battery life of the Nitro V is decent for normal usage, it is recommended to have the device plugged in for optimal performance during gaming or heavy workloads.

Final line

The Acer Nitro V is a powerful gaming laptop that excels in performance, handling current esports games and triple-A games with ease. Running with high graphics settings ensures you can compete and rank confidently. Additionally, the laptop’s stability makes it ideal for editing videos, photos, and heavy work such as architecture and graphics.

Upgrading the Nitro V is a breeze as it comes with two separate RAM slots and two M.2 SSD slots, allowing you to increase storage capacity, multitasking, and convenience. The laptop also delivers impressive heat dissipation, running almost entirely cool even when you play games continuously or render videos.

The design of the Nitro V is unique and outstanding with meteor shower patterns adorning the exterior, making it an excellent choice for anyone who wants to stand out from the crowd.

The Nitro V has some limitations that users need to note, however. Its screen quality is subpar, displaying slightly pale colors, low contrast, and brightness. Although the 144hz scanning frequency is smooth, the device’s build quality is moderate, with a completely plastic shell. The numpad, number keys, and up and down navigation keys are also not correctly arranged, which may lead to pressing the wrong button.

The Acer Nitro V Gaming Laptop is available on Amazon.com for a range of prices, from $680 to $918, depending on the configuration.

What are your thoughts on this Acer Nitro V review? Do you believe it deserves the title of the best budget laptop with a dedicated graphics card?