Acer - Nitro V – 16" WUXGA 165Hz Gaming Laptop - Intel Core 7 240H 2024 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 – 16GB Memory – 512GB Storage - Obsidian Black

[reviewing one month after purchase] i’m not a pc person so id been researching for a while and landed on this laptop. it was similar to another model was looking at elsewhere but I had best buy gift cards. I needed something within budget (bought at $1150), the specs for basic steam games and internet browsing, and portable for trips / can move off my small desk set up. currently playing slime rancher 2 and open rct, and it does the job. I use my desk setup (monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse) but playing on the laptop alone with a mouse works fine too. travels well and isn’t too heavy or bulky tho I had to google how to hard reset it once when it accidentally opened in my bag and didn’t turn on. one critique is that the sound quality isn’t the best (can get loud but muffled / not crisp), but not a deal breaker as I usually listen with bose headphones or thru my speakers. I haven’t owned a pc in a long time but it’s pretty intuitive to set up and use. i’m happy with this purchase and recommend.

I've not been a fan of laptop computers since thet were as thick as dictionaries, but this being my first one after enjoying my own cuatom built PC over the years, I can safely say it was an excellent choice. I've connected to a 4K Tv, 2K 120hz monitor, and solely on the 165hz screen, all options work wonerfully. It does get a bit noisy when running strenuous games on higher settings, but after several days out of town playing Crimson Desert on ultra settings, this was worth the investment. I love the keyboards light keys and RGB but the screen really takes the cake; toss in the easy plug and play with your controller of choice and you have a hardcore gaming machine for the train, plane, or waiting room! The brick that plugs into the wall gets really hot, so keep away from heat sensitive materials.

I picked up the Acer Nitro V 16 mainly for AAA gaming, and it’s been a really solid mid range gaming rig so far. The 16 inch screen looks sharp, and that 165 Hz refresh rate makes everything feel super smooth in games like shooters and racing titles. The Intel Core 7 240H has no problem keeping up when I’m playing, chatting on Discord, and running a browser in the background. The Nvidia RTX 5050 (Blackwell architecture) handles modern AAA games at 1080p and 1200p nicely with high settings, and turning on DLSS helps keep frame rates steady without the visuals turning into a muddy mess. However, I don’t think the 5050 is an upgrade over the RTX 4060, which was in my last gen laptop. I feel they are about roughly equal, with the 4060 maybe slightly getting more frames per second in FPS like COD Black Ops 6. I was getting around 135 FPS on Black Ops 6 at 1080p high settings with the Acer Nitro’s 5050 and around 140 FPS on my 4060. The main advantage in getting this laptop is to have DLSS 4 which is not available on the last gen laptops. 16 GB of RAM has been enough for me, though I’ll probably upgrade it to 32 GB later, and while the 512 GB SSD fills up fast with big games, it loads them quickly and I can always add external storage later. The Obsidian Black design looks clean and a bit aggressive but not too flashy, so it works for both gaming and everyday use. Fans do get noticeable when I’m pushing it, but temps stay in check and it hasn’t throttled in longer sessions. Overall, if you want a laptop that can comfortably run current AAA titles without breaking the bank, this Nitro V 16 feels like a very good mid range gaming laptop. It’s a solid upgrade over the last gen equivalent, which was the 4050. You have to ask yourself if you really want DLSS 4 if you have a 4060 because the performance is about the same. If you have something higher than a 4060 this is probably not for you as your current rig would perform better.

Bottom line: The Acer Nitro is a good entry level gaming machine and it can handle typical home and business applications. The overall build is solid and the laptop is light enough to carry to/from school, work and home. The main downside to this laptop is the fan noise. When playing anything from Wobbly Life to Planet Crafter the noise was noticeable. When just doing Office type apps or surfing the web the fans stayed quiet. Pros: - Open NVMe Slot so you can add more storage - Decent specs for an entry level gaming computer - IPS display has fast 165 hz refresh rate - Nitro Sense software allows you to control the laptop functions - Acer My Key lets you assign a shortcut to the Acer key Cons: - The fans can get noisy when playing games - No dedicated NPU for Ai fans Tech Specs: The display is a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) which means it is a wider display which is great for gaming and business apps. The fast 165 refresh rate means clearer imaging during fast games and improved movie/video performance. The laptop is equipped with the Nvidia 5050 video card which is entry level but still provides decent Frames Per Second on most games – see the test results below. The Intel ultra 7 provides plenty of processing power without an abundance of heat. As stated above though, when the fans kick in due to processing demands the fan noise can get noticeable. Luckily I only experienced this when running the laptop in Turbo mode and doing some heavy gaming, it was reasonably quiet when surfing the web or doing Excel, Word type business apps. The storage is a 512 GB NVMe M2 2280 Gen4 card and there is an open slot if you want to add more storage. The laptop has 16gb of Ram which is generally enough for most applications. The Ram is composed of two 8gb sticks so it is dual channel memory which is good but it means upgrading could be expensive. Acer Software: Acer adds several programs including one with Ai apps if you want to use them. The Nitro Sense gives you dashboard so you can monitor the system, configure the RGB Lighting on the keyboard, system mode (Quiet, Balanced, Performance, Turbo) and to configure your user experience . The software is intuitive and gives you control over how the laptop functions. The Acer My Key allows you to assign a short cut or function to a special key located above the numerical keys. 3DMARK Scores Steel Nomad Score = 1993 Battlefield V @ 1080p = 155+ FPS Apex Legends @ 1080p = 140+ FPS GTA V @ 1080p = 170+ FPS Fortnite @ 1080p = 155+ FPS Red Dead Redemption 2 @ 1080p = 100 FPS Geekbench 6 Single Core Score = 2708 Multi Core Score = 12597 Open CL Score = 95518

Okay, I had to rewrite this review based on a few changes I made to how the OS works (Windows 11 Home). First thing is I broke the cardinal rule of not updating all the software on the computer, which I thought I had done. Initially I was going to give this laptop a 3 star rating because it was slow, the screen was kind of dull and I couldn't get my favorite game Ghost Recon Wildlands (GRW) to run. My wifi connection was also slow and seeming as though I have wifi7 and a few nodes around the house to make sure there are no dead zones it was a bit annoying. Windows update didn't help at all and winget was more of the same. Now explain to me why updating the Nvidia software all of a sudden turned this laptop with a RTX5050 mobile chip into the fastest PC when it comes to GRW. My i7 14th gen and 5070 mobile chip with 32Gb of DDR5 won't run it over 60fps.This one was over 85 during firefights with the screen going banana's with all the chaos going on. I like the Thunderbolt 4 port that handles DP out and can charge the laptop with a 65watt power brick. Didn't do anything to help the colors on screen even after a color calibration. Sound is okay but headphones pretty much made me forget about the so so sound from the speakers. The RGB is okay if you like that kind of thing. Glad I was able to turn it off. Not that heavy for its size and I was expecting to have some battery drain while hooked up to the 65watt power while playing GRW but it never dropped and it never throttled. Temps were pretty good never got above 55℃ on either the GPU of CPU. This is a sleeper as far as I am concerned. With the expansion slot to add another Nvme storage drive in this I would definitely recommend trying this out. Just do your homework and make sure you update everything. I think this would be a great candidate to run a Linux distro geared for gaming like CachyOS or Bazzite.