Customer Ratings & Reviews

Keyboard lights up red which gives it a nice look!

This laptop isn't any faster than my previous laptop.

If you want a gaming laptop this just kind of feels like a compromise. doesn't run as clean as you'd hope. Going to return and spend the extra bucks. It did not run high-quality games, like rocket league, well. If you are on a very strict

Unfortunately I bought this during the pandemic. So I rushed to purchase a laptop to work from home. I wish I would've had more options and time to research a good desktop for remote work

I Bought This Laptop In August 15,2020 And Here Is Nov 5 ,2020 And The CPU Fan Stopped Working, I Like ACER Computers But Why Don't They Last As Long As??? Lets Say A DELL or Apple?? The Problem That I Have With The 2 That I Have Is The Same Thing CPU FAN. My Dell Is Over 10 Years Old And Still Going. Other Then That It's A Good Laptop, Just Have To Find Somebody To Fix It Now. I DIDN'T Buy The Warranty.

Purchased this laptop in December. Within two weeks, the battery began to malfunction. Returned it to Acer. They replaced the battery. However, now (two months later) the battery is again malfunctioning. The exact same problem. Prior to this experience, my favorite laptop had been an Acer Aspire, but, after it, I doubt I'll buy another Acer or a laptop from Best Buy. Very frustrated.

This PC covers all the bases of solid build and high quality. I have used the previous version and it has worked flawlessly as my main PC. I did compare the new one to my older Acer Nitro5 that is very similar spec-wise except the older one uses the 8th generation Intel CPU and this one uses the 9th gen chips. Although the clock speed ticked up from 2.3 Ghz to 2.4 Ghz it’s not something you will probably notice. Both are very well designed and very fast at processing games and MS Office applications like Word or Excel. It does have eight processors so it will be quick at multi-tasking as well as super-fast at any individual data processing application. Acer has gotten it right in their design of the internal data bus’s coupled with memory speed and CPU speed so everything blazes along together. The newest generation will run a little cooler according to the specs. Both have the NitroSense application installed although the newer machine even provides a keyboard key to launch it. This app allows you to manually control fan speeds, view the CPU temperature and modify power plans. It’s very neat although everything can be done automatically. The physical machine has some differences from the earlier version as well. It is smaller, however the screen size is the same, just less bezel, so that is very nice. The power port is in the middle of the right hand side which made way for some cooling ports. I think it would have been better to keep the power port more out of the way like the earlier version machine. Also the USB port on the right side also is near the middle, so if you use a wired gaming mouse for example, you probably want the port more toward the top end of the keyboard area (and out of the way more) which is again how the earlier version machine is. If you use a wireless mouse of course this doesn’t matter. This is a small design point but I did notice it. Overall the Nitro5 line continues to have a stealthy look and beautiful backlit keyboard. A nice touch is that it comes with a beautiful sleeve to use to carry the machine when you sometimes don’t want to use a more bulky case. Both the older and newer PC’s did great on a quick wireless internet speed-test but the newer one was a little faster on average: 228Mbps vs 233Mbps. My internet connection is only rated at 200 Mbps so it’s nice that the Nitro5’s obviously have excellent wireless electronics installed. Acer does tout the ultra-fast wireless speed and they delivered. The graphics card has 3GB dedicated memory so that is very nice. You don’t get an SD card slot on the newer one which I do miss since I use devices like dash cams and they use SD cards. The advertising on BestBuy does say it supports SD cards but it does not. The older Nitro did have the SD card slot. However, you can just get an SD/USB adapter that plugs in via one of the USB ports. There is an extra USB-3 port and also a USB port to charge devices even if the PC is off. Also there is a USB-C port which is becoming a necessity anymore. I have found that the Nitro5 build is top rated versus the many PC’s I have used. It is a beautiful machine with lots of power for most any use including ‘medium level’ gaming. The price point is outstanding for a PC with the specs of the Nitro5. I would recommend it highly. Acer has won me over.

Works almost perfect the first month you have it, then either the screen goes out or your battery ends up frying. Also keep in mind, you will not be able to boot into imei, if you ever wanted to upgrade your storage. It doesn’t even give you an option. I’ve also spoken with several representatives from Asus, and they all claim that is a CONFIRMED mess up on their part.

Overall a great product for a starting gaming laptop. Even though it can only run games at 40 fps it is still a decent laptop for the price.

The biggest problem with gaming laptops, is that the people that look for them and evaluate them are just that… gamers. Most of them hardcore PC gamers that play the most taxing and graphically intense masterpieces, while they expect top notch performance no matter the machine they play the game on. Well, the term “gaming laptop” needs to also include the light gamer, that plays a host of Wild Tangent games, or SIMS, or MMORPGs that are less about graphics and more about content. You don’t need a beast of machine to be a PC gamer. My wife is a PC gamer, and the only 3D game she really plays is SIMS. Acer has obviously updated a previous version of this 15.6 inch laptop, and although I haven’t used the former, I like what I have experienced in the latter. The new Nitro 5 comes in the standard laptop packaging – slim and tight. Upon opening the box and handling it for the first time, you notice the sleek, gaming-inspired look that just screams, “play me”. I can appreciate the aggressive, techno-look of gaming laptops, and Acer doesn’t disappoint. It is definitely thicker than the thin versions of notebooks we see today, but still sports a somewhat sleek look. The red and black color scheme give you that old-school terminator feel, and when handling it, the high-grade plastic has a bit of premium feel to it without being luxurious – if that makes sense. All the standard ports are there (USB 3, USB C, Gig Ethernet, HDMI, 3.5mm) and the ventilation seems more than adequate. Power it up and you are greeted by a lit keyboard/control area that can only be described as a love it or hate it feature. Some will love it because it lends to the gaming feel. Others will look at the red hue lighting and feel that It’s dated, like an old 80s movie terminal. I think it looks cool. The color choice (red) may turn some off, in my opinion. Of course, Windows 10 is the operating system for the Nitro 5, and I’m happy with that. If you are a Windows hater, look elsewhere – and install your VM for the best game play experience. Of course, you must navigate the Windows setup, but most should be accustomed to that at this point. If you have games where you purchased physical copies (DVDs), you will be disappointed to know that the Nitro 5 doesn’t have a disc reader. Most games now are distributed digitally, and most game publishers offer a means to retrieve a licensed copy via authenticated request. Just be aware, all old game lovers. The screen on this thing is good, but not great. It’s only 1080p, but it is crisp and clear. The Nitro 5 has a quad-core processor, but it’s rated, or segmented, as mobile. Where most gaming laptop manufacturers seem to put desktop grade processors in a laptop form-factor, Acer has stuck a juiced up mobile processor in the Nitro 5. I must say, it performs admirably. Standard computing (everyday application usage, web surfing, etc) is very snappy, of course, and the Nitro 5 is quite app to video and audio decoding and encoding – another use for rigs of this caliber. As for games, the Nitro 5 is not for the PC gaming geek. It can handle some of your standard fare titles using high quality settings – Fortnite, PUBG, Overwatch, SIMS, etc. Quality FPS titles are another story. Games in the CoD realm are best played on lower settings, but they are playable. For me, the Nitro 5 is a true entry-level gaming system, and it will play the simple and lower level 3-D games without a hitch – that should be the target audience. All others need to pay for what they need, period. Battery life is about where most gaming laptops land – about 3 hours with heavy game play. If you can squeeze more than that out of a full charge, more power to you – and share your secrets. The Nitro 5 isn’t the most powerful gaming laptop out there, and isn’t even the most powerful entry-level one. It is a tremendous budget or entry-level gaming rig that shouldn’t be overlooked. The mobile processor performs surprisingly well with a decent dedicated graphics card. The hard drive space is good enough for the new to PC gaming user, or those that are more casual, non FPS gamers. Anyone looking for the inexpensive gaming beast, need not apply.

Went out before my warranty went out so it was a free fix. But now it's up and it needs fixed again kinda disappointed

Gets super hot and throttles the GPU. Wife could barely play Zoo tycoon on the minimum settings. Gets too hot and fans are way too loud

The Acer - Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 - 256GB Solid State Drive is a great laptop, especially at the current price point (sale). Design for the Nitro is beautiful, from the sculpted top and edges, screen hinges, reddish accents and honeycomb rear for heat sinks. Weight of the laptop is about average teetering on the below average for this type of hardware at just under 6lbs. Audio on the laptop is good for a laptop. It’s not immersive as a headset or external speakers but you get a good amount of sound from the speakers. Dolby did work at times, of course it depended on what you’re watching or listening to. Graphics are on pretty good for this system. Although the display is a bit lacking. I did notice some colors looked dull or a bit cloudy. Watching movies from streaming services were good but I thought they could be of better visual quality and more vibrant colors. Game play with the most popular games out right now don’t skip a beat graphically due to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1050 video processor. Hardware for this laptop is also very good. It has an i5 chip with 8GB of memory. Loading times of games are pretty quick, without abnormal wait times. Running apps like multiple browser sessions, along with a word processor or spreadsheets are handled with ease. Of course this is a gaming laptop but using the other apps, aren’t sluggish. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to test out any graphics software, like Photoshop but I’m sure it would handle it with relative ease. The keyboard and touch-pad are a delight. Very responsive for either. The red glow coming from the keyboard in a dimly lit or completely dark room a beautiful. You can dim the brightness of the keyboard if it’s too much or make it brighter if it’s not enough. It’ll then turn off to conserve battery life. Connecting an external gaming keyboard and mouse comes with ease and work flawlessly, with great response. The webcam is average. If you’re going to stream, I would suggest getting an external webcam. There are a good amount of ports located on this laptop, 3 USB, 1 USB Type C, Ethernet, Audio Jack and an HDMI port. The HDMI port is what stands out as you can connect it to an external monitor/TV and have even better quality from the laptop. Fans are on the bottom of the laptop, they aren’t hindered by the laptop laying flat as there are rubber feet that lift it off the surface for a great stance and position. The only thing I did notice that the fans attracted a lot of dust for some reason. This is a great laptop, with definite bang for the buck at this current price point. If you’re looking for something that can game and do your daily stuff this is the laptop to get.

Brought open box was sold without a charger I didn’t realize it but best buy replaced it no problems

This laptop was great for the first 6 months. Started shutting off randomly after that.

Tried hard reset for battery. Did not work! Laptop was only in use for one and a half day before the screen would not come on. Keyboards would light up but no screen. Took it back to return, one of the associates hard reset it and it came back on. But I didn’t want to risk it so I return it.

I bought this for my 6 year old to play xbox. from the very beginning he was complaining about it being slow. so I compared it with a $750 gaming desktop I bought from best buy and sure enough, this is slower. I also used a computer moniter with it and there is definitely a lag. spend the lil bit of extra bucks to buy the gaming desktop instead....

The plastic hinges on the monitor crack too easily. I do not recommend for teenage boys.

I kind of wondered where this Nitro 5 fit in for the gaming world and my conclusion after using it for about two weeks now is that it is an OK gaming laptop if you don't expect too much from it but it is an excellent laptop if you want a laptop to use as your main home computer. I say that because, Acer has done a nice job toning down the gamer vibe of this computer and has given it good enough specs that right out of the box give it the OOMPH to handle day-to-day tasks without even breaking a sweat. Now that may not sound like such a great deal if you are investing in a serious gamer laptop but at this price, it is cheaper than a few of those new 'Power Chromebooks', which for me, the Nitro is replacing. Last year, I went semi-retired and didn't need a beast of a computer any more to do work at home so I purchased one of those new Chromebooks with an i5 processor and the nicer build quality. It was just fine for a while but I quickly learned that even with the upgraded processor it just couldn't handle some of the most basic day-to-day stuff without slowing down or firing up its fans like a turbojet. Performance: Enter the Nitro 5. With the 9th Gen quad core i5, the GTX 1050 card, and the base 8gb of RAM, if found that this computer chews up day-to-day tasks without breaking a sweat or firing up its fans. Plus the extra screen real-estate and the nicer LCD panel made it much easier on my rapidly declining eyesight. The Nitro 5 didn't start getting under stress until I threw Battletech at it with graphics set to ultra, and even then it was still pretty quiet with not a lot of heat coming off of it. The game that really got it blasting though is Atom RPG, which is a recent 3D game very similar to Fallout 1/2 but with more advanced graphics. Now I don't know if the team that put that game didn't optimize the graphics or what but it stresses the Nitro and the GTX card WAY more than Battletech even though that game is much more visually complex. NVIDIA even have a custom driver for both games and it didn't seem to make a difference. I don't plan on playing a lot of games on this so it really isn't an issue for me, I just wanted to stress-test it to find out where its limits were. Upgradeability: The only issue I have run into is in upgrading the Nitro 5. Even though it has decent specs for the price, I wanted to throw in an SSD for a little bit more storage and to bump the RAM to 16GB. The previous models of the Nitro 5 series had nice small panels that you could remove that gave you quick access to both the hard drive bay and the RAM with just the removal of a single screw each. On this model that has been done away with. While Acer gives you the SATA cable in the box to install an SSD, they tell you to bring it along to have it upgraded by an approved Acer Service Center! I shouldn't have to take in a laptop like this to a service center to upgrade it. I tried to contact Acer support and despite waiting for about two hours total for a person to chat with (over the course of three sessions that always seemed to drop me after waiting over half and hour each time), I decided just to bust into the case myself. It was straightforward to unscrew eleven small screws on the bottom which thankfully are all the same so it was easy just to pile them up. After that was done, I popped the bottom off and found that in the process it is virtually impossible to do so without breaking off some little slivers of plastic which are not noticeable from the outside of the case and don't impact the ability of the case to close but which I think are a 'tell' for the service center to determine if the case has been opened and probably voiding the warranty. It was super easy to drop in the SSD and a second stick of RAM and button the Nitro 5 back up nice and tight. After firing up the laptop, the extra RAM was instantly visible and I was able to format the new drive without any problem. With this upgrade, which cost me about $80 at Best Buy, I'm able to even run that Atom RPG for quite a while without the fan firing up because of the extra overhead. Battery: The Nitro 5 comes with a four-cell battery and is supposedly rated at a max run time of 8.5 hours, which I have been able to get just using it for those day-to-day tasks like surfing, Word, and such. When I was running the games on it, I got about 3.5 hours of playtime before it hit 19% and went into its powersave mode. That being said, the included 135 watt power brick brings the battery back up to 100% from 19% in a little over an hour. I'm not too worried about battery life myself since I don't plan on taking this off of my desk other than to move to other parts of the house where I will have easy access to a plug anyway. Nice to know that I can get several hours of use out of it while mobile though. Conclusion: Like I wrote at the beginning of this review, the Nitro 5 is kind of in some weird in-between position when it comes to laptops, not a beast of a gaming rig nor is it a very portable day-to-day laptop. That being said, if you want something with more power than an ultrabook or a Chromebook and don't care that you won't be running the latest AAA games at full resolution, the Nitro 5 fits in that relatively narrow window pretty well. It also does it at a really good price considering. I'm very pleased with my Nitro 5 and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone with similar needs.

Good laptop. I enjoy it. Fair price "gaming" laptop