True budget gaming laptops are becoming rare these days, but the Acer Nitro 5 2022 makes a difference. It is equipped with top quality hardware, enabling it to offer superior performance. And all these are available at an amazingly low price. So, can Acer Nitro 5 2022 be your next budget gaming laptop? Today, we will help you answer this question by reviewing what the laptop comes with and what it can do. Let’s hop in!
Design
Let’s start with the design first. It’s great that Acer has gone for a pretty minimalistic look with this year’s Nitro 5. Previously it was all covered with strong colors and design features. Now, it has a pinstripe-like effect on the lid which looks clean. Another pro is the full-size RGB backlit keyboard that comes with four customizable zones. On the build side, it is entirely plastic but feels solid. It weighs 5.51 pounds, and you can guess that this is a pretty thick system.
On the display front, the Nitro 5 comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD LED display. The brightness and color accuracy are not excellent, but we are happy that Acer has gone with a higher refresh rate screen. On the top of the display, there’s a 720p webcam that surprisingly performs well. Aside from that, you have a pretty good I/O in this device. The left side of the laptop has an audio jack, USB, and ethernet port. Flip it to the other side, and you have two more USB ports. Finally, the back of the laptop houses an HDMI port, Thunderbolt 4, and the beryl connector.
Specs and Performance
- Brand: Acer
- Screen Size: 15.6 Inches
- Screen Resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Hard Drive: 256 GB SSD
- Processor: 4.5 GHz core_i5
- Ram Memory Installed Size: 8 GB
- Card Description: Dedicated
- Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
- Average Battery Life (in hours): 11 Hours
Now moving on to the specs and performance, the base variant of the Nitro 5 is equipped with a 12th Gen Intel i5 CPU, RTX 3050 GPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and 512GB SSD. The combination of this hardware makes it capable of playing whatever title you throw at it. During our testing, we never felt this laptop to be slow. We were able to run our daily tasks like surfing the web, playing games, and a little bit of editing without facing any problems. In addition to that, while playing Warzone, we had an average FPS of 87 with all graphic settings maxed out.
Another perk of this laptop is its upgradability. You can easily expand it with more memory and storage to increase its longevity and usefulness. Thermals were also fine; it seems like Acer has worked well in this regard. The only drawback is the battery life. We are only getting around 4 hours of use with the brightness level at 50%. It would be better if Acer went with a bigger battery by ditching the 2.5-inch hard drive.
Verdict
Overall, we enjoyed our time testing this laptop. Indeed, the Acer Nitro 5 doesn’t top any benchmark test, but there’s not much room for complaint at that price. You can pick it up at $899 at the micro center. So, if you are on a tight budget and looking for an excellent budget gaming laptop, the Acer Nitro 5 2022 is worth heavy consideration.
