2020 Acer Nitro 7 15.6 Inch FHD 1080P Gaming Laptop review
2020 Acer Nitro 7 15.6 Inch FHD 1080P Gaming Laptop review
ProsGenerous amount of SSD storage for this price
Decent display
Clean and minimalist styling
Cons
GTX 1650 is an underwhelming GPU for this price
CPU throttling is a major issue at load
Acer's own Predator Helios 300 is a better value for the money
THE GOOD
sturdy metallic build and subtle black looks
gets a good-enough matte IPS screen
decent keyboard and excellent trackpad
excellent performance once tweaked
the inner components stay cool with demanding loads
runs quietly with daily use and demanding chores
fast wireless
THE BAD
some sharp edges and the metallic finishing is a magnet for smudges
no card-reader or Thunderbolt 3 port
the outer shell runs hot with demanding loads and games
only gets a 58 Wh battery
The Nitro series is Acer’s entry-level lineup of gaming notebooks, and the Nitro 7 is their newest model as of the first part of 2019.
Unlike the Nitros of the past, this new addition is a little different, with a more compact and much sturdier metallic build, as well as cleaner black aesthetics, and these should make it an appealing option for more than just gamers, but also for professionals and students who need a well balanced all-round notebook. Acer does expect you to pay a premium over the plastic Nitro 5 models, and whether that’s worth it is entirely up to you.
On top of the design changes, the Nitro 7 brings updated hardware, with the latest generation Core i7 processors, Nvidia Turing GTX 1650 or 1660 Ti graphics, as well as options for a 60 or 144 Hz screens.
We’ve spent time with an early production model of the Nitro 7, and gathered all our impressions below, with the strong points and the quirks you should be aware of before buying one of these.
Acer's Nitro 7 is a classic example of how every decision matters when building entry-level gaming laptops. Every component must be second-guessed, every trade-off weighed, because a mere can be the difference between standing out and stalling out. Do you opt for a better screen or more storage space? A better GPU or more RAM? High-end laptops get to have it all, but budget-friendly machines don't have that luxury.Trouble is, sometimes you get a laptop that's perhaps perfect for one niche, but suboptimal for your average buyer. Acer's Nitro 7 opts for an above-average (for this price point at least) 15.6-inch display, a generous amount of SSD storage, and a top-tier CPU—but it skimps on the graphics card, a fairly important component for a gaming laptop.
It's an odd choice, and my first instinct is that most people will be better off with a different Acer laptop—namely, the Predator Helios 300, which lists for the same price but packs a better graphics card. We'll get into that later though. Let's dig in.
Variants
The Acer Nitro 7 is mercifully one of Acer's simpler lines to navigate, at least at the moment. There are only three variants,
We reviewed the top-end model, with the catchy model number AN715-51-752B. Try saying that three times fast, eh? In this case gets you an Intel Core i7-9750H, an Nvidia GTX 1650, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
Our review model is probably the best option. You certainly could run a gaming PC with only 8GB of RAM still, but I wouldn't recommend it. That alone is enough to cut the two lower-end models from the running, especially given their -plus prices. As I said up top, can be a lot of money when you're dealing with entry-level laptops—but in this case, I think the extra money is a necessity. If you're looking to go cheaper than, take a look at the Nitro 5 line instead.
Design
Acer's Nitro line is interesting to me. They're like gaming laptops gone undercover. Not in a convincing way, mind you. Pull out a Nitro 7 at the office and people will be like, "Hey, nice gaming laptop." You're not fooling anyone, especially with the weird pentagonal shape of the base and lid.
The Nitro 7 is also one of the stealthiest laptops in its class. Black metal and plastic materials are used for the entire construction, and even the Acer branding elements are black and don’t stand out in any way. Some red accents are still present on the inside, in the keyboard and the clickpad’s framing, but otherwise, this gets a very clean design. Even the status LEDs have been pushed to the sides and the Power Button is not lit once you switch off the keyboard’s illumination, so there’s nothing interfering with your everyday experience, which is pretty much what I’d expect from any modern laptop.
There are a few side-effects of this dark all-metal build. For starters, the Nitro 7 is fairly heavy by today’s standards, despite the fact that it is much smaller than the previous Nitros, with slimmer side bezels around its 15-inch screen. At just under 5 lbs, though, and one extra for the charger, it’s still portable enough for its class, as this is not meant to compete with the high-end ultraportables out there.
This laptop is otherwise practical. Two firm hinges keep the screen in place while allowing you to open and adjust it with a single hand, as well as push it back to about 165 degrees. Large rubber feet are placed on the belly, keeping the whole thing tightly anchored on a flat surface, there’s a spacious arm-rest inside and a fair bit of attention has been given to the ventilation, with intakes on the bottom and output grills on the back.
The IO is pretty good as well, with several USB-A slots, a USB-C connector, LAN and HDMI. There’s no support for Thunderbolt 3 and no card-reader, though, and on top of these, the power plug and the headphone jack are inconveniently placed on the front half of the right side, which can interfere with your mouse.
Back when announced, I was wondering if the Nitro 7 is worth the premium Acer asks for it over the Nitro 5 models, and after spending the time with it, I’d say it probably does.
This is a very sturdily built computer. It still uses a sandwiched construction, with aluminum pieces plastered on top of a plastic inner chassis, but Acer did not skimp on the quality and used some thick sheets of metal for the interior, undersized and the lid-cover. As a result, this feels solid and strong, and barely bulges when pressing on the keyboard-deck. The lid still flexes and warps a fair bit if abused, but without any noticeable ripples or other effects onto the panel, so overall this is the kind of notebook I could comfortably throw in my backpack without fearing something might press on it and break the screen.
This is a very sturdily built computer. It still uses a sandwiched construction, with aluminum pieces plastered on top of a plastic inner chassis, but Acer did not skimp on the quality and used some thick sheets of metal for the interior, undersized and the lid-cover. As a result, this feels solid and strong, and barely bulges when pressing on the keyboard-deck. The lid still flexes and warps a fair bit if abused, but without any noticeable ripples or other effects onto the panel, so overall this is the kind of notebook I could comfortably throw in my backpack without fearing something might press on it and break the screen.
That said, the Nitro 7 is a bit more restrained (and refined) than Acer's Predator line. The chassis is solid black, without the Predator line's showy red vent covers and highlights. The lid is a particular high point, brushed metal etched with the Acer logotype and not much else—no "Predator" or even "Nitro," and certainly not that weird Transformers-looking logo that the Predator laptops use.
It's a good look for Acer. The Nitro 7's still a bit aggressive for my taste, and I find the non-standard lid shape particularly questionable. But there's little else to sneer at. I'm particularly impressed that it comes in under an inch thick, a relative rarity for budget gaming laptops—though it does lead to some thermal throttling, as we'll see later.
Anyway, we've come to the first of Acer's choices with the Nitro 7: The display. It's a component most budget laptops skimp on. Nice to have, sure, but it's a luxury. Given the choice, most manufacturers opt to dump their limited budgets into the internal hardware instead.
The Nitro 7's 15.6-inch, 1920x1080 IPS screen looks pretty damn good though. Sure, it's still very much an entry-level display. But viewing angles are fairly wide, color reproduction is surprisingly solid, and the Nitro 7 easily clears the 250-nit floor we use for battery testing. It's one of the few clear advantages the Nitro 7 has over the Predator Helios 300, which has a notoriously subpar display.
I've also been impressed with the Nitro 7's keyboard. While in most ways it's just your typical chiclet slab, there's a generous amount of travel to each keystroke and a crisp, tactile click that makes it a joy to type on. This is a gaming laptop, but I've been pretty happy with it for productivity purposes and have written a number of lengthy articles on it this month.
I'm less excited about the touchpad, if only because it abstains from physical mouse buttons. I find that frustrating on any gaming laptop. Theoretically you'd plug in a mouse for any and all gaming, but sometimes you can't, and the tap-to-click touchpads are all but impossible to use efficiently in those situations. It's smooth and sensitive though, so a step up from some of the budget models I've used.
Ports are fairly standard, though venting on the right face pushes the power input approximately halfway down the side—an odd choice, though not unheard of. Joining it is a single USB 2.0 port and a 3.5mm audio input, while the left side plays host to a USB-C and two USB-A 3.1 ports, ethernet, and HDMI. That's a pretty generous selection for an entry-level model.
As for the speakers? Best to forget them. I'd say the same of most high-end laptops as well, but the Nitro 7's built-in audio is strictly for casual web browsing and other such usage. It's loud but very tinny, and anything more serious than a YouTube video should probably see you reaching for your headphones.
Performance
So far so good, yeah? Indeed, the Nitro 7 wins top marks from me for its build quality and its display. It's clear those are the elements Acer prioritized.
But then we get into performance, and the value proposition gets more questionable—particularly at the list price. Again, our Nitro 7 review model came equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H and an Nvidia GTX 1650, which is an ever-so-slightly improved GTX 1050 Ti.
The CPU's problem, plain and simple, is throttling. We've looked at a few Core i7-9750H laptops at this point, and have reviewed plenty with its predecessor, the 8750H. Point being: We know what to expect. And in short-burst use the Nitro 7 performs mostly as it should, with Cinebench R15 scores in line with our expectations—still slightly below average, but nothing too serious.
Keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard looks like the one on the previous Nitro 5 lineups, but it’s actually somewhat improved.
The layout is pretty standard, with a main set of properly spaced and sized 15 x 15 mm keys and a smaller NumPad Section at its side. The arrow keys are now full-size as well, though, and the NumPad is slightly pushed towards the right as a result.
Acer went with a Black and Red theme, with the arrows and WASD keys further emphasized by a red border around each keycap. The keys are backlit, with red LEDs beneath each key and three intensity levels to choose from. At their max settings, these LEDs are very bright, but it’s worth noting that the illumination is not entirely even on our implementation, some of them being a little brighter than the others. Light also creeps out from beneath some of the keys, mostly because they’re fairly tall and offer a deep stroke.
I should also add that this keyboard lacks any sort of CapsLock and NumLock indicators, which can get frustrating at times, and the illumination cannot be activated by swiping your fingers over the clickpad, you actually have to hit a key to do it.
That leads us to the overall typing experience. This is a pretty good keyboard, tbh, with softly coated keycaps, deep travel, and firm feedback. However, I actually found them a little too stiff for my liking, being used to the softer resistance of the keyboard on my XPS, and that leads to a fair bit of misses strokes. If you’re not coming from a thin and light, but instead from a regular older laptop, I’d expect you’ll find this keyboard right down your alley.
The clickpad, on the other hand, hasn’t changed. It’s averagely sized and it’s a plastic surface with Elan hardware and Precision drivers, thus handles everyday use smoothly and reliably. The physical clicks are bit stiff, but they’re also quiet, and overall the implementation is stronger than on the older plastic-made Nitro 5s, as the surface no longer rattles when tapped firmer.
There’s no finger-sensor on the Nitro 7, or other biometric options.
Screen
As already mentioned earlier, Acer offers the Nitro 7 with either a 60 Hz or a 144 Hz screen. The latter is the obvious smarter choice in a gaming laptop, but we got the former on our test unit, which will probably make its way inside the entry-level configurations with the GTX 1650 graphics.
It’s a fair-quality panel by today standards, the Chi Mei N156HCE-EN1 we’ve seen on other laptops in the past, including the Asus ZenBook UX550 series or the Lenovo ThinkPad P52. It’s not very bright in this implementation, at a maximum of about 280 nits, but it offers good contrast, viewing angles and color reproduction, at about 74% coverage of AdobeRGB.
Here’s what we got on our unit, measured with a Spyder4 sensor:
Panel HardwareID: Chi Mei CMN15E8 (N156HCE-EN1);
Coverage: 96% sRGB, 71% NTSC, 74% AdobeRGB;
Measured gamma: 2.4;
Max brightness in the middle of the screen: 278 cd/m2 on power;
Contrast at max brightness: 750:1;
White point: 7300 K;
Black on max brightness: 0.37 cd/m2;
Average DeltaE: 0.99 uncalibrated, 0.79 calibrated;
PWM: Yes, ~25 KHz;
Response time: ~30 ms BTW.
This is not that well calibrated out of the box, so you’ll want to use this color profile to address the white point and the gamma and gray-levels imbalances.
That aside, there was no obvious light bleeding on this sample, even if the bottom corners are dimmer than the middle and top. You’re not going to notice the differences with daily use, not even when watching a movie in a dark-room, as in this case, I doubt you’ll ever keep this at maximum brightness (unless you want to wreck your eyes).
It’s also worth adding that this is a fairly slow screen, with a BTW response time of about 30 ms, and a refresh rate of only 60Hz, thus ghosting and tearing are visible when playing fast-paced games. PWM is also used for brightness adjustment, but at a very high-frequency of around 25 KHz, and will not bother even the most flicker-sensitive among you.
We’ll further update this article with details on the 144 Hz screen option, once we get to review it, but I’d expect the LG Philips implementation available in other budget-gaming laptops like the Lenovo Legion Y740 or the Aorus 15.
Hardware, performance and upgrade options
Out test versions is a mid-tier configuration of the Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51, with the Core i7-8750H Coffee Lake processor, 32 GB of dual-channel 2666 MHz RAM, dual graphics and triple-storage.
This gets two M.2 SSDs hooked up in RAID0, as well as a HDD for storage, while in the graphics department, the Intel HD 630 iGPU integrated within the Core i7 processor is supplemented by an Nvidia GTX 1650 4GB dGPU.
The 1650 is Nvidia’s entry-level Turing chip and a direct follow-up for the Pascal GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti chips, while its performance gets close to GTX 1060 levels, as you’ll see below. Acer will also offer the Nitro 7 with GTX 1660 Ti graphics, as well as 9th gen processors, with the i5-9300H and i7-9750H, but based on our findings, you might be better off opting for a GTX 1650 inside this computer, and rather step-up to the Predator Helio 300 lineup for a 1660 Ti model, due to its more complex thermal implementation.
Anyway, the CPU and GPU are soldered onto the motherboard, but the RAM, storage and the WiFi module are accessible. To get to them you’ll have to remove the back panel, hold in place by a handful of Philips screws, which is a fairly simple task and gives unobstructed access to all those components, as well as the cooling solution, battery, and speakers.
Before we proceed to talk about its behavior and performance, you should know that our review unit is a pre-production model with early drivers from Nvidia (version 417.8), so you should take our findings with a lump of salt. While the GeForce 430.39 drivers were available from Nvidia at the time of this article, those were not compatible with our sample, that’s why we ran our tests on the older drivers version.
The Nitro 7 is meant to be an all-around computer, so aside from games and demanding loads, it will also have to deal with everyday activities. Our sample handles these everyday tasks easily, while running cool and quiet, even if the fans never switch off and you’ll hear them in a quiet room. The logs below show details on temperatures, performance and battery drain figures with browsing, Netflix, Youtube, and text-editing.
On to more demanding tasks, we’ll start by testing the CPU’s performance in 100% loads, and we do that by running Cinebench R15 for 10+ times in a loop, with 2-3 seconds delay between each run, with the laptop on the Maximum Performance Power profile in Windows and out-of-the-box settings. Most implementations of the i7-8750H CPU return high-scores for the first Cinebench runs, and then settle a little lower as the CPU heats-up and can no longer maintain its maximum Turbo speeds for more than a few seconds.
This one performed just as expected and settled for speeds of 2.7 – 2.8 GHz, a TDP of 45 W and temperatures of only around 70 degrees Celsius, as well as scores of around 950 points. Details below.
Those are pretty low frequencies for a stock i7-8750H implementation, and that’s because Power Limit Throttling kicks in fast, according to XTU. Don’t forget that our sample is pre-production, thus retail units might perform differently.
We moved on and tried to improve the behavior by undervolting the CPU, with either Intel XTU or Throttlestop . Our sample ended up being stable at -150 mV in real use and benchmarks, and in this case, the CPU settled for scores of around 1060-1080 points, Turbo Boost speeds of 3.2 – 3.3 GHz, a TDP of 45 W and temperatures of 72-73 degrees Celsius. Details below.
Power limit throttling is still the limiting factor here, and even undervolted, the CPU still performs at 10-15% beneath its maximum potential. We were able to squeeze further performance at -180 mV, but with these settings, we encountered crashes in real-life use, that’s why we dialed back to the stable -150 mV setting for the reminding of our tests.
Our sample performed fairly well on battery, averaging 900 points in Cinebench, a TDP of 25 W and frequencies of 3 GHz, as you can see below. It’s worth noting that while on battery, the CPU runs at a constant TDP of 25W, and does not reach higher frequencies in the first part of each loop, as it does when plugged in.
Next, we’ve included a set of benchmarks, for those of you interested in numbers. We ran some of them on the Standard profile first, with out-of-the-box settings and Maximum Performance mode in Windows. Here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 8130 (Graphics – 9191, Physics – 14329);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 3664 (Graphics – 3438, CPU – 5849);
PassMark: Rating: 6061, CPU mark: 13580, 3D Graphics Mark: 8482;
GeekBench 4.1.1 64-bit: Single-Core: 5142, Multi-core: 19749;
CineBench R15 (best run): OpenGL 107.44 fps, CPU 957 cb, CPU Single Core 173 cb;
x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 191.56 fps, Pass 2 – 58.96 fps.
We also ran a few more tests on the -150 mV undervolted CPU profile, but we also looked into squeezing more out of the GPU. We were able to stably overclock the GPU (with Asus GPU TWeak or MSI Afterburner) at +180 MHz Core and +400 MHz Memory, and here’s what we got:
3DMark 13 – Fire Strike: 8932 (Graphics – 10047, Physics – 16368);
3DMark 13 – Time Spy: 4001 (Graphics – 3739, CPU – 6654);
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Extreme: 1948;
Uniengine Superposition – 1080p Medium: 7101;
PCMark 10: 5271;
PassMark: Rating: 6125, CPU mark: 14692, 3D Graphics Mark: 8672;
GeekBench 3.4.2 32-bit: Single-Core: 4166 Multi-core: 22822;
GeekBench 4 64-bit: Single-Core: 5174, Multi-core: 22201;
CineBench R15 (best run): OpenGL 103.97 fps, CPU 1153 cb, CPU Single Core 172 cb;
x264 HD Benchmark 4.0 32-bit: Pass 1 – 205.23 fps, Pass 2 – 76.22 fps.
2020 Acer Nitro 7 15.6 Inch FHD 1080P Gaming Laptop review
- The Tweaked profile leads to some significant CPU performance gains, mostly due to the fact that the undervolt allows the CPU to run closer to its potential. The GPU scores increase by about 7-10% as well, which is in line with the frequency boost (1395 Mhz default >> 1575 Mhz OC, with Turbo in both cases). It’s worth noting that Overclocking does not only impact the Base Clock frequency, but also the Turbo-Max frequency by a similar amount. We’ll get to that in a bit.
It’s also important to add the Tweaked profile does not lead to a significant increase in CPU and GPU temperatures in demanding loads, as you can see in the following 3Dmark logs, as well as down below, in the gaming performance section.
Let’s look at some gaming results first. We ran a couple of games representative for DX11, DX12 and Vulkan architectures, both on the Standard and the Tweaked profiles. Here’s what we got:
FHD Standard FHD Tweaked
Battlefield V (DX 12, Ultra Preset) 52-64 fps 58-70 fps
Far Cry 5 (DX 11, Ultra Preset, SMAA) 56 fps 60 fps
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (DX 11, Ultra Preset) 88 fps 96 fps
Rise of Tomb Raider (DX 12, Very High Preset, FXAA) 53 fps 57 fps
Shadow of Tomb Raider (DX 12, Highest Preset, TAA) 43 fps 47 fps
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (DX 11, Ultra Preset, Hairworks On 4) 46-56 fps 52-64 fps
Battlefield V, The Witcher 3 – recorded with Fraps/in-game FPS counter in campaign mode;
Far Cry 5, Middle Earth, Tomb Raider games – recorded with the in-game benchmarking tools.
The HWinfo logs below show the CPU and GPU speeds in Farcry 5 and Witcher 3 on the Standard profile, with the fans on Auto, the only available option on this laptop (they’re pushed to maximum speeds quickly, which translates in noise levels of around 45-46 dB at head level).
And here’s what happens when unplugging the laptop: the GPU runs fairly well, but the CPU throttles to an average of 2000 GHz, with spikes down to 1600 MHz, which is enough to run most games smoothly, but occasionally bottlenecks the performance in some of the more demanding titles.
If you don’t want to dig through the logs, this is what we got in Witcher 3:
Standard profile (default CPU/ GPU settings): CPU: ~3.82 GHz, 75 C; GPU: ~1.6 GHz, 68 C;
Standard profile (-150 mV undervolted CPU, default GPU): CPU: ~3.9 GHz, 77 C; GPU: ~1.64 GHz, 69 C;
Tweaked profile (-150 mV undervolted CPU, +180 MHz Clock GPU / +400 MHz Memory GPU): CPU: ~3.9 GHz, 78 C; GPU: ~1.8 GHz, 72 C.
Overall, tweaking this laptop leads to 7-12% improved CPU and GPU performance, with only a limited impact over their temperatures, of around 2-3 degrees Celsius in sustained loads.
The final step in your research should be to further look into how this tweaked GTX 1650 GPU compares to the available 1660 Ti options, as well as the older Pascal 1060 implementations, which you can most likely find with excellent discounts these days. That, however, is a subject for another article, and we’ll update with our findings once we get to test a few more fo these new GTX 1650 and 1660 Ti laptops.
Noise, Heat, Connectivity, speakers, and others
The Nitro 7 gets a fairly basic thermal implementation, with a design we’ve previously seen on many other Acer laptops. Two high-cfm Aeroblade fans are used, as well as three thin heatpipes that cover both the CPU and the GPU. As shown in the previous section, this does a good job at keeping the components in check, allowing them to run at around 70 degrees Celsius in demanding loads.
However, much of this heat is transferred onto the metal outershell, which makes this laptop uncomfortable hot. The interior area above the keyboard hits temperatures in the high 40s, with the WASD keys reaching around 46-47 degrees Celsius, while the bottom panel hits mid-50s above the components, which is significantly hotter than the GTX 1050 Ti Nitro 5 of the previous generation. In fact, I’d expect the updated plastic-made 20189 Nitr0 5s to run cooler, as the thick metal pieces are much more susceptible to heating up than plastic surfaces.
The fans spin quietly though, peaking at only 45-46 dB at head-level in games. There’s no fan control on our sample, and no way to take them out of Auto. The fans keep spinning with standard daily use (movies, browsing, text editing), but are pretty much inaudible even in a quiet room
It’s also worth adding that we haven’t noticed any sort of coil whine or electronic creaking on our sample, but that’s not a guarantee you won’t get some with yours, so make sure to look for it once you receive the laptop.
For connectivity, there’s a 2×2 Intel 9560 wireless implementation inside this laptop, with Bluetooth 5.0, as well as Gigabit Lan through a Realtek RTL8168/8111 module. We’ve mostly used our sample on wireless, and it performed flawlessly both near the router and at 30+ feet away, with obstacles in between.
As far as the speakers go, there’s a set of them firing through cuts on the lateral sides of the underbelly, and they’re average at best. We measured maximum volumes of about 76-78 dB at head-level, without any distortions, but the sound is harsh at maximum volumes, lacking in the mids and the lows. In fact, the bass was only being noticeable from around 115 Hz, and peaking inside the laptop, that’s not a surprise, judging by the size of those speaker chambers.
The Nitro 7 runs hot. That's all there is to it. I live in San Francisco, which is lucky enough to have mild temperatures even in the height of summer. Even idling at 7-percent usage, the Nitro 7's Core i7-9750H sits between 55 and 60 degrees Celsius. Putting it under load, it almost immediately hits its 80-degree-Celsius throttling point and starts impacting performance as a result.
Does it matter much? Probably not. Gaming is not particularly CPU-intensive, nor is browsing the Internet. Chances are, most people buying an entry-level laptop are not doing anything that requires the CPU's fully optimized potential—though it's still strange Acer hasn't equipped the Nitro 7 with some better cooling capabilities.
But no, the Nitro 7's biggest letdown is the GTX 1650. Let me be clear: There is a place for the GTX 1650 in Nvidia's lineup. It's not a bad card, and we recommended plenty of laptops with the its predecessor, the GTX 1050 Ti. It's a solid entry-level option.
That said, is a steep price for a 1650-equipped laptop, as evidenced by our benchmarks. To enable direct comparisons, I've included the benchmarks we did with Acer's Predator Helios 300—which as I mentioned up top, lists for the same price but includes a more powerful GTX 1660 (though it was a 1060 at the time of our review).
The difference is immediately noticeable in 3DMark's FireStrike Extreme benchmark, where the Predator Helios 300 runs laps around the Nitro 7, as does MSI's GS65 Stealth and its GTX 1660 Ti.
Specifications
Display
|
15.6-inch 144Hz FHD IPS
(1920 x 1080)
|
Processor
|
Intel Core i7-9750H
(2.6GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4.5GHz, 12MB cache)
|
GPU
|
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660
Ti 6GB GDDR6 VRAM
|
RAM
|
8GB DDR4
|
Storage
|
256GB PCIe SSD
|
Camera
|
HD resolution
|
Battery
|
55WHr
|
Dimensions
|
363.4 x 259.5 x 19.9 –
23.14 mm
|
Weight
|
2.5kg
|
Audio
|
Bottom-firing stereo
speakers
|
Ports
|
1x
USB Type-C
2x USB 3.1 Type-A 1x USB 2.0 Type-A 1x HDMI 1x RJ45 |
Battery life
There’s only a 58 Wh battery inside the Nitro 7, and here’s where this shows its budget condition for the first time. Paired with the powerful hardware, the 60 Hz screen and Optimus, that still translates in rather short battery life by today’s standards.
Here’s what we got on our review unit, with the screen’s brightness set at around 120 nits (~40 brightness).
11 W (~5+ h of use) – text editing in Google Drive, Better Battery Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
10.5 W (~5+ h of use) – 1080p fullscreen video on Youtube in Edge, Better Battery Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
9.2 W (~6 h 15 min of use) – Netflix fullscreen in Edge, Better Battery Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
20 W (~3 h of use) – browsing in Edge, Better Performance Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON;
49 W (~1 h 10 min of use) – Gaming – Shadow of Mordor, Max Performance Mode, screen at 40%, Wi-Fi ON, fps limit of 40.
Expect poorer battery life on the configurations with the 144 Hz screen.
Acer bundles the Nitro with a compact 135 W power-brick, adequately sized for the hardware inside. There’s no quick charging, so the battery fills up in about 2 hours. This laptop only charges via the proprietary barrel plug charger, and not through USB-C.
Final thoughts
This Nitro 7 is a great mid-range laptop.
Its build and finishing quality rivals that of notebooks much more expensive, it’s compact and fairly portable, performs well once tweaked and includes a good keyboard and screen.
Of course, it lacks some of the features that you’d get with higher tier laptops. There’s no Thunderbolt 3, no RGB keyboard, small and rather poor speakers, as well as only a 58 Wh battery, so this might not be the obvious choice for everyone.
Its success is going to depend on the pricing, though. From what we know so far, Acer asks a premium for these Nitro 7s over the 2019 Nitro 5s, which are pretty much the same, but with plastic builds and a few more red design accents, that’s why there might be better value in the 5s. In the end, the Nitro 7s are excellently crafted and that is worth paying extra for, but how much extra, well, that’s a decision you’ll have to make.
This wraps up our review of the Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51, but the comments section below is open for your feedback and questions, so don’t hesitate to get in touch.
The same pattern is visible in real-world gaming benchmarks, with both Rise of the Tomb Raider and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor exhibiting sizable gaps between the Nitro 7's GTX 1650 and our Helios 300 review model's GTX 1060. Keep in mind: The current Helios 300 model and its GTX 1660 would put up slightly higher scores than the 1060 we looked at.
There are compromises, of course. The Predator Helios 300 has typically had a dim display, as I mentioned earlier. It also has a smaller 256GB SSD, which is basically useless for any serious gaming at this point (though easily upgraded), is slightly thicker and heavier, and gets worse battery life, as you can see in this chart.
Again, entry-level gaming laptops are a series of compromises, and I'm not sure compromising the graphics card was in Acer's best interest for what's ostensibly the laptop's main mission in life. The Nitro 7 is a well-built machine, but its gaming performance is severely limited, and it's competing dollar-for-dollar with the bestselling gaming laptop on Amazon—which is Acer's own, better-equipped model.
That makes the Nitro 7 an interesting alternative for the buyer-on-a-budget who'd rather have a better display and more attractive design, or is perhaps afraid of upgrading their own storage. But for most people? The Predator Helios 300 is probably the better option. It puts the money where it matters, and cuts corners where you're less likely to notice—or at least less likely to feel hemmed in.
Bottom line
That said, Acer's got plenty of room in its lineup for alternatives. As I said up top, the Nitro 7 is probably the right choice for someone. It's not the most efficient setup, and personally I'd rather spend my money on better performance. But you could be perfectly content with a Nitro 7. For every cut corner, there's a place where the Nitro 7 shines—and often, it's in the areas you'd least expect a budget laptop to do so.
Is it going to be a breakout hit, like the Predator Helios 300? No—but then, few entry-level laptops are. It's hard to stand out, when every dollar counts, and there's no shame in Acer's playing second fiddle to itself. That's a problem I'm sure other manufacturers would love to have.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Acer's Nitro 7 impresses on style and features, but its performance trails that of other gaming notebooks with more powerful graphics chips at this price.
2020 Acer Nitro 7 15.6 Inch FHD 1080P Gaming Laptop review
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