Acer nitro 5 review

First contact

Yes, they have been successful, we have already advanced it. The description that can not be more truthful: at first sight it seems a kind of Helios 300 delimited by the margins. In practice he is able to face him and even knock him down. In fact, this is a conscious decision: this Nitro 5 follows the line of the older Predators, both in the provision of ventilation and in that combination of black and crimson.

While the monitor frame is composed of matt black plastic, the entire structure is based on a unibody finish in brushed aluminum forming a square pattern. As we are accustomed, in both cases quality materials are appreciated and the relationship between components and final weight is very consistent. A small detail: the screenprinted logo, unlike other relatives of the Predator range, reflects like a mirror.

The right side is rounded off with two LED battery indicators – load percentage and connected / disconnected. Finally, the construction of the hinge maintains consistency with other models – it is identical to that of Swift 5, changing from gold to crimson – allowing an opening of 165 °.

Connections and interconnections

We have a system that has a USB 3. 1 Type-C port on the left side and another USB 3. 1 type A port on its margin, plus another two USB 2. 0 on the other side. Entries more than enough to connect any type of external keyboard, RAID system or access for pendrives. The goodness of a type C port is great for us to increase compatibility with M. 2 disk, NGFF or any gadget based on Thunderbolt.

The connections section is complemented by the power connector, an HDMI 2. 0, a combined RJ45 audio port – that is, a minijack for connecting headphones also compatible with mic inputs – and a classic 3 in 1 card reader (SD, SDHC, MMC).

We do not miss any addition, not even the usual Kensington security slot, next to a Gigabit Ethernet port. The network adapter is a Qualcomm Atheros QCA61x4A, compatible with 5G networks and performing wonderfully.

Keyboard and touchpad

Perhaps the great surprise of this team we have taken with the keyboard. It is not easy to explain in words: its membrane keys have a somewhat higher and firmer profile than other keyboards. This results in agile performance, a more intuitive feel. The crimson backlight is maintained even if we disconnect the system from the current – we can turn it off to save battery, yes.

The WASD keys have a double red frame, standing out above the rest. Gamer DNA is not only translated into the aesthetic. Playing for more than three hours to ‘ Overwatch’ we do not appreciate a great warming of the keyboard. They barely stay in the range of 35-38 ° C until the end of the session. This Achilles heel has been covered with a guarantee thanks to a cooling, as we will see later, which prevents before curing.

For its part, the touchpad also performs better than in other brothers of the Predator family. We have not been able to verify if it is due to an increase in resolution, because the sensitivity tests do not shed light, but the response is sharper and more natural. A very pleasant surprise in a team of this rank.

Battery and ventilation

The pending subject of this Acer is found in ventilation. Not because it is not capable of dissipating the heat generated. On the contrary: we perceive too much intensity for a computer with a simple internal disk of solid state of 250 gb in format NTFS and a quite optimized graph. The casual player can take the odd scare: even in the simplest performance tests, the fans were fired at maximum speed.

We are not sure that we need so much power, in any case. Acer CoolBoost technology gives us the option of manual control of the cooling process, so it is in our power to activate one or both fans and risk a little with the margins. Or keep it to the maximum and be able to reduce the CPU and GPU temperature, according to the manufacturer, up to 11%.

An option that we want to manage when we are late at night watching a chapter on Netflix and any noise -except if we use headphones- bothers us. In sum, the double fan and quadruple heat pipe are more than enough to keep excess temperature at bay.

From the panel of NitroSense we can choose between three energy profiles: Power Save (energy saving), Balance (balanced) and High Performance (high performance). The system presents four graphs: maximum and minimum peaks of the CPU and ditto of the GPU. And, of course, we can also choose between three ventilation profiles: automatic, maximum and custom. To avoid peaks of almost 4, 000 RPM, we are in favor of maintaining a control from the user profile, as long as you “ know what you do”.

Audio and sound

In laptops, the audio segment always brings us to the fore. We would like to enjoy more capable speakers, with more dynamic depth. And it seems that, this time, our prayers have been heard.

Acer TrueHarmony technology performs better than other times in decibel limit-less intensity but more control-in addition to the Dolby Audio Premium add-on, with different configurations (cinema, games, TV, podcast) to adjust it to our needs.

Recording our voice through Skype we have not noticed any extraordinary change compared to other models of the same range. Although the equipment does not incorporate a specific audio control app we can play and chat with our headset from Discard or any other tool without problem. The channels, as always, we can manage them on a whim from the audio console from its section in the Windows configuration.