Acer Nitro 5 AN515-54

Solid Full HD gaming pace ; Attractive design ; Cheaper than the competition

So-so screen ; Single-channel memory ; Mediocre battery life

The £899 model I’ve reviewed, the Nitro 5 AN515-51, is powered by an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU. That’s the same as the bottom-spec Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming and Asus ROG STRIX GL553. All three can be upgraded to the more powerful GTX 1050 Ti,...

Solid gaming speeds ; Versatile AMD processor ; Decent physical design ; Reasonable keyboard

Underwhelming screen quality ; Poor battery life ; Won’t play some top-tier games

Inevitable compromises can be found in most areas of the Acer Nitro 5, but it remains a capable and affordable laptop with enough power to handle mainstream gaming and esports titles

User controllable fans ; Good battery life ; Decent gaming performance for price

Too much travel on trackpad ; Thick display bezel ; Speakers produce painful highs

We could forgive the cheap plastic back cover, the basic keyboard, and the heavy weight. But for a gaming laptop, there’s hardly any excuse for the tacky trackpad and the average screen. Budget gamers will rejoice on the price, but hardcore ones will...

A cheap gaming laptop

Slower than slow ; Unreliable touchpad ; Poor build quality

You have to be careful when shopping for a budget gaming laptop. If you spend half as much as a top-end notebook you might expect half the performance, but the Acer Nitro 5 doesn’t provide anything close. Not only does this budget gaming laptop fail to...

Consistent, versatile performance ; Reasonable keyboard ; Extremely affordable

Underwhelming screen ; Poor battery life ; Immature design

AMD's hardware delivers enough computing ability to handle most mainstream work tasks, and the Nitro 5 has good versatility elsewhere – but its low price means that compromises are made.

Excellent build quality ; Decent SSD speeds ; Outstanding battery life and cooling ; Good value

Polarizing aesthetics ; CPU bottlenecks synthetic performance ; GPU won't play games at max settings ; Better value alternatives available

The Acer Nitro 5 strikes a great balance between price and performance. However, it can be heavy and unwieldy, and its looks aren't for everyone.

There are many notable gaming notebooks in the market right now, but few are as affordable and competent as the Acer Nitro 5. Serious gamers will likely look elsewhere, but anyone who wants to dip their toes into next generation VR and PC gaming...

Solid build quality ; Attractive gaming design ; Solid productivity performance ; A better display than similarly priced gaming notebooks

Mixed gaming performance given the GPU ; Mediocre battery life ; Keyboard lacks sufficient travel ; Large and heavy for a 2-in-1

The Acer Nitro 5 Spin has some serious aspirations. It wants to be both a gaming notebook and a productivity 2-in-1, and it certainly packs in the right components. Unfortunately, although it looks the part, it’s not a terribly competitive gaming...

Low price. Satisfactory screen. SSD boot drive in a budget gaming laptop. Easy to add a second SSD or hard drive. Right on the edge of playable 1080p performance at high detail settings.

256GB SSD won't hold many games. Hard-to-read keyboard legends. Balky touchpad. Marginal battery life.

Bottom Line: If you think making an under-$1,000 gaming laptop is tough, try an under-$700 one: The AMD-based Acer Nitro 5 grabs the bottom rung of the 1080p gaming ladder and delivers decent value.