The gaming laptop market has been the most coveted market for years. Each manufacturer tries to entice players with superlatives and more or less successful designs. Acer, for its part, plays the card of discretion with its Nitro 5. Too much? Perhaps…
no frills
Without being the most down-to-earth on the market, the Nitro 5 (AN515-58) remains quite discreet. Matte black color (prone to fingerprints) simply interrupted by a few “lines” on the back of the screen to give a bit of gamer touch without being noticeable in a professional setting or auditorium.
The finish is in line with the center positioning of this Nitro 5. The polycarbonate chassis offers good rigidity, with the exception of the center of the screen, which is more sensitive to pressure, but without worrying about medium-term durability.
Access to the components is not difficult. A dozen screws and the case is heard. The RAM can be replaced if necessary. Note, Acer stayed on DRR4 while the logic would be DDR5 with an Alder Lake platform. There are two free SSD slots available. One in m2 format, the other 2.5 inches.
Heredity of an old design, it would probably have been wiser to use this place to integrate a larger capacity battery. Autonomy isn’t his forte with just 3 hours of web browsing!
630g – 155x85x25mm
The connectors are distributed over the three sides of the chassis. If the presence of the power outlet and HDMI output on the back is noticeable, placing the only USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port isn’t the most judicious on a day-to-day basis.
Indeed, the lack of visibility often forces you to get up to plug in a device. Conversely with the Ethernet port, which is on the left edge, would probably have been easier to use.
Inside, sobriety reigns once the stickers are removed. Some even find this Nitro 5 sober. Fortunately, the white color of the lettering provides a small welcome contrast effect. The ZQSD keys are highlighted, as is the N key above the numeric keypad for the Nitrosens utility.
The keyboard benefits from an adjustable backlight system according to four intensities and with customizable colors also in four zones. Various dynamic effects are also possible.
In terms of comfort, the input is quite comfortable with a generous stroke (1.5mm), effective damping and a noticeably muffled sound. A numeric keypad is also included. Only drawback, to integrate it, it was necessary to cut back on the size of the keys (15.4×15.4 mm) and especially the spacing (3.7 mm). Nothing hindering in practice, once past a short adjustment period if necessary. The touchpad hardly elicits criticism, even though these dimensions (105×78 mm) may seem a bit “small” these days.
Audio system and webcam hardly differ from the average. But the biggest disappointment comes from the display whose gamut only takes up 61% of the sRGB space. Only. The maximum brightness stagnates at 270 nits. It is weak even for indoor use.
A gaming laptop built for gaming
So mixed results for the chassis. But what about performance? Unlike some competitors, Acer has opted for an RTX 3060 with unbridled TGP (140W) with the added ability to force live activation (MUX) with Windows reboot.
This will allow the graphics card to display a few extra FPS compared to a model with a TGP around 100W. However, you don’t have to worry about gaming laptops equipped with an advanced GPU (RTX 3070 Ti).
Another consequence is that the cooling system clearly struggles to absorb all the power. The processor is therefore regularly at 100°C, even if it has forced the ventilation to the maximum (very noisy on the road with up to 58 dBA!). It then gives a few seconds on our tests to the other laptops that have already been tested and are also equipped with the Core i7-12700H.
However, is this a problem? No. Acer has chosen to prefer the graphics card over the processor. This is a position designed for a laptop gamer. Everyone is free to join or opt for a different, more homogeneous model for users looking for a more versatile laptop.
Our review of the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58
After a few days in the company of the Nitro 5 2022, a mixed feeling prevails. If certain choices can be made for a mid-range gaming laptop, the current prices are not in her favor.
At the end of July 2022, you will have to pay more than € 1,500 for a configuration equivalent to the tested one (Core i7-12700H / RTX 3060). It’s too much because it’s possible to get close to more powerful configurations or Premium models with more convincing services on a budget. To see if narrow promotions make it possible to lower the price around €1000 and thus make it more legit…
The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 scores 3/5
Strengths - RTX 3060 Performance (MUX)
- 4 Zone RGB Keyboard
- (3 SSD slots)
Judge - Limited autonomy
- Noisy ventilation
- low end screen
- Price too high
Compare prices of the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58
Features of the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58
| Screen(s) | 15.6” Full HD LED IPS 144Hz ComfyView 250cd/m² (1920×1080, anti-glare/matte) Chi Mei N156HRA (CMN1521) |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-12700H Alder Lake-H (14 cores, 6P 2.4GHz, 8E 1.8GHz) |
| Installed RAM (max.) | 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4 3200 MHz (64 GB), 2 slots (occupied) |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA Ampere GeForce RTX 3060 6 GB GDDR6 reserved, Intel Iris Xe integrated in the processor |
| Storage | 1TB M.2 SSD (NVMe PCIe) |
| connectors | 2 USB 3.2 (Gen2) + 1 USB 3.2 (Gen1) + 1 USB 3.2 Type-C (Gen2), HDMI |
| Network | Wi-Fi 6 ax (2×2), Bluetooth 5.2 + Gigabit Ethernet |
| Backlit keyboard | Yes |
| Numeric Keypad | Yes |
| Windows Hello | – |
| audio system | 2 speakers |
| Operating system | Windows 11 64 bit |
| Announced runtime / Battery | 5 hours / Li-Ion 4 cells 57 Whr |
| Weight / Dimensions (mm) | 2.5kg / 360.4 x 271.1 x 25.9-26.9 |
