Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 Review – Powerful but is it good enough?

The gaming laptop market has been the most coveted for several years. Each manufacturer tries to seduce players with superlatives and more or less successful designs. Acer, for its part, plays the card of discretion with its Nitro 5. Too much? Maybe…

No frills

Without being the most sober on the market, the Nitro 5 (AN515-58) remains quite discreet. Matte black color (sensitive to fingerprints) simply punctuated with a few “lines” on the back of the screen to bring a little gamer touch without denoting in a professional environment or an auditorium.

The finish is in line with the mid-range positioning of this Nitro 5. The polycarbonate chassis offers a good stiffnesswith the exception of the center of the screen which is more sensitive to pressure but without being a source of concern as to its 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. Attention, Acer remained on DRR4 while the logic would be DDR5 with an Alder Lake platform. Two free SSD slots are present. One in m2 format, the other 2.5 inches.

Legacy of an old design, it would probably have been wiser to use this place to integrate a larger capacity battery. Autonomy is not its strong point with barely 3 hours in web browsing !

The power supply is quite bulky (630g – 155x85x25 mm)

The connectors are distributed on the three sides of the chassis. If the presence of the power socket and the HDMI output located at the back is appreciable, to have positioned there the only USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 port is not the wisest day-to-day.

Indeed, the lack of visibility often forces you to get up to plug in a device. Reverse with the Ethernet port, located on the left edge, would probably have been easier to use.

Inside, once the stickers removed, sobriety reigns. Some might even find this Nitro 5 austere. Fortunately, the white color of the lettering brings a small welcome contrast effect. The ZQSD keys are highlighted, as is the N key above the numeric keypad dedicated to the Nitrosens utility.

The keyboard benefits from a adjustable backlight system according to four levels of intensity and with customizable colors also on four zones. Various dynamic effects are also possible.

In terms of comfort, typing is quite comfortable with a generous stroke (1.5 mm), effective damping and an appreciable muffled noise. A numeric keypad is also included. Only downside, 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 prohibitive in practice, once past a short period of adaptation if necessary. The touchpad hardly calls for criticism even if its dimensions (105×78 mm) may seem a bit “small” today.

Audio system and webcam hardly stand out from the average. But the biggest disappointment comes from the screen whose gamut covers only 61% of the sRGB space. Only. The maximum brightness stagnates at 270 nits. It’s weak, even for indoor use.

A gaming laptop built for gaming

Mixed results for the chassis therefore. But what about performance? Unlike some competitors, Acer has opted for a RTX 3060 at Unbridled TGP (140W) with the added bonus of being able to force its live activation (MUX) with Windows restart.

As a result, the graphics card will be able to display a few additional FPS compared to a model with a TGP around 100W. However, nothing to worry about gaming laptops equipped with a higher-end GPU (RTX 3070 Ti).

Another consequence, the cooling system is clearly struggling to absorb all the power. The processor thus finds itself regularly at 100°C even having taken care to force the ventilation to its maximum (very noisy on the way with up to 58 dBA!). It then concedes a few seconds on our tests to the other laptops already tested and also equipped with the Core i7-12700H.

However, is this a problem? No. Acer has chosen to favor the graphics card over the processor. This is a position that is designed for a laptop gamer. Everyone is free to join or opt for another more homogeneous model for users looking for a more versatile laptop.

Our review of the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58

After a few days spent 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 do not plead in its favor.

At the end of July 2022, you have to pay more than €1,500 for a configuration equivalent to that tested (Core i7-12700H / RTX 3060). It’s too much since it is possible to find for a budget close to more powerful configurations or Premium models with more convincing services. To see if close promotions allow to reduce its price around 1000€ and thus make it more legitimate…

The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 scores 3/5

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