Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop, 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, 15.6" Full HD IPS 144Hz Display, 16GB DDR4, 256GB NVMe SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Waves MaxxAudio, Backlit Keyboard, AN515-54-728C

This is one of the best purchases I've ever made in terms of laptops. I've owned mine going on 5 years now and its been a phenomenal machine to work with. As a student, it filled every box I was looking for. Good gaming performance, good response time, not too heavy or flashy to bring to class, and relatively easy to travel with. It comes with one extra M.2 slot an a 2.5 SATA slot, which were relatively intuitive and easy to use to upgrade my storage. The only reason I'm looking to move on from it now is I need something slimmer for travel and although this is pretty easy to travel with, its slightly bulky due to the air cooling (which is a good thing, it heats up with intense gaming sessions). If you are planning on using this for heavy gaming, I'd recommend a cooling pad to put underneath and it should treat you very well (I'd recommend a cooling pad for anyone using a gaming laptop, it's a common add on for gamers). My needs have outgrown this laptop, but I'll always have a soft spot for it.

I really would like to recommend this laptop to gamers on a budget that are looking for a gaming computer, it honestly seems to be an amazing value for the performance that it has. The RTX 2060 is really fast for almost every game, I was able to play Cyberpunk 2077 in high settings and 1080p without a problem with super smooth frame rates, and with RTX on and some settings to ultra I got close to 30 frames per second to 50, depending on the scene, so yeah this is an amazing and very capable gaming laptop. This computer is mostly for 1080p gaming, and should perform amazingly at this resolution, it is capable of 4K to an external monitor but expect Xbox series S like performance at 4K in games.The I7 is fast and with the SSD you get incredible loading speeds. The SSD only comes with 250 gigabytes but if you have an external USB hard drive you can install your games there and run them without the need of spending more money, GOG and Steam work this way without a problem. The 16 gigabyte ram is very good, installed in dual channel so it works fast, you can run your monitor in 60hz or 144hz, the image is nice and very sharp, with nice colors to it, but it does have some white bleeding on very dark scenes, personally I think is ok considering how fast the monitor is and how good the colors and sharpness looks, besides this is a budget laptop.The dual fans are ideal for cooling, I recommend setting the fans speed to max when gaming on demanding games, the fans do make some loud noises but it’s expected for a laptop with this much power and this small form factor, you can customize your fan speeds to your preference, I personally recommend a cooling base that has heavy ventilation when gaming to increase the longevity of the internal components. The backlight keyboard is red with different dimming levels, you can disable the auto turn off within the Nitrosense app and keep it lit indefinitely. The keyboard I personally find it very comfortable, it clicks nice and does not make too much noise, it feels like a quality keyboard all around. The mouse pad seems nice, does not have a back light but worked well, the Bluetooth seems to be very nice, I don’t seem to notice any lag when using my portable Sony speaker with this laptop, and the sound is very nice and clean.The frame and body are made of plastic, it does bend a little but I haven’t had any issues with it, it will probably last easily 3 years if taken care properly, I really like the combination of black and red it definitely stands out. The sound of the speakers is just average; I really recommend using some Bluetooth speakers that have heavy bass instead of the stock ones.For anyone wanting an amazing budget laptop I really recommend this Nitro 5 version, it has the right level of performance and you can’t go wrong in gaming with an Intel and Nvidia combination, yes the computer is made of plastic completely but the internal components and the performance that you get is really a great value at this time. I found very useful the option in the Nvidia control panel that lets you use your GPU on specific programs, like Excel, PowerPoint or internet browsers, further speeding up your aps and your performance when using it for Home office work, overall I’m very satisfied with this purchase.

Do I need to say more? ok I will!It has been my trusty laptop since 2021. I've only upgraded the hard drive. I played the monster hunter wilds beta and it runs ^^ After all this time it still got it. Be sure to buy a recent model and check the Vram, this one has 6 but games are starting to ask for more so if you want it to last buy one with more Vram... and be sure to clean it and re do the thermal pase ever so often(or get a technician who can do it for you), if you do it will serve you well for years!

I almost bought a 2019 Lenovo Y540 but then I found this 728c variant of the Nitro 5. No other laptops had a 144hz display with an RTX 2060 and 16GB of RAM. I bet a turnoff for many is the smaller SSD storage. For me, I just spent ~$100 on 1TB of SSD. for a total payment of ~1.2k I feel very satisfied.I am not a hardcore gamer. I only probably play 2-3hr sessions every other day if not like twice a week. I noticed that games like Valorant bring the CPU temp to an average of 75 Celsius. I can only imagine what happens if you play a higher demanding game like Warzone.Fan noise is as I expected with a gaming laptop. when you game it is loud, but if you game with a headset you will not hear it and it is not detectable on your microphone. When you are using the laptop for everyday use, every now and then the fan will turn on but on the quietest setting to cool things but turns off after several minutes. I am getting used to it though.As mentioned at the top, SSD storage is small in comparison to competitors' laptops. It will not be a problem if you play only some games, but if you play alot, I recommend getting an additional SSD. You can easily find SSDs between the $100-$150 range, just make sure you know or have a friend who knows how to properly install it.The only reason why I give it 4 stars is because the battery life is very short. It does not deliver the 8 hours as described; more around 4 hours at most. I always play while plugged in. Playing unplugged will probably make the battery life even shorter! The only reason I noticed the shorter battery life was because I used a Macbook before this and their batteries last around 10 hours. I dream of the day that Acer rids of the 2.5” drive bay for a bigger battery :)I am super stoked to be an owner of this Acer Nitro 5. It has its quirks for sure, but for me, they are overshadowed by the perks. If you are a relatively casual gamer I really think you will like this just as much as I am liking it.