Acer’s latest Nitro 5 gaming laptop looks more powerful than ever

Acer’s Nitro 5 gaming laptop has never been a true technical or design showcase, but that changes a bit for 2021. It now has a slightly toned-down look that displaces all the red details (except of the red backlit keypad) towards the rear of the hinge. What is more impressive, however, is that graphics, processing, and display services are getting significant upgrades.

For CES 2021, Acer has announced that a 15.6 and 17 inch version of the Nitro 5 will be released with support for the latest 11th generation Intel Core H35 series processors or AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series processors. (up to Ryzen 9 5900 HX). They’ll all have the option of upgrading to Nvidia’s RTX 3080 graphics chip, regardless of which lane you take with the processor.

In terms of display quality, both sizes of the Nitro 5 can be configured with a 1440p display with a fast 165Hz refresh rate or a 1080p display with a 360Hz refresh rate. If you get the Intel version with an 11th gen processor, the Nitro 5 will support Thunderbolt 4.

mage: Acer

However, you won’t have a lot of options on launch day in February. In the US, Acer kicks off with a single variant for $ 749.99 featuring a 15.6-inch IPS display with a 60Hz refresh rate, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor, Nvidia’s GTX 1650 graphics chip. , 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD. That’s $ 100 more if you want the 17-inch version. There will also be models of the Nitro 5 available with 10th generation Intel processors ahead of those built with 11th generation processors.

Acer did not share official US prices for other configurations, but did mention that models coming to other regions with AMD Radeon R7 graphics or the RTX 3060, with an added 512GB NVMe SSD, will cost € 1299. We’ll have to wait and see what the final price will be for the Nitro 5 with 11th gen Intel processors and Nvidia’s high-end RTX 3080.

Regardless of which variant you might be interested in, Acer said that each variant is user-serviceable for memory and storage. By removing the bottom cover of the Nitro 5, you’ll find support for two NVMe SSDs and one 2.5-inch SATA SSD (totaling three slots for expandable storage) and up to 32GB of RAM. Acer uses Intel Wi-Fi 6 chips for all models, with Killer-branded Ethernet.