Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47) – Top 5 Pros and Cons
Acer is continuing on with the Nitro 5 laptops in 2023, introducing new hardware gradually, rather than just dumping out everything at once. Today we have the Nitro 5 (AN515-47), which at first glance feels like a notebook that carries new hardware, however, sadly that’s not the deal. The Ryzen 7 6800HS from last year masquerades as a Ryzen 7000-series CPU, changing its name to Ryzen 7 7735HS, while for graphics, you’re offered the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti from last year. And weirdly enough, this isn’t the new refreshed RTX 3050 with 6GB of VRAM, but the model from before, which has 4GB of VRAM. Still, the Nitro 5 was one of the best gaming laptops when it came to affordability, so there’s no reason the trend can’t continue in 2023.
Today we’re presenting you with LaptopMedia’s top 5 picks about the Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47).
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47): Full Specs / In-depth Review
4 reasons to BUY the Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47)
1. Input devices
The Nitro 5’s keyboard is a decent unit. It’s got long key travel, clicky feedback, and large keycaps, which all around make gaming and typing great. You get a red backlight as standard, however, there is an option for an RGB backlight. While the touchpad has a smaller size than we’d like, it’s still responsive and accurate.
2. I/O
The port selection of the laptop isn’t the absolute best, lacking an SD card reader, as well as Thunderbolt support. However, you still get a good selection, including one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) ports, one USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with Power Delivery and DisplayPort capabilities, an HDMI 2.1 port, a LAN port, and an audio jack.
3. Cooling
The cooling solution of the Nitro 5 consists of three big heat pipes and two fans. There are some metal plates that extend to the VRMs and GPU memory, which should help with extra heat dissipation.
Max CPU load
AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS (35W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
---|---|---|---|
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47) | 3.94 GHz @ 73°C @ 75W | 3.86 GHz @ 77°C @ 70W | 3.87 GHz @ 85°C @ 70W |
The Ryzen 7 maintains very high clock speeds and wattage, while temperatures aren’t as high as you’d expect.
Real-life Gaming
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (Max Fan) |
---|---|---|---|
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47) | 2018 MHz @ 71°C @ 91W | 2003 MHz @ 75°C @ 91W | – |
ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (K6502) | 1755 MHz @ 70°C @ 62W | 1755 MHz @ 70°C @ 62W | – |
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro (16″, 2022) | 1702 MHz @ 71°C @ 61W | 1695 MHz @ 73°C @ 62W | – |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (15″, 2022) | 2002 MHz @ 70°C @ 84W | 1985 MHz @ 72°C @ 85W | – |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (15″, 2022) | 1910 MHz @ 73°C @ 82W | 1912 MHz @ 71°C @ 82W | – |
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-58) | 2021 MHz @ 70°C @ 94W | 2009 MHz @ 73°C @ 94W | – |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (15″, 2021) | 1885 MHz @ 76°C @ 85W | 1866 MHz @ 82°C @ 85W | – |
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i (15″, 2021) | 2004 MHz @ 82°C @ 88W | 1991 MHz @ 86°C @ 88W | – |
ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 OLED (K3500) | 1605 MHz @ 69°C @ 49W | 1610 MHz @ 68°C @ 50W | – |
Dell Vostro 15 7510 | 1729 MHz @ 74°C @ 64W | 1710 MHz @ 78°C @ 65W | – |
ASUS VivoBook Pro 16X OLED (N7600) | 1576 MHz @ 68°C @ 50W | 1571 MHz @ 69°C @ 50W | – |
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro (16″) | 1651 MHz @ 72°C @ 55W | 1636 MHz @ 75°C @ 55W | – |
HP Victus 16 (16-e0000) | 1824 MHz @ 73°C @ 75W | 1814 MHz @ 73°C @ 75W | 1822 MHz @ 73°C @ 75W |
MSI Katana GF66 | 1675 MHz @ 73°C @ 60W | 1660 MHz @ 78°C @ 60W | 1699 MHz @ 67°C @ 60W |
Compared to the rest of the RTX 3050 field, the Nitro 5 delivers very high clock speeds, even after 30 minutes of stress testing. Temperatures also don’t get very high, which is another win for Acer.
Gaming comfort
The base has a hotspot of just under 40°C, which is perfect. It’s also nowhere near the WASD or arrow keys, so no sweaty palms or fingers.
4. Upgradeability
The Nitro 5 also brings excellent upgradeability, with two SODIMM slots for DDR5 memory, hidden behind a metal bracket. For storage, you get two M.2 PCIe x4 slots for Gen 4 SSDs.
Here is our teardown video, which shows how to access both the RAM and storage slots.
1 reason NOT to buy the Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-47)
1. Battery life
Considering the use of an HS-series CPU with a 35W TDP, we expected better battery life, especially when compared to last year’s model with a Core i5-12500H, a CPU that’s more powerful, but turns out more efficient as well. The Ryzen 7-equipped unit and its 57.5Wh battery pack last for 5 hours and 53 minutes of Web browsing, or 5 hours of video playback on a single charge. Now, we conduct the battery tests with the Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.
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