United States
United Kingdom
India
Deutschland
France
Canada
España
Belgium
Netherlands
Poland
Sweden
България
Singapore
Italia
中国
日本[Video Review] Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-55) – Excels at more than just gaming
Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-55) in-depth review
Acer stands a huge chance to become the best brand in the medium-budget gaming laptop segment of the market. Of course, to be the best, you have to offer the most. And the Nitro 5 in 2022 has brought one of the biggest yearly upgrades we've ever seen from the company.We are not only talking about the introduction of 12th Gen Intel processors, which are undoubtedly the crop of the cream in 2022. No, the most important upgrade, which concerns gamers especially, is the bump in the TGP of its graphics cards. Last year, the 17-inch Nitro 5 (AN517-54) could be paired with a 100W version of the [...]
Pros
- Thunderbolt 4 + HDMI 2.1
- 2x SODIMM, 2x M.2 PCIe x4 Gen 4 slots with RAID support
- 100% sRGB coverage and accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (BOE NE173QHM-NY6 (BOE0A1A))
- Quick pixel response times and G-Sync (BOE NE173QHM-NY6 (BOE0A1A))
- No PWM (BOE NE173QHM-NY6 (BOE0A1A))
- Outstanding performance
Cons
- Weird CPU thermal management
- Plastic build
- Lacks an SD card reader
Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-55) - Specs
- HDD/SSD
- up to 2000GB SSD
- M.2 Slot
- 2x 2280 PCIe NVMe 4.0 x4 RAID See photo
- RAM
- up to 32GB
- OS
- Windows 11 Home, Windows 11 Pro, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11
- Battery
- 90Wh, 4-cell
- Body material
- Plastic / Polycarbonate
- Dimensions
- 400.5 x 294.5 x 27.9 - 28.6 mm (15.77" x 11.59" x 1.10")
- Weight
- 3.00 kg (6.6 lbs)
- Ports and connectivity
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
- 1x USB Type-A
- 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
- 1x USB Type-C
- 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
- HDMI
- 2.1
- Ethernet LAN
- 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
- Wi-Fi
- 802.11ax
- Bluetooth
- 5.2
- Audio jack
- 3.5mm Combo Jack
- Features
- Fingerprint reader
- Web camera
- HD
- Backlit keyboard
- optional
- Microphone
- Microphone with Acer Purified Voice, support for Cortana
- Speakers
- Audio by DTS:X Ultra
- Optical drive
- Security Lock slot
- Kensington Lock
All Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-55) configurations
Have you thought of replacing your aging desktop with a large laptop? If the answer is yes, we want you to look at the Acer Nitro 5 (AN517-55). It’s got everything you need, regardless of what you do for work or in your free time. If you move a lot, but also want your tech by your side, the Nitro 5 makes even more sense. You’ll know why in a couple of minutes.
Intro
The device has a black exterior, which looks pretty good. The rectangular shape is minimal, while the backside has some aggressive-looking vents, which aren’t just for show. Durability is excellent, despite the plastic that’s used. With a 17-inch device, you have to expect a bit of weight, as the Nitro 5 weighs 3.00 kg while having a profile of 28.6 mm.
Input devices
Due to the thick profile, the keyboard has long key travel and clicky feedback. The laptop also has an RGB backlight, so you can make quite the light show through the NitroSense app. The touchpad is a bit smaller, however, the gliding and tracking are fantastic.
Ports
With a larger chassis, you have more space for ports, and the potential is fulfilled pretty well. The left side has a LAN port, one full-sized USB Type-A 5Gbps port, and an audio jack. On the right, we have two more Type-A ports, thus time with a 10Gbps bandwidth. Finally, on the back, you can see an HDMI 2.1 port, one Thunderbolt 4 port, and a power plug.
Display
We splurged a bit for the best display option, which here has a QHD resolution and an IPS panel. There’s also a 165Hz refresh rate, great viewing angles, a peak brightness of 320 nits, and a good contrast ratio. The laptop’s Creator capabilities are very good, with full sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage, along with good accuracy using our Design and Gaming profile, you can get it from the link in the description.
Battery
The laptop has a beefy 90Wh battery, which lasts for 8 hours of Web browsing, or 7 hours and 11 minutes of video playback.
Performance
The hardware combination has a bit to do with that, as the laptop we have here has a Core i7-12700H and an RTX 3070 Ti, with a 150W power limit. The CPU is a bit underperforming when compared to the rest of the 2022 field, falling behind the Predator Helios 300 and the MSI Pulse GL76. On the other hand, the 150W 3070 Ti is a phenom, matching the Helios and Pulse in the benchmarks.
Real gaming isn’t an issue too, as even heavy games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla work with more than 90 FPS, on Ultra settings.
By the way, check out our new channel where we test all popular graphics cards on all popular games, on all presets. It’s a lot of work and we’d be happy if you subscribe to it.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLJ-FnaQC5P7DAJnZz9YZFQ
Cooling
With such hardware, you need proper cooling, and the Nitro 5 keeps up, offering a total of five heat pipes. While two of them are shared, the CPU gets one more and the GPU has the two extra.
The CPU’s power management is quite weird, as the P-cores take a break, with the E-cores taking the brunt of the work, clocking as high as 3.27 GHz. This leads to high temperatures, with the Core i7 reaching 93°C. Despite that, the 3070 Ti is on a roll, having lower temperatures and higher clock speeds than all other laptops that we’ve tested with the same GPU, which is quite an achievement considering that some of them cost a lot more.
The fans on the inside get quite loud, however, the hotspot on the base reaches only 39°C.
Teardown and Upgradeability
If you want to see how to get inside the device, we’ll leave our teardown video in the description. To keep it short and simple, there are two RAM slots that fit DDR4 memory, along with two M.2 slots that have PCIe Gen 4 support.
Verdict
The Nitro 5 has a lot going for it, from the Creator-ready display to a GPU that just wants and wants to perform. If you’re a keen gamer with a passion for Content creation but a desktop doesn’t feel like the right choice for you, the Nitro 5 is as close as you’ll get while keeping your bank account healthy.
If you want to know more about the Nitro 5 (AN517-55), dive into our written review which covers the laptop even further.
