Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) (GeForce GTX 1650) review – comes to shatter the budget gaming industry

Following Acer’s latest announcement of their updated Nitro series, we were able to get our hands on an engineering sample of Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51). It is a brand new series, which is a direct successor to the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition devices. Moreover, it is a more premium version of the Nitro 5 series.

So apart from having a newly designed body, what’s new about this laptop – well it comes with an also new graphics card – the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650. For now, the laptop is going to ship with the 8th Generation H processors from Intel and we soon expect for the 9th Gen. CPUs to debut on the market. So, let’s find out whether the new Nitro 7 (AN715-51) and its 144Hz screen option are going to capture the market, the way the older Nitro 5 series did, or it is just going to breathe the dust coming from Lenovo’s Legion series.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-nitro-7-an715-51/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) technical specifications table

Acer
Not available
Display
15.6”, Full HD (1920 x 1080), 144 Hz, IPS
HDD/SSD
512GB SSD PCIe NVMe (RAID 0) + 1TB HDD, 5400 rpm
M.2 Slot
2x M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe slots with RAID 0 support
RAM
32GB DDR4, 2667 MHz
Dimensions
362 x 263 x 19.9 mm (14.25" x 10.35" x 0.78")
Weight
2.22 kg (4.9 lbs)
Body material
Aluminum
Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 1x USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A 2.0
  • HDMI
  • Ethernet lan Gigabit Ethernet
  • Wi-Fi 802.11ac
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • Audio jack 3.5mm audio jack
Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera HD 720p
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slotKensington Lock

What’s in the box?

Even though we got an engineering sample, it was shipped to us in the retail package, so we have an idea of exactly what is going to be presented to the market. First, there is the device itself, which is very securely packed with foam all over and around it. Then there is the 130W charger, which completely justifies the name “power brick”.


Design and construction

This device visually reminds us of the Acer Predator Triton 500, with the shapes and the corners of the device, even more, enhanced by the metallic feel coming from the all-aluminum body. Of course, then you look at the hinge assembly it is definitely giving away its Aspire V Nitro Black ancestry. Additionally, the device weighs 2.22 kg (4.9 lbs) and has a 19.9 mm (0.78″) thick profile.

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)’s lid is easy to open via a single hand. Frankly, it is a little susceptible to bending but nothing too dramatic.

Opening the lid reveals a very decent keyboard. It has a red accent, which adds up to the red backlight. Although it is a typical gaming device color combination (black and red), we would love to see something different here. Either way, the key travel is relatively long and there is good tactile feedback. However, the keys are very silent, which makes it very neutral in quiet places.

By the way, we are happy to see big arrow keys! Moreover, they are highlighted in even redder, as are the WASD buttons and the Nitro button right next to the NumLock switch. Additionally, the touchpad has a big enough footprint and is very accurate. All-in-all a very good experience from the most neglected feature of a gaming laptop.

At the bottom, we see even more aluminum, which can be a double-edged knife. Although it is a premium material for a laptop and is cool to the touch when the device is not working, it is susceptible to heating up as it offers better thermal conductivity than plastic. Anyways, on the bottom you can find a huge ventilation grill, taking half of the plate or so. In addition to that, there are the speaker cut-outs on the corners of the bottom panel – a place that is angled in a way that provides the sound with resonation through the surface you place the laptop on.

HeightWeight
Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)19.9 mm (0.78″)2.22 kg (4.9 lbs)
Acer Predator Triton 50017.8 mm (0.71″)2.09 kg (4.6 lbs)
Lenovo Legion Y73020 – 22.5 mm (0.79″)2.20 kg (4.9 lbs)

Ports

This laptop is equipped with an RJ-45 connector, HDMI 2.0, USB Type-C 3.1 (Gen. 2), and two USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) (one has the Sleep and Charge option) on the left. On the right side, there is the charging plug, which is slightly impeding the ventilation cut-out, a USB Type-A 2.0 and an audio combo jack.


Disassembly and upgrade options

Nitro 7 (AN715-51)’s bottom plate is secured in place by 11 Phillips-head screws. Its aluminum surface is flooded by “Attention, hot surface” signs. Trying not to distract ourselves with this cautions, we continued the disassembly by unclipping the plate from the body. This revealed a very well organized internals with no free space, whatsoever.

First, we’re greeted by the cooling, which traces its origins back to the Nitro 5 (AN515-42). There are two heat pipes cooling both the CPU and the GPU, and one dedicated for the graphics card only. After that, all of them are leading to huge heatsink, which is cooled by two fans, placed side by side. Additionally, the GPU-only heat pipe makes a 90-degree turn and goes to another heatsink to further dissipate the heat. Moreover, there is a large plate placed on top of the graphics card, that cools its memory and VRMs.

Then, there are the two RAM DIMMs, that supports up to 32 GB DDR4 memory, working at 2667 MHz. What follows, however, is more impressive. Acer has equipped their Nitro 7 (AN715-51) with two M.2 PCIe SSD, that support RAID 0 connectivity. In addition to that, there is a single SATA connector, currently occupied by a 1 TB HDD.

Lastly, there is a 58.75Wh battery pack inside the laptop. We’re eager to test the battery life since it is equipped with relatively the same packages as its competitors.


Display quality

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) has a Full HD IPS panel with a model number Innolux N156HCE-EN1 (CMN15E8). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

We measured a maximum brightness of 296 nits in the middle of the screen and 290 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 10%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6930K – slightly colder than the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is even warmer – 6970K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color sensitive work. The contrast ratio is great – 1160:1 (1010:1 after profiling).

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 90% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 30 ms.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)’s display uses PWM to adjust its brightness up until 75 nits. However, the flickering is with a high enough frequency, making it relatively comfortable for extended periods of use, without the excessive strain of the eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) has an IPS panel with Full HD resolution, comfortable viewing angles, good contrast ratio and a good color coverage (90% of sRGB). In addition to that, it doesn’t use PWM above 75 nits.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS Innolux N156HCE-EN1 (CMN15E8).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) has a loud sound with a good quality. It is clear of deviations across the entire frequency range.


Drivers

Since the unit we tested is a sample and is not yet on the market, as of the moment writing this review, we weren’t able to find the drivers you are going to need for it. However, as soon as they become available, we’re going to update this segment.

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with 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. Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) is equipped with a 58Wh battery unit. Interestingly, this was enough for 8 hours screen on time, beating its competitors by a significant margin.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.

We use F1 2017’s built-in benchmark on loop in order to simulate real-life gaming.

Acer Predator Helios 300 3220 mAh, 4-cell

CPU options

Our early model of the Acer Nitro 7 was equipped with the hexa-core Intel Core i7-8750H. As was the Acer statement, however, we expect the majority of Nitro 7s on the market to come with the 9th Gen processors – either the Intel Core i7-9750H or the quad-core Core i5-9300H. The major difference between the older generation and the new one is on the clock speeds.


GPU options

Acer offers their Nitro 7 with a choice from budget GeForce GTX 1650 to the more powerful GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. We would love to see RTX-enable Turing GPUs but the word is that they will try to keep the budget low.


Gaming tests

We were very excited about this part of the review. Playing on this GPU for the first time left us with the impression that it is very capable for a low-end gaming graphics card. Definitely, something to consider when getting a new laptop.

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650173 fps94 fps50 fps

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 165065 fps60 fps56 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650120 fps80 fps39 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Lowest (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 165096 fps52 fps48 fps

TC Rainbow Six SiegeFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650157 fps136 fps123 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 165060 fps55 fps48 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core temperature (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-8750H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)2.92 GHz (B+33%) @ 64°C2.65 GHz (B+20%) @ 69°C2.62 GHz (B+19%) @ 73°C
Dell G5 15 55902.86 GHz (B+30%) @ 79°C2.91 GHz (B+32%) @ 85°C2.99 GHz (B+36%) @ 90°C
Lenovo Legion Y7403.39 GHz (B+54%) @ 75°C3.24 GHz (B+47%) @ 81°C2.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 72°C
Acer Predator Triton 5002.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 76°C2.79 GHz (B+27%) @ 85°C2.65 GHz (B+20%) @ 77°C
ASUS ROG GL503GE2.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 66°C2.89 GHz (B+31%) @ 69°C2.53 GHz (B+15%) @ 71°C

Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51) is handling the Core i7-8750H pretty well – low temperatures throughout the entire test. Actually, it performed very similarly to the more expensive Triton 500 and the ASUS ROG GL503GE. However, we think that the cooling system is not sufficient enough to battle the one on Lenovo Legion Y740.

Real gameplay

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
Acer Nitro 7 (AN715-51)1633 MHz @ 61°C1599 MHz @ 67°C

As this was our first encounter with the GeForce GTX 1650 we didn’t really know what to expect. However, the Nitro 7 did very good cooling this undemanding GPU, providing a higher than the maximum stated Boost frequency at a temperature that is rather low, throughout the entire test. At the second minute mark we measured 61C, while at the end it rose up to 67C – clearly enough headroom for the GTX 1660 Ti.

Gaming comfort

Well, quite expectedly, the aluminum body takes its toll on outside temperatures. It is able to conduct the temperature of the insides to the outer shell very well, reaching up to 53C beneath the “6” key. Additionally, the bottom plate gets super hot – impossible to play games when its directly on your lap. Well, except you’re Sauron, I guess.


Verdict

Acer was very quick to jump on the budget-premium budget model of laptop marketing. Following Lenovo’s success with the Legion Y530Y730 and now the Legion Y540Legion Y740, Acer needed to fill the gap. As we mentioned, the Nitro 7 (AN715-51) is a direct successor to the Aspire V Nitro Black Edition, however, it sits somewhere around the Helios 300. We hope that this doesn’t overwhelm the market soon, as right now there is a device for everything and everyone and from almost every company.

Either way, the Nitro 7 and its non-RTX Turing GPU is performing very well. More precisely the GTX 1650 excels the GTX 1050 by well over 50%. When you add to that the 144 Hz display and 9th Gen Intel CPUs (that are yet to come), it should represent a big interest in the market. By the way, it manages the thermals on the inside very well – never exceeding 73C on the Core i7-8750H. However, on the outside, it’s like a frying pan, especially at the bottom. At least it is quiet, though. Not only that but it has a very good battery life – it drains the battery for 8 hours during web browsing.

Since the unit we tested was equipped with a 60Hz Full HD panel we can only give you info about this configuration. This IPS panel (Innolux N156HCE-EN1) has a good contrast ratio, covers around 90% of sRGB and has comfortable viewing angles. Additionally, it uses PWM for brightness adjustment up until 75 nits, however, the flickering has a high frequency (26 kHz) and won’t represent a huge problem to the eyes. However, if you want to completely vanish the flickers you can install our Health-Guard profile.

In addition to the internals, there is something else that draws a lot of interest to the Nitro 7 (AN715-51) – the aluminum body. It feels very sturdy, and it kind of reminds us of the more premium Acer Predator Triton 500. Sadly, though, it lacks the Thunderbolt connectivity of the more expensive cousin, although there is RAID 0 support. Either way, we are looking forward to testing new hardware from the other big names on the market, so we can put the Nitro 7 in a straight comparison.

Pros

  • Relatively quiet during gaming
  • Cool internals
  • All-aluminum build
  • Good keyboard with decent travel, big arrows and a backlight
  • Very good battery life
  • Good contrast ratio and color coverage – 90% of sRGB (Innolux N156HCE-EN1)
  • Supports RAID 0
  • One of the first devices with GTX 16xx GPUs


Cons

  • Gets very hot on the surface
  • No Thunderbolt support

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-nitro-7-an715-51/

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jejehehhehegzjauegjhjh6980
jejehehhehegzjauegjhjh6980
4 years ago

can show you pictures of the underside of the PC?
please

Nicklas Bergfeldt
Nicklas Bergfeldt
4 years ago

How thick HDD will it fit?
– 7 or perhaps even 15 mm?

Adam Heilig
Adam Heilig
4 years ago

I have this laptop with the 1650 graphics card. Is it possible to swap it for a better performing graphics card? If so, what is my best option?

Thank you!

Tanmoy Debnath
Tanmoy Debnath
3 years ago
Reply to  Adam Heilig

You can’t upgrade GPU or CPU in laptops for most cases.

avinash singh
avinash singh
3 years ago
Reply to  Adam Heilig

No, laptops GPU, as well as CPU cant, be swapped out as it’s sorted on the motherboard itself

Jack
Jack
3 years ago

I do have inquiry where comes to keyboard illumination in this model… That is, Nitro 7 I currently use always boots up having backlit keyboard on (invariably 4th intensity level), even though I turned it off during previous Windows session… Would that be normal? Can’t see the relevant BIOS setting to change this behavior…

Eric
Eric
3 years ago

Can you confirm or deny whether the touchpad in this notebook is secured with two screws only (by front edge of case)? These screws are visible on the pictures provided within this review clearly, I’m trying to figure out if there’s anything more to it… Regards