Contents
- 1 Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-5550 (NH.QLZEU.003)
- 2 Quick transition:
- 3 What's in the box?
- 4 What the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 looks like and what are the design features?
- 5 Is it convenient to use the laptop?
- 6 How good is the screen?
- 7 What about performance, battery life and sound?
- 8 Dry residue. Three things you need to know about the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58.
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 is a good modern entry-level gaming laptop that has a balanced and powerful enough configuration to comfortably play modern games. The cooling system is effective and allows the laptop to operate stably under high loads. The not-so-compact dimensions of the Acer Nitro 5 made it possible to upgrade the RAM, main storage, and install an additional one. The laptop display is good for gaming, but not suitable for working with photos or videos. It has a refresh rate of 144 Hz, but a fairly narrow color gamut. The keyboard has a standard layout with an additional number pad, is equipped with very nice buttons and 4-zone RGB backlighting. The model in review now costs 48,000 UAH. It has interesting competitors. With a minimal difference in price, you can purchase models with a more powerful RTX 4060 video card. For example, a slightly more expensive configuration of the same Acer Nitro 5, or Gigabyte G5 KF 2023, or Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8.
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58-5550 (NH.QLZEU.003)
Gaming laptop with a 15.6-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920×1080 and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. Inside is a 12th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 16 GB of RAM, a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card and a fast PCIe 4.0 x4
SSD
Attractive price
5 reasons to buy Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58:
- high performance (considering the category);
- full-size keyboard with additional number pad;
- possibility of upgrading storage and RAM;
- efficient cooling system;
- availability of current video outputs, three USB and network connector.
2 reasons not to buy Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58:
- narrow screen color gamut;
- I would like more powerful speakers.
Quick transition:
- What's in the box?
- What Acer Nitro 5 looks like and what are the design features?
- Is it convenient to use the laptop?
- How good is the screen?
- What about performance, battery life and sound?
- Dry residue
What's in the box?
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 comes in a black cardboard box with the model name. The equipment is almost standard. The laptop itself, a 230 W power supply, a power cable, documentation and an adapter for installing an additional drive in the 2.5-inch form factor with a SATA interface.
What the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 looks like and what are the design features?
Unlike the Acer Predator Triton and Predator Helios, the Acer Nitro 5 line is positioned as a more affordable gaming solution. For a long time, the design of the line remained almost unchanged and had a red and black design. The current Nitro 5 models have received a slightly updated design, closer in scale to the Predator line. Instead of red accents, there is now light blue and some silver elements. Otherwise, this is a fairly typical 15.6-inch gaming laptop with appropriate dimensions and a thickness of just under 3 cm. The body is made entirely of plastic. Below the display is a fairly wide chin, on which there is an Acer logo, and below that is the logo of the Nitro line. On the working surface above the keyboard there are holes for the intake of cold air by the cooling system.
The top cover is made of matte black plastic with a geometric pattern in the form of blue lines and the Acer logo. The coating is quite practical and hardly collects fingerprints. But the plastic is not of the highest quality and the lid bends.
The laptop has a lot of ventilation holes around the perimeter of the case and a good set of connectors. On the left, in addition to ventilation, there is one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, a combined 3.5 mm jack, a network RJ-45 and a socket for Kensington Lock.
On the right side there are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (one of them supports charging gadgets when the laptop is turned off) and status indicators.
At the back there is a connector for the power supply, HDMI 2.1, USB Type C (Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort) and two large hot air outlet zones, indicated by triangles.
Only at the front there are no functional elements.
The top and side frames are thin and have rubber inserts around the perimeter. Above the screen there are two microphones and a webcam with HD resolution.
There are many holes on the bottom of the laptop that allow cool air to enter. Hot air escapes outside through all the ventilation holes on the edges. There are four rubber feet to prevent the laptop from sliding on the table, stereo speakers, and 11 standard screws. In addition to the possibility of installing an additional drive, there is one free slot for RAM and access to a network card in M.2 format. So the upgrade opportunities are quite good.
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 has quite typical dimensions and weight for gaming models of this class: 360.4×271.1×26.9 mm, 2.5 kg. The laptop is not compact, but it fits into a standard compartment in a backpack without any problems. Structurally, the only complaint is that the plastic is not of very high quality; the panels bend. Although this is the norm for an affordable model.
Is it convenient to use the laptop?
The display unit is attached with two hinges. They are quite successful and fix the display well in the desired position. The maximum angle is approximately 140°. The Acer Nitro 5 has a full-size keyboard with an additional numeric keypad. The buttons on the top functional row are slightly smaller in size. The row, in addition to the standard set, has media control buttons and ends with a power button. The number pad, like the arrow block, is not separated from the rest of the keyboard. Therefore, the right Shift is slightly shifted and reduced in length. During use, this is the only feature of the layout that took a little getting used to when printing.
The buttons have a pleasant, informative click and a fairly long, noticeable stroke. There is RGB backlighting with four zones and support for various effects. WASD and the arrow block are additionally highlighted with a frame.
The touchpad has good sensitivity, but is not very large. It is enough for basic tasks, but for comfortable work a mouse will be very useful.
How good is the screen?
The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 has a fairly budget IPS matrix with a diagonal of 15.6 inches and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It has decent viewing angles and sufficient brightness for indoor work. But the colors look a little dull. Measurements showed that the maximum brightness is 284.489 cd/m², the black field brightness is 0.229 cd/m², and the static contrast is 1242:1. Quite acceptable results for an inexpensive model. The reason for the dimness is the display's color gamut, which is significantly narrower than the sRGB space. At the same time, the color display accuracy is quite high.
What about performance, battery life and sound?
The Acer Nitro 5 is available in a wide range of configurations, both Intel and AMD. We received a configuration with a 12th generation Intel Alder Lake and H-series processor. Namely – with Intel Core i5-12500H. The processor is manufactured using the Intel 7 process technology, has a TDP of 45 W (with a possible short-term increase to 95 W) and a cache of 18 MB. The core configuration includes 4 productive cores with a frequency of 2.5-4.5 GHz and 8 energy-efficient cores up to 3.3 GHz. There is support for multi-threaded computing: up to 16 threads. The integrated Intel Iris Xe has 80 execution units and a maximum frequency of 1300 MHz. The discrete graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop with TGP up to 140 W. It includes 2560 CUDA cores, 80 texturing units and 32 rasterization units. 80 4th generation tensor cores are responsible for machine learning. There are 20 3rd generation RT cores for ray tracing. Not the most powerful model, but thanks to the fairly high (for a laptop) TGP level, you can expect good performance. In the basic version, the graphics processor operates at a frequency of 2170 MHz, which can be increased to 2455 MHz. Video memory capacity – 6 GB GDDR6. There is a MUX Switch multiplexer, thanks to which you can connect the video card directly to the display, bypassing the integrated graphics, which will give a small FPS bonus in games. RAM – 16 GB LPDDR5-4800, one stick is installed, it is not soldered. Another slot is free. The top-end Killer Wireless Wi-Fi 6 1650i with support for 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax standards is used as a wireless adapter. Wired controller – Killer Ethernet E2600. There is support for Bluetooth 5.2.
Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 demonstrates good performance in both processor and graphics tests. Although, of course, it’s difficult for a laptop to compete with top models or inexpensive gaming desktops, especially when it comes to ray tracing.
Despite the availability of the laptop, a fast SSD Western Digital PC SN810 M.2 format with PCIe 4.0 x4 interface for 512 GB is installed inside.
Read speed can reach 6500 MB/s and write speed up to 4500 MB/s.
The laptop cooling system includes two fans. The AIDA64 stress test shows that under prolonged maximum load the system may throttle a little; the processor sometimes heats up to 92°C. During real-world use and long gaming sessions, there were no performance or stability issues. The case remains cool, including the area above the keyboard (which usually gets warm). The noise level is significant, but not higher than that of other gaming models.
Despite the rather modest graphics card, modern games can achieve pleasing refresh rates thanks to support for DLSS3 and Frame Generation, where supported. Cyberpunk 2077: Maximum settings, no Path Tracing. DLSS in auto mode: 35-50 FPS. God of War: Maximum settings, DLSS in quality mode: 80-90 FPS. The Ascent: Maximum settings, with ray tracing, DLSS in balanced mode: about 75-90 FPS. Witcher 3 (updated version): Maximum settings with tracing, DLSS in balanced mode and Frame Generation: 65-70 FPS. Death Stranding: Maximum settings, without DLSS: 105-120 FPS.
The Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 has a four-cell 57.5 Wg battery. Autonomy is typical for gaming models of this class. With a moderate load (working with documents and low brightness), you can last up to 5-6 hours of work. At maximum load, the laptop runs for about an hour. It takes 1.5 hours to fully charge.
The stereo speakers of the Acer Nitro 5 turned out to be mediocre. They will be enough to watch a YouTube video or a movie, but no more. The volume is low, there are almost no low frequencies. The cooling system at maximum load is almost as loud as the speakers.
The main application for tuning a laptop is Nitro Sense. It allows you to select the performance mode, the operation of the cooling system, adjust the keyboard backlight, select speaker sound modes, and also switch the MUX Switch (discrete GPU only mode).
The Acer Purified Voice Console app provides machine learning-based noise reduction.
Killer Intelligence Center allows you to optimize wireless adapter performance, monitor wireless signal strength, and prioritize network connections for various applications.
Dry residue. Three things you need to know about the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58.
- This is a budget gaming laptop that allows you to play all modern games at high graphics settings.
- The laptop is equipped with a 15.6-inch FullHD screen with a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
- It is possible to upgrade SSD drives, RAM and replace the wireless adapter.
| Technical characteristics of Acer Nitro 5 AN515-58 | |
|---|---|
| Display | 15.6 inches, IPS, 1920×1080, 16:9, 144 Hz |
| Sizes | 360.4×271.1×26.9 mm |
| Weight | 2.5 kg |
| Operating system | – |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-12500H (Alder Lake, Intel 7), 12 cores/16 threads, 2.5-4.5 GHz |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR5-4800 |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Xe, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop 6 GB GDDR6 |
| Accumulator | SSD 512 GB NVMe PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Communications | Killer Wireless Wi-Fi 6 1650i (802.11ax) (Dual band) 2*2 + Bluetooth 5.2, Gigabit Ethernet Killer E2600 |
| Connectors | USB Type-C (with support for DisplayPort, Thunderbolt 4), USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 2xUSB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, HDMI 2.1, Kensington Lock, 3.5 mm audio |
| Camera | HD |
| Battery | 57.5 Wg, 4-element |