Acer’s new Nitro 5 gaming laptop starts at $750, but it can be configured up to some high-end Nvidia RTX 30-Series GPUs, plus the latest Intel and AMD processing.
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(upbeat music) – Hi, I’m Matthew Buzzi from PCMag And I’m here with Eric Ackerson from Acer Here to show off the
Nitro 5, which is usually One of the company’s entry
level gaming notebooks. But well, there is a $750
starting price on this unit There’s also a nicer
scale of options on this. So, Eric, take it away and talk to us About all the different configurations And options you are offering. – Yeah, thanks. Nitro as a line is growing Certainly in its breadth of offerings But also in terms of importance
to our overall portfolio, Which is partly why we’re
injecting so much more in it. Like you said, $750 is
the starting price point. At CES we’re announcing, Well, Nitro 5 as one thing as a whole But really four different platforms. I can simplify that a little bit. First of all, there are
two different screen sizes, 15.6 and 17.3. So, we’ve got a couple options there. Then things get more interesting Because there’s new CPUs from AMD, The new AMD Ryzen 5000 Series of CPUs, We have systems with those CPUs. Also, Intel is announcing The new 11th generation Intel
Core series of processors, We have those as well. And just to make it more
interesting and or complicated We’re also adding new graphics
from our friends at Nvidia The GeForce RTX 30 Series of graphics. Nitro 5 will support all the way up
To the 30, 80 level of graphics. This is not something we’ve
done with Nitro before, We often would use the
graphics performance As a separator between the Nitro line And the Predator lineup higher. Part of that is due to performance, Part of that is due to price,
that was a way to segregate. But now, Nitro 5 is just going
full bore across the board. – Yeah, that’s definitely, as you said, Sort of unprecedented for the Nitro line. I don’t know, the… At least the entry level
ones are 15 inches. I believe some of the, Or all of the 30 Series configurations Are 17 inch versions of this laptop. – So, you know, I don’t remember Exactly what we’re announcing
from the news release, But I’m just thinking
from a bigger picture What we’re bringing to market. There will be both 15.6 and
17.3 with 30 series graphics. That starting price point at $750 though, I need to point out
that’s a GeForce GTX 1650 And that’s so we can get it in
for a very affordable price. All those other configs
start to bring it up. Something also new for Nitro
as it expands in capabilities Is we’re also changing the design language Just a little bit. In the past everybody would
look at a gaming laptop No matter the brand and you’d
see black and you’d see red And that was it. Well, there’s still a little of that here But we’re toning things down. I’ll hold it up for you
to see this top cover here Has the Acer brand,
But the elements on the side for design Would typically be highlighted
in red, they’re not. So, you can close that
lid, carry it around And it’s not as obviously
a gaming machine. It’s still has some of
the Nitro branding though On the hinge, you can
hopefully read the Nitro there, A little red to highlight, And then the back of the hinge as well Where all the updated cooling is. – That’s… Yeah, I like that. That’s still okay to have
a little bit of personality And tell you that it’s a gaming laptop, But a little more restraint. In addition to the component scaling, I know there’s also some screen changes, Not just the size but
sort of feature, again, Sort of fitting this story
of having the components In the power scale along with this laptop. So that goes into the screen options And the refresh rates as well. – Correct, so on both sides
of the screen 15.6 or 17.3, There are options for
full HD IPS and 60 Hertz, Which is that starting price point. There are options to step up to 144 Hertz With that full HD, Again, both screen sizes. Then we also have an option
for QHD or 2560 by 1440 At 165 Hertz refresh. And the final option, again,
available on all screen sizes, I should also point out all
of these screens are available On all platforms, Meaning AMD or Intel, and
obviously the Nvidia graphics. So, a final option is full
HD at 360 Hertz refresh,
Which is incredible for this Nitro line. – Yeah, that’s definitely appealing. These platforms launches, I should say, Are going to open up a
lot of options for people And supporting that I’m sure
it’s the fairly, the usual, But storage capacity, maximums
and RAM maximums are what? – Yeah, that’s important to point out. We can have up to 32
gigabytes of RAM on the system Configured in various ways And then up to two terabytes
for a 2.5 inch hard drive. On the SSD side, things
get interesting for Nitro. We have the option For two M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD slots And that’s gen three. So, pretty damn fast. And those can be configured in raid zero Should a user want even
faster access to data. – Very nice. Rounding those out, I know there’s a couple of extra features And you can tell me if
these are all included In even though $750 starting configuration Or if only some of these add in later on But that includes the Forescout RGB And things like killer networking support And then the WiFi 6, I assume those things
are across the board. But yeah, talk about those, The keyboard if there’s anything special Other than the lighting. – So, the RGB backlit keyboard It’s four zones like you
indicated and that’s optional. So that’s something that kind of gets Built in to higher levels of specs.
Also, we found just globally That there are preferences in
different parts of the world On whether you want the glow or not. Obviously, if it’s there
a user can dim or turn off But I think also to help
achieve certain price points And positioning within
a region with retailers You may not see the RGB keyboard, Four zone keyboard everywhere. The arrow keys are highlighted. There is a… Let’s see if I can make it visible On camera for you. So, here we go. Arrow keys and here we
go, these are the keys, There’s a little ring around it And they highlight a little different To make it easier to
find when you’re gaming In a dark environment for instance. That’s 100% across the board, WiFi 6 is 100% across the board. The killer part of it is
relegated to the LAN cord. So, it has RJ45 you can connect. Once again, you’re able to go in And control your bandwidth and
quality of service on device When you’re connected to LAN. And then all of the Nitro products Have something called Acer Coolboost, This is an automated
system to control fan speed To try and keep everything
nice and smooth. But we also include NitroSense, Which is a similar to
PreditorSense, system health, Temperatures of CPS and more
granular control of fan speed. No overclocking, however. – Gotcha.
Fair enough in a a mid-level,
entry-level offering To not have these super high end features. I’m trying to think of what
else we can cover here. I know that I have here 1.6
millimeters of key travel, Those keyboards are
usually pretty comfortable. I see the full size number pad there, An advantage to having a 15 inch chassis As is the existence of the Ethernet jack On these thicker 15 inch machines. That is something that most of the time The slimmer laptops do lose. So, all those are good options If this is totally replacing your desktop As your gaming machine,
which it likely is. – Yeah. – If there’s any other features You’d like to to cover on this one. – Yeah, it’s just a simple thing That we didn’t touch on yet, But with all this performance
with CPU and GPU options, Lighting effects, fan
control, all of that, We haven’t touched about battery life. All of this pack in there We’re still looking at
a 10-hour battery life. So, you can certainly replace your desktop Because you have all the performance And now you’re mobile
almost a full day of use From a workday’s perspective
and beyond, right? – Yeah. Very nice. Yeah, battery life in gaming laptops Used to be a bit of a swamp. It’s gotten a lot better
and there’s some exceptions Especially if it’s a really big machine
That it’s a bit shorter, But we’ve seen those averages grow From two to three hours to
five, six, seven, some hit 10, Some insane ones hit in the teens. So, yeah, definitely, definitely something We look forward to testing
that out for ourselves. I think that’s everything then, That sounds like a really appealing option With a ton of scaling
configuration choices and things. So, hopefully, Nitro 5, When is this launching? – Mid-February for that product
we’re announcing at $750. – Very nice. Okay, that’s (murmurs). Thank you so much for watching. Checkout PCMag for more from CES 2021 Including a slew of other
Acer’s announcements And more from every vendor
you could possibly think of. Thank you so much for
tuning in and take care.
