Gadgetory

you could point at almost any major category in tech these days TVs phones computers and you could make the argument that the pace of technological advancement has slowed and they've gotten boring but here's one that's really exciting sub $1000 gaming laptops these days compared to even models from a couple of years ago are amazing and the new generation of Nvidia graphics cards is a big part of the reason so the GTX 1650 mobile GPU is actually priced the same as the outgoing 1050 Ti but it's got a fair bit more power under the hood so if you're a cheap gamer or even just someone who cares about getting good value for your dollar we think you should give the Acer nitro 7 and especially the Nitro 5 are really good look so let's talk about what they did right and what they left out to keep these budget beasts affordable speaking of affordable private Internet access that's exactly what you'll get with PIAA a safe and protected IP and it's got loads of other features as well check it out at the link in the video description the look of the Nitro five is a bit divisive although the overall feel of the machine is pretty good and I appreciate the much smaller bezels the red accents on the keyboard and the trackpad along with loads of plastic make the Nitro v look a bit Thai like it's better endowed cousin the Nitro 7 improves on this a bit with a slightly more premium screen backing and less red but it still falls into the trap of looking like something that a high schooler might think looks pretty dope on both models you'll find heaps of i/o they've got four USB ports including one type seat along with headphones full size HDMI and Ethernet which you thankfully won't need too often since unlike the zephyrus G a 502 the 2019 nitro lineup includes 2x2 Wi-Fi cards by default of course those are minor details and after that intro what everyone wants to know is what kind of performance we can squeeze out of an $800 laptop well good news the GTX 1650 put on a really good show easily doling out 60fps at 1080p in every game we tried without sacrificing too much eye candy compared to the GTX 1050 Ti we're actually looking at about a 20% improvement across the board now that's not enough to make for a completely different experience from last gen but it is definitely noticeable so games that previously were best played on medium settings can now comfortably be set to high those frames don't matter though if there isn't a good display panel to show them on and at first it seemed like the Nitro 7 was going to come away with an easy win here its 8-bit panel is brighter has richer colors and maybe even higher contrast than the 6 bit panel found on the Nitro 5 but it turns out the Nitro 5 has an ace up its sleeve when we tried overclocking the display panels using custom resolution utility the Nitro 7 tapped out where most laptops do slightly above 60 Hertz the Nitro 5 on the other hand just kept going and going all the way up to a whopping 90 now I don't want to guarantee that your nitro five will be able to display that many frames per second this is way beyond the official spec and a sir could be sourcing panels from multiple vendors but on ours games like overwatch or Rainbow six siege appear noticeably smoother for a tangible competitive advantage now if you've got a mixed workload that includes some hobbyist level photo or video editing the Nitro seven would still be a better bet but if you primarily plan on gaming in our mind the Nitro 5 is the clear choice here above the screens you'll find a webcam which a Saran says super high dynamic range it looks a little something like this I wouldn't exactly describe it as super but hey at least they've got one zing this is what's more impressive though is the speakers which got pretty loud and have a nice full sound you know that's another thing that has really improved a lot on budget gaming laptops right back to performance if you do plan on using either of these for content creation or professional purposes the internal displays on either them might not be perfect for that but there's always the option of hooking up to an external one for color critical work so we checked it out the i5 processor in our nitro 5 was very well behaved it turbo DUP - about 4 gigahertz settling in at 3 gigahertz upon all 4 course that is well above base clock but the i7 model was actually pretty disappointing when we put it under an all core load the thermals were fine but it immediately ran up against a power limit and settled in below its base clock at 2.4 gigahertz when hit with the demanding load now thanks to its two extra cores and its higher boost it's still the better processor out of the 2 but if we're gonna call out Apple 4 under building their machines then Acer needs to expect the same treatment silver lining at least this lack of adequate power delivery means that neither laptop gets exceptionally loud under load both laptops are equipped with the same keyboard and it's fine just like it was two years ago but in light of recent competition we think that Acer needs to seriously think about upgrading their keyboards across the entire lineup it's still not terrible but the keystrokes are a bit on the heavy side with very little in the way of tactility so if you're able to justify the price jump to a Zephyrus g502 or an alienware m15 your fingers will thank you when you're writing long emails about why you couldn't finish your assignment because you were busy gaming as for the trackpad it's also fine fortunately acer is using the windows precision drivers but the chassis flex around the trackpad makes the clicks feel a bit mushy again an area where I'll accept it today especially at this price point but Acer needs to consider improving it for next year the 55 watt hour battery found in the nitro 5 and 7 is about what you'd expect in this price range and since the components aren't too power-hungry and actually the screens on both are a bit on the dim side you can actually use the Nitro 5 away from the wall for close to 8 hours if you're just surfing the web with the nitro 7 coming in closer to 7 both laptops feature great upgrade ability with easy access to ram 2m to drive slots and space for a 2 and a half inch drive so we love this because it means you don't have to sweat it when you don't have a ton of money today so you select an 8 gig ram 128 gig storage option hoping that you'll have more money when you finish your program and you can expand it later so then with that in mind should you actually buy either of these laptops well the 830 dollar price tag on the Nitro 5 is really hard to complain about and if you want a game on a budget the 90 Hertz display overclock will give you a surprisingly good experience if you get a golden unit like ours so that one is coming out of this review with a full-blown recommendation as for the Nitro 7 although the panel is better it's a tougher sell given that the i7 model struggles with performance crippling power issues now it's possible that everything else at this price point will have the same problems so I'm gonna end up saying well pick your poison but I kind of doubt it and we're gonna know for certain soon an when Dell sends over their new g3 speaking of sending over why not get a dis plate sent over to you this plate is posters made out of metal they're three millimeters thick with bent edges so you won't cut yourself they've got a matte finish so they look really clean and they use this amazing magnetic wall mounting system that makes it simple to swap them in and out and doesn't require putting any holes in your wall they've got tons of different arts with over 15,000 artists contributing over a quarter million total designs and with each displayed sold they plant 10 trees they offer hassle-free returns they're already gift packed and you can use code LTT to save 15% at the link in the video description so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome hit like get subscribed or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link below also down there's our merch store which finally has the stealth hoodie this one that I'm wearing right now and our community forum which you should totally join