The Acer Nitro 5 Spin Convertible Laptop is a flexible, multipurpose laptop with a sharp, large display. This laptop, which weighs in at just under five pounds and has dimensions of about 15" x 10.2" x 0.7", came with the Microsoft Windows 10 Home OS, and has the following hardware specs:
- Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6 GHz Quad-core CPU
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM
- 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Widescreen LED-backlit IPS Multi-Touch Display
- 8GB DDR4 Memory, 256GB SSD & 1TB HDD
For connectivity the laptop comes with a 802.11ac wireless LAN, and the laptop also has a 1280 x 720 webcam, 4 mics, and 2 speakers (with subwoofer). The keyboard is particularly nice, with red backlit keys and even a number pad, and there’s also a 4.2" x 3" touchpad with embedded fingerprint reader.
The right side of the laptop has a secure lock slot, a power button, a USB 2.0 port, an SD card reader, a headset jack, and a volume button.
The left side of the laptop has a DC power jack, a full HDMI port, a USB-C port, and two USB 3.0 ports. Note that there is no wired Ethernet port.
The display hinges give this laptop lots of flexibility. There are three main ways to use the laptop:
- As a typical laptop, with keyboard exposes and display angled up, facing you: This is Acer’s “Desktop Mode”–applications are optimized for mouse and keyboard.
- If you completely fold the keyboard under the display, you get “Tablet Mode”–the applications expand to full screen and the device is optimized for touch via the display.
- You can also tent the laptop so that you can share the screen with others. In “Action Center” you can manually choose whether you want the laptop to operate in “Desktop Mode” or “Tablet Mode.”
The 15.6" IPS Display is particularly good, though there is a large black border around the usable part of the display, and the laptop comes with stickers on this border that you will likely want to remove.
In addition to the flexible display, the speakers on the laptop sounded particularly good–the added subwoofer prevented the audio from sounding thin. The glossy display along with the sound makes this laptop a potent movie and gaming machine, though the display does seem to reflect any lamp or light that might shine onto its surface. The mics also help with voice recognition–Amazon Alexa is integrated into the system if you would like her as your virtual assistant.
The laptop comes with a lot of extra software–some of which you may or may not need, including trials of Microsoft Office and anti-virus. Battery life is particularly good if you are doing office type tasks–all day going VDI (8-10 hours), no problem. However, if you are gaming, then you probably want to stay close to a power outlet, and I wouldn’t advise resting the laptop on bare legs as the fan vents will crank out some serious heat. I found the keyboard to be responsive and comfortable (the thinness of the laptop also helps with ergonomics), though I preferred plugging in a mouse instead of using the trackpad.
This laptop comes with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB of VRAM which is good for gaming, but not top of the line. So you will get good 1920x1080 frame rates, but maybe not at the highest settings. But overall, with the flexible, large display and good multimedia performance, this laptop can do a little of everything–you can easily and quickly transform the laptop from office work to gaming station and back, once you’re had your gaming fix.
- Pricing and Availability on Amazon: Acer Nitro 5 Spin Convertible Laptop
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