The preinstalled DTS:X Ultra app has some presets for sound. The default Music profile is fine, but I found that, oddly enough, the Voice preset meant for calls actually delivered more consistent sound for music. The Nitro 5's speakers played Soccer Mommy's "Shotgun" with hollow vocals and synths, but the drums sounded nice and snappy. The song filled my one-room apartment way before hitting max volume. We also ran a stress test on the Nitro 5, cycling through 15 runs of Metro Exodus benchmark on the "normal" preset. The laptop averaged 70.42 fps and was consistent within a few decimal points.

On Geekbench 5, an overall performance test leaning heavily on the CPU, the Nitro 5 earned a single-core score of 1,652 and a multi-core score of 9,148. That's a handy improvement over the TUF Gaming F17 (Core i5-11260H), with a multi-core score of 5,045. It also made handy gains over the MSI Pulse GL66, which used a last-generation Core i7-11800H. Acer Nitro Laptops are powerful gaming devices that you can buy to play your favorite games when you’re at home, traveling, or in another city. The portable and lightweight design of these laptops makes them the perfect devices for every gaming enthusiast. These laptops come with screen sizes that vary from 38.1 cm (15) to up to 45.47 cm (17.9). The enticing visuals on these laptops are sure to give a new dimension to playing games. These Acer laptops deliver clear and vibrant visuals that will make you feel as though you are right in the middle of the game. The only piece of software that's actually worth it is Acer NitroSense, a hub app that also has CPU and GPU temperatures, fan control option, control over the RGB lighting on the keyboard and a series of audio profiles. Also complementing the visuals is the 15.6-inch QHD screen, with a resolution of 2560 X1440. This is further supported by the 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time, meaning that not only do the graphics look nice but the visuals are crisp and smooth. Storage capacity is another factor that you need to keep in mind while investing in a good gaming laptop. These laptops come with large internal storage drives so that you can save your favorite gaming titles as well as photos, movies, songs, and more on them.When I played Control, the speakers were serviceable but not ideal. Vocals and gunshots rang out, but the game's ambient environmental noise didn't stand out. Some gamers will opt to use headsets instead, which would make for a better experience. Upgradeability on the Acer Nitro 5 Red Dead Redemption 2 is an example of the type of game you need to ratchet down to play on the Nitro 5. At medium settings, it ran the game at 39 fps, falling behind both the TUF and the Pulse.

The Nitro 5's 15.6-inch, 1080p display isn't particularly vivid, but at least it gets nice and bright relative to the competition. The keyboard layout, which goes almost edge-to-edge across the chassis, is a bit busy. It includes a number pad, but the arrow keys are jammed between the two sections and the right shift key is a little short. I used the Nitro 5 to watch the trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder, and found that while a bright orange sunrise looked OK on the Nitro 5, it didn't come close to how good it looked on other monitors I've watched it on. Cooler colors, like the blue in Thor's new suit, were more eye-popping.

Our unit had a single PCIe NVMe SSD, but there's room for a second on the motherboard. In addition, there's room for a 2.5-inch HDD or SSD, and a cable to connect it to the motherboard is included in the box. While that extra expandability is nice, I think some users would prefer a larger battery instead. Also, these Acer Nitro 5 laptops from Acer come with a range of connectivity options so that you can connect various compatible peripherals to it.