Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition - Mobile Gaming at a Reasonable Price
Overview
Gaming laptops are something that most people are quick to reject as out of their price range. There is a lot of sense in this train of thought. We know that laptop components are inherently lower performing than their desktop counterparts, and significantly more expensive. So the idea of spending more money for less powerful components seems like a bad trade off for the added gains of portability for many gamers.
However, we also seem to be in a bit of a plateau as far as generation-to-generation performance gain with desktop components. Midrange processors from a few generations ago are still more than capable of playing the vast majority of games, and even lower-end modern GPUs are able to game at 1080p.
So maybe it's time to take another look at the sub-$1000 gaming notebook options, and that's exactly what we are doing today with the Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition.
The Aspire V Nitro is equipped with fairly modest components when compared to what most people think of gaming laptops as. Where machines such as the MSI GT70 Dominator or ASUS G751 seem to take the kitchen sink approach towards mobile gaming machines, The Aspire V is a more carefully balanced option.
| Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition | |
|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core i7-4720HQ 2.6 GHz |
| Screen | 15.6" 1920x1080 |
| Memory | 8GB DDR3 |
| Graphics Card | NVIDIA GTX 960M 4GB |
| Storage | 1 TB Hard Drive |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 15.34" x 10.14" x 0.86" - 0.94" |
| Weight | 5.29 lbs. |
Anchored by an Intel Core i7-4720HQ and a GTX 960M, the Aspire V Nitro isn't trying to reach to the top stack of mobile performance. A 15.6" display along with 8GB of RAM, and a single 1TB spindle drive are all logical choices for a machine aimed towards gaming on a budget.
While it's difficult for us to recommend that you buy any machine without an SSD these days, a 1TB drive is great for game storage on a machine like there. There are also other configurations optiosn which add SATA M.2 SSDs alongside the 1TB drive, and we managed to open up our sample and put an SSD in ourselves with little pain.
Click here to read more about the Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro Black Edition!
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BTW, this laptop uses an IPS panel.
I am **SO** glad that Taiwanese manufacturers have started putting IPS panels into their gaming laptops, rather than continuing to use sub-par TN panels with horrible color, contrast, and viewing angles in an attempt to save $20.
IPS contrast is pretty bad as well, I'm yet to see a single one much above 1000:1.
Yes and no.
The viewing angle affects contrast as well. As per Wikipedia:
"Luminance, contrast and chromaticity of LCD-screens is usually varying with the direction of observation (i.e. viewing direction)."
So the 1000:1 for most TN panels on laptops is only specific to looking at the monitor dead center at 90 degrees to the screen. Even a 5 degree offset horizontally or vertically reduces contrast noticeably.
Sometimes it seems like the only reason TN exists is to make IPS look good by comparison.
You're right, but the problem is that even the reliable 1000:1 you get from IPS is still terrible. VA panels are a bit better in theory, but also suffer from off-center contrast loss. We desperately need to move away from LCDs; literally every other display tech has delivered far better contrast (and image quality overall) - OLED, plasma, even CRT.
Ye, like democracy... IPS is bad, but its LIGHTYEARS better than anything else we have. Certainly makes TN look like a jar filled with liquid SHIT.
You can always buy an SSD if it doesn't come with it. That's what I did with my Acer laptop and it came out cheaper so that's no biggie.
If only the author had thought of that. Oh, wait, they did! Protip: read the article before commenting.
That's your expectation. This is an open forum and the fact that a comment mirrors the article doesn't detract from the validity of the comment. The comment is ironically far more "on-point" than yours.
Someone is having a bad day.
Protip don't be a douche. I did read the entire article and I mentioned it because he put it as a sort of downside to this laptop and I followed up with that telling my experience.
The comment *in the article* is on the first page. Anyone reading down to the comments would have already seen the point brought up in the article and in a more meaningful context.
Converse to your comment, my comment was imformative as it would let anyone know who read the comments that your comment wasn't insightful in the least and was addressed inside the article itself.
Protip, don't post as AC if you want to be taken seriously.
Why do so many new laptops with Haswell CPUs while Broadwell is out?
In this case, they use Haswell because it's a cheaper CPU than the equivalent Broadwell part.
Acer is clearly designing a laptop to try and hit the lowest possible price point for a decent gaming laptop. So paying an extra $40 - $50 for a Broadwell CPU (that will not have any difference in gaming performance) wouldn't make sense.
In addition, they are probably re-using an existing motherboard design they created for Haswell. So they don't need to spend any extra time & money engineering a Broadwell-based motherboard.
If they went with Broadwell, they'd probably have a 15" Broadwell laptop with a GeForce 960M, that would sell for around $1100 - $1300. And laptops with those specs are already a dime-a-dozen. But a laptop <$1000 with a 960M? There arne't too many of those on the market.
Why wasn't this given any kind of award?
Tight Budget Low End Gaming Notebook Award?
Impressive one for the price! Sounds like a good value for money and reasonable price to performance ratio !
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