In a Nutshell
Featuring powerful six-core Intel Core i7-9750H processor and GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card, the Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51 is a very affordable gaming laptop which will please users who seek to have their own mobile battle station.
- Fast processor and a solid graphics card
- Support for two M.2 SSDs and one 2.5-inch drive
- Solid build quality
- Fairly decent 144 Hz IPS screen
- High-quality keyboard
- Compact dimensions
- Very good battery life
- Housing temperatures are slightly too high
- Ventilation and power connector are located on the right side
- Gets noisy under full load
- Features only one USB Type-C Gen1 connector
Featured image credit: Acer
Compared to its cheaper and more plastic sibling the Nitro 5, the Nitro 7 is only available in a 15.6-inch version, which means this device can be categorized as a compact gaming laptop. Moreover, the devices from Nitro series can be thought of as hybrids between gaming laptops and a laptops for mobile work, since they sacrifice cooling performance for a more compact case design. In the case of the Nitro 7, the body of this notebook computer measures 362 × 257 × 20 mm, which is significantly more compact in terms of thickness than the Acer Predator Helios 300, a laptop which is more focused on gaming.
The design of this laptop is quite masculine, but it could be said it looks less gaming-ish than the design of the Helios series laptops. The lid is made out of brushed aluminium, and features Acer’s logo inscription, but without luminous lightning and similar jigs, and the upper corners are slightly cut off. Despite the use of aluminium, the strength of the lid is not superb – under the pressure of your fingers it bends slightly. On the other side of the lid is a 15.6-inch IPS screen with Full HD resolution and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. The screen offers quite good color display capabilities (92% sRGB palette coverage) and features solid brightness of a maximum of 330 cd/m2.
Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51 Specifications
| Processor | Intel Core i7-9750H, 6 Cores/12 Threads, up to 4.1 GHz |
| Graphics card | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile Graphics with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM |
| Memory | 16GB DDR4 Memory |
| Storage | Up to 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD + 1TB 2.5-inch HDD |
| LAN/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth | Yes/Yes/Yes |
| Video Outputs | HDMI 1.4a |
| Connectors | 1 × USB 2.0 2 × USB 3.2 Gen1 1 × USB-C 3.2 Gen1 1 x 3.5 mm audio |
| Weight | 2.5 kg |
| Dimensions | 362 × 257 × 20 mm |
Unfortunately, the measured contrast of the display screen is 1:770, which is lower than expected, and the calibration could be better, as the heat of the white dot is set to a cooler 8,000 kelvins. Adjusting the darker colors is a standard trick of extracting more brightness from the panel, but warmer colors are more comfortable to watch. The edges of the screen measure 8 mm at the hips and 15 mm at the top. Either way, it’s a good screen for gamers, but more demanding users will want to calibrate it.
The upper part of the laptop’s base is made of matte aluminium, while the back is made of plastic. Laptop’s underside is relatively easy to remove, and inside you have access to all the essential components and slots. The laptop has two SO-DIMM memory slots, a Wi-Fi card slot, two 80 mm slots for M.2 SSDs and a slot for a 2.5-inch SSD or drive. There is, of course, a battery, with a very generous capacity of 58.7 Wh, which at a screen brightness of 200 cd/m2 ensures a battery life of 4.5 hours.
The keyboard on this laptop is full sized and occupies space between two edges of the laptop The keyboard is quite comfortable to type on. It is illuminated by a red backlight. The WASD and cursor keys are additionally highlighted in red, and the cursor keys are used to adjust the speaker volume and screen brightness, in combination with the Fn key. The laptop also has a dedicated button for calling the Nitro Sense application, which allows you to monitor the CPU utilization and temperatures of the processor and the graphics chip, and adjust the cooling profile or fan speed. Below the keyboard is a large touchpad with integrated keys, which is made according to Microsoft ‘s Precision Touchpad specification, and therefore offers very good precision and perfect compatibility with gestures for managing the Windows 10 interface.
The six-core Intel Core i7-9750H processor and GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card are cooled by separate fans with a common hot air vent. Despite packing beefy specs, this 46.5 dBA laptop isn’t particularly noisy during gaming, however, the case temperatures are slightly higher than we’d like to have. In the central part of the keyboard, the temperature reaches 45°C, and below the WASD keys 42°C. The rest of the upper part of the laptop is less warm. This particular model we have tested also featured two 16-gigabyte DDR4 memory modules, two 256-gigabyte NVMe SSDs connected in a RAID 0 array, and a 1 TB hard drive. Intel’s Wi-Fi 5 Wireless-AC 9560 adapter took care of the wireless connection, and Realtek’s gigabit controller took care of the wired one.
On the left side of the laptop you can also find a Kensington lock, a flip network connector, HDMI output, USB-C (only USB 3.2 Gen1, so semi-usable) and two USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, one of which supports charging other devices when the laptop is turned off. On the opposite side there is a headphone connector, USB 2.0 port, LEDs indicating charging and power status, and a round power connector. The power connector on the right side is not well placed, since most users keep a mouse there, and we have the same remark for the position of the hot air outlet, which blows to the right.
Overall, Acer Nitro 7 AN715-51 is a very solid laptop for gaming, streaming, software development and other heavy-duty tasks. It is not a perfect device, particularly because of its noise, and weird blower fan placement, however, it does its job pretty well due to its high-performance Intel Core i7-9750H processor. The included graphics card could’ve been more powerful, but it’s fine for 1080P gaming on medium settings.
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