The all-new Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition notebook is Acer’s shot at a more mature audience which will appreciate the blend of bold, yet tasteful design choices and powerful components alike.
Review
Gaming aside, I believe this is a laptop that’s been made possible by a certain coming of age of a certain user base. Users who have grown up with laptops from a young age, users who need the high performance given by what’s inside the Acer Aspire V15 Nitro without the flashiness of traditional gaming laptops, nor with the fanciness promised by expensive ultrabooks.
Therefore, the Acer V15 Nitro Black Edition is a mix between the two types of notebooks I’ve just mentioned. This machine will please both gamers and working professionals alike.
Performance
A quad core 7th generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor is what’s driving this Acer towards success. It has a base frequency of 2.8GHz, turbo frequency of 3.8GHz and a cache size of 6 megabytes. This processor is top of the line in respect to both mobile and desktop CPUs nowadays. There isn’t a single task you may want to do that would be out of its reach, whether we’re talking about gaming, industrial design, 3D rendering, you name it. Here’s a link to the benchmark score of almost 9000 it has managed to pull of cpubenchmark.net.
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The Acer V15 Nitro VN7-593G-73KV comes with a whopping amount of 16 gigabytes of DDR4 @ 2400MHz memory on board. It’s enough for large data sets, heavy multitasking, increased work loads from video and photo editing software, and so on.
For those who may want even more memory inside their notebooks, Acer informs us that users can cram in a maximum of 32 gigabytes of RAM using the 2 available memory slots.
As for storage space, I’m glad to say Acer hasn’t compromised at all between speed and capacity. They’ve fitted a 256-gigabyte Solid State Drive alongside a 1-terabyte Hard Disk Drive. This setup gives you the best of both worlds: high speed, medium capacity SSD for the operating system and programs to run smoothly on and a high capacity HDD for all your storage needs.
Graphics and Display
Gamers, rejoice! The Acer V15 Nitro Black Edition VN7-593G-73KV has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card. This 6-gigabyte GDDR5 dedicated video card will run almost any game you can think of at high or ultra settings close to 60fps or more. It’s somewhat less powerful than its desktop counterpart, but just slightly. So, you can imagine how much of a punch NVIDIA has managed to pack in this mobile graphics card.
Its display is, of course, brilliant. The 15.6″ LCD screen features a LED-Backlit ComfyView IPS Full HD (1920 x 1080) display. Aside from improved viewing angles given by In-Plane Switching technology, this screen also has something that’s called Zero Air Gap, essentially allowing users to enjoy content on its screen even in extreme sunshine conditions.
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Interface and connectivity options
Since we’re talking about a gaming notebook/workstation combo, I think the presence of so many available ports should surprise no one. Acer may have gone overboard with the USB ports, yet I haven’t seen anyone complaining of too much interface options yet. These are the available I/O options for the Acer Aspire Nitro V15 Black Edition:
- 1 x Thunderbolt3 (USB-C)
- 2 x USB3.0 ports (one with power charging)
- 2 x USB2.0 ports
- 1 x HDMI
- 1 x Microphone-In
- 1 x Headphones-Out
- 1 x RJ45
- 1 x Media Card Reader
As for connectivity options, they’re pretty standard for a gaming laptop, but I do have to notice the high quality 2×2 wireless adapter. Gamers will enjoy less latency and better connection speeds while connected through a high end router.
- 2×2 802.11ac with MU-MIMO technology
- 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
- Bluetooth 4.0
Extra Features
I noticed there are a bunch of features and interesting design elements that need to be presented:
- Mature Design – Sleek, clean lines all across. Nanoimprint lithography treatment on the lid gives it a texture-like feeling. Recessed sub-brand engravement give the Nitro a more stylish, sophisticated look.
- Dual Exhaust – Two exhausts vents are located on the underside of the chassis, near the screen hinge. They’re close to the heat generators (CPU and GPU) and are placed on an angled plane to avoid air flow obstructions.
- Acer DustDefender – Self-cleaning mechanism developed by Acer to keep the dust from accumulating on the fans.
Illuminated LED Bar – A splash of personality has been added under the otherwise contrasting silver hinge, between the illuminated keyboard and the screen. A reddish glow line will be visible at night. It reminds me of some premium car interiors that have decorated certain lines with underside LED soft lighting.
Portability and battery life
As expected, the Acer V15 Nitro Black Edition won’t be a success among avid travelers. It has neither the required weight, nor the potent battery life stats to recommend it as a travel laptop. The Nitro will feel at home right on your desk, inside your house or office building. Don’t expect to carry it around and use it for too long before needing to plug it in.
A four-cell Li-Ion battery pack will give users 6 hours of screen time before needing a recharge. Furthermore, it weighs 5.7 pounds – quite heavy for a 15.6″ laptop.
However, with these numbers in mind, it’s safe to assume nobody will be buying this model to take it with them during transcontinental flights. It’s a powerhouse, and as such, has the same thirst for fuel as sports car do. They may not be practical, but they go faster than anything else on the road.
Final Words
In the end, I believe the Acer Aspire Nitro V15 Black Edition is perhaps the BEST value for money you’ll get when buying a gaming laptop in 2017. The VN7-593G-73KV has everything: a fantastic processor, heaps of system memory, two storage solutions, a bright screen, brilliant graphics, great design and tons of ports for your peripherals.
If you’re searching for a gaming laptop in the $1000-$1500 range, look no further. This is it.
