A Convertible GAMING Laptop! - Acer Nitro Spin 5 - YouTube

Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here

So this is the Nitro Spin 5. This is the 2-in-1 convertible from Acer

that's supposed to do everything

Work, play, media consumption, everything

Because it's a 2-in-1 hybrid device that has a GTX 1050 in it,

like the entry-level gaming card

And, it's coupled with a Kaby Lake-R CPU

So like a quad-core 8th generation CPU

So, it's not like super powerful, but it's like an entry level hybrid laptop

that doesn't cost too much money,

but should be a good fit for a lot of different people

So this thing's build quality is quite good, it's actually better than I thought it would be

for the price. It's fully aluminum with a brushed finish up top

And even the keyboard deck is aluminum.

Now, the design is actually something I like

You don't see like, colored hinges very often

I don't love the color red, but I do like the fact that they colored the hinge

and the chamfered edge. I do wish it was a different color

instead of red, like if this was blue, it would look awesome but,

I do like the design. One thing about the build though is that

The hinge is quite stiff, and I'm not sure if they done this with purpose...

Like maybe there's some intent to this because when it's in the different modes,

like tent mode and presentation mode, maybe it's kinda beneficial

to have a stiff hinge for tapping the screen, but

when you're just flipping it around to put it into different positions, it is stiff.

Alright, this thing is a 2-in-1 device

So theoretically, it can used as a tablet

The thing is..

It's a very big device, right? 15 inch tablet feels kind of ridiculous

to begin with. It's not comfortable to hold it like that

Like within the ten seconds of holding this, it's like- it's a bit of a workout

But it can be used in tent mode and presentation mode quite nicely.

Now, getting into the inside is actually pretty easy.

It's a few screws, and you're in there,

you can upgrade the two drives, so there's an M.2 drive

and a 2.5 inch bay. It's kind of strange to see

a thinner 2-in-1 device like this to have a swappable hard drive, but that's kind of nice.

The RAM however, is soldered on which is unfortunate

Because, otherwise you would be able to upgrade this thing quite a bit.

Okay, the battery is 50 watt hours, it's not particularly large

And I just kinda felt the battery life won't be very good because,

it's a 15 inch screen, 50 watt hour battery, but it's actually pretty good

7.5 hour battery life with the screen at 250 nits.

Now, the charger they supply is a barrel plug, but it's actually

a smaller adapter. It's only 90 watts.

You could actually power this whole laptop through USB-C.

So the keyboard and the trackpad are both good...

They're like not amazing or anything, but good

Backlighting on the keyboard with a decent layout and a number pad

And I find the keystrokes to be... they're okay

It's not like super tactile or anything, it's an average keyboard

The trackpad is a plastic surface, does have a fingerprint sensor which is nice,

but I found the tracking to be... I want to say laggy,

like that's just not the right word, I don't know how to describe it,

It just feels a little bit different, as if it wasn't using

Windows Precision drivers, but it is.

The button mechanism and the gestures work nicely.

The ports selection is pretty good. You get a bunch of USB's,

and a full size SD slot.

Okay, the screen looks pretty good. When it comes out of the box,

it has a greenish hue to it, but once you calibrate it, it looks good.

Color gamut is decent, and so is the brightness.

I kind of wished it was a little bit brighter, because it is a 2-in-1 device

You might be using this outdoors more frequently, but yeah, decent screen

Especially for the money. I was expecting a much worse screen,

considering this is a $1000 device. It's a touchscreen

and it also supports a pen. Acer makes one

It's the Active Stylus or something like that, but it doesn't come with the product

You have to purchase it separately. Now, the stiffer hinge

that I mentioned before is actually nice when it comes to pen input

in laptop mode. It's that the screen doesn't wobble very much.

There are two speakers, and a sub underneath.

They sound good, not amazing or anything. But it doesn't

have much bass, despite having that sub.

Performance is solid. It's a Kaby Lake-R, so four-core CPU

coupled with a GTX 1050, and it's not a combination you see very often

Most companies are sticking

this GPU with a more powerful CPU, but it actually works nicely

with this. You're getting pretty good framerates in games, like you can hit

60 frames per second for most of the light

to moderately demanding games, if you drop the quality a bit.

Now, the thermals on this thing are... well, they're not amazing

I wished that they were better. They're acceptable because it is a

2-in-1 device. Not trying to be like ultra-hardcore gaming.

It does throttle when you benchmark, not when you're playing games

It's definitely not noticeable when you're playing games

But if you benchmark or if you're running stress tests, there are some thermal limitations

I think the problem comes from the heat pipes. We've seen this design before

on other Acer laptops, where the CPU and GPU

run in series like this, and it's just not the best way to cool it

But it is cost-effective, and because it is only

a 15 watt CPU, it doesn't put out crazy amount of heat

You can kinda get away with it. Now something I notice that

If you play your games kind of like in this weird way where you use

the laptop kind of in presentation mode,

and you have an external mouse and keyboard, the thermals are actually

a little bit better. You don't need to play like this, but you can.

It's actually a lot more comfortable than it may seem.

I mean the screen is a little bit closer, it's just a little bit of a different experience

The webcam up on top. 720p, it's not particularly good

like this is what it looks like. The fans are quiet on idle

And not too loud either when it's on load.

So overall, this laptop, or the hybrid 2-in-1 device, is

very good for a lot of people. Now, it's not built

for like hardcore gaming. I feel like, with the red accents and stuff

And the way they market it, it might kind of con someone

to thinking that this is somehow a really hardcore gaming laptop, it isn't.

It's a great kind of hybrid device that's good for

a lot of people. I think it's good for people like students

or just someone who wants the versatility of the 2-in-1 device,

for casual or moderate gaming. And if you want something

that has like tent mode or presentation mode for media consumption

This is great. But if you want something that's like tablet mode where

you want to be able to use this thing in your hand all the time,

This is way too big for that.

I think for most people, it wouldn't be comfortable as a tablet.

Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video!

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