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I love this laptop!!! I had eagerly awaited a laptop with the latest Ryzen 7 APU and RTX 40 series GPUs for a while, and now I'm thrilled to finally get my hands on the latest generation of the Ryzen 7 APU and the Nvidia RTX 4050! :)
Summary:
In my opinion, this laptop falls into the mid-range category and features a stylish design. It is a powerhouse for 1080p gaming and can handle 1440p gaming if you're willing to adjust settings to a combination of high and medium or utilize DLSS 3 with frame generation (although not all games support this feature). One standout aspect is its excellent upgradeability: you can easily replace the 2x8 DDR5 RAM with 2x16, add another M.2 SSD, and even update the Wi-Fi module.
A little about myself:
As an avid gamer who has owned multiple gaming laptops and built several gaming PCs, I actively assist my friends and family members with their PC builds. I am also passionate about technology and enjoy watching hardware-related YouTube videos and reviews. With that in mind, I hope my review will help you make informed decisions.
First, I will discuss the pros and cons, and then I will share my thoughts on this laptop.
Pros:
Stylish with new “N” logo shows gaming aesthetic without charging a premium;
Great cooling design and comfortable gaming;
Liquid metal thermal paste for CPU cooling;
Super energy efficient Ryzen 7 APU give you longer battery life;
Great upgrade capability (easy replace RAM, one empty M.2 slot, you can upgrade Wi-Fi);
70-80 FPS with Ultra/Max settings of almost all titles under native 1080p;
50-60 FPS with mix of Max/High settings of most titles under native 1040p;
Support DSSL 3 with Frame generation;
Cons:
Heavy, about 3 kg;
Screen resolution is only 1080p;
Wi-Fi Mediatek MT7922A22M is just average;
Speaker quality is about average;
No DisplayPort or mini-DisplayPort (but has USB4.0, HDMI, USB-C), some monitor requires DisplayPort for G-Sync;
Outline of this review:
1. Background: about Acer product lines
2. Comments on hardware and post purchase upgrade possibility
3. Design, build quality and ports
4. Display
5. Performance (CPU, GPU, comments on the limitation of 4050/60/70 GPUs, gaming FPS)
6. WiFi and cable connection components and speed
7. Cooling and noise
8. Battery Life and charging
9. Audio Quality
10. Conclusion
1. Background: about Acer product lines
First, just for those who may not be familiar with Acer's product line, the Acer Nitro 17 is its new mid-market offering, positioned below their high-end Predator Helios series (just slightly, because Predator allows you to pick with better CPU and GPUs, of course at a higher price). It is released this year and serves as an upgrade to the original Nitro 5 while being a step below the Predator product line (although I just think it just looks slightly different then the Predator, but the motherboard lay out, main design feature is very similar). It's important to note that this laptop, the AN17-41 model, features an AMD processor, while the AN17-51 model offers an Intel processer. Personally, I find the AMD version to be particularly appealing due to its highly efficient Phoenix APU (so potentially longer battery time), which delivers performance comparable to the Intel Core i7-13700H in gaming scenarios.
2. The specifications, Comments on hardware and post purchase upgrade possibility
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS (w/ 780M iGPU) with AMD's XDNA AI accelerator (powerful and efficient)
iGPU: 780M iGPU (don’t look down it, it is the best integrated GPU so far, performance can get close to a desktop GTX 1060!!) Acer used liquid metal thermal grease for CPU cooling for Nitro 17.
dGPU: RTX 4050 6GB VRAM, TDP 140W, but many evidences show the laptop version of the 40 series is “locked” around 80-100 W by a max voltage limit when gaming. The GPU can reach 140 W but not in gaming (details you can Google “High Power RTX 4050 / 4060 / 4070 Laptops Are a Waste”). So maybe potentially later we may see BIOS update to allow higher voltage for these GPUs, thus get even better performance. One advantage of 40xx series vs 30xx series GPU is that it supports DLSS 3 with frame generation. Also this comes with a MUX Switch which allows you to access the “dGPU” directly to reduce response time, but you need to set it up in BIOS. Remember this may drain your battery quicker. The performance improvement with MUX is also greatly depends on the game itself, and often you will not get the advertised 20%, but just a few percent.
RAM: 2*8GB DDR5 5600MHz (after peeling of the paper sticker you should find it is from SAMSUNG), I have seen videos that shows the components of a Nitro 16, but the Nitro 17 should be the same;
Storage: Single 1 TB Gen 4 SSD (OEM variant of the 980 Pro): Open the back lid, you can see it is a Samsung it is a PM9A1 MZVL21T0HCLR (after peeling of the paper cover) which is an OEM variant of the Samsung 980 Pro (this is a TLC High-End NVMe drive). So, it has 3D-NAND TLC 136 layers. |