Acer Nitro 16 review — The closest thing to ‘budget’ you’re likely to find

Anyone new to Acer’s Nitro family might not know that the whole idea is to meld high-end performance with “budget’ pricing. Sure, it’s difficult to ignore the Nitro 16’s R38,000 price tag, but stand it next to something like the ROG Strix Scar 18, and it all begins to sting a bit less, yes?

The Nitro squad might be missing all those extra dressings you’d normally see in the altogether more expensive Helios line-up, but that’s okay. Acer’s done some work to keep the cost down, with the GPU taking the biggest hit but that’s okay. Our review model chugged along just fine in that regard, pairing rather well with the flashier-than-most 16in display that’s slapped on. The revamped gamer-fied composition is just a bonus.

Not for the bright-hearted

For a laptop that’ll ‘only’ take R38,000 out of your wallet at the till, we were pleasantly surprised at Acer’s choice of display here. It’s rocking a 16in WQXGA 16:10 IPS panel that’ll net 165+Hz when necessary. If you’re still struggling to pull off a ceiling shot in Rocket League with 165 frames to fiddle with, look inward, yeah?

In terms of looks, Acer’s done well. Not only are colours vibrant enough to make most of the games it tackles look glorious, but it doesn’t skimp on brightness either. It’s repping 400 nits’ peak brightness that made this a friend of both the indoors and outdoors. As if it’s necessary — it’s not like the Nitro 16’s target market are sun chasers.

It’ll withstand the pressure from more basic tasks, and can even squeeze in some light editing work if that’s your thing. It won’t live up to the colour accuracy you’d find in professional-grade creative laptops out there, but that’s to be expected. Acer wants you gaming — not editing — on this thing, after all.

What’s under the hood?

That display hasn’t been wasted, thankfully. Our review model had Intel’s 13th-gen Core i7-13700H, 16GB of RAM and Nvidia’s RTX 4050 all drawing on the 90Wh battery tucked in there. Those looking to shackle their computer to their desks shouldn’t have any trouble keeping this bad boy alive during a nasty bout of load shedding, even at max settings.

As for gaming, the Nitro 16 handled nearly everything we threw at it – with some accommodations in the settings department. It’ll struggle to play those too-demanding titles at a high-res and stable framerate, usually requiring some sacrifices to keep the framerate at a playable state. That was the case for our time in The Witcher 3, at least. Our sessions which included older titles handled the heat just fine – managing a consistent 120+ frame rate when possible and looking good doing it.

Unfortunately, mixing the power-hungry CPU and GPU was never going to award you with a decent battery life. Confine your movements to some basic browsing and a YouTube video or two, and it’ll last five or six hours easily at max brightness. Throw it a game? It’ll start falling right before your eyes. Best to keep that chunk of a battery-charger with you at all times if you’re serious about gaming on the go.

Don’t let the DTS-X branding fool you. It’s plenty loud enough, but the speakers Acer’s included here hardly ever reach a level of quality that left us satisfied. You can blame the middling bass and lack of proper directional sound that’s most noticeable during a gaming or Netflix stint for that. Make friends with the audio input on the left-hand side.

Fingerprint magnet

If the specs and display that scream ‘overkill’ weren’t already a dead giveaway, the Nitro 16 is a gamer’s machine. Acer’s taken what used to be a large hunk of plastic in the 2022 models and streamlined it into a slimmer, yet still chunky box of plastic for the 2023 edition. It’ll still put up a fair bit of strain on your backpack’s stitching, weighing 2.6kg and stretching 17 inches across – but it’s a step up in Acer’s Nitro family. Believe us, we’re thankful.

You won’t often hear us complaining when a chassis is all plastic – even the lid – because it usually amounts to a knock-off in the price department, as has happened here. But when it leads to a rather noticeable flex in the lid when open, we’re a little less accepting. It’d be a little easier to overlook if the lid wasn’t constantly drawing our attention to the million or so smudges it attracted within our first hour of use. We’d recommend keeping a microfibre cloth handy if you’re planning on showing off at the office.

Microfibre cloth pending, the Nitro 16 is still a gorgeous piece of machinery. It’s slathered in the usual buckets of matte black and a simple Nitro logo affixed to the lid’s centre. It won’t stick out like a sore thumb, but it’ll certainly attract like-minded gamers who ask whether it can run Crysis or not.

Life up that lid, carefully for fear of fingerprints, and the RGB-touting full-size keyboard should stand out immediately. While it does look good, Acer’s made a keyboard you won’t hate typing on, either – unless you’re planning any three-hour-plus sessions, in which case we’d advise getting something a little more ergonomic for the wrists. Keys aren’t mechanical, but what did you expect? The keys that are included hardly experience any wobble, making for a solid keyboard that’ll rarely have you reaching for something third-party. For those rare occasions you’ll be relying solely on the plastic touchpad, it’ll serve you well. Still, pick up a mouse. Pretty please.

There’s nothing better than a company that likes to spread out its ports. Acer’s passed with flying colours here – confining the more important, semi-permanent ports to the rear. That means two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports and a slot for the AC adaptor. Down the left-hand side, you’ll find the 3.5mm audio input, Ethernet, microSD and USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A. The right hand is home to another two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-As.

Acer Nitro 16 verdict

Despite our complaints surrounding the plastic shell, sub-par speakers and often poor battery life, it’s easily outweighed by the Nitro 16’s excellent display, great specs and decent looks. Even if it does require a couple of sacrifices to get the latest games running at their best, we never found ourselves reaching for something shinier or more expensive. That R38,000 price tag might look too steep to the untrained eye, but for what you’re getting, Acer’s been rather generous.

Pricier models with more capable GPUs are available, but you’ll have some trouble finding them out in the wild without a nudge to Acer’s sales department. Hell, even our review model’s specs are tough to come by — with the closest being this one right here.