Acer Nitro 5 15 vs Dell G5 15: which mid-range gaming laptop is right for you?

If you’re looking for a portable gaming PC but don’t want to spend car-sized amounts of money, chances are you’re going to end up looking at the Acer Nitro 5 15 and the Dell G5 15: both of them score highly in our best gaming laptops guide, are well specified for the money and deliver great gaming experiences.

But there are some important differences between them. In this head to head we’ll break down the key features so you can make an informed choice when you buy your brand new gaming laptop.

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Acer Nitro 5 15 vs Dell G5 15: DESIGN AND USABILITY

The Nitro is a little less flashy than other gaming laptops, so if you’re looking for a visual wow factor this may not be the gaming laptop for you. The plastic case feels a little flimsy and the bezels are a little on the big side. In our review we said it was “neither offensively ugly or tremendously boring: there’s nothing wrong with it.”

The lines between Dell and its Alienware subsidiary are getting blurrier, and the G5 has more in common with the latter than the business laptops that are Dell’s bread and butter. It looks and feels like a premium laptop, and while the keyboard is a little squashed it’s comfortable enough and looks good with its white backlight.

Acer Nitro 5 15 vs Dell G5 15: DISPLAY

The Dell has a 15-inch 144Hz FHD screen using what Dell calls 'WVA', or Wide Viewing Angle. It handles motion well and delivers strong contrast, although colours are a little less vibrant than some rivals.

The Acer has a larger display – 17.3 inches – but the same full HD resolution. It’s a 120Hz IPS panel and like the Dell is perfectly fine if a little lacking in punch.

Acer Nitro 5 15 vs Dell G5 15: SPECS AND OPTIONS

The Acer comes in two flavours, Intel and AMD, with a range of processors. The pick of the range is the Intel Core i7-10750H, a 2.6GHz hexa-core CPU, and 8GB of RAM with either a GeForce GTX1650Ti or a GeForce RTX 2060. SSD options range from 256GB to 1TB NVMe. 

The Dell has an Intel Core i7-10750H with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 1660Ti or RTX 2060. Storage is a 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

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Acer Nitro 5 15 vs Dell G5 15: FEATURES AND PORTS

The Dell has 1 x HDMI 2.0, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1, 2x USB 2.0 and a headphone/mic jack. On the GTX 1650Ti model there’s 1 x RJ45 and 1 x USB-C DisplayPort (alt-mode only). Other configurations get 1 x Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C, 1 x MiniDP and 1x Killer E2500V2 Gigabit Ethernet. All models have .ac Wi-Fi but some have 802.11ax and Bluetooth 5.1. The quoted battery life is up to 10 hours.

As with the Dell, the Acer spec depends on your graphics card option: if you go for the GTX you have gigabit ethernet but that’s absent from the RTX model’s spec. The current range has HDMI, 4 x USB including USB 3.2 Gen 2 and a battery with quoted life of 8 to 10 hours depending on spec. Wi-Fi is 802.11ax.

Acer Nitro 5 15 vs Dell G5 15: PRICING AND VERDICT

You can configure the Acer and the Dell with very similar options, and their prices are very similar too. 

With a Core i7-10750H and GeForce GTX 1650Ti the Acer is currently £1,099; with an RTX 2060 it’s £1,299.

With the same Intel Core i7 and a GeForce GTX 1660Ti the Dell £1,019; with an RTX 2060 it’s £1,149. 

Price isn’t the only consideration, of course. The Dell is generally cheaper, but its screen is smaller; however, that screen has a faster refresh rate than the Acer and its GTX GPU option is marginally faster. And while this is purely a personal preference, we think the Dell looks and feels more premium. However, these are both very solid mid-range gaming laptops at a range of price points and with good configuration options: neither is likely to disappoint.

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