New Acer Nitro 16 first look fresh from CES 2023 – powerful Nvidia RTX 40 series GPU and more

At CES 2023, Acer revealed their next generation laptops that will see deployment across the course of the year though we had the opportunity to get a close hands-on with a sample of their newly launched Nitro 16 gaming laptop ahead of the show in a special closed-door event in Malaysia. Here’s our Acer Nitro 16 first look fresh from CES 2023!

What is the Acer Nitro 16 gaming laptop

For the uninitiated, the Acer Nitro series is their line-up of entry-level gaming laptops that exists alongside their more premium Predator series gaming rigs. 

Aesthetically speaking, the new Acer Nitro 16 still bears the visual hallmarks of an Acer-issued gaming rig including a new Nitro gaming logo on the top lid and its elaborate air intakes and exhaust scattered around the rear and sides of the chassis. The chassis makes liberal use of polycarbonate all around but the design does feel sturdy with a solid hinge assembly that does not wobble about when deployed.

The laptop itself holds a full sized keyboard that’s slightly recessed into the frame and casual inspection looks like it’s a membrane keyboard with a quick hands-on revealing relatively good key travel and feedback. The large touchpad is also placed just slightly off of centre for better ergonomics. 

The refreshed aka model AN16-51 that was revealed at CES 2023 has a 16-inch WQXGA or WUXGA display with a tall 16:10 aspect ratio and a blazing fast 165Hz refresh rate, a luscious 100% sRGB colour gamut along with Nvidia Advanced Optimus support to ensure silky smooth animations onscreen. On account of its slimmer bezels, the new Acer Nitro 16 offers a generous 84% screen-to-body ratio. For beefier audio, the laptop packs a pair of 2W speakers enhanced with DTS:X Ultra tech.

Under the hood, the Acer Nitro 16 comes with 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processors or the latest  AMD Ryzen series processors  along with the option to equip it with up to 32GB LPDDR5 RAM and up to a mammoth 2TB Gen4 M.2 PCIe SSD along with the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series laptop graphics though which exact version hasn’t been specified. Keeping all this hardware cool are a pair of dual-intakes with dual-cooling fans as well as a quad-exhaust to maximise air flow.

Some other mod-cons with the Acer Nitro 16 include a full sized keyboard with four-zone RGB backlighting, Killer Ethernet E2600 and Intel Killer WiFi 6 connectivity. On the audio front, the Acer Nitro 16 also packs a pair of stereo speakers.

In terms of connectivity, the laptop looks armed for bear with the left side offering a wired ethernet port, what looks like a 3.5mm audio jack, a microSD card reader and a USB-A port while the right hosts a pair of USB-C type-A ports for our early sample though this can vary with the final production version. Oddly enough, we didn’t notice any USB-C ports on our sample of the Acer Nitro 16.

As always, these specifications for the Acer Nitro 16 aren’t final and they will inevitably vary to some degree according to availability and region. 

How much is the Acer Nitro 16

At present, Acer hasn’t announced pricing or availability in Malaysia just yet but the Acer Nitro 16 will be priced at about USD1,199.99 which is about RM5,197 with its initial debut in the United States slated to be about May 2023 along with China and EMEA at about the same time. Depending on what its final price is for Malaysia, the Nitro 16 looks like a gaming laptop is a serious contender indeed for your money. For more details, you can check out their official page at https://www.acer.com/my-en/laptops/nitro/nitro-16-intel 

Another announced addition to the Nitro line-up is their Acer Nitro 17 which has a 17.3-inch FHD 165Hz or QHD 165Hz display, AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPU, 4-zone backlighting, up to 32GB DDR5 RAM, up to a 2TB SSD.