All right. Quite alot of customer / forumer asked me: "ACER!? This brand safe ka?" Well i don't know either earlier. So few days ago i manage to squeeze out some time to test out the unit and prepare myself to write this article.

All right, less crap and let's get to the "business"


P/S: Before we start, please bare with the water mark which reduce the image quality. I do this in purpose after my previous review has been misused and was treated very not "客气-ly".

The Color box of the unit


ACer has the spec clearly listed out on the box


Had the box opened up, revealing the content. Left chamber is the adapter (Some one call it "PSU"...)


The Specification of the adapter. Standard 19V round headed 135W Adapter.


i experience more and more people asked about the thickness of the adapter, and well the adapter is around 27mm thick, 400G+/- heavy. Quite standard i say


[b]Remove the laptop and that have a thin chamber, storing the manuals


The Icon of the machine "ASPIRE V NITRO" (Be note the color is silver, not gold as it's affected by the light effect in my shop


This post has been edited by storm88: Dec 1 2014, 10:50 AM

DANG DANG DANG, here it comes!




The bottom of the unit. Clean design. The Vent at corner bottom left and right are speaker vent




THREE USB3.0 Connects, ONE HDMI port and furthest one is Ethernet Lan port




The rear air vent / Heat exhaust point. The Center is Subwoofer (if not mistaken)




Open up the unit, the machine's keyboard is cover by a sheet of soft paper




Remove the paper, revealing the C Panel (Keyboard and touchpad area)




It written: "Black Edition". The Icon of this Machine, on the touchpad. Quite some people ask me how does it feel of the touchpad. I pay sometime test out the touchpad and i can say the touch is "NOT BAD AT ALL! . I can only find the similar using experience on the Lenovo THINKPAD machine.



This post has been edited by storm88: Dec 1 2014, 11:06 AM

The thickness of the machine. I used a 50cent coin to demonstrate how thick the machine is. The machine is around 26mm thick



Unfasten the screw, used abit of skill to unshell the unit. Revealing the internal of the machine



The main "ingredient" of the machine. After spending some time examine the unit, i am very surprised to find that the construction is very tidy, not messy and workmanship is above average!



This is a 8G Cached 1TB SSHD drive pre-installed in the machine



Total of 2G GDDR5 memory chip for the NVIDIA GTX860M spotted.



Alot of people has been asking: "Can add ssd?" well, this photo basically had the question answered.


The Other side of the motherboard. The GPU and CPU is both covered by two way, dual heatpipe heatsink fan cooler


GPU and CPU Core's generated heat is cooled by Two heatpipes


This post has been edited by storm88: Dec 1 2014, 11:20 AM

Ahah, the keyboard is RED COLOR backlit




Experience sharing:

That's all about the spec wise. I powered up the unit to see how it does. Not surprised by the good spec provided- SSHD, the machine enter into DESKTOP after few basic setup in pretty short time!

The Machine's display is prefix with a LG-AHIPS screen. I believe i don't need to go detail in this for the good color and detail.

One thing that i decided to go more detail with is the "Heat control"
The machine is covered with dual heatpipe, dual fan design. By theory it should work good in carry the heat away from the machine.

My early benchmark shows that the heat control of the unit totally "another thing".
Simple and short Tests with FURMARK and PRIME95 is totally failed. I have high "taste" in heat control for laptops.
Below is how i categorize the cooling capability of a laptop

Anything above 95'C is consider FAIL;
90'C～95‘C : VERY HOT, not comfortable while gaming.
85'C~ 90'C : HOT, But Still acceptable
80'C~ 85'C : LUKE WARM, most people are fine with that
Anything less than 80'C: COOL Very good cooling. You won't feel heat at all.

By first attempts, i stop pushing benchmark afraid benchmark would damage the machine and had the test stop in less at 3 minutes. Later i compare my result with NBC and result is much different. So i decided to gave another run with different attempt by let each benchmark run for 3 hours. This time i get a TOTALLY DIFFERENT RESULT than the earlier tries.

Second tries had the RANK from FAIL increased to COOL. Strange eh ? This happened due to how ACER program their cooling PWM. The cooling fans TAKE TIME to kick in to provide full performance.


3 hours of max out setting at UNIGINE VALLEY FULL HD.


3 hours of "Donut ring" Furmark FullHD burnin benchmark


3 hours of Prime95 benchmark


[Specification]
INTEL CORE I7 4710HQ
12G DDR3L 1600MHz RAM
1TB 8G SSHD HARDDRIVE
NVIDIA GTX860M 2G GDDR5 DISCRETE DISPLAY
15.6" FULL HD IPS SCREEN
BACKLID KEYBOARD
WINDOWS 8.1 SINGLE LANGUAGE
NO DVD
1 YEAR WARRANTY
MARKET PRICE: RM3399


PROS:
- VERY GOOD VALUE.
- LIGHT WEIGHT. ABOUT 2.3KG
- AUDIO IS VERY STRONG
- GOOD COOLING, PROVIDED FANS ARE KICKED IN
- SLIM
- GOOD BUILD QUALITY

CONS:
- HARDDISK IS NOT LOCKED IN WITH ANY SCREWS BUT PROTECTED BY SOFT FOAMS ONLY. HARDDISK WILL EASIER TO GET DAMAGED WHEN THE FOAM GOT AGED UP
- HEATSINK FANS TOOK ABIT LONG TO KICK IN
- ONLY 1 YEAR WARRANTY
- ALL CONNECTORS IS SQUEEZE AT ONE SINGLE SIDE.
- THE GAP BETWEEN THE LAPTOP'S BOTTOM TO GROUND IS ABIT LOW, AFFECTING AIR INTAKE. BY RAISING THE GAP 5MM TEMPERATURE DROP FEW BY DEGREE CELSIUS.
- VERY VERY VERY LIMITED STOCK NATIONWIDE


Personal thinking about quality:
Yes, i heard alot about Acer's Quality issue and my sister in law once got hit by it before. Quite alot people hold their horse even they see this ASPIRE V NITRO at such good price tag. That also had me once doubt whether if ACER CUT COST to sell cheap.

After i had the unit examined in detail, it's clear that i would not agree it's the cut cost matter. The build quality is not bad and even better than our once hottest selling Y50-70. I checked the price of ASPIRE V NITRO at Singapore and i found that the price at Singapore here with similar spec is MUCH HIGHER. So, why is this model is so cheap in Malaysia?

I can only think of one reason: MARKETING ACTIVITY.

This post has been edited by storm88: Dec 1 2014, 12:00 PM

how was the performance ?

Pretty good review, thanks for sharing!

wow, finally its come 1 of my target ~
i think that not subwoofer , its spec stated that only got 4 speaker .
wait for more reveal ya !

So Tech Armory have available unit currently?

finally one of my question answered. there are M.2 slot inside this one.

Do update us time to time (if you have time), about what your feeling after 1 week of usage, 1 month or anything.

I plan to buy this sexy baby.

Bear in mind, TechArmory is a retailer for gaming laptop. I doubt they will update much unless more people decide to pick up the laptop, but it should be on display right, storm88 ?

I use clevo machine, so i kinda hard to update.

Yes i have display set now and also vry limited qty of stock now.

any option for warranty add on?

Acer can upgrade warranty to 3 yrs

bro, g551 unboxing?

Thanks for the review. Got mine today. PRetty happy with it....thus far.

How about that LCD Panel quality? sorry i'm not so familiar with LCD panel. It's seems too many in the market to offer.

G551 unbox?

nice unboxing,there has a m2 slot for the upgrade ,dont know its working or not.

m2 slot is working fine.

sweet...its well balance n inexpensive laptop///

Its also listed as top 10 gaming in notebookcheck and 2014's best affordable gaming laptop in LYN review.

http://www.lowyat.net/2014/12/review-acer-...-black-edition/

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-V...w.128435.0.html

How is Acer's warranty like? Is their after sales services good?

Refer by this short review,i just got my unit.. thanks bro @storm88 !

As long as it under warranty,highpoint services are ok bro. But i think dell support are better.

Hi Storm,
Very good review. Most reviews did not mention that the Hard drive isn't screwed into the casing.
One question, are the heat sink pipes aluminium or copper? Would it be a good idea to repaste the CPU & GPU with a better paste like diamond or artic when it's new or wait til a year later?
Heard that this laptop only has 1 year warranty. but can be extended, correct?

Most laptop are copper heatsink but sprayed to black color.

I would wonder does palm rests area color will dirt off?

Having bad experience on inspiron 15 last time.

It's been around since October.

http://www.goldfries.com/hardware-reviews/...otebook-review/

more performance details at http://www.goldfries.com/hardware-reviews/...ebook-review/2/

You may view the Battlefield 4 video.

overall the thing runs hot, really hot.

on the plus side, the keyboard material keeps most of the heat away from your fingers.

May i know whats the highest temperature recorded?

as mentioned ........

Thanks for the info, is there other better alternative for Acer Aspire V15?
Im getting a laptop this week, not too sure regarding which to choose, im having Acer Aspire , Illegear , Asus and Dell on my mind which have a graphic card of Nvidia 850 GTX and above.

Can advise or suggest to me?

Thanks!

For this price range, the V Nitro is my favorite.

I just read your whole review. Thanks a lot for posting.

But I have a question though...You mentioned about the GTX860M being equivalent to GTX750 desktop gpu. Do you know if an old GTX560Ti has the same performance to those 2? or weaker?

if upgrade warranty into 3 years, I bet price would be different. which almost same with Illegear Z5, just my 2cent

yes, only 1 option for upgrade , acer supercare 2, RM 298
so it make the price 3399 + 298 = 3697

560 Ti would be behind those 2 in terms of performance.

I too am having the same problem. Need to select between an Acer VN15 Nitro with 2 year extended warranty for RM3499 with not credit card surcharge, or a Gigabyte P27g V2 with the promo (additional diamond past, calibration, 128GB MSATA SSD) for RM3999 not including credit card surcharge (probably an additional 2%).

What I like about the Gigabyte P27G V2
1. Its supplied by illegear which has a good reputation for aftersales service. PrinceJ always replies very fast & very
friendly.
2. Has a MSATA SSD.
3. Diamond paste.
Not like, have to buy unseen as I am in Penang & illegear is in KL.

What I like about the Acer VN15.
1. No credit card surcharge.
2. Can get it in the shop in Penang.
3. No bling, bling.
Not like, the sales guy admitted that Acers have a short lifespan. About 3 years or so. & a lot of complaints about the service center tidak apa attitude.

Any advice guys in choosing which one?
Thanks,

But I heard Nivdia 950-970 series is coming out very soon, possible Jan 2015 and i heard is a much more better graphic card than Nvidia 860 GTX. So if you are not hurry to get it, i think is better to wait i guess.

I got budget constraint. Was targeting RM3500~RM4000. Don't know if the new laptops are going to be in this price range or not. Plus my old lappie needs to be replaced. .
Just worry about the reliability for Acer VN15 vs Gigabyte P27gV2.

Thanks,

Which shop in penang got Acer VN15? I also need to find one.

hmm but i heard 850/860 is a replacement of 950/960. Currently im not too sure about it, just read it somewhere in IT website. Pricing wise should be the same just that is a upgrade model from the old one.

how much improvemnts from 860 to 960?

PC Depot has them. So does E Square at Pragin Mall. Can also order through Gadgetzone.

Hi Storm88,

A very good review. I just emailed Acer Malaysia on the M.2 Slot & what SSD can be installed. Their reply

"
Hi,
As per our mail reply previously, SSD design for this model only for cache purpose and not for normal data storage.
It can't be upgrade for storage.
This model design under performance series. It can be support most of the application with requirement. We don't think any upgrade should make for it.
"

However in your photo & reviews from other websites, there is mention of a M.2 slot & Acer US installs a 128GB SSD here. Think that they are confusing the cache memory on the hybrid hard drive with the SSD.

Now my question. Does the M.2 slot exist on the Acer V Nitro models or has it been removed?
Either it has been removed from the Malaysian version of the Acer V Nitro or the tech there not bothered to help check for me. If say don't have, don't to check mah. *sigh*

Thanks,

The m.2 slot is there.

Below the Left fan, there is a space. That's where the M2 connector is located.

Getting very ambiguous reply from Acer Tech Support on my question if the laptop has an M.2 Slot & just got a call from Acer Tech Support.
So there is a M.2 slot on the laptop. But Acer Malaysia did not install a M.2 SSD.
If we install a M.2 SSD on our own, we would void the warranty. Installing anything else that isn't already on the laptop would also void the warranty, for example, RAM, a better harddisk, ect.

So if I want to get this laptop, cannot upgrade until out of warranty.
Drat & double drat.

From the design wise, its telling that already as to reach those port you are disassembling the laptop partially and also voiding the warranty unless the shop is doing so.

Hi riku2replica,
I did ask them if the shop added in the M.2 SSD. They said this would still void the warranty.
No changes whatsoever allowed by Acer.
Actually looking between this model & a Gigabyte P27G V2.

Thanks,

Oh shit. I just ordered this model from storm88 (and added the carepack 3 years) and i actually planned to add m.2 ssd later on.

So if i just add the m.2 and if i send to warranty, i plug out the m.2, will acer still accept my warranty?

This was my plan too.

I do heard tat current trends is the laptop no more void sticker so how do they know we're disassembling it?

Hello, just wanna ask.. If i need to change ram, i need to tear apart the laptop just to access the ram compartment?
Another thing, in case i already tear it up.. Does warranty void if i apply the new thermal paste for cpu n gpu?

Okay guys, I've emailed Acer this morning, and while I expected they reply me next month, I already got a reply. GREAT JOB ACER!

the bold statement is their reply.



just asked about the international warranty, here is the reply:



This post has been edited by ai_m: Dec 19 2014, 12:52 PM

Who said the warranty would be voided ey? We ask acer ppl and they say no warranty on the upgraded part saja

If that is the case, great. Would be nice to use the M.2 slot.

The Acer Tech support actually told me that about the warranty. I've been emailing them about the M.2 port last week & they kept telling me there is only a 8GB cache SSD. Which is actually part of the Hybrid drive.
Finally one of them, a lady called me last week & told me that there is M.2 slot. (well, duh, can see from your photo which I sent them). But if I install a M.2 SSD here, they can void the warranty.
When I asked her again if there was anything I could upgrade without voiding the warranty, she said no & the laptop didn't need to be upgraded.



This post has been edited by Dbassnut: Dec 19 2014, 09:36 PM

omg such inconsistent replies.
i got our answer direct from Acer malaysia merchandiser.

Hi Storm,

I think that the person you are dealing with Acer is more knowledgeable about their product than the one I was dealing with. Which is good in a way as, if we bought the laptop through you, you'd know who to talk to & how to get things done. The only down side is, you are working for as a liason for Acer but don't get paid for it. .

Acer think this laptop spec is decent enough for 1 year time.....
if cant upgrade, it will make me put this laptop out of my list lo, got m2 slot but cant upgrade, what a waste....

Hi evum seu,
I believe that Tech Armory can do the upgrade without voiding the warranty. Just that the upgrade part would not be covered by the warranty. Which is good to hear. Better get the details from Storm though as he is the Tech Armory rep here.

Question is, what is Acer's end game with this kind of thinking? If there is an alternative to this model from Acer, perhaps at a higher price, then maybe.

The only thing that they manage to do now is give MSI, Asus and Lenovo salesman new sales tactic.

I could hear them already. "I oso sell Acer, Acer say no more stock ma, you wait until die die also no stock. Game2 you take MSi la, same quality wor..."

----

Taking a Nitro unit for a test drive no thanks to a FFK. Still thinking on my next move, so in the mean time, let us see how things go..

I would say this first thought. The red backlit is a concern (most of my other gaming laptops don't last long, since I couldn't stand the backlit), yet the good thing is the letters are actually printed white with blue FN alternatives, so once you turn it off, red abhorrent guys like me can see that the laptop is just like any other.

Still couldn't fathom why gaming = red laptop by most manufacturer's standard.



This post has been edited by mfitri77: Dec 22 2014, 09:51 PM

Probably because gaming is supposed to be "hot" lol
MSI you can customize your own backlit, some other brand also allow you to customize yourself.. but mostly those big brand won't allow such customization..
So far I just heard of Illegear & Aftershock got provide this kind of service, but it's once in a purchase. Meaning after you choose, you will stick to it forever..
MSI 1 you can use software customize though.. but MSI mid range laptop is just so.....

Yeah, I remember when I had the Alienware M11. In the end, my choice of color was still white backlit.

Then again, getting it at the prices that Acer gave? Nice.

Although it would really help the brand if Acer tones down their BYOC thing. Preinstalled software everywhere.


This post has been edited by mfitri77: Dec 22 2014, 10:46 PM

Just ask is there an option w/o OS 1 lo.. I bought my z5 w/o OS..
OS is not a big deal for me XD

damn I like this laptop... will have money at the end of January hope can buy it before it's too late

guys, this is a dilemma question, i already have changed my laptop V Nitro's so called "fast" SSHD, with real SSD that i have a spare. this is the christalmark of my SSD,



and it is just a 256GB SSD, which takes up one 2.5" space in my laptop. according to review, a new kingston M.2 SSD have this much performance,



link: http://www.thessdreview.com/featured/kings...review-240gb/3/

and you can see that only in some cases that my SSD is losing, but if it is your laptop, would you settle to "slower" SSD but be put in M.2 slot, and put a 1TB HDD. so that you can have both SSD and HDD in the same laptop or not?

in online pricelist, a 240GB M.2 kingston SSD is RM560 something, that price can also get me a 2TB 2.5" external HDD or 4TB external 3.5" HDD...

This post has been edited by ai_m: Dec 28 2014, 09:11 PM

M.2 Sata is more exp compared to other SSD like 2.5'' and mSata

For me if I have the budget, I will get a M.2 slot SSD + 2.5'' HDD
Since having only a 2.5'' SSD which only got 256GB is useless IMO.. You will max out your capacity very fast if you want to stock up games

Currently I feel than HDD is enough for me.. as I don't need the fast read and write.. normal Win 8.1 start up speed is fast enough for me.. and all my work is saved to cloud so not much local file saving is needed

that is right bro, i can fill up with games fast, but I dont own that much games to begin with, as games that i play dont comes at that fast rate compared to most guys that like FPS games.

but once you have SSD in your system, going back to HDD is like being hold off your Mitsu Evo X and forced to drive stupid kancil... it is that difference in launching apps and day to day use.

if i have a fast internet wherever i go, I dont actually need more than 100gb space, as even right now, my 256GB SSD drive only using around 80GB space, and that is because I install games that I dont even play anymore(install just to stress test this laptop)...

haha. I wish 4G LTE is as ubiquitous as 3G....

Yup i know.. once you go ssd.. you can never go back
Then stick to your ssd lo
For my case i gt a lot of software to use.. those cost me 200gb+
1 Matlab and Visual Studio Ultimate ad eat up almost 50gb of space
I need more processing power rather than faster read write speed..

Main factor : im too poor to afford it

This post has been edited by miong93: Dec 28 2014, 11:05 PM

just got the aspire v15 nitro today after reading this review and some consideration

gonna test kaw kaw when im free XD

welcome to teh club bro. hehe.

Better test soon, got defect can claim warranty.
Do post review up

internet high five bro

yeah.. but hopefully dont have

i'm bad at posting reviews..

Been research for some brand laptop example like Lenovo Y50-70, Asus G551 or Dell 7447. Finally, made decision go for Acer V Nitro.

Have play around for half day only, my first thought = overall impressive

Pros:
1. Cheap, indeed really affordable gaming laptop compare Lenovo (price: RM3999) or Asus (price: RM3499 but 4gb RAM).
2. Backlit keyboard, kinda like first time having backlit keyboard feel awesome but after a while feel not really useful (myself can type any key without looking on it)
3. IPS screen, advantages any angles viewing on screen without feeling loss color
4. Great surround speaker, still better than 2 speakers on laptop but not much bass produce
5. Great twin cooling fan, I do compare with MSI GE60 first but laptop itself only have one single cooling fan
6. Fast boot up windows 8, estimation around 30seconds or less
7. Not need upgrade RAM. Alot laptop come with 4gb RAM only example Asus G551
8. Really can handle well multitask

Cons
1. Touchpad seem little unresponsive
2. Alot unnecessary Acer application been installed
3. Palm rest on right hand abit feel warm, it could be improve if Acer can consider Aluminium build material.

This post has been edited by danieltan: Dec 31 2014, 12:12 PM

nice i also want to buy this. where u bought this?

Brought from All IT Hypermarket. You can try your luck on there.

I hear this stock quite limited due many holiday season especially Christmas, New Year and more.

This post has been edited by danieltan: Dec 31 2014, 05:41 PM

My z5 is Aluminium built.. The weight is really light.. and cooling also XD
But I still prefer Acer laptop pattern.. I feel it's more hard and can endure more "Accidental" hit
But I really envy your IPS screen.. LG IPS screen leh !

I do consider for looking Illegear z5 but budget quite tight and its does not come with Windows 8. If added with Windows 8 together cost almost RM4k.

Btw, total damage for buying Acer laptop come with 3 years warranty still cheaper than Illegear z5 without OS.

Yea.. no choice... Illegear place their price at that range
OS is not my problem cause I got plenty of Keys.. 8.1 Pro as well as 7 Ultimate.. haha
The built quality is really good lar.. So far except the "plastic feel" of aluminum body of my z5, the rest is pretty much very superb.
No heat issue, good keypad, quiet fan, smooth gaming (not all high end game) and Customizable.. I can add in stuff w/o voiding warranty

My z5 warranty is 2 years carry-in, so a bit troublesome if need to claim for warranty as I'm living in Melaka

If I know Acer Nitro beforehand I would actually get the Acer rather than Z5 cause of the price, but still Illegear service is indeed better than others except Dell.. Their reply is really helpful and they act professionally yet friendly.

Or you try to see Aftershock lo.. their price is quite cheap and also using clevo model..

P/S: The subwoofer of my z5 indeed produce better bass than laptop w/o it

This post has been edited by miong93: Jan 2 2015, 11:47 AM

An Acer Aspire V Nitro user here. I found that the battery area is extremely hot when gaming and some of the keyboard area are hot too especially the right side, and also facing sudden frame drops when the laptop is hot. Guess need a better cooling pad. Currently using so-so cooling pad. Any other owners have this problem?

The right side area is indeed hot as mentioned by other Nitro's user..

But it should be quite okay WITHOUT a cooling pad.. As the review of Nitro is benchmarked w/o a cooling pad.. The result is good also.. So either your laptop is having issue or your driver is having issue..

What game you're playing ?? and what settings ?

1. Make sure your cooling pad doesn't block your laptop air intake "hole"
2. Check you're overclocking your gpu and cpu or not..
3. Disable cpu overclocking as cpu won't matter much in most game.. 2.4ghz is sufficient

Sorry for late reply.

Well, I play most of the FPS games with high settings depend on the game. My driver is up-to-date and its a clean install.

1. Erm i guess my cooling pad is blocking the bottom of the vent but there's other half isn't been block
2. Nope, I didn't overclock both GPU and CPU

Bro how hot is hot? Try install HWmonitor and see your temperature while gaming. Im interested to know your temperature cause i game on my v-nitro it doesnt get hot, i mean doesnt feel hot at all. Just a little bit warm only on right palm (hard disk area or battery? Not sure right is harddisk or battery, i think its harddisk).

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/3/7483451/a...aptop-realsense

Nice upgrade.. I also notice there is a port at left side... so Acer is getting better and better...

Try don't use your cooling pad see lor.. Maybe 1 of the air intake is for cpu while another is gpu..
Cause Nitro is having dual heatsink + heatpipe

This post has been edited by miong93: Jan 5 2015, 09:35 AM

Wait.. I'm more interested in the optical drive.. There is an optical drive in the so damn slim design ?!

Sure, but I didn't bring my laptop to my hostel and I'm having exam right now, probably need to wait for next Wednesday.

There's no optical drive in V15 model but V17 got optical drive.

Update:

17.3" Acer V Nitro 17 is arriving


16G Ram, GTX860M 4G GDDR5, 17.3" IPS, Blueray drive

This post has been edited by storm88: Jan 9 2015, 07:13 PM

woo...nitro17

anyway...u know what i hate the most about this laptop?...hard to find a good laptop bag to fit it..coz its so big. hehe

yes its 17.3"
but it's not as heavy as it looks like

can't wait for your review on Acer Nitro V17

Can upgrade to gtx970 ?

got new batch of Acer nitro ka?
in 2015?