Acer's clean Nitro V 14 wasn't good enough for one girl gamer

The woman, an American, snapped photos of Acer’s new Nitro V 14 gaming PC, but she was clearly irritated.

“What, girls don’t get a 4090?” she asked of a pair of foreign journalists, who stared blankly. “Why aren’t we good enough for a 4090?”

A few dozen minutes ago, Acer had announced the Acer Nitro V 14 on stage at a press conference attached to IFA, Berlin’s consumer electronics show. I wasn’t paying attention too closely, but the Nitro V 14 — clothed in a rather fresh-looking white plastic chassis, apparently was being marketed at women. One of Acer’s promotional images showed what was apparently a gamer girl clutching the Nitro V 14.

If it’s true that the Acer Nitro V 14 is being marketed at women — and no one at Acer’s booth specifically told me it was — the irritated influencer may have had a point. The Acer Nitro V 14 (ANV14-61) includes up to a Ryzen 7 8845, but also just an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, normally associated with creator-class notebooks and entry-level gaming. It will cost a reasonable $1,099, going on sale in September.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

To be fair, Acer is marketing the Nitro V 14 as a gaming-class device that can handle productivity tasks, which is usually shorthand for the creator-class notebook that can achieve both. An Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 would probably push the price tag well above $2,000, at least. But the 14-inch 2560×1440 display splits the difference between drawing an orc and virtually slaughtering one.

The laptop also has a mux switch, which actually turns off or enables the integrated GPU. Windows can automatically route tasks, like games, to the discrete GPU, but some feel this can improve graphics performance in a gaming laptop regardless.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Since the chassis is plastic, not metal, the Nitro V 14’s weight is a reasonable 3.75 pounds, tucked inside a 12.9 x 9.2in chassis that measures 22mm thick. A plastic chassis usually means a more aggressive fan profile to cool the chassis, but I didn’t have a chance to benchmark it. Still, the weight makes it feel like an ordinary laptop, not a chonky gaming PC. You will see some pretty aggressive fan cutouts on the rear hinge of the device, however, as well as venting on the underside to allow air through.

Inside, Acer is offering the Nitro V 14 with up to 32GB of DDR5-5600 SDRAM and PCIe Gen 4 memory options from 512GB up to 2TB, a storage trend I appreciate. I didn’t see anything identify a USB-C port on the laptop as a 20Gbps USB-C port, normally associated with external gaming SSDs, so the extra internal storage is appreciated.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

A reasonable price tag always signals some corners may be cut, and this laptop uses older WiFi 6e rather than WiFi7, as well as a 720p webcam — ugh. (Our best webcams buying guide can help.) Interestingly, there’s a 57Wh battery hiding inside, the same as in the larger Nitro V 16 — you’ll see a bit more battery life with the smaller model.

I’ve really liked Acer’s PurifiedVoice 2.0 AI audio feature before, the noise filtering is extraordinary! Acer Purified View is basically just the Windows Studio Effects settings, however. Copilot makes an appearance, of course, alongside NitroSense, the acer utility to adjust fan speed and create performance profiles.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Mark Hachman / IDG

Whether the Acer Nitro V is being expressly marketed at women or not, there’s absolutely no shame in a color other than black. The clean, fresh look a white chassis evokes appeals to all genders.

But whether everyone deserves an RTX 4090 — well, I didn’t see any gaming laptop from Acer offer a 4090 in its company IFA showcase. So maybe, just maybe, the cranky influencer had a point.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor, PCWorld

Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology. He has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Popular Science and Electronic Buyers’ News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room.

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