Where to buy Acer v15 Nitro laptops in the US?

I am interested in buying the Acer Aspire v15 Nitro Black Edition (VN7-593G) when it comes out. There is a long list of German stores that have it available for pre-order in every configuration, but only a single American listing. At first I thought that perhaps American stores won't list it until it is released, but then I tried to search for the older model and even for that the pickings are very slim: there are a few configurations scattered over several stores, but nowhere with a comprehensive set. The "Acer Store" is nothing like Dell/HP/Lenovo/etc. -- there's only a single configuration of a 17" Nitro machine.

So, where do people buy these machines? Is this something that is mainly sold in Europe? It looks that way, but then why advertise it at CES?

 

One piece of advice - don't bother. You can get a better machine in the face of the GL553 or Y720 or GE63

 

Why? If you want to give him an advice, then at least give him something better than "don't bother."

As far as I know, the mentioned models GL553 and GE63 aren't equipped with a GTX 1060, whereas it's the standard card for the VN7-593G (and Y720).

Personally, I dislike the overused red colour for gaming laptops, especially the highlighted keys around WASD. It makes it look unprofessional, which OP might think too.

OP, regarding your question: I'm from Europe too, but they seem to be mostly sold from German sites as of now, so we'll have to wait and see when it gets released.

 

Becuase the V Nitro series are widely known for having thermal problems as well as being extremely hard to maintain (clean, upgrade and such) - not to mention the chassis is plastic and not as durable as the Y720 and GL502VM. Additionally, the small battery results in shorter run-times. If he wants a 1060, then the Y720, GL502VM, GS63VR or Alienware 15 R3/R4 are MUCH better options.

 

I've looked at NotebookCheck's review of the 17" version and it doesn't look like it is that hard to maintain or upgrade. I've disassembled laptops before and I'm not too worried about this. Likewise, most of my laptops have been plastic and I tend to keep them for 3-5 years so unless it's really falling apart or cannot be lifted in a specific way without breaking it, this is not a big concern. As to your other option, I have thought about this at considerable length ( link to long post) and I cannot find a better option for my needs. To address the machines you list:

Y720: As far as I can tell, this is not coming out until April and I need the machine sooner than that. Also, it looks kind of ugly and the base cost is high.

GLM502VM: This is a possibility, but I can't find one with a decent UHD display and even without that it is considerably more expensive than the Acer. Also, it has this weird issue where one of the RAM slots is soldered in place and cannot be greater than 8GB.

GS63VR: This would work, except that it has a fan exhaust port on the right-hand side where I keep my mouse hand. I had a laptop like this and I found the hot air really annoying so I'm never buying one like it again.

Alienware 15: That thing is nearly 8lbs! Also, no UHD screen and the configuration with the 7700HQ is really expensive for what you're getting. No, just no.

I fully understand the the V Nitro is not perfect, but I can't find anything better. If somebody knows of a 15" laptop weighing less than 6lbs/2.7kg with a Pascal GPU, a true (i.e. not pentile) UHD display, a 7700HQ CPU and at least the option for an NVMe SSD that costs less than $1700 (better if around $1500) and, preferably, looks professional and has a Thunderbolt 3 port, I would certainly consider it. At the moment, the V15 Nitro looks like my best bet... assuming I can find a UHD model in the US for a non-exorbitant price.

 

Just a heads-up - the GS63 has a total of 5 vents - the one on the right won't be the only one and the heat is distributed equally with the back ones having shorter pipes. I really doubt the heat will be noticeable unless you start running stress tests as users report very good thermal performance on it. As for the 502VM - it's a very good 1080 IPS screen - not sure if 4K options exists.

Also, the AW15 is expensive because it has a very solid cooling solution which remains MUCH quieter than the V Nitro - probably twice as quiet if I were to measure. In addition, the battery is nearly twice the overall capacity giving you substantially better runtimes. Not to mention the much more durable chassis and sound quality. There is a reason it's expensive.

 

The other laptop also had multiple vents (though not quite so many). I'm fairly confident I would feel it. The GL502VM is currently my backup option in case I can't find a V Nitro at a decent price.

The price is not my main concern with the AW15. It better have good cooling and low noise -- it's way bigger and way heavier than any other machine I've considered. It's not that they did some brilliant engineering; it's better cooled because it's heavier than many 17" laptops and nearly as big as one.

 

Also looking for vn7-593g. No luck.

I sold my vn7-571g and waiting for the new laptop.

 

Please note that these notebooks aren't available yet. When you find some of those configurations with prices (most of them in Germany) there is an annotation that says "not available in stock yet".

These should be available sometime in February. We will see them in March then

 

I read some reviews about the cooling system of the GL502VM/GL702VM, and I'm not impressed.

Look at this Reddit post (it's a 17inch model, but that should not make a difference): https://www.reddit.com/r/SuggestALa...t_recommended_laptops_gaming_college/dciyl2b/

To OP, I do not suggest this laptop as your backup option. It doesn't come with the 7. gen Intel CPU either.

Wait for the V15 Nitro version to come out, and wait for reviews and user reviews. I hope the V15 Nitro does not disappoint, because it's the only model that has great specs, but reasonably cheap and very professional-looking.

I think the Y520 looks OK, but it does not come with a GTX 1060, but I might get the 1050 Ti version if the V15 Nitro disappoints.

 

@Xirbo I agree with your points although I'd like to add that Y520 has an average screen. Not a terrible one but not a good one either, so Acer has something to improve on here as well.
See here: http://laptopmedia.com/review/lenov...-the-y-series-are-finally-on-the-right-track/

 

I was worried "February" might mean "February 28th" and it looks like you're right, they'll really come out in March. Oh well, at least it's not "April" (which probably means May). What I meant about the German configurations is that while they're not available yet, at least they exist. The US has only the one really basic model for $1250 at a couple of stores and that's it.

I suspect that if a 15", 4-6lb laptop has a 1060, there will be a probability of thermal problems regardless of the manufacturer (though some manufacturers are better than others). These machines effectively stuff a desktop GPU (80-100W depending on whom you ask) into a reasonably portable laptop. If the cooling design is flawed, all machines will have problems but even if it is good, there is still a significant probability of throttling because somebody was sloppy during the assembly. There is no room for error here.

ASUS's website says that it doesn't, but there's a model on Newegg that does (the ASUS ROG GL502VM-DS74).

The Y520 is in the same class as the Dell Inspiron and HP Omen: a cheap way to get a 1050 Ti, but the cheapest options are pretty lousy in other ways and the more expensive ones are not that far from the price of the V Nitro while still lacking certain features (e.g. Thunderbolt) and maintaining the annoying red-and-black styling. I agree with you that, on paper, the V Nitro is the best of the lot.

 

There's this clevo: https://www.amazon.com/Eluktronics-N850HK1-Premium-Performance-Laptop/dp/B06X6BB9F7/ EDIT: Model I linked as the $899 1080p+1TB model which is sold out. Currently redirects to the 4K model, which uses a PenTile not-true-4K display. I would recommend waiting until the 1080p+1TB model comes back in stock.

GTX 1050 Ti, 1920x1080 IPS (LG LP156WF6-SPB1, one of the best), $899

This one's currently at the top of my recommendation hierarchy for the price.

 

This is not bad, but again, it is a cheap way to get the 1050 Ti which becomes fairly expensive if upgrades are made to bring the storage and RAM above the level of my 6 year old HP Pavilion. I went to the Eluktronics site and configuring it with 16GB RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD increases the cost to $1225 (well, $1325, but there's a $100 off coupon built into the configurator so I'm assuming they'll honor it). They do offer a 4K display (both on Amazon and on their site), but I have no idea whether it is one of the good ones or a pentile one (given that it only costs $75 extra, probably the latter).

I agree with you that for $900, this is about as good as it gets (especially since RAM is trivial to upgrade and storage is only marginally more of a hassle), but I'm looking for machines at a slightly higher price point.

 

Just called Acer in my country and they are releasing new revisions at the beginning of Q2. That's alot of time...

 

First or second week of April likely.

 

Interesting. They said February at CES and Abt (an American store) says 7-14 days which would be consistent with end of February. If it's not out in March, I'll go with the ASUS or the cheap Clevo.

 

We'll see. I need to buy a notebook in March as well - April is no good for me either, so if Acer fails to deliver, I'll take my money elsewhere (probably to a pub )

 

With the new Nvidia GPU's like 1060 there is a substantial difference in relation to my Clevo with 765M from 2013 so i am also thinking to upgrade, one option was to be Acer Nitro V17 but from the prices and configs that appear in Germany it seems they are too expensive compared to Predator !!! and don't have enough configuration choices.

German Acer webpage is completely outdated still with former generation models...do they want to sell?!

It just looks like when i bought my Clevo, the biggest companies don't have flexibity and i end up buying not the laptop that i want but the one from the most flexible manufacturer.

 

In the US, the one and only V15 Nitro GTX 1060 model (7700HQ, 16GB RAM, no SSD, FHD display) that I can currently find for pre-order (Google NH.Q23AA.001) costs $1250 which is less than a comparable Clevo P650 at any store. This model has almost everything I want except that it is missing the UHD display and the SSD. I'm comfortable installing the SSD myself, but I would really prefer it came with the UHD display. It will be interesting to see how much that requirement increases the price.

German shops actually have a variety of GTX 1060 configurations available ranging from NH.Q23EG.001 (i5-7300HQ, 8GB RAM, no SSD, FHD display) for 1300 euro to the NH.Q23EG.007 (7700HQ, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, UHD display) for 1800 euro. You can get at them by either Googling the 7 iterations or just following the links at this link. Strangely enough, none of the available 7 German configurations is exactly identical to the only American one. The one that comes closest is NH.Q23EG.003 which differs from NH.Q23AA.001 only in having 8GB RAM (rather than 16GB) and costs 1390 euro (rather than $1250).

What worries me is that, at least for the German configurations, the UHD display is not available until a fairly high overall price point. The first model that has it is the second to most expensive: the NH.Q23EG.006 which costs 1650 euro and differs from its 1800 euro sibling only in that it has a 256GB SSD rather than a 512GB one. I'm hoping the American configurations are more reasonably priced (which, to be fair, does seem to be the case based on the NH.Q23AA.001).

 

Guys just make sure you get the version with IPS screen, because most reviews rate the other screen average to below average.

 

Sorry to not have been explicit if it comes to it i'll be looking for V17 not V15.

 

As far as I can tell, all V Nitro models come with an IPS display. The difference is that one display variant is FHD (i.e. 1920x1080) whereas the other is UHD (i.e. 3840x2160).

The German V17 models are called NQ.26EG. There's a list of them on the same site as the V15s ( link). I haven't looked at them in detail, but it appears that there are fewer configurations available for pre-order: the site lists 6, but only 3 are distinct. On the other hand, there is a pretty detailed review of a pre-production V17 on Notebook Check ( link). They even have a link to a German version of the review if you prefer that.

 

Yeah no 256gb SSD, 16 Gb, 1920x1080 on that list.

 

Can't see 1050ti listed with 593g. It's not coming? Only with 1060?

 

It's supposed to come with 1050 Ti as well. I haven't seen a model like that yet, but that doesn't mean much given that the laptop is not officially out yet so the selection of models available right now is pretty random.

 

I just can't make up my mind. Go buy Vn7 592g with gf 960m now or wait for the 1050 ti version. I'm not going to play any demanding games apart from CS Go.

But if I have to wait until April then I'm out. I just need some comfirmation when can we expect new 593g.

 

If you scroll down to the bottom of Acer's official press release, it says that both the V15 and the V17 should be out in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and China in February. The various stores that have it available for pre-order currently have shipping dates which are indicative of the end of February. Thus, I would suggest waiting until the end of February and seeing what the status is then.

 

If you check some German retailers you can find some more specific dates like 16 March. But still it can't be trusted.

 

In my opinion Vn7 593g doesn't have 1050ti version, only 1060. But if you are looking for budget rig then Acer has the new Aspire VX5-591G ( http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-VX5-591G-VX-15-Notebook-Preview.189778.0.html)

I am also torn apart between MSI, ASUS and Acer gtx 1060 models. At the moment I am leaning towards this: https://mts.ee/acer-aspire-v15-nitr...d-?search=Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition. Looks like they have misspelled the correct product name, it should be 593g.

Still waiting for some reviews about it and then probably will buy it, luckilly this store is near my home

 

So TigerDirect ( link) and PCM ( link) now claim to have this machine in stock, but they only have have the $1250 model with the FHD display and no SSD. Does anyone know when the UHD models come out? Or even if not, are there any reviews of any version of this laptop?

 

God damn, Can't wait for some reviews to pop up.

 

Here's a review. Some points that I thought were interesting:

• The UHD display is not the great one from the previous version -- it doesn't have the same color gamut. The good side of this is that it draws less power so the battery life is longer, but I would personally prefer the nicer display.
• The laptop is a lot easier to open for upgrades than the previous version.
• The fans are rarely inactive: "they start spinning even with the most basic of tasks (moving the cursor, launching the browser, watching a movie)." I would personally prefer it if it got a bit hotter at idle, but refrained from doing this.
• It gets pretty warm under load: 48 C / 118 F in the middle of the keyboard. I suppose this is the price to be paid for the 1060, but this machine is not that small or light so it would have been nice if it could keep cooler.
  
• The port selection is good, but it is positioned in the worst possible arrangement for a right-handed person who wants to use a mouse. The USB 2.0 ports are on the left and most of the others are on the right.

On the whole, it's OK, but not as good as I was expecting -- one of the main selling points was the great display and this version doesn't have it (I'm not sure whether the new UHD one is pentile or not). Also, I still can't find any model for sale except for the $1250 one.

 

Notebookcheck has a review of the newer model here.

One result that doesn't add up is that their Cinebench score shows the i7-7700HQ scoring 673, only one point higher than the previous generation i7-6700HQ which scored 672. I'm not sure what's going on there, but it gives me pause on this laptop. All the other specs line up pretty nicely.

 

Thermal throttling likely - the new V Nitro gets just as hot as the old one and throttles under continuous heavy load. The CPU is likely not ticking at the 3.4GHz nominal clock but at 3.1-3.2GHz. Most likely due to Thermal or Power constraints.

Once again - a 1050 Ti V Nitro would be excellent. The 1060 model has a lot of trouble with the heat at stock. A repaste + undervolt MAY help. Though when the stock machine hits 98*C in a stress test, I wouldn't hold my breath for miracles.

 

Check MicroCenter as well. I've seen Acer Nitros on display at the one I go to.

 

I bought mine (512GB SSD 1080p version) at Microcenter. Re: heat issues, it certainly runs a lot hotter than the Acer Predator 17 I tried out before (to be expected) and throttled after 3 minutes of Prime95 stress testing at 97C. I undervolted it to -125mV and also reduced maximum processor power to 95% in power options, now I cap out around 75C in high laptop (high shadows enabled) in the most crowded areas in FFXIV. Average heat seems to be around 58-62C in other areas, and about the same for WoW and lower for Diablo III. (edit: forgot to mention, ambient temperature is 70-71F/21C indoors). I'm not that concerned about the 5% power difference being any sort of significant performance hit at 1080p (especially with 60hz display).

It's not the laptop for you if you want a serious gaming machine --- I would suggest going with a heavier/beefier ROG/Predator/MSI solution. This is going to be 85% work/multimedia-entertainment for me and maybe 15% gaming on the go when I'm not at home on my desktop rig. I wanted a 1060 laptop that was decently small and light, inexpensive (relatively), and had a good battery life for light office-type tasks and video watching, and had Thunderbolt 3 if I ever decided to go down that route.

 

Could you check what is firmware version for thunderbolt3 controller?

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...ndows-10/d7425cde-bb7e-47ab-94a1-58674615b59e

Are you experiencing this?

I just purchased mine from Microcenter ..But anytime I open the battery settings and the display settings there's a brief pause/stutter...Which is the exact issue in the thread above..

Edit: Issue is resolved by updating to the latest chipset drivers.. (nevermind back to square 1)

 

AFAIK it's an Optimus issue and not related just specifically to this laptop. I do notice the split second hesitation before the battery or display settings load.

EDIT: TL;DR:
I repasted to see if I could get better temps. CPU dropped significantly while GPU only 4-6C. AIDA64 FPU stress test caps in low 80's C (no undervolt, turbo enabled). GPU temps higher in real-life use (80-82C in uncapped fps benchmarks). Acer did a ****ty job of pasting the CPU. Nitro V15 2017 edition is really easy to repaste/upgrade.
/end of TL;DR

FYI update on the heat concerns others are having: I decided to go ahead and repaste the cpu/gpu just to see if I could get the temps lower. The laptop (for a multimedia rather than mainly gaming type) is surprisingly easy to open up -- just the screws on the back, use your nails or a plastic card to gently pry the back tray off, making sure to ease over the ports and what not. The silver section on the hinge also pulls up with the back tray. Once you lift that off, you have immediate access to all upgrades such as hard drive, RAM, even wifi card.

The heatsink and fan assembly was also very easy to lift up. Just 5-6 screws and the entire assembly can be lifted a short distance and flipped over (I didn't remove it entirely because the fans are connected onto the mobo with removable cables but I didn't want to deal with the finicky hassle, there's enough length for you to literally just flip it over onto its top completely flat.

I used Arctic cleaner/purifier along with Arctic MX-4. After using swabs to remove big chunks of old compound, I used small swatches of microfiber cloth to finish the clean up to remove any fibers.

When reassembling, the tray will click into place in all edges (no misalignment, really the build quality hasn't been bad for a mid-budget laptop). Pay special attention to the silver part which has multiple tiny latches that need to be encouraged to click into the main body of the laptop.

Results? Running AIDA64 for FPU only, CPU temps capped at 82F (briefly, sat at 79-80 most of the time). This was with undervolt disabled and Turbo enabled (verified with hwinfo that CPU was running at 3.6k-3.7k Mhz). No CPU throttling. Room temperature 71-72F (22C). In-game in FFXIV my GPU temps hit max 71C on high laptop settings in the highest rendering/most crowded (cities in prime time and Quarrymill) (character shadows, etc) area after about an hour of running (the CPU was 66-70). I also had disabled MSI Afterburner voltage control for the GPU so it was allowed to chug as much power as it wanted. Previously I was getting ~75C with voltage control on.

(Edit note: I keep fps capped to 60 in all my games that have the option because of screen limit, no point in going higher. Uncapped fps heat results below in Stormblood FFXIV benchmark)

Edit: Ran FFXIV: Stormblood (new expac) benchmark, DX11, no fps cap, high laptop settings, windowed 1080p:

CPU: 74C, GPU: 80C (max temps, fluctuated throughout)
FPS: 85-139 fps
Score: 11651

CPU definitely had a big improvement in cooling (comfortably in the mid to high 60's for the most part in the MMOs and ARPGs I play), GPU not so much -- maybe 4-6C?

I'm suspecting the reason for this is my particular CPU was pasted poorly. When I opened up the heatsink assembly, there was literally a 30% area in which there was no paste (slightly above and overlapping center of the CPU) at all on either the CPU or the heatsink. The GPU was evenly coated but had too much. Both had compound glopping onto the sides and down onto the board.

Edit: Also, to note: The temperature differences between the cores since repasting went from over 13C from highest to lowest max core temp to 8C, so it evened out a bit.

YMMV of course for repasting but I'm very satisfied at how quick and simple it was for good results. Waiting to see what the temperatures stabilize to after 5-15 thermal cycles.

 

do you know if repasting could void acer warranty?

 

Repasting according to most manufacturer's warranties will void the warranty as any other tampering/repair of internals. However, it is actually illegal in the US for these companies to do so ( 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act) and if pushed I wonder if they would even press the issue (even though 99% of warranties say "authorized repair only" they actually aren't allowed to do that for devices over $15. You can also check FTC.gov for more specifics on this law.)

There are no warranty stickers that block access to the internals, with the possible exception of one plastic ribbon sticker that does not say it's for warranty purposes on the CPU heat sink pipe that can be pushed out of the way and back easily.

Please keep in mind I am not advocating doing so, but explaining what the process is like and how it may affect you. I know the EU is much more supportive of the customer side when it comes to warranties but YMMV.

 

thanks for your answer!

 

I forgot to add, if having to deal with warranty issues is a concern, you could always take the laptop to a manufacturer-authorized/certified repair center and request a repaste - they may charge you for the service if they feel the temps are within normal operating range.

 

Does anyone know if the Thunderbolt port is 2 or 4 lanes of PCIe on the V7N-593G?

thanks

 

I'm waaay down that route the whole entertainment system in my boat docks with a Thunderbolt 3 port... what's really ticking me off in the PC world is the manufacturers not stating clearly what specs the TB3 ports have. Dell appears to be the only manufacturer one can get this information from and their XPS is a 2 lane port which is not full capability of 4 lane (40Gbit) TB3!

it is probably the number one determining factor for my purchase... yep TB3! welcome to 2017 folks

 

^ah cool... thanks bro This laptop seems like a pretty good deal at 1200 bucks, I may test drive one at Microcenter considering it does have 4 lanes.