Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition VN7-591G-74LK / 74SK Slim Gaming Laptops

The Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition VN7-591G-74LK and VN7-591G-74SK are 15.6-inch gaming laptops with slim design. With prices starting at mere $1,100, the Nitro Black Edition is a serious competitor against the already available gaming notebooks with similar components and slim form factor, such as the popular Lenovo Y50 or Asus G551.

The Nitro gaming rigs are based on the upper-mid-range Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M 2GB dedicated video card, paired with the speedy i7-4710HQ quad-core processor. All the specs are identical instead of RAM size and data storage solution. The VN7-591G-74LK has 8GB of RAM and a 1-Terabyte 5,400rpm hard drive, whereas the VN7-591G-74SK sports 16GB of RAM and a 256GB M.2 solid state drive to accompany the same 1TB HDD. These goodies add around $200 to the overall price, but they do offer a great value for the extra money. Both laptops lack DVD optical drives.

This pair of Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition models has 1080p display resolution and In-Plane Switching (IPS) wide viewing angle technology. IPS is Nitro’s advantage over the competing counterparts by other manufacturers. The V15 will be also available soon with a 4K display resolution and a 17.3-inch variant is already present on the market.

Touchscreen is not supported, so data input relies on the backlit chiclet-style keyboard with numeric pad and trackpad with integrated click buttons.

For audio experience, the Nitro notebooks include four speakers enhanced by Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater surround sound technologies.

Other notable features are a 720p web camera, Wi-Fi 802.11n wireless, Gigabit LAN, Bluetooth, HDMI video out, three USB 3.0 ports, and a media card reader.

Considering it incorporates powerful components which are usually packed in thick cases, the Aspire Nitro is quite thin with a profile measuring 1″. It’s not heavy for a gaming notebook too, weighing 5.3 pounds, but it doesn’t stand out with greater portability against the aforementioned slim gaming-class competitors.

“Using industry leading soft touch NIL (Nanoimprint Lithography) technology on its cover, it creates a unique tactile effect that you can truly feel. Moreover, the beautifully curved hinge design ensures the screen and the operating area are visually balanced for a smooth appearance,” the product description says.

According to Acer, the battery life on the VN7-591G-74LK and VN7-591G-74SK is “up to four hours”. Presumably with light computing tasks involved, not heavy gaming.