Finding a gaming laptop that is both future-proof and capable, while sitting well under $1000 is a challenging prospect ina PC marketthat has been experiencing ever-increasing prices. Thankfully, Black Friday happens to be one of the best times to pick up a gaming laptop on sale, and Acer’s Nitro V Gaming Laptop seems to be one of the best in the businessfor gamers on a budget.

Why Should You Consider The Acer Nitro V?

The Acer Nitro V (Model: ANV15-41-R2Y3) is not the fastest gaming laptop by far. It retails for just under $1000 with an MSRP of $950 and caters to users wanting a gaming laptop or productivity machine that offers entry-level to mid-range graphics capabilities.

The Nitro V comes well-equipped, offering 16GB of RAM, a capable hexacore Ryzen 5 CPU with Zen 3+ cores, and a mid-range RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB of VRAM. This makes it capable ofrunning most modern titleswith a reasonable frame rate at low to medium settings on its FHD 144Hz screen.

Acer Nitro V

It makes for an excellent dealthanks to a $250 price markdownat Best Buy, sending the Nitro V to a price tag of as low as $700 for US consumers. With an effective 26% price cut, yet solid build quality, the Nitro V outdoes the competition at the $700 mark, even as it comes with enough RAM to run all the latest games without breaking a sweat.

Is This Laptop Upgrade Friendly?

Laptops generally are not very upgrade-friendly devices, but some offer users the ability to swap out the RAM and SSD for larger-sized or faster upgrades. The Acer Nitro V falls into this category squarely. Thanks to the two available RAM slots on the device and an M2 SSD slot for upgrades, users can bump up theRAM to as much as 32GBto increase their storage space based on their needs.

Acer Nitro V

While slightly underpowered compared to the other options, the Acer Nitro V (ANV15-51-73B9) can still deliver respectable frame rates for Space Marine 2 in 1080p with low to medium settings. It’s a perfect option for those on a really tight budget but still want a decent gaming laptop with a dedicated GPU.

Acer also throws in a free protective sleeve as part of the bundle, even as it offers a dual-fan design under the hood to keep thermals in check for gaming sessions. It also supports Microsoft’s upcoming Copilot features thanks to its GPU doubling as an effective NPU for users needing that functionality, making it a future-proof choice versus more traditional laptop choices that may not have one on offer.

While neither the CPU nor the GPU on board are user-upgradeable, both do offer mid-range performance that allows users to play most games and run most applications with relative ease. This means that while the Nitro V isn’t a gaming laptop that you can upgrade beyond a certain measure, it does do more than the bare essentials for gamers and productivity-centric individuals alike.