The Acer Nitro 5 is less expensive with a high refresh rate screen and dedicated gaming hardware, making it suitable for gaming and intensive tasks, though it's bulkier and has a shorter battery life compared to the MacBook Pro. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 offers superior build quality, a higher resolution mini LED display with better color accuracy, longer battery life, and a lightweight design, ideal for professionals in need of portability and performance without concern for price. If gaming or budget is a priority, consider the Acer, but for premium build and screen quality with better portability and longer battery use, the MacBook Pro is a strong option. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Acer Nitro 5 15
The Acer Nitro 5 15 has no clear advantages over the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023).
Advantages of the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
Very good for general use
Very good for engineering and design
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Excellent overall display quality
Best in class overall build quality
Very good portability
Excellent battery life
Best in class speakers
Best in class keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.6/10
8.5/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3024 x 1964
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
262.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
489.0 nits
5.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
13.5 Hours
8.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.5/10
6.3/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
8.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) is very good for general use, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 is good.
The Acer Nitro 5 15 offers a capable CPU and RAM for general tasks, with a standard screen and satisfactory battery life, but its weight and size reduce its portability. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 delivers top-of-the-line CPU performance with high-quality RAM, a superior Mini LED screen with better resolution and color accuracy, and an excellent battery life, all in a lighter and slimmer design, making it very portable and better suited for varied general use.
Engineering and Design
7.9/10
8.4/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.8/10
7.3/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
5.2/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) is very good for engineering and design, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 is good.
PerfectRec’s Engineering and Design Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for graphic design and 3D rendering work.
Content Creation
7.5/10
8.5/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.8/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3024 x 1964
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) is very good for content creation, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 is good.
PerfectRec’s Content Creation Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for photo editing, video editing and other content creation tasks.
Software Development
7.4/10
8.4/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.8/10
16.0 GB
RAM
16.0 GB
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3024 x 1964
8.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.5/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) is very good for software development, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 is good.
PerfectRec’s Software Development Score takes into account the many different features of the laptop that make it more or less suitable for software developers.
Screen Quality
6.9/10
9.2/10
15.6in
SIZE
14.2in
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3024 x 1964
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
Mini LED
144Hz
REFRESH RATE
120Hz
262.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
489.0 nits
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 has a better screen than the Acer Nitro 5 15 for general use, AI, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
The Acer Nitro 5 15 offers satisfactory visuals ideal for everyday activities due to its decent resolution and brightness, but its limited color range makes it less ideal for precision work required in engineering and design. The MacBook Pro 14 excels in screen quality for both general use and professional design tasks, thanks to its high resolution, brightness, and wide color gamuts ensuring accurate color representation. However, both laptops fall short for 3D applications as they lack the high refresh rates that are crucial for smooth rendering and animation, which is especially relevant for gaming and real-time 3D simulations.
Battery
5.5 Hours
13.5 Hours
The Acer Nitro 5 15 has 5.5 hours of battery life. The Apple MacBook Pro 14 has 13.5 hours of battery life.
Battery life estimate is based on a mix of common use patterns. More portable and higher performing laptops tend to have less battery life.
Portability
Fair
Very Good
15.6in
SIZE
14.2in
5.5 lbs
WEIGHT
3.5 lbs
1.0in
THICKNESS
0.6in
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) has very good portability, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 has only fair portability.
The most portable laptops are small, thin, and light.
Build Quality
7.2/10
10.0/10
The Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) has best in class build quality, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 has good build quality.
PerfectRec’s Build Quality Score incorporates case materials, display and keyboard flex, hinge quality, and overall reliability.
Cost
$780
$1,700
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
The Acer Nitro 5 15 has a price of $780 and the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) costs $1,700.
The Acer Nitro 5 15 and Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) are both good for gaming and AI.
PerfectRec’s Gaming and AI Score strongly emphasizes graphics processing capability, while also taking into account other factors that impact suitability for gaming and AI work.
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How the Acer Nitro 5 15 and the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) compare to other laptops
"The Acer Nitro 5 is a fast QHD gaming notebook. The Nitro 5 is a well-balanced gaming laptop for just under US$ 2400. A Core i7-12700H CPU and a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU enable QHD gaming at high to maximum settings, accompanied by fast PCIe-4-SSD (1 TB) and 16 GB of RAM. Acer delivers a solid QHD gaming notebook with the Nitro 5 AN515-58. However, the laptop is not completely free of shortcomings. The CPU and GPU can work at consistently high clock rates. The laptop heats up noticeably under load, but not excessively. Noise development is on the usual class level. Once again, however, Acer needs to improve the fan control."
"In the Apple MacBook Pro 14 2023, the M2 Pro is slowed down. From the improved 5nm process, the new M2 Pro is a very solid upgrade. Graphics performance has increased by about 25% in tandem with a clear improvement in efficiency. The processor has also seen a performance leap of up to 20%, but this is accompanied by an increase in consumption of up to 25%. Fundamentally, Apple its maintaining its advantage over AMD and Intel, particularly in optimized applications where the results are very good in view of the comparatively low power consumption."
Get a great deal on the Acer Nitro 5 15 or the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023)
About Acer
Acer is a prominent Taiwanese electronics brand which makes a wide range of laptops, with multiple product lines catering to personal use, gaming, and business use. They are renowned for having exceptional value for money, as they frequently offer good specifications at a lower price than other manufacturers.
About Apple
Apple, an American technology company, is one of the world’s largest company in terms of market capitalization. Their MacBook laptops feature a slim, minimalistic design, class-leading battery life, and premium display and speaker quality. In 2020 Apple switched from using Intel processors to their own silicon chips which have excellent performance and efficiency. The macOS operating system is the second most widely used OS, after Windows.
This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec laptops team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest laptop information and makes it digestible for you.
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Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
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Staff Expert & Software Engineer
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