The Acer Nitro 5 15 offers better value if you're looking for a gaming laptop appearance with a dedicated Nvidia graphics card capable of hardware ray tracing and DLSS, which makes it suitable for gaming and more resource-intensive engineering applications. However, it's heavier and not as portable as the Dell XPS 13 Plus. On the other hand, the Dell XPS 13 Plus is lighter, has double the RAM, a higher resolution OLED touchscreen display, and a longer battery life, making it a better choice for general use and mobility. The higher price of the Dell XPS 13 Plus reflects its premium build quality and compact design, but it's less suitable for intensive gaming due to its integrated graphics. 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
Good for gaming and AI
Advantages of the Dell XPS 13 Plus
Very good for general use
Very good for engineering and design
Very good for software development
Very good for content creation
Very good overall display quality
Very good overall build quality
Excellent portability
Very good battery life
Best in class speakers
Excellent keyboard
Key differences
General Use
7.6/10
8.4/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
262.0 nits
DISPLAY BRIGHTNESS
374.0 nits
5.5 Hours
BATTERY LIFE
10.0 Hours
8.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
6.3/10
PORTABILITY SCORE
9.1/10
The Dell XPS 13 Plus is very good for general use, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 is good.
The Acer Nitro 5 15 offers a strong CPU and dedicated graphics suitable for heavier tasks, but it’s less portable and has shorter battery life compared with the Dell XPS 13 Plus, which boasts a superior screen, a lighter build, longer battery life, and higher RAM, making it excellent for general use but without the gaming-oriented hardware of the Nitro 5.
Gaming and AI
7.5/10
6.4/10
7.3/10
OVERALL GPU SCORE
3.8/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
144Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
Yes
SUPPORTS DLSS
No
Yes
MUX SWITCH / ADVANCED OPTIMUS
No
7.5/10
FAN NOISE SCORE
8.7/10
The Acer Nitro 5 15 is good for gaming and AI, while the Dell XPS 13 Plus is only fair.
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.
Content Creation
7.5/10
8.3/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.9/10
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
The Dell XPS 13 Plus 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
8.3/10
8.5/10
OVERALL CPU SCORE
7.9/10
16.0 GB
RAM
32.0 GB
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
8.0/10
KEYBOARD QUALITY SCORE
9.0/10
The Dell XPS 13 Plus 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
8.4/10
15.6in
SIZE
13.4in
1920 x 1080
RESOLUTION
3840 x 2400
IPS
DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY
OLED
144Hz
REFRESH RATE
60Hz
262.0 nits
BRIGHTNESS
374.0 nits
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has a better screen than the Acer Nitro 5 15 for general use, gaming and AI, engineering and design, content creation, and software development.
The Acer Nitro 5 15 offers a balance between resolution and brightness suitable for everyday tasks, but its limited color range and lower refresh rate affect its precision for engineering uses and its responsiveness in gaming, respectively. The Dell XPS 13 Plus excels with high resolution and color accuracy, making it ideal for detailed engineering and design work, but like the Acer, isn't designed for gaming due to its standard refresh rate. Both laptops lack the high refresh rates desired for smooth 3D interactions, but offer the clarity and color fidelity that are more than adequate for general computing activities.
Battery
5.5 Hours
10.0 Hours
The Acer Nitro 5 15 has 5.5 hours of battery life. The Dell XPS 13 Plus has 10 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
Excellent
15.6in
SIZE
13.4in
5.5 lbs
WEIGHT
2.7 lbs
1.0in
THICKNESS
0.6in
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has excellent 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
8.5/10
The Dell XPS 13 Plus has very good 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
$1,849
$0
$500
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$2,500
$3,000
The Acer Nitro 5 15 has a price of $780 and the Dell XPS 13 Plus costs $1,849.
Although they have very similar scores, PerfectRec considers Dell XPS 13 Plus to be very good for engineering and design, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 is good.
The Dell XPS 13 Plus stands out for engineering and design use with its superior CPU, double the RAM, and a high-resolution OLED touchscreen which enhances visual clarity, while the Acer Nitro 5 15 offers a dedicated GPU which is beneficial for computationally intensive graphics tasks despite having a lower resolution screen and less RAM. The XPS 13 Plus is more portable and has a higher-quality keyboard, but the Nitro 5 may be less distracting in quiet environments due to its better heat management and quieter operating noise.
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How the Acer Nitro 5 15 and the Dell XPS 13 Plus compare to other laptops
"The Acer Nitro 5 is a fast QHD gaming notebook. The Nitro 5 is a well-balanced gaming laptop for just under US$ 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."
"The XPS 13 Plus is powerful, but has its drawbacks. Dell did not only update the processor generation, but also decided to offer two completely different models from now on. The XPS 13 Plus gets the faster Intel Alder Lake-P chips, and the Core i7-1260P in our review unit offers good performance figures. However, the device once again shows the problems of the current Intel CPUs, because the high performance requires a lot of power. This affects the battery runtime as well as temperatures, so the new model (even with the Optimized power profile) is louder than the older model."
Get a great deal on the Acer Nitro 5 15 or the Dell XPS 13 Plus
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 Dell
Dell is a highly recognizable American technology company, and is one of the largest personal computer vendor by market share. Their laptops are very popular for both personal and professional use, and they also own the Alienware brand which makes mid to high end gaming laptops. Their premium XPS range of laptops offer great build quality and portability, while Latitude and Precision laptops are known for reliability, repairability and performance for business users.
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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