Acer pushes its entry-level prices for gaming laptops below those of its budget Nitro 5 line with the new Nitro V 15 series; prices for configurations of the new laptop start at $700 and top out at $1,000. The company positions these as laptops for people who don't prioritize gaming but can use something more powerful than the typical budget laptop and that's up to occasional gaming.

At launch, at least, the base configuration (NV15-51-53VM) seems to be a Costco-only model, but its specs aren't very attractive: The 15.6-inch, 144Hz 1080p (FHD) screen might be OK (these panels tend to be hit and miss) and the Intel Core i5-13420H and 512GB SSD are fine for the money, but it has only 8GB RAM and a two-generations-old Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050, which can't even run Nvidia's upscaling technology very well. It's fine for low-power games and cloud gaming, though.

Once you hit $770 (ANV15-51-532J) you at least get a bump to the last-generation RTX 3050, which is worth the extra bucks. But it looks like the lowest model in the line I could really recommend would be -- big surprise -- the $1,000 model (V15-51-73B9), with improved components including 16GB RAM and a current-model RTX 4050. It also bumps up to a Core i7-13620H processor. A $1,000 Newegg-specific model (ANV15-51-75HE) doubles the SSD. Configurations can go up to 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD, but we don't have prices for those.

Overseas the laptops go up to a 165Hz screen, but I suspect it's the mediocre display that's used by competing models like the Asus ROG G15 I reviewed.

All the configurations support DTS:X Ultra audio -- if the speakers are meh there's not a lot it can do, though -- and Wi-Fi 6. Three USB-A, one Thunderbolt 4/USB-C, combo audio jack, Ethernet and HDMI round out the common features.

The Nitro V 15 line will be available starting in October on Acer's site except for the base model.