Acer Nitro V 16S 16-inch Core 7-240H/32GB/1TB SSD/RTX5060 8GB Gaming Laptop @Harvey Norman - $1599 (price match with bing lee + 10% cash back as gift card)
Nothing special
A giftcard isn't cashback, and a price match isn't a valid deal
Damn just got the Nitro V 16S with the Ryzen 7 260 CPU, and 5060 from Officeworks for $1600. But only 16GB of RAM. The Ryzen is arguably the better CPU, and definitely has the better iGPU that the laptop can use for power saving instead of the 5060. But 32GB would have saved me upgrading down the line.
But for this line-up. Dual SODIMM slots. Dual M2 NVME slots. A good 76WH battery. Screen is…adequete. Could be brighter, it will do. Otherwise, not a bad rig for the price. 5060 holds it's own. I was playing Mechwarrior 5 today, good graphics settings. Did well.
First thing I did was make a recovery USB. Chuck in a 2TB NVME. Reinstall windows, remove all the bloatware, and remove as much AI and telemetry as possible using 'Privacy Sexy' and RemoveWindowsAI. Then when windows was done, also installed Linux Mint. Good combo.
Sounds like a good rig.
Does windows and other AI snoop around your system or something, or just bloaty? You have get most answers the common person wants from chrome search.
I guess with ai you can ignore it or go with it. Still not sure, but good to be aware I guess.
Basically everything Windows does goes back to the Microsoft servers. All that AI stuff, all unnecessary. I want my OS to just be a damn OS. If I want AI I'll install it myself. All that stuff in Windows is it being forced down your throat without asking. But yeah with Windows, everything from what you type into Notepad, to what's in Office products, to Edge browser, to screenshots, Microsoft gets a copy.
agree it's getting annoying and becoming bloatware. I already have Gemini and copilot. don't need anything more advanced. I may look at trying to get rid of some, did a fresh install recently. Just said no to all the usual stuff.
Edit: found the github project, done.
ps. my 2060 super starting to show it's age but has been great since 2020. Forza Horizon settings require some tweaking but still need to turn down one or two things.
https://store.acer.com/en-au/acer-predator-helios-neo-16s-ai…
Does anyone know if this is any decent?
It's got good specs, but only if you are going to use it as a primary gaming rig. If you aren't you could go a lot cheaper.
Tempting to drive over to HN to grab one.. hmm
YOLO do it
I've never had a good experience with Acer laptops (particularly around battery life). They were consistently the cheapest in terms of price though.
Dell, HP, Lenovo will be more expensive, not necessary better but well known entities. You just have to uninstall the bloat. MSI, ASUS etc should be almost as good just not tested as much for components and compatibility but so long as 2y warranty would be ok.
Haven't tried since mid 2000s - they were absolute dogshit then. Cheaply made, beyond bloated, unreliable, and poorly designed (i swear the battery was the heatsink)
Could have improved since
Acer are only relevant because of their constant cheap price point.
If you want a machine that develops weird and bizarre faults. Get an Acer.
How are we getting 10% cash back as gift card?
I can't see any promos on the website for it.
Has it expired already?
Different price in link