Face Off: Acer Aspire V17 Nitro vs. Asus N751 vs. HP Envy 17

In terms of quality, Acer sticks with simple matte plastic for most of its base and lid. To avoid the dull and cheap look, however, its surfaces have a velvet-like finish and the display cover is soft-touch Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) for better visual appeal. The base of the unit can still twist when applying a moderate amount of force and the lid can still rock back-and-forth in response to sudden movements, so the notebook is not as rigid as it could have been.

The Asus N751 is made mostly of matte aluminum and it leaves a generally sturdy and elegant impression. Unfortunately, the notebook is a bit weak on some areas such as the display where it can be twisted quite easily. Its bottom is still plastic and this contrasts poorly with the rest of the notebook.

Likewise, the Envy 17 uses both aluminum and plastic, but is instead largely plastic with just an aluminum base plate surrounding the keyboard and touchpad. Quality is very good despite this combination as we find that the speakers and keyboard do not warp in response to pressure. Surfaces feel much more rigid than they do on the Acer or Asus. The lid is definitely not as strong as it can still twist and creak at the corners.

In terms of size, both the N751 and Envy 17 are almost identical in dimensions, but the the Asus actually weighs about 400 to 500 grams more than the two competing models. Acer has the thinner and arguably sleeker package, though it does have a larger footprint and weaker overall quality.

HP takes this round with its combination of a lighter package and stronger base. All models unfortunately have average lids and could benefit from improvements for future redesigns.

Winner: HP Envy 17

What good is a multimedia notebook with limited connectivity? The three models here offer all the core basics including USB 3.0, multiple internal storage solutions, and at least one video-out port.

The N751 comes out ahead in this category for its 3x storage slots and 2x video-out ports. On the negative side, hardware maintenance is more difficult compared to the Acer. Additionally, many of its ports are towards the front edges of the notebook instead of the rear, so port placement on the Acer notebook may be more desirable for most users.

Asus still wins in pure options, but the Aspire V17 Nitro may appeal to users who have no intentions of using DisplayPort or all three storage bays in the N751. HP loses this round for its fewer USB ports and user-unfriendly maintenance panel.

Winner: Asus N751JX

The Aspire V17 Nitro is the only model out of our three to sport an IPS panel. Along with its deeper contrast and sufficiently bright backlight, the Acer checks off all the important features to have for a multimedia display.

As for the others, we noticed a bit of backlight bleeding on our Asus N751JX test model and the display on the Envy 17 is simply no match for the older Radiance panels on Envy models of yore. The HP in particular has an 85 percent sRGB gamut coverage, which is better than most mainstream displays. Even so, this is less significant for a multimedia notebook and not sufficient for professional users where 100 percent sRGB coverage is more desirable. The matte panels on all models mean no glossy or glass protection. 

Colors are more accurate out-of-the-box on the Asus N751 compared to the Acer and HP. Color temperature on the HP is much too cool, while the IPS panel on the Acer is not as accurate as most other notebooks with IPS displays. For example, we were able to notice poorer-than-expected DeltaE deviations for color and grayscale. Nonetheless, the shortcomings aren't enough for Acer to lose the top spot in this particular category.

The N751 and Envy 17 may have IPS options in separate configurations beyond what we have for our test units.

Winner: Acer Aspire V17 Nitro

Our Envy 15 is already at a raw performance disadvantage with its older generation Kepler GT 850M GPU. Its extra 2 GB of VRAM does little to help it against GDDR5 VRAM and the graphics horsepower of the Maxwell cards. For example, 3DMark Fire Strike is almost 50 percent faster on the Acer compared to the HP. The performance gap between the 950M and 850M, however, is much smaller by at most 15 percent according to the same benchmark. Thus, users should see less of a gain if moving from the HP to the Asus compared to moving from the HP to the Acer.

Tomb Raider shows perfectly how much of a graphical leap users can expect when moving from a GT 850M to a GTX 950M or GTX 960M. The slower DDR3 VRAM used for this version of the GTX 950M reduces performance rather significantly as it brings in just a few frames more than the older 850M in the Envy 17. This is compared to the GTX 960M in the Acer, which provides immense gains in frame rates.

More benchmarks and comparisons on the GT 850M, GTX 950M, and 960M can be found on our dedicated GPU pages.

System Noise & Temperature

The fans on both the N751 and Envy 17 are always spinning by default when the systems are idling or under low loads. HP users have the option to change this setting through the BIOS, but the primary HDD will almost always be audible on both systems.

In contrast, the Aspire V17 Nitro has completely silent fans when the system is idling. Unfortunately, they are also much more sensitive to processing loads and will spin up and down more frequently than the Asus and HP. This pulsating behavior makes system noise much less discreet during everyday workloads. Additionally, the system becomes louder than both the Asus and HP when gaming.

Surface temperatures are lowest on the Envy 17 when idling and during heavier loads. This is expected due to its less-demanding CPU and GPU. Acer and its thinner form factor are dead last in this round while HP takes home first place.

Winner: HP Envy 17

The Envy 17 may have the smaller battery capacity by 20 percent compared to the Aspire V17 Nitro and N751, but it can still outlast both machines by up to an hour on our standard Wi-Fi test. We set all notebooks to the Balanced profile, all displays to 150 nits, enabled all integrated graphics, and then looped our browser script to simulate typical browsing conditions. The runtime advantage on the Envy 15 may be explained by its power-sipping Broadwell CPU and primary SSD.

HP and Asus have another advantage over the Acer with their removable battery packs. The integrated Li-Ion polymer battery in the Acer is only accessible after removing the bottom maintenance panel.

Winner: HP Envy 17