Acer Nitro V 17 vs. Lenovo LOQ 17: Which RTX 5070 gaming laptop is the better budget choice?

Looking at our overall scores reveals only a marginal gap. Both laptops land at around 80 percent overall. More precisely, the Acer Nitro V 17 scores 80.2 percent, while the Lenovo LOQ 17 comes in just behind at 79.8 percent. Since the reviews were conducted by two different editors, minor personal preferences cannot be entirely ruled out.

A closer look at the subcategory ratings is more revealing. In many areas, the two gaming laptops perform similarly, but there are clear differences in focus. The LOQ 17 delivers a better display, higher gaming and application performance, and a superior webcam. The Acer Nitro V 17, on the other hand, stands out with noticeably lower noise levels, longer battery life, and better connectivity. Let’s take a closer look at the individual categories.

There’s no question that Acer’s rather sluggish Full HD panel, with just 230 nits of brightness and no sRGB coverage, falls short of Lenovo’s display. That said, the LOQ 17 also sticks to a Full HD resolution and, at just under 300 nits, isn’t dramatically brighter either. However, it offers faster response times and covers the sRGB color space almost completely.

That said, the Acer Nitro V 17 is also available with a WQHD panel (2,560 × 1,440 pixels), rated for 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and a 165 Hz refresh rate. This configuration, however, pushes the price up to €1,699 and includes 32 GB of RAM instead of 16 GB, placing it in a clearly different price bracket.

The Intel Core i7-14700HX in the LOQ 17 is considerably more powerful than the AMD Ryzen 7 260 found in the Nitro. Across all CPU benchmarks, Lenovo’s processor holds an advantage of roughly 34 percent.

Gaming performance shows a similar trend. Averaged across all tested titles, the LOQ 17 delivers around 16 percent higher frame rates. CPU-heavy games like Dota 2 Reborn exaggerate this gap, while in Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra settings, the difference shrinks to roughly 5 percent.

The GPU also benefits from Lenovo’s factory overclocking. According to GPU-Z, enabling OC increases the RTX 5070’s clock speeds by around 10 percent, helping the LOQ 17 achieve above-average performance results.

This is where the Acer Nitro V 17 takes a decisive win. Under gaming load, it operates around 19 percent quieter than the Lenovo LOQ 17, making it noticeably more comfortable in longer gaming sessions.

Lenovo cuts costs on battery capacity: the LOQ 17 is equipped with a 60 Wh battery, while the Acer Nitro V 17 features a significantly larger 76 Wh unit. As a result, the Lenovo shuts down about 34 percent earlier in our Wi-Fi browsing test, translating to more than 1.5 hours less runtime.

Both laptops are clearly aimed at budget-conscious gamers. Those who prioritize maximum performance and are willing to accept higher noise levels and power consumption will be better served by the Lenovo LOQ 17.

Gamers who are willing to give up a few frames in exchange for quieter, more power-efficient gaming should take a closer look at the Acer Nitro V 17. Its display is a clear weak point, but it makes up for that with significantly better battery life and a more restrained acoustic profile.