Review Summary
Expert Rating
Time and again, I am asked about the best gaming laptops on the market. While there are several contenders for those looking to spend Rs 90K or more, things get a bit challenging when you’re working with a tight budget. Most laptops priced under Rs 70K, for instance, will mostly ship with an older processor or a dated GPU.
But, that shouldn’t deter you from snagging one at a good discount. Take the Acer ALG, for instance, which retails for around Rs 65K on various e-commerce platforms. For the price, the laptop gets a Core i5-12450H processor and a capable RTX 3050 GPU with 75W TGP. We decided to put the laptop through its paces to see how it fares across a range of games and workflows. If you’ve been eyeing the model, or a similarly-specced machine, read on.
Table of Contents
Design and Display
The Acer ALG sports a plain Jane design. While this might raise some eyebrows, I was pleased with the laptop’s understated aesthetics. You should be able to use it in a public setting without drawing too much attention to yourself. The laptop’s build quality shouldn’t leave buyers wanting more, either. For one, despite using plastic for its construction, the laptop feels fairly sturdy.
While I did notice some flex toward the middle of the keyboard deck, the laptop didn’t feel flimsy or badly put together. In addition, it comes with a metal lid, which sports angular ridges that add to the design’s appeal. If anything, my review unit ships with a rattly trackpad that tends to wobble whenever I rest my fingers on it or use the left/right mouse-click functions. I hope Acer revisits its QC process to eliminate similar issues down the line.
As for the display, the laptop sports a 15.6-inch Full HD screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio. The panel is bordered by thin bezels that do not detract from the immersive experience when playing games or watching movies on the laptop. While not the most colour-accurate display on the market, the screen overturns vivid colours and offers good viewing angles. It can also get adequately bright, and I didn’t struggle to use it in a well-lit room.
Notably, the panel refreshes at 144Hz, which should allow you to play games like Valorant and Apex Legends with minimal tearing. Additionally, the laptop’s hinge anchoring the display is quite rigid, so you won’t have to worry about the screen shaking during intense gaming sessions.
Ports, Audio and I/O
The Acer ALG does leave something to be desired in the ports department. The laptop is equipped with several connectors, including two USB Type-A ports. However, one of them is a USB 2.0 connector. Furthermore, the laptop’s Type-C port doesn’t support power delivery. I should also add that the laptop doesn’t come with a full-sized SD card reader. In addition, the device does not include a fingerprint sensor or an IR camera to enable Windows Hello biometric authentication.
Given the laptop’s price point, I can look past some of the omissions mentioned above. That said, I would’ve liked to see more high-speed USB ports with the device. As for the rest of the I/O, the laptop comes with a full-sized HDMI 2.0 port that can output to a 2K monitor seamlessly. It also has an ethernet slot, which should help reduce your ping in multiplayer games.
Moving on, I was pleasantly surprised with the laptop’s downward-firing speakers, which get audaciously loud. Notably, the laptop’s wedge-shaped frame ensures the speakers don’t get muffled when the device is set on a flat surface. The unit’s 720p webcam should also suffice for taking video calls on the fly.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The Acer ALG comes with a full-sized keyboard deck featuring well-spaced keys, a Numpad, and full-size arrow keys. The keyboard also supports single-zone RGB lighting, which can be changed via the laptop’s control centre app. You can access the app from the taskbar, and it is your one-stop-shop to tweak different settings like the performance modes, RGB backlighting, keyboard macros, and more.
I don’t have any major qualms with the laptop’s keyboard deck. The keys, albeit not as clicky, offer good travel along with clear and legible legends. The RGB backlighting doesn’t appear tacky, either, which is excellent. The trackpad supports multi-finger gestures and offers a smooth tracking surface, too. On the flip side, it wobbles and rattles to the touch, which isn’t ideal.
Performance and Battery Life
The Acer ALG comes in various trims. The model sent to me for review features Intel’s Core i5-12450H processor. The CPU works alongside an RTX 3050 GPU with 75W TGP. For RAM and storage, my review unit comes with a single 16GB DDR4 stick and a 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.
Going by the specs, you’d be wise to assume that the laptop is a capable performer. I was quite pleased with its performance, and the device was able to crunch through my workflow without breaking a sweat. As such, if you also use Microsoft’s Office suite alongside apps like Teams and Slack for communication, you will find the laptop’s performance desirable, too. To run some numbers by you, the device overturned 98 and 521 points in Cinebench’s R24 single-core and multi-core test runs.
In PCMark 10 and PCMark 10 Extended test runs, the laptop secured 5,764 and 6,874 points, respectively. The figures are in line with a host of other machines in the same price bracket. That said, I took the liberty of comparing the laptop’s benchmark scores with other gaming laptops in the same price range. You can refer to the chart attached above for more insights on the same.
In a similar vein, Cyberpunk 2077 averages around 35-40FPS when using the High graphics preset (without an upsampler). However, by leveraging Nvidia’s DLSS tech (Quality preset), I was able to net well over 50FPS in the game. The FPS did dip every once in a while, but that didn’t take too much away from the experience of playing the game. When inside a building, the game would run at over 60FPS, which is excellent. 
Moving on, racing games like NFS Unbound comfortably log around 60FPS on the laptop. When driving around in the game’s open world, I was able to get anywhere between 60-65FPS. In races, the FPS would dip to the low fifties, but the game was still more than playable. Lighter hero shooters like Apex Legends log over 100FPS at medium-high graphics settings. Similarly, Valorant nets well over XFPS, thereby ensuring you can fully utilize the laptop’s 144Hz screen.
Like most gaming laptops, the Acer ALG’s battery endurance is sub-par, at best. In PCMark 10’s battery loop test, the device net just 1 hour and 54 minutes. On the bright side, the laptop doesn’t get too toasty under load, and the CPU temps hover around the 95-degree mark when playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 on the machine.
Verdict
As configured, the Acer ALG will set you back by Rs 62,990. For the price, the laptop delivers where it matters most and offers a good gaming experience at 1080p resolution. It also sports an elegant design, although leaves a bit to be desired in the ports and battery department. Regardless, for the price, the laptop gets a recommendation from us.
Editor’s Rating: 7.5 / 10
Pros:
- Capable performer
- Snappy 144Hz display
- Affordable
Cons:
- Trackpad rattles on touch
- Port selection could’ve been better