🛠️ How to open Acer Nitro 18 AI (AN18-61) - disassembly and upgrade options

Hey everyone, today we're opening the Acer Nitro 18i model A1861. For our full lab review, thermals, display, battery, and benchmarks, visit laptopmedia.com link below. We remove 10 bottom screws, then lift the cover to access the internals. Use a JIS number one screwdriver. All 10 screws are the same length, easy to track for reassembly. With a thin plastic tool, release the perimeter clips. First, unplug the battery. It isn't screwed down, so don't flip the laptop with the cover off. This is the primary M2 SSD. Here's the second M2 slot empty on our unit. This is the wireless card. MediaTek RZ 616 Wi-Fi 6E. Two so dim slots for DDR5 memory. Cooling spans the CPU and discrete GPU with multiple heat pipes. Two radial fans draw air through the fin stacks. Before handling parts, confirm the battery connector is still disconnected. Don't forget to visit and see our top 100 laptops with the best battery life ranking page. Here's the battery pack. Label shows typical 90W hours and rated 87.39W hours. A closer look at the second bay. Both M2 slots support PCI Express 4 NVME per the official spec. We'll remove RAM and the SSD. First, peel back the shielding tape on the memory. Official memory spec is up to 32 GB, two slots, DDR5. Handle the metalized wrap gently. It's an EMI and RFI shield. We demonstrate removing the installed SSD and reinstalling it. Align, insert, then secure the screw. same for the memory. Spread the clips. Lift. Then seat and click down. Place the battery back. Reconnect the cable and check the cable routing. Reapply the shield. building over the RAM area and the second M2 bay. For wireless, our units card is MediaTek RZ 616 Wi-Fi 6E with Bluetooth 5.3. In practice, the official text says Bluetooth 5.4 or above. That may be too optimistic for this exact card. For memory, Acer officially states up to 32 GB at up to 5,600 megat transfers per second. For details about cooling behavior, display quality, and real battery life results, check our full review on laptopmedia.com. Thanks for watching, and please subscribe for more laptop tearown videos.