Acer
Acer Predator Triton 500: a PC as sober as it is efficient
Aprox. 1799€ - see price -
See specificationsWith the Predator Triton 500, Acer seeks to combine mobility and power, like a ROG Strix Scar 3 from Asus or an Aero 15 Classic from Gigabyte. Bet successful for one of the spearheads of Acer?
Our review
Presentation
With its Predator range, Acer wishes to offer gaming PCs with more or less inflated configurations. The tested model ic, the Triton 500, is placed on the coveted segment of powerful, thin and 15-inch PCs. It thus competes with the Strix Scar 3 from Asus or the Aero 15 Classic from Gigabyte.
The Triton 500 thus offers a 9th generation Intel Core i7 as well as an RTX 2070 graphics card in an 18 mm thick chassis. Attractive features, but it remains to be seen whether Acer has given its baby a beautiful setting.
Construction
The Predator Triton 500 has a very sober brushed aluminum chassis, even a little too much. The PC indeed adopts an angular and versatile design, and takes its direct competitors on the wrong foot who bet on their design. The product's only fantasy, the Predator logo on its back cover. This rear cover, it should be noted, is subject to clearly visible fingerprints.
The sober design of the Triton 500 is also present on its unadorned keyboard part, apart from the unsightly ventilation grilles between the keyboard and the screen. A computer with a design that is not unforgettable, but efficient. Its only peculiarity is actually its "form-factor", which is only 18 mm thick thanks to its RTX Max-Q card. Acer includes the Predator Sense preinstalled software in its PC, a sort of hub for everything related to the gaming aspect of the product. Indeed, it will be used to adjust the colors of the RGB keyboard as well as to monitor the temperature of the processor and the GPU. It can also be used for overclocking for those who like to have complete control over their gaming machine.
Recommended article: Lab - Predator Sense: a hub for Acer gaming PCs
The keyboard is excellent, offering a good balance between the resistance of the keys and a well-managed run. We regret, however, the presence of a column of keys to the right of the Enter key (yet on two levels, which is ideal). This arrangement requires an adaptation period so as not to press these keys inadvertently. The trackpad wants to be efficient and responds to user requests, without being the most pleasant to use. The feeling to the touch is indeed not pleasant, and the whole often lacks reactivity.
The connection of the Triton 500 is very complete. It therefore offers a Thunderbolt compatible USB Type-C 3.1 port, three USB Type-A 3.1, an HDMI port, an RJ45, a Mini DisplayPort as well as a microphone and headphone jack. Only regret, the absence of an SD card reader, a bit of a shame for those who planned to upload their photos on it.
Using a precision screwdriver, it is possible to open the Acer PC, although it does not do much. Indeed, Acer has chosen to place all the components under the card, which is itself glued to the chassis. The consequence is that it is simply impossible to change the RAM or the SSD. A real flaw for a gaming computer that cannot evolve over time.
Regarding the management of the heating, the Triton 500 is not surprising given its configuration. During our usual test protocol (Metro Last Light benchmark for one hour), the PC ventilation grilles are mounted up to 50 ° C. A classic score for this type of product. The noise produced by the PC is relatively high, measured by us at 51 dB. If the headset cannot be heard over the ears, it could disturb the user's surroundings. However, note that it is possible to play with heat and noise management thanks to the Predator Sense software. At the maximum, the fans emit a sound intensity of 56 dB, on the other hand, they make the chassis lose 4 ° C. However, the GPU can hold a few more megahertz, which gives the PC a little boost. It will be up to the user to find his perfect balance.
The consumption of the PC is shown to be very correct. On the desktop, the PC consumes 60 W and goes up to 175 W in game. It consumes nothing in standby. This PC is therefore not particularly greedy, but not energy efficient either taking into account the components used.
Screen
The Acer Predator Trtton 500 has a 15.6 inch screen with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 px. Although its vertical edges are fine, the screen / facade ratio is in the current average (between 75% and 80%) since it is 79%. It should also be noted that the screen has a refresh rate of 144 Hz, ideal for nervous games.
Once in the lab, the Predator screen delivers very correct results. The contrast was measured at 1,285: 1, which is good for a laptop. The blacks delivered by the slab are deep. The color temperature is also very correct at 6,970 K, close to 6,500 K of the video standard. If it turns slightly blue, it is practically imperceptible, unless you place it right next to a screen with perfect calibration. Respect for colors is also present, without being excellent either. The average delta E is indeed 4.3 (the perfect score being below 3) and only the blues and greens displayed by the panel are not faithful to the original colors.
The brightness of the screen is 329 cd / m² maximum, which coupled with a matte screen that is not subject to reflections gives a computer to use pleasant in daylight. The remanence is also excellent, calculated by us at 6 ms, well below the average located at 15 ms. A boon for the game, the user having no fuzzy streaks during nervous sessions. The 144 Hz refresh rate is also perfect for competitive and not too greedy games like Overwatch.
Performances
The Acer Predator Triton 500 is equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H processor (6 cores, 12 threads, base frequency at 4.68 GHz, turbo frequency at 4.5 GHz) supported by 16 GB of RAM (certainly in dual channel, which is ideal for gaming, but inaccessible and therefore not replaceable in the event of a breakdown). The PC offers two physical SSDs in M.2 format of 256 GB, also inaccessible.
During our usual test protocol (photo editing, 3D calculation, video editing or file compression), the PC reached the index of 90, one of the best scores on the market. It sits right behind the better-ventilated Scar 3, but nonetheless remains an extremely powerful PC. With such a configuration, the Triton 500 will be able to run all software, even the most demanding, without any problem.
Games
The Predator Triton 500 has one of the most powerful graphics cards on the market: the GeForce RTX 2070 (8 GB of memory). In addition to running all the games of the moment, it brings acceleration on ray-tracing for compatible games such as Metro Exodus or even Battlefield V.
During our usual test protocol (definition of 1,920 x 1,080 px, parameters set to the maximum, vertical synchronization disabled and Nvidia Hairworks disabled on The Witcher 3), the PC delivered excellent results:
Metro: Last Light: 76 i / s Rise of the Tomb Raider: 76 i / s Assassin's Creed Origins: 56 i / s Far Cry 5: 85 i / s The Witcher 3: 88 i / s Star Wars Battlefront 2: 92 i / s Civilization VI: 98 fps
With the Predator, the user will therefore be able to run all the big games of the moment by going beyond 60 fps. Note also that with a refresh rate of 144 Hz, the PC can theoretically go up to 144 fps, which can be an advantage on nervous, competitive and not very greedy games, Overwatch or League of Legends for example. With such a graphics card, the user will therefore be quiet for a moment in terms of game optimization.
Mobility / Autonomy
If, with its configuration, the Triton 500 does not bet on mobility, it still offers a thin and light chassis for a gaming PC. It adopts a thickness of 18 mm and a weight of 2.15 kg. Its food, in two parts, on the other hand is relatively bulky since it is almost 600 g and 15 cm in length.
Regarding autonomy, the Triton 500 does not work miracles, as is the case for all gaming PCs, since during our usual test protocol (Netflix in Chrome, headphones plugged in, backlight off and brightness set to 200 cd / m²), it went out after 5 h 27 min. If it is not advisable to play on drums for better performance, the user will still be able to hold half of this time in play and double it in office automation.
Audio
The Triton 500 is fitted with pre-installed Waves MaxxAudio software, which we recommend leaving activated by leaving the MaxxBass dial at 30% so that the chassis does not shake. Adjusted in this way, the PC delivers a very correct sound, very balanced and with excellent stereo. The only big black dot, which we often see on this type of product, is the location of the speakers, at the bottom of the chassis on the sides. It is always the worst location, the sound is discharged on the sides and is far from the screen, which does not make it very natural.
The headphone jack could have been excellent if it did not have this very high distortion problem, which penalizes the frequency response and which does not make listening very pleasant with headphones. This is all the more a pity given that the other results obtained in the lab are very good and worthy of an audiophile headphone jack. It is therefore necessary to favor USB headsets for the game.
Conclusion
The Acer Predator Triton 500 is a highly controlled gaming laptop. Powerful, with a good screen and a perfectible, but correct chassis, it brings everything a buyer can expect from a PC in this category. However, it is a bit worse than its main competitor, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 3, which offers a better chassis. But the Predator Triton 900 remains a quality PC that manages to seduce.
Specifications
Reviews
Beast
* UPDATE 4/23/19 *
I managed to get # 1 on 3dMark for the 2060 + i7-8750H combo for Firestrike and Timespy. (See photos)
--------------------------------------
Original Review:
I bought this direct from Acer for 1800 $ (Same price as here but direct always has better shipping)
2060 model.
First impressions:
Acer has come a long way and this is testament to the progress they are making. This thing is super slim like Razer Blade thin. The chasis that holds all the components (Mobo etc) is just a 1/2 "and it sits at 3/4" with the lid closed .. then about 14 "by 10" in dimensions.
That said I cannot believe the power this thing has packed into it. On Firestrike I'm averaging 15,400 after a few OC adjustments which puts it above the average Firestrike benchmark for the 2070 Max Q (on notebook check).
The ram comes capped at 2400mhz but a quick conversation with Acer had me a customized BIOs in one days time and now I'm clocking 2667mhz and it's beautiful (+1 to Acer support).
FYI: You will need to update the BIOs to utilize the 2666mhz clocks, by default it appears all models are capped at 2400mhz out of the box.
Despite being so small and thin this laptop doesn't thermal throttle and maxed at 85 C for a full 30 minute FPU stress test on Aida64Extreme (* applause here *).
The power brick is also super small at 1 "x 6" x 3 "which fits the small form factor.
Build quality is premium and I can't stress that enough. All sides are metal (even the vent grills) and when you first lift it you instantly know it's built like a tank. The only part that's plastic is the bezel around the front of the screen which is fine as you don't want that kind of rigidity it can cause "backlight bleed" (FYI mine had none).
The 2060 model has a dark blueish color (I've seen a review on YouTube that said the 2080 was black?) But the keyboard deck and screen bezel is black and looks slick.
The white on the sides of the keys I thought I wouldn't like but they excentuate the colors when the keyboard lights up and looks great. They also have lighting effects (wave etc) despite it being a zoned keyboard.
The overclocking feature built into Predator Sense also has built in XTU profiles that increase the power limits of the CPU .. I did find the profiles and found I could modify them and Predator Sense's overclock to my liking
Good overall laptop performance, poor quality control.
Definitely an upgrade from my old Dell inspiron gaming laptop. Games run great in this at high to max settings in most games with god framerates. Was skeptical about fan noise before buying since I heard a lot of people complaining about it. To be honest, the fan isn't too bad unless you turn on the turbo boost. Even then, you can still hear the game. I love how well it performs and how it doesn't get too warm. If you leave the fan at auto but not max, the top of the keyboard (between keyboard and screen) may get quite warm, but not the area your hand will be on (so not a big problem). Once the fans are at max, the surface temp on top of that area gets cooler.
Screen bleeding: very minor, for my unit only the bottom right side of the screen and I cant really notice it tbh.
Predator sense: very easy to use and direct for a noobie like me.
Battery life: didn't get the chance to test it but I felt like it will last pretty long (at least 6+ hours of normal use)
I like how big each button on the keyboard is and how it feels when you type on it. Just wish it had a numb pad (I use it a lot).
BUT, had to return it because the area top left of the keyboard chassis (shown in video) would make a weird noise when pressed (lightly) on, sounds like something is touching the fan. Moreover, when playing video games, the fans run even at higher speeds, w / o pressing on the area it will make that weird sound and will be really loud when pressed on. I wanted to keep this but this noise is just not acceptable and just feels like things will fall apart soon if I keep using it.
If there was no problem with this, I would've given it a 5-star rating
Great Overall Laptop! Although shipping experience was not great!
This is my first review and I hope i encourage people to buy it!
The laptop is amazing! It's my first gaming laptop I've purchased and it is exactly what I wanted! Thin, good battery life, games well and looks stunning! I'm terms of fans, the laptop is the loudest I've heard, but that's not a down side! The laptop keeps very cool even when overclocking cpu and gpu. Very important not to block vents though! I saw my temperature increase by 10 degrees if accidentally blocked the vents on the bottom. CPU boosted to about 3.9 and stayed there while staying at low temp. Haven't really tracked the GPU performance, but when running MSI After burner it did show it maxing at over 1900. Battery life is about 5-6 hours with web browsing and video consumption. Laptop build quality is fantastic! Looks very slim, but has quite a bit of weight keeping it very strong and sturdy. I haven't checked for backlight bleed or anything, but the screen looks amazing and that 144 refresh rate as well as 3ms response time makes everything feel buttery smooth. I have the 2060 model and believe it's the best choice for sure! I purchased this laptop before any major YouTuber put out any reviews, but something about this laptop made me really confident that it would be perfect for me. All the youtubers I've seen since have given in amazing reviews and I'm extremely happy with my purchase. The laptop is also priced at a good position cheaper than all of its direct competitors like the aero 15, gs 65 and the Razer Blade. I really wanted to purchase the Razer Blade, but the Triton 500 with the same if. It better specs was about $ 600 cheaper so it was a very easy choice. Also I know that quality control for Acer was a lot better. The only bad think I can say abou my purchase is that they delayed my shipping two times despite me trying reschedule it and paying for 1 day shipping, although it did come one earlier then the changed date. The box it was shipped also had a very large dent in it the made me very concerned. Luckily, the device was in packaged inside 4 boxes, and the 4th and last box did not have any dents although all of the other boxes did. Sorry my review was very scattered and not very precise. I still hoped I encouraged someone to purchase this!