20 Mar
Blog

Acer Predator Triton 300 SE Review: Gaming, Display, Battery

Acer Predator Triton 300 se review 01

Acer Predator Triton 300 SE Review: Small stature meets powerful gaming

"The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is small, but powerful."

  • Small, portable design

  • Stay cool and quiet when you're not playing

  • Smooth gaming at 1080p and 144 Hz

  • Good battery life

  • Limited configurations available

  • Not as fast as the Zephyrus G14

The ROG Zephyrus G14 was a revolutionary gaming laptop. With a screen size of just 14 inches, an RTX-grade graphics card, and decent battery life, it was a breath of fresh air. and for almost a full year there was no challenger to what this laptop could do. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is finally a worthy rival. So on the surface.

It's also a 14-inch gaming laptop, has the same RTX 3060 GPU and a 144Hz refresh rate screen. All of that costs $ 1,400, along with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.

Because of its size and design, you may not even be able to identify the Triton 300 SE as a gaming laptop. But can a laptop this size really be powerful enough for modern gaming? You might be surprised.

design

Being the thinnest or lightest device rarely results in being the "best" device. The sacrifices made are often not worth the compromise. However, the Predator Triton 300 SE is less space-saving than ultra-thin or light.

Do not get me wrong. At 3.7 pounds and 0.70 inches thick, it's amply portable. But many gaming laptops have hit the 0.70-inch mark in the past few years, including the ROG Zephyrus G14. The 14-inch screen size is what makes the Predator Triton 300 SE so small. At just 12.7 x 8.9 inches, it doesn't feel much bigger than a 14-inch non-gaming laptop like the HP Specter x360 14.

Due to its smaller size, the Triton 300 SE can not only be used as a gaming laptop. It's easy to carry, easily fits in a backpack, and doesn't take up excessive table space. The Razer Blade Stealth 13 is the only gaming notebook that surpasses it, but the Razer's nowhere near as powerful.

The Triton 300 SE looks like this too. It's not overly game oriented or aggressive. The only freebies are a small Predator logo in the top right corner of the lid and some vents along the hinge. It's not as flashy as the ROG Zephyrus G14, but there are little bits of style if that's what you're looking for. It's a good balance, and I prefer the subdued aesthetic over the larger Predator Helios 300.

But that doesn't mean the design is totally modern. The fake brushed metal texture on the lid feels a bit dated, as does the bright silver color. Once opened, there are some features that are not keeping up with modern trends. First off, the lower bezel is quite large. A 16:10 screen would reduce this without having to shrink the overall size of the case. A black bezel on the sides may also have helped lessen the effect, even if it's still made of plastic.

I also don't like the location of the fingerprint scanner, which is in the top right corner of the touchpad. Most modern laptops incorporate this into the power button, although it is still rare in gaming laptops these days.

The location of the ports is a little awkward to make room for the side slots, but the variety will no doubt make you happy. On the left you will find a USB-A port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a barrel-shaped power plug. The Thunderbolt port can be connected to a display, used for ultra-fast data transfer or even charged the laptop. However, when gaming, you should use the proprietary charger.

On the right side, the Triton 300 SE has an additional USB-A port, HDMI 2.0 and a headphone jack. If you plan to use this laptop for photo or video editing, you will be missing an SD card slot, but the port selection is otherwise perfect.

display

I've talked about how important the size of the Triton 300 SE's screen is, but image quality is also important. It uses an IPS screen of 1,920 x 1,080 with a refresh rate of 144 Hz – ideal for smooth, responsive PC games. The matte layer on the screen means fewer reflections, but also less bright. I measured it at a maximum of 290 nits, which is just below the 300 nits I would like to see minimum on laptops.

Fortunately, the screen makes up for this with good color saturation and contrast. Achieving 99% of the sRGB and 77% of the AdobeRGB color spaces is quite good for a gaming laptop, as is the contrast ratio of 1,500: 1. The color accuracy is not that spectacular, although the Triton 300 SE does not rely on precise color corrections is designed. The ROG Zephyrus is better in this regard and also hits a maximum of 332 nits.

Of course, the refresh rate is the most important aspect of the display, which makes the performance under the hood of the RTX 3060 really flexible.

performance

Aside from its size, the Triton 300 SE's performance is the most intriguing proposition. It uses a unique 35-watt processor that sits right between a standard ultrabook (like the Dell XPS 13) and a traditional gaming laptop (like the Predator Helios 300). The ROG Zephyrus G14 also uses a 35-watt chip, although it's made by AMD instead of Intel.

The Triton 300 SE represents the attempt by Intel to develop such a processor type. The important thing is to use the latest 10nm SuperFin architecture, which is not yet available on the larger 45-watt gaming laptops. This is our first taste of what these chips will look like in a sense.

The special chip in my test device is the Intel Core i7-11375H, a quad-core processor with a base clock rate of 3.3 GHz. From now on the Triton 300 SE will only be offered in this single configuration, which also contains 16 GB DDR4 RAM and a 512 GB SSD. In addition, it is only sold through Best Buy, which means that availability is scarce. While it's a balanced configuration (especially at $ 1,400), I hope there will be more options available at some point.

In my runs in Geekbench 5 and Cinebench R23, this 35-watt processor consistently delivered stronger multi-core scores than ultrabooks (which also have four cores) and stronger single-core scores than 10th generation gaming laptops. Of course, 15-inch gaming laptops like the MSI GS66 Stealth or the Razer Blade 15 can support six- or eight-core chips, which achieve far better multi-core results. It is also far behind AMD's Ryzen CPUs with eight cores – even the 15-watt variants.

Cant say I am overly impressed by the raw performance of the Intel H35 chip.

Perhaps the most interesting comparison is between the Triton 300 SE and a 14-inch U-series laptop like the HP Specter x360 14 or Lenovo Yoga 9i 14. The multi-core values ​​of the Triton 300 SE are even 33% higher than those . That's what gives you 7-10 extra watts of power.

This improved multi-core performance should result in better results for content creation applications. I started with a CPU tied handbrake test encoding a 4K movie trailer for H.265. The results were good and took just under three minutes. That's about 17% faster than the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14. However, the eight-core Ryzen 9 4900HS in the ROG Zephyrus G14 stomped on the Triton 300 SE and did the job in just a minute and 40 seconds. Cant say I am overly impressed by the raw performance of the Intel H35 chip.

Fortunately, things get a lot better when you factor in the Triton 300 SE's discrete graphics card. In the PCMark 10 Creative test, for example, the Triton 300 SE is 12% ahead of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14. Of course, you can make more money for video editing with a larger 15-inch laptop. If this type of performance is more important to you, the Triton 300 SE is not for you. The additional multi-core performance in the Zephyrus G14 is a better choice.

Gaming performance

The RTX 3060 in the Triton 300 SE naturally makes it a proven gaming laptop. Smaller gaming laptops like the Razer Blade Stealth with its GTX 1650 Ti are good for light gaming, but the Triton 300 SE is almost twice as powerful for gaming.

I haven't tested the updated version of the Zephyrus G14 yet, but as you'll see, this hasn't stopped even the older model from improving the Triton 300 SE's frame rates.

Laptop 3DMark Time Spy 3DMark Fire Strike Assassin's Creed Valhalla (1080p Ultra High) Battlefield V (1080p Ultra) Fortnite (1080p Epic) Civilization VI (1080p Ultra)
Predator Triton 300 SE (RTX 3060) 6038 13794 50 frames per second (fps) 68 fps 78 fps 84 fps
ROG Zephyrus G14 (RTX 2060) 5861 13876 n / A 70 fps 91 fps 91 fps
Razer Blade Stealth (GTX 1650 Ti) 3035 7186 n / A n / A n / A 49 fps
MSI GS66 Stealth (RTX 3080) 9097 19175 70 fps 117 fps 140 fps 149 fps

The Predator Triton 300 SE can almost keep up with the Zephyrus G14 in Battlefield V, but remains behind in other games. The frame rate is 14% lower in Fortnite and 8% lower in Civilization VI. You don't want to see that against the predecessor model of a direct competitor. I would expect the recently introduced RTX 3060 version of the G14 to move forward even further.

I didn't have a comparison rating for Assassin's Creed Valhalla for the Zephyrus G14, but I tested Assassin's Creed Odyssey on both systems. None of the laptops could play this game at 60 fps at extremely high settings, with the Triton 300 SE averaging 51 frames per second (fps). This was the only game in which the Triton 300 SE beat the G14, which only hit 42 fps.

Overall, however, the Zephyrus G14 is the faster gaming notebook in most cases. It seems that Asus has a more efficient cooling system and can push the graphics harder than the Triton 300 SE. Given that the two laptops are almost the same size, this is remarkable.

But I would be lying if I said that I didn't enjoy the gaming experience on the Triton 300 SE. If you set the settings to Medium or High in most games, the frame rates will jump over 100. This is the ideal place for silky smooth animation. The difference between the G14's 120 Hz and the Triton 300 SE's 144 Hz won't appear too often, but having extra leeway to play is never bad.

In addition, there is a clear trade-off in terms of fan noise. The Triton 300 SE is better able to stay quiet for simpler tasks, which was one of my main complaints with the Zephyrus G14. The vents on the top of the keyboard get warm during gaming, but the Triton 300 SE keeps the surface temperatures on the keyboard and palm rests extremely low. All of this helps the Triton 300 SE double as a standard work laptop better than the Zephyrus G14.

Battery life

I don't normally expect long battery life from gaming laptops, but the Triton 300 SE is different here, too. A lower power CPU is being used, which is designed to improve lifespan on a single charge. Acer claims that the Triton 300 SE can even last up to 10 hours under its specific conditions.

I tested this in two ways: a local 1080p playback test and an iMacros web browser test. The video loop lasted just under eight hours on a single charge, while the system lasted just under seven and a half hours in the more realistic web browsing test. You're far better with 25-watt laptops, but I was pretty impressed with how long the Triton 300 SE can last.

The system traded beats with the Zephyrus G14 in terms of battery life. The G14 lasted two more hours on the video loop and just under six hours on the internet. Other gaming laptops with decent battery life include the MSI GS66 Stealth and the Razer Blade 15, both of which are only 30 to 60 minutes shorter than the Triton 300 SE.

Keyboard and touchpad

The keyboard is not my favorite aspect of this laptop, but it is serviceable. Acer decided to move the standard Predator keyboard over to the Triton 300 SE, which feels like a missed opportunity. It's not a bad keyboard, but I would have preferred something with less feel, bigger keycaps, and more precise bottom-out action. The multimedia buttons on the right don't bother me, although I have to admit that they always put me off when screen brightness and volume control are not next to each other.

The keyboard has a three-zone RGB backlight with four levels of brightness for the backlight. Colors and patterns can all be customized in the PredatorSense application.

The touchpad does better. It's very big and the pursuit is smooth. It's a high quality touchpad, and even the click mechanism feels solid.

The Triton 300 SE has a 720p webcam above the screen. However, it lacks an IR camera, so Windows Hello hands-free logins are not possible.

Our opinion

The Predator Triton 300 SE represents a new generation of gaming laptops. Smaller, yes, but just as powerful. At $ 1,400, it's not overly expensive for a gaming laptop, either. For me, it's the future of gaming laptops.

The only problem? The Zephyrus G14 came here first and has better performance in both gaming and content creation. They are similar in price and end up in the same category depending on size. However, I prefer the way Acer optimized the Triton 300 SE for cooler and quieter operation, which makes it a better work laptop.

Are there alternatives?

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 can hardly be surpassed in this category. It is gaining performance across the board, which makes it a better option for most people. Asus also offers a lot more configurations, including options for cheaper graphics or higher resolution screens.

The Razer Blade Stealth is an even smaller gaming laptop, despite being more expensive and not as powerful.

When you're ready to move on to a bigger 15-inch laptop, you can find some more powerful options like the Razer Blade 15 and MSI GS66 Stealth.

How long it will take?

The Predator Triton 300 SE should last at least four or five years, especially if your main focus is on competitive esports games. The laptop comes with a standard one-year warranty.

Should you buy it?

Yes. It represents a new category of gaming laptop that many PC gamers will love. The category is still in its infancy, but the Triton 300 SE has confirmed to me that the highly portable 14-inch gaming laptop will become an extremely attractive option for PC gamers going forward.

Editor's recommendations




30 Jun
Blog

Acer Predator Triton 500 Review: The Value King

Acer Predator Triton 500

Acer Predator Triton 500 Review: The king of values

"Acer's Predator Triton 500 is a value leader, but its gaming performance is top notch."

  • Excellent 300 Hz display

  • Strong gaming performance

  • Pleasant keyboard and touchpad

  • Slim and light form factor

  • Great value for money

  • So-so design

  • Processor is just ok (for the price)

  • Modest battery life

Acer has not always been a real competitor in the gaming laptop world. But in recent years, it has pushed into the arena and at times has asserted itself against Razer, Alienware and other well-known brands. The Predator Triton 500 plays a major role in the story of Acer's rise.

The formula of this laptop is simple. It emulates the Razer Blade 15 with a focus on thin and light design that makes minimal performance concessions, and then increases the value. The Acer Predator Triton 500 review device I received had all the tricks. An 10th generation Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia RTX 2080 super graphics, 32 GB RAM, a 1 TB hard drive and a 300 Hz 1080p display. This is a serious kit, and the price, as tested, is $ 2,600.

Nobody will call $ 2,600 "affordable", but it's $ 400 less than a Razer Blade 15 with almost identical hardware (but half as much RAM). The RTX 2080 Super or Intel hardware of the 10th generation has not yet offered any other alternatives, such as the Alienware m15 R2.

Everything looks good at first glance, but does it stand up to the test?

design

Like the laptops it emulates, the Acer Predator Triton 500 is a reserved, if not subtle, laptop. This box-shaped laptop wouldn't look out of place on a laptop designed for workstation users, but a colorful Predator chrome logo that glows blue when the laptop is turned on reveals the purpose of the laptop. It reminds me of gaming laptops that were sold in the late 2000s – except that they're much thinner.

So there is not much to see. However, the Triton 500 does not neglect the basics. The laptop is only 0.7 inches thick and weighs 4.6 pounds. Both numbers hardly exceed an Apple MacBook Pro 16. Razers Blade 15 is also 0.7 inches thick and about the same weight, although Razer gives slightly different numbers for different variants.

The Predator Triton 500 has a slight disadvantage in the footprint. It's 10 inches deep, while the Razer Blade 15 is only 9.25 inches deep. The blade is also a hair narrower. I don't think these differences are significant. Both feel slim for a 15-inch laptop, but you still want a 15-inch bag to carry comfortably.

Acer Predator Triton 500Matthew S Smith / Digital Trends

There is plenty of space for the keyboard, and Acer makes good use of it. The Predator Triton 500 lacks a number pad, but the layout offered is spacious. I immediately felt comfortable. My only criticism is the position of the power switch on the keyboard, where I would normally reach for the Delete key. I accidentally put the laptop to sleep more than once.

I also enjoyed the tactile feel of the keyboard. The key travel is abundant, and the keys have a fixed but forgiving action that offers just the right amount of "click". It is comparable to the Razer Blade 15 and the Alienware m15 R2, none of which have a lackluster keyboard.

The key stroke is abundant, and the keys are achieved with a firm but forgiving act.

The RGB backlighting per key is standard on all current Predator Triton 500 models. The buttons let out a lot of light at the edges, which can be annoying in a very dark room. Fortunately, Acer's Predator Sense software lets you customize the lighting color, brightness, and pattern to your liking.

There's not much to talk about on the touchpad. It's a fair size and feels smooth, but it's not comparable to more general-purpose laptops like the Dell XPS 15 and Apple MacBook Pro 16. It just does the job.

Gaming performance

The Acer Predator Triton 500 doesn't push the design forward, but it's basically a solid foundation to build on. What kind of monster did Acer put in this thin and light chassis?

My test device had none other than Nvidia's RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. This relatively new GPU is (on paper) the king of mobile gaming performance. This is paired with an Intel Core i7-10750H six-core processor and 32 GB RAM. It all looks good at a glance, but specifications don't mean as much as they used to. The performance between laptops with the same CPU and GPU can vary considerably depending on the firmware and thermal solution of the system.

I started my round by launching 3DMark, a trusted benchmark that we've been using for over eight years. The results were promising. The Triton 500 spit out a score of 7,955 in 3DMark's demanding Time Spy benchmark. This surpasses the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15, another RTX 2080 Super Max-Q notebook that we recently tested. This score also surpasses the RTX 2080 Max-Q laptops. The MSI GS75 Stealth, Razer Blade 15 (2019) and HP Omen X 2S, all tested with RTX 2080, achieved 6,825, 6,285 and 6,478 points, respectively.

Acer Predator Triton 500Matthew S Smith / Digital Trends

Next I started Civilization VI. The Acer Predator Triton 500 delivered 138 frames per second with a native 1080p resolution, the details being set to Ultra and the MSAA to 2x. This is an excellent score. It beats the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 with 121 FPS and the HP Omen X 2S with 125 FPS.

This brought me to Battlefield V, an attractive but well-optimized shooter. Here the Acer Predator Triton brought 80 FPS at 1080p and ultra detail. Asus & # 39; Rog Zephyrus Duo 15 (who also has Nvidia's RTX 2080 Super Max-Q) is the winner and delivers an average of 90 FPS. In this game, the Triton 500 even came a little behind the Alienware M15 (2019), which has an RTX 2080 Max-Q.

Now it's time for the most challenging game we're testing – Assassins Creed Odyssey. Here, the Acer Predator Triton 500 achieves a remarkable result by achieving an average of 59 FPS at 1080p and ultra-high details. The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 achieved 55 FPS, as did the Alienware M15 (2019) and the Razer Blade 15 56 FPS. It's just a small win, but the Triton 500 pushes them all aside.

Taken together, the benchmarks are good news for the Acer Predator Triton 500.

Taken together, the benchmarks are good news for the Acer Predator Triton 500. It delivered strong results in a variety of tests and only lost in Battlefield V. My gameplay impressions matched the benchmarks. The Triton 500 always felt supple and responsive and only hesitated briefly in the most demanding sections of the Assassins Creed Odyssey benchmarks. You will find it hard to find a laptop with better performance at a lower price.

Processor and hard drive performance

As already mentioned, the Acer Predator Triton 500 that I tested has the Intel Core i7-10750H CPU. This is a 12-thread processor with six cores, a base clock of 2.6 GHz and a maximum turbo boost speed of 5 GHz. Although this processor looks impressive in and of itself, it won't be remarkable in 2020. The Core i7-10750H was filtered down on laptops that sell half as much as the Triton 500.

The Triton 500 achieved a score of 1,190 in the Geekbench 5 single-core test and 5,805 in the multi-core test. Neither of the two reviews is impressive compared to the alternatives. The Dell G5 SE Gaming, a much cheaper notebook with a Ryzen 7 4800H processor, beats the Triton 500 in both tests. And as expected, the Triton 500 loses against laptops that we tested with better Intel chips like the Core i7-10875H and the Core i9-10980HK. You can find these processors in inexpensive laptops like the Dell XPS 15.

Acer Predator Triton 500 "class =" m-Karussell - picture dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/acerpredatortriton500-5-640x640.jpg "srcset =" https: / /www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7Matthew S Smith / Digital Trends

Acer Predator Triton 500 "class =" m-Karussell - picture dt-lazy-no "src =" https://icdn3.digitaltrends.com/image/digitaltrends/acerpredatortriton500-4-640x640.jpg "srcset =" https: / /www.digitaltrends.com/data:image/gif;base64,https://www.digitaltrends.com/R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7Matthew S Smith / Digital Trends

I've seen similar results from Handbrake that I used to transcode a 4K movie trailer from h.264 to h.265. This task took 121 seconds for the Triton 500. That's not a bad thing, but the Dell G5 SE with Ryzen 7 drive only took 104 seconds. The Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 with a Core i9-10980HK also completed the task in 104 seconds.

Do not get me wrong. The Core i7-10750H is a fantastically fast processor in every respect and, above all, fast enough to handle games easily. Most users have no reason to complain. The processor is not a problem – but given the price of the Triton 500, it is disappointing to see that it loses against mid-range gaming laptops.

The Triton 500 I tested showed more impressive hard drive performance. Read speeds of 1,773 MB / s and write speeds of 1283 MB / s were provided in CrystalDiskMark. These are not record-breaking numbers, but they distinguish the Triton 500 from cheaper laptops, which often achieve read and write values ​​below 1,000 MB / s in this benchmark. The terabyte of capacity of the Triton 500 also offers good value for money.

Display and audio

Instead of opting for a 4K or 1440p display, as you will see with some competitors, the Acer Predator Triton 500 has a 1080p display with an insanely high refresh rate of 300 Hz. The display also supports G-Sync.

I love that decision. It may seem absurd to increase the refresh rate to 300 Hz, but this allows gamers to take advantage of the RTX 2080 Super for a variety of content.

You can play Control with activated RTX ray tracing function and all settings to the maximum and enjoy the maximum visual quality. Or you can play League of Legends at an absurd frame rate while enjoying the movement details and responsiveness that the 300 Hz display can offer.

Acer Predator Triton 500Matthew S Smith / Digital Trends

The only players who may feel left out are those who play strategy games or some open world RPGs where an extremely sharp 4K image is preferable to more fluid gameplay. Still, I think Acer made the right choice.

It helps that the display provides excellent picture quality. I measured a contrast ratio of 1,060: 1 that surpasses the Alienware M15 R2 and non-OLED versions of the Razer Blade 15. The Triton 500 also has a slightly wider range of colors than these competitors and its color accuracy when it is solid. The brightness is only 272 nits, but with one caveat: this is a matte screen. Although the display is weaker than the competition, it is comfortable with everything except full, direct sunlight.

As I said, I love the choices made here and I enjoy the ad. It's not the best in every category, but the combination of strong 1080p picture quality and a refresh rate of 300 Hz gives it an angle that most players will appreciate.

However, you should know that the Triton 500's display is ambiguous. Razers Blade 15 offers a similar display option. Asus and MSI also offer 300 Hz displays on selected models.

The Triton 500 delivers its audio through a series of speakers directly above the keyboard. They offer strong, clear audio. Distortion can prevail in demanding situations such as bass-heavy music or action films when the volume approaches its maximum. Still, it resists that better than most laptops. Most players want to use a headset, but the audio quality of the Triton 500 won't disappoint if one isn't available.

Battery life

There is an 82 watt hour battery in the Acer Predator Triton 500. It's not a small battery, but considering what it powers (a six-core processor and the fastest mobile GPU from Nvidia), it's clear that the battery did its job.

Let's start with a simple video loop, our least demanding test. The Triton 500 played a 1080p movie trailer on a loop for three and a half hours before the battery was empty. That is a mediocre result. It's better than the HP Omen X 2S, but not as good as the latest Razer Blade 15.

In the Basemark 3.0 browser benchmark, our most demanding test, the Acer Predator Triton 500 only lasted one hour and 57 minutes. This is slightly better than the Alienware m15 (2019), which lasted an hour and 49 minutes. It connects the Razer Blade 15 (2019) exactly to a 240 Hz 1080p display.

My real observations came close to the Basemark browser test. The laptop had more than two hours of battery life when it was used for Internet surfing and Microsoft Word productivity. The endurance when playing is even worse and is north of an hour.

These results are not uncommon for a gaming laptop with this hardware caliber. The Alienware m15 performed even worse in our tests, while the HP Omen X 2S and the Razer Blade (2019) were roughly equivalent. Especially with high-end gaming laptops, it is still correct that excellent gaming performance and excellent battery life often do not match.

This is due to Nvidia's G-Sync, which synchronizes the game's frame rate with the refresh rate of the display, but unfortunately doesn't work with Nvidia's Optimus, which allows a laptop to use the powerful integrated Intel graphics solution when the Nvidia GPU is not needed. Pairing G-Sync with Optimus is not impossible. Some laptops have a switch that allows users to choose between them after a restart.

Nvidia recently launched Advanced Optimus, which allows laptops to use G-Sync and Optimus at the same time. Unfortunately, the Triton 500 does not support a hardware switch or Advanced Optimus, so you only have a short battery life.

software

Acer ships the Predator Triton 500 with its “PredatorSense” software suite. This includes fan management and keyboard customization. It all works well and looks pretty chic, which is more than I can say about certain competitors (I see yours, MSI). On the other hand, the Alienware brand from Dell offers a more elegant surface.

Unfortunately, Acer ships the Triton 500 with bloatware, including Norton Antivirus. Uninstalling is easy, but annoying given the price of $ 2,600 for the laptop.

Our take

The Predator Triton 500 from Acer is not a revolutionary or most attractive gaming laptop, but it offers excellent gaming performance and offers important functions such as the 300 Hz display and the keyboard. It's a good choice and, at $ 2,600, a better value than most high-end gaming laptops.

Is there a better alternative?

Razers Blade 15 is our favorite gaming laptop overall, and the Triton 500 doesn't change that. We like the Blade 15 because it offers great gaming performance and is still fun to use as a normal gaming notebook every day. However, the Blade 15 is more expensive, so the Triton 500 is a better choice if performance per dollar is your main concern.

MSI and Asus offer a variety of alternatives. Digital Trends hasn't tested all of them, but in general we have better assessed Acer's recent efforts. MSI gaming laptops often offer excellent performance at the expense of mediocre design. Asus mirrors Acer more closely, but I think Acer gaming laptops are more attractive.

Alienware's laptops are another strong choice. However, the Alienware m15 doesn't focus as much on everyday use as the Triton 500. This makes the m15 a better choice when you need a laptop mainly for gaming, while the Triton 500 is better when you use it. It's yours most important everyday laptop.

How long it will take?

You will be surprised how long the Triton 500 remains relevant. It has excellent gaming hardware and doesn't surpass that hardware by unnecessarily adding a 4K display. You will see excellent gaming performance for at least three years, and the latest games should run on the laptop at medium settings for over five years.

Should you buy it

Yes. The Acer Predator Triton 500 is a killer value.

Editor's recommendations




25 Jun
Blog

Acer Predator Helios 300 Review: Best-Selling Performance

Acer Predator Helios 300 2020 review 06

Acer Predator Helios 300 review: More performance at the same price

  • Up to Nvidia RTX 2070 graphics

  • Great keyboard and touchpad

  • Fast 240Hz display

  • Still a bit chunky

  • Uses previous generation GPU

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is one of the most popular gaming laptops in recent years. It's a constant bestseller on Amazon for two simple reasons. It is affordable and reliable.

Acer recently announced an update to the Helios 300 that extends some of its key specs, including the display, graphics, and processor. The result should be better gaming performance at the same affordable price.

design

The Acer Predator Helios 300 hasn't changed its design this year. It's still a somewhat bulky 15.6-inch gaming laptop that comes in a standard black with blue accents. It weighs 5.3 pounds and is 0.9 inches thick, which is quite a bit larger than options like the Asus Zephyrus G or Razer Blade. A good size comparison is the Alienware m15, which weighs 5.5 pounds and is 0.8 inches thick. The Dell G5 SE gaming laptop is also similar in size.

Although it's a bit thick, its build quality is strong. The chassis or the lid have little flex. It feels sturdy and well built to hold or carry.

While gaming brands like Asus and Razer have transitioned to a more minimalist aesthetic, the Helios 300 maintains Predator's old-school gaming design. The back has some aggressive silver vents and the lid has an angular design. It's nothing obscene, but it's clearly built to draw attention to itself.

Acer has shortened the bezels somewhat in recent years. While the top and bottom bezels are still thick, the side bezels are slim enough to give a more modern feel.

display

The new Acer Predator Helios 300 is updated from a refresh rate of 144 Hz to 240 Hz. The faster update rate is useful for fast online games whether you play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Overwatch. While 240 frames per second sound out of the league of laptop games, gamers who enjoy competitive games are often willing to lower the settings to get better performance. However, you can still opt for the 144 Hz screen, which is available in the basic model for $ 1,200.

The screen also has a response time of 3 ms, which enables fast and smooth input. However, the Helios 300 does not support G-Sync, so image tears may occur, an ugly visual artifact that occurs when a game's frame rate doesn't match the refresh rate of a display.

The screen has a resolution of 1080p and uses IPS technology. It has a blue hue, although the screen handled the dark shadows of Battlefield V quite well. It's not the brightest or most colorful screen in the world, but it doesn't stand out as bad either. It's good. Budget gaming laptops with high refresh rates sometimes push the visual quality aside.

Ports

The Predator Helios 300 has a solid mix of ports that gamers will love. On the left side there is an Ethernet socket, two USB-A connections and a headphone socket. The right side contains an additional USB-A port and a USB-C port.

The right side offers two options for the display output: an HDMI connection or a mini DisplayPort. There are many ports for your keyboard or mouse, additional if you want to dock your laptop on an external monitor. Mini-DisplayPort is a strange choice in 2020, though, and Thunderbolt 3 isn't included.

The socket is on the back. I would prefer the display output to be on the back for a cleaner set up, but that's not the case here.

Keyboard and touchpad

Unlike many affordable gaming laptops, the Predator Helios 300 has a great keyboard and touchpad. The touchpad in particular is surprisingly good. It has a quiet click mechanism and quick, responsive tracking. The beveled aluminum edge that surrounds the touchpad gives the look of the gaming laptop some flair.

The keyboard keeps things simple. It offers a standard layout with only one turbo button at the top. No macro keys need to be programmed, although Acer has a number pad to the right of the device. The RGB backlight is taken over by Acer's PredatorSense software, which is offered in a four-zone setup.

In contrast to the latest ROG gaming laptops from Asus, the Predator Helios 300 has a 720p webcam above the screen. However, Windows Hello login in the form of a fingerprint reader or an IR camera is not supported.

Performance and configurations

The Helios 300 is not the most powerful gaming notebook you can buy. Nevertheless, an upgrade from 9th generation Intel chips to 10th generation chips is carried out. This is an Intel Core i7 H series – 45-watt CPUs with up to six cores and 16 threads.

My pre-production unit of the Helios 300 was also equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q. Note that this is not the recently launched RTX 2070 super graphics, but the previous generation.

I wasn't able to test the pre-production system in benchmarks yet, but I started a game of Battlefield V and had a deliciously smooth gameplay. The RTX 2070 Max-Q has proven to be a solid mid-range laptop graphics chip in other of the systems that we have tested, and I doubt that it will turn out differently here.

My configuration also came with 32 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD. The system includes an additional PCIe NVMe SSD slot in the RAID 0 configuration for future upgrades.

The basic configuration comes with an Nvidia RTX 2060, 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD. The previous Helios 300 only started with a GTX 1660 Ti, so the new base model significantly improves game performance at the same price. This is important. My decorated test device had all the tricks, but the basic model is the one that most people will buy.

However, the Helios 300 has a dangerous competitor. The Dell G5 SE, which is equipped with all AMD components. It starts at just $ 862, though it includes a new Ryzen 4000 processor and Radeon 5600M graphics. It's a value leader and doesn't support RTX ray tracing, but game performance was solid. The Helios 300 will have a hard time surpassing it.

The Predator Helios 300 will be available in July from $ 1,200.

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