When you think of Acer products, you think of excellent gaming gear. Acer’s new Predator Triton 500 is no different and provides some of the best specifications a gaming laptop can have. The Predator Triton offers many features that can visually improve your gaming experience as well as improve performance. In this review, I will go into my experience using this laptop.
*TLDR at the bottom
===========================
IN THE BOX/SET-UP:
In the box, you get the Predator Triton which weighs a bit above 5lbs, a hefty power adapter, power cord, soft carrying case, and paperwork. Set-up is fairly quick if you do already have a Microsoft account. All you need to do is log in and Windows is all yours. Although, a bit of a warning, the Predator Triton 500 initially does come with a loud bootup sound that can be disabled with either the Predator Sense software or BIOS. Surprisingly, this laptop did not come with a lot of bloatware. Kudos to Acer for not poisoning the laptop. Once I was finished tweaking a couple of settings, I downloaded a couple of apps, and the laptop was ready to go!
===========================
DESIGN:
The Predator Triton 500 is designed brilliantly. Its made with both metal and plastic. I seriously love the steel gray color which I found lowkey and didn’t holler gaming laptop like some others. There is some weight to the laptop coming in at a little above 5lbs. The display is a 16:10 display and minimal bezels allow for the display to pop out more when open. Ventilation holes are all around the sides and back to allow for cooling. A small design addition that I noticed was that the laptop’s hinge (where the power/battery indicator is located) tends to change color depending on the light reflected onto it. The keyboard is a 3-zone RGB keyboard that can be completely customized using Acer’s Predator Sense software. The keyboard is not loud, and I found it incredibly satisfying when using it. The laptop’s trackpad is large and there is also a fingerprint sensor located on the top left which works extremely fast.
There are plenty of ports on the Predator Triton 500 to allow for peripherals. They are DC-In, Ethernet, USB 3.2(2), USB-C Thunderbolt 4(2), Aux, HDMI 2.1, and an SD 7.0 card slot.
Overall, the design of Acer’s Predator Triton 500 is incredible. Ports are well placed, the material used feels sturdy, and the steel gray color offers a low-key vibe for a gaming laptop!
===========================
PERFORMANCE:
The Predator Triton 500 should run pretty much all the games on the market. From running “Can You Run It,” the laptop received a score of 100% minimum and 95% recommended. This score shows the percentage of games that can run on the laptop at the minimum and recommended requirement levels. In short, this laptop is a beast of a machine.
The 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor allows for quickness all the way around. Whether you are gaming, rendering 3D models, viewing/editing your media; this gaming laptop is quite fast and should not slow down your daily tasks. I am also a student and doing some schoolwork on this laptop was all a breeze. I use Autodesk Inventor and the laptop handled it extremely well. My gaming experience was truly stunning. The GPU on the Predator Triton 500 is powered by NVIDIA’s new GeForce 3060. I tried out a myriad of games using this laptop. From fast-paced games such as Control to more casual/adventure-type games like Detroit: Become Human. This laptop handled them all well and I had all my graphic settings set on high.
Overall, performance was as expected. I played my games on the highest settings and did not run into any issues. The Predator Triton 500 should not disappoint when it comes to performance.
===========================
DISPLAY/SOUND
The 2560x1600 display is indeed stunning. All my games appeared visually beautiful and the 165Hz refresh rate allowed for a seamless and smooth gameplay experience. The colors were accurate and overall, I have nothing bad to say about the display. It works wonderfully for gaming!
Sound is powered by DTS X Audio. The external speakers are on the louder side and do sound splendid for the most part. I mostly used the laptop with over-the-ear headphones and all my games, media, music ended up sounding great as well. Games specifically contained 360 audio which was amazing and made my gaming more immersive!
===========================
FEATURES:
The following are some other notable features for the Predator Triton 500:
- Fingerprint sign-in is located on the upper left of the touchpad.
- Predator Sense software allows for system monitoring, overclocking, keyboard RGB customization, and more.
- Fans are indeed quiet when in Quiet mode (great for Zoom meetings) but do get noisy in Turbo mode.
- The DTS X: Ultra Audio software allows for EQ customization when external speakers or headphones are connected.
- The laptop does allow for a customizable bootup. Be warned that the boot sound is on the louder side. You can enable/disable the sound
by going into Predator Sense or BIOS.
- Killer Control Center allows you to view network data, run network speeds, and prioritize network bandwidth to certain apps
-The laptop does have an extra M.2 SSD storage slot and RAM is upgradable up to 32GB.
===========================
CONCLUSION:
Overall, using the Predator Triton 500 was a breathtaking experience. It can run pretty much any game in the current market. Performance-wise, it performs extremely well. The processor and GPU work is high-end and did end up running most of my games on the highest settings. Visually, the 16:10 display shows some incredible visuals whether you are gaming or watching movies. Who is this for? If you are a gamer needing a laptop that runs most games, this one is it. A student or professional who wants to use 3-D rendering modeling software, this laptop is also for you. In short, if you need to tackle tough tasks like heavy gaming, video/photo editing, and 3-D rendering; I wholeheartedly do recommend you try out the Predator Triton 500.