The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE promises quite a bit of power packed into its small frame, while aiming for a spot on the lists of the best gaming laptops on the Internet and equipped with one of the best graphics cards for gaming, as well as some other high-end components. On paper, the Predator Tritium positions itself as a portable powerhouse from a purely technical standpoint, especially considering its unique aspect ratio and focus on screen quality.
Acer promotes the Predator Triton 500 SE as a “slim gaming notebook.” Of course, when you consider the relative size, there are laptops that are significantly thicker. However, at around 20 mm, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is not extremely thin in absolute terms. Whether you would want an even slimmer size is another question, though, since Acer still has to cool all the performance components somehow in the increasingly popular 16-inch 16:10 format. Our review unit houses an Nvidia GeForce 3080 Ti alongside the 45-watt Intel Core i7-12700H processor from the latest Alder Lake series.
This is an issue with last year’s models that has not gone away. But this year’s model makes up for it with an excellent webcam and keyboard. It also managed to leave its rivals behind in the productivity benchmarks. So the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE could be just the thing for you if productivity is also on your agenda and you don’t want to break the bank or your back by lugging around a huge machine.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Design
The display hinge does not protrude when closed, which gives the notebook a uniform look. When opened, the display also folds almost flat onto the back, which is impressive. Whether you’re watching a movie, playing games, editing media, or just working, the 16-inch WQXGA screen is a feast for the eyes. Besides the benefit of a higher refresh rate, colors are vibrant and blacks are deep when needed.
There is also a 720p standard camera on top of the display. The camera resolution is good enough for video conferencing and the like, but serious streamers will probably have to get an external webcam. Although it would be nice if the integrated fingerprint scanner was located elsewhere, the touchpad is buttery smooth and generally handles well. Clicking, scrolling, zooming, right-clicking and more are simple and work every time.
Keyboard and Touchpad
While keyboards and trackpads sometimes fall short on gaming laptops, Acer has made them respectable on the Predator Triton 500 SE. The keys are smooth without feeling overly stiff, and the laptop’s sturdy base prevents you from getting a slushy feeling when typing. Tapping the Predator key also brings up Acer’s PredatorSense software, which lets you change the colors and patterns of the keyboard’s three backlight zones.
The trackpad doesn’t disappoint either, with a smooth glass surface that never yields to friction. This feeling of smoothness is enhanced by the high refresh rate, which eliminates the subtle cursor jitter found on standard 60 Hz screens. The click mechanism is a bit sluggish, however, especially when moving up on the touchpad.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Display
The Predator Triton 500 SE has a 2560 x 1600 pixel display with a refresh rate of 165 Hz. Many gamers like to play at 1440p because it offers a good level of detail compared to 1080p without being as demanding as the full 4K resolution. You also get a high refresh rate in most cases. For everyday use, that’s more than enough, and it’s great for gaming as well. The display is matte, which minimizes reflections while gaming and shows less glare during occasional use.
The display also looked good when gaming. It was easy to get lost in the scenery and admire the skyline in overhead shots while racing in Forza Motorsport 7. During the actual races, we often found myself in the gravel, but the display did a good job of showing both the details of the asphalt and the earthy debris that we kept drifting into.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Audio
The speakers on the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE leave something to be desired. The laptop’s speakers are labeled DTS:X at the top, so we were expecting cinematic quality, and since the DTS:X software starts as soon as we open Spotify, we figured the presets were already in use and would be fine. However, when we listened to Rick James’ “Mary Jane,” we turned it off because the speakers were not as loud as they should be and the sound was a bit muffled.
You can certainly hear the sound, but gaming laptops can usually produce better sound than this. We played with the DTS:X software and EQ, tested all the presets and turned up the volume significantly; I also went into the audio settings in Windows, but nothing increased the volume, and a few changes made the sound worse. This was unfortunate. If you use the turbo button to cool the notebook during a game, you can barely hear the conversation mixed in with the fan noise.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Graphics
We also ran two tests of the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which requires both low-level routines such as texturing and high-level image rendering such as games. The “Aztec Ruins” (1440p) and “Car Chase” (1080p) tests, which render off-screen to account for differences in screen resolutions, used the OpenGL programming interface for graphics and compute shader training, respectively, and hardware tessellation; the more frames per second (fps), the better.
The next three tests are real games – specifically, the integrated 1080p benchmarks of a AAA title (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla), a fast-paced Esports shooter (Rainbow Six Siege), and a sports racing simulation (F1 2021). We run each benchmark twice, using different image quality presets for Valhalla and Rainbow, and try F1 with and without Nvidia’s DLSS anti-aliasing technology.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Performance
In a word: buttery soft. This is smooth, strong, powerful stuff. Nothing we tried could really top it, and every game I played in the test felt absolutely fantastic – from Sniper Elite 4 to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the Predator Triton 500 scored high and performed very smoothly. That’s not a huge surprise. G-Sync generally helps things feel smooth, and the FHD resolution is low enough that the 2080 SUPER isn’t overly stressed. Not that it doesn’t work hard – the fans rev up significantly when things get complicated – but frame drops and throttling didn’t occur in gaming tests or benchmarking activities.
This is a true desktop replacement. The upgrade path may not be as good as a desktop PC, and it may not be a magic panacea that can get outrageous FPS numbers out of something like Cyberpunk 2077 on Ultra with RTX enabled (it’s not much, at this point), but it’s a brilliant experience. Turn on Nvidia’s DLSS, and the 2080 SUPER can carve through just about anything.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Battery Life
We tested the “Acer Predator Triton 500 SE” with Intel Core i9-12900H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU; the GPU has 16GB of GDDR6 memory and up to 115W graphics performance.” Competitors such as the “Alienware x17 R2,” “MSI GE76 Raider,” and “Razer Blade 17” have the same GPU.
When we played God of War on the highest setting with frame rates unlocked, we barely scratched the surface of the amount of VRAM we could use, utilizing 99% of our GPU according to GeForce Experience. The game was stunning, the graphics were sharp, and we had no lag in the otherwise fluid game. we stayed at around 74 fps with Quality DLSS enabled.
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE review: Heat
The case temperatures are already a bit higher than in other laptops in idle mode. The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE also heats up considerably under load.
Although the maximum temperature of 49 °C on the underside remains below the critical mark of 50 °C, the palm rests heat up significantly. This is also true for our The Witcher 3 test, so you also have to expect sweaty hands when gaming with the Acer notebook.
Conclusion
The fact that the speaker grille is so prominently placed on the keyboard deck of the Triton 500 SE raised our expectations for audio quality. While the speakers didn’t quite achieve what we hoped for, they sounded good. Not only are they loud enough to drown out, our air conditioner, but they remain clear regardless of the volume.
The audio presets in the PredatorSense app also help. With the “Music” preset, we listened to “Cat” by Se So Neon, which has a very pronounced bass component, and it sounded decent. The song wasn’t as bass-heavy as we would have liked, but the guitar and drums sounded crisp at both low and high volumes.
