Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Gaming Laptop Review: Sets New Benchmark

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The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is currently the most powerful gaming laptop from the Taiwanese PC brand. This laptop offers top-tier specifications and costs Rs. 1,99,999. Though the pricing might intimidate many at first, it is actually a bit more affordable when compared to the laptops from the competition with similar specifications.

 

Rating:
4.5/5

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Gaming Laptop Review: Sets New Benchmark

I have been using the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE for the last few weeks as my primary laptop for gaming, working, and content consumption. Here is the review of the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE, the most powerful gaming laptop with the Intel Core i9-11900H, and the NVIDIA RTX 3080 Mobile GPU.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Specifications

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Specifications

  • CPU: Intel Core i9-11900H
  • Display: 15.6-inch IPS LCD 2160 x 1440, 165Hz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile
  • Memory: 32GB DDR4
  • Storage: 2TB PCIe RAID 0 SSD
  • Battery: 99.98WHr
  • OS: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Design: Not Your Regular-Looking Gaming Laptop
 

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Design: Not Your Regular-Looking Gaming Laptop

Most premium gaming laptops have a flashy design that screams "gaming" with sharp angles and RGB lighting. The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE has taken a different approach, where it mellows down the gaming-like design. As a result of this, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is one of the cleanest-looking laptops in the market.

As one might have noticed, most laptops will have a big logo on the center of the display lid. However, on this machine, the company has placed a small Predator logo on the top right side. This means a gaming enthusiast gets real estate for personalizing this laptop using stickers, vinyl, or even painting.

The display also has a thin bezel design with an 87 percent screen-to-body ratio. Most laptops of this class will have a 15.6-inch display. However, Acer has managed to include a slightly bigger 16-inch display, all thanks to the compact bezels across the screen.

When it comes to I/O, most laptops tend to disappoint me. However, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is one of the few laptops that have an exact amount of ports that will be useful for almost every user. The laptop has two USB-A ports (one on each side) two USB Type-C thunderbolt ports (one on each side), a full-sized HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a DC power input.

There is also an RJ45 Ethernet jack. This means one can connect almost any accessory to the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE without requiring any sort of dongle or a converter. However, I feel that the HDMI Port should have been on the left or the backside, as it tends to affect the external mouse functionality.

The top lid of the laptop is made using metal, while the rest of the laptop uses high-quality plastic. In no way the laptop feels cheap, and both gaming and professional users will definitely appreciate the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE. Do note that, the laptop packs the most powerful laptop CPU and GPU but still weighs at 2.2KG with a height of 19.9mm.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Display: A Smart Choice

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Display: A Smart Choice

GPUs like the RTX 3080 Mobile are more than capable of handling most games at 1440p with over 60fps with medium to high graphics settings. As the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is based on the same graphics card, the company has opted for a 16-inch 1440p display with 100 percent sRGB coverage.

When it comes to screen brightness, most laptops, even the high-end ones offer a peak brightness of 400nits, where, the 16-inch IPS display on the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE offers a peak brightness of 500nits along with a 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time. Not just that, this is also an NVIDIA G-Sync certified display, which eliminates issues like screen tearing.

I felt that the display is color accurate and gets pretty bright, where one can use this laptop even outdoors. Besides gaming, I also wanted some shows and movies on Netflix and Prime Video and I was satisfied with the display quality that the laptop offers.

If you are planning to connect this laptop to an external display, the device does have an HDMI 4.1 port along with dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, where, a single Thunderbolt 4 can support up to 4K resolution display. I have been using the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE with the LG UltraGear-27GL850, which is a 27-inch 144Hz, 2K display via the HDMI port.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Keyboard And Trackpad

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Keyboard And Trackpad

The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE has a full-sized keyboard with no num-pad. Hence, the keys have enough space between them, which eliminates accidental key taps while gaming or typing, which involves quick multiple key presses. The keyboard does support a three-zoned RGB backlight. Given the class of this machine, the brand should have offered per-key RGB customization.

The keyboard (Acer FineTip RGB) offers excellent feedback and feels very tactile. However, the key travel is a bit on the lower side when compared to some of the other premium gaming laptops. Coming to the trackpad, the laptop has a large trackpad along with a fingerprint sensor located on the top left corner.

It is almost becoming a trend, where some of the gaming laptops are coming with no web camera and any sort of biometric authentication. However, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE does have a 720p camera (which could have been a 1080p sensor) along with a capacitive fingerprint sensor, which works well and unlocks the laptop nine out of ten times.

The keyboard does have a dedicated media control keys and a hotkey to access predator sense applications, which can be used to monitor the performance of CPU, GPU, and to control the fans. Overall, a well-made laptop with a good keyboard and trackpad.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Audio Performance

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Audio Performance

The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE has a DTS: X Ultra certified stereo speaker setup. What I liked about the sound unit is the fact that the audio does not distort even at the highest volume level. However, the built-in speakers aren't that loud, especially when compared to something like the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED.

The audio output from the 3.5mm jack is good, and the laptop also supports Bluetooth 5.0 technology, which offers improved range and bandwidth when compared to laptops with Bluetooth 4.0 or older. As said before, one can actually hear the stereo sound effect with pretty clear vocals and background music.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Cooling Solution

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Cooling Solution

Building a laptop with components like the Intel Core i9-11900H and the RTX 3080 Mobile GPU does require a lot of engineering. The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is equipped with three fans, one to cool the CPU and two more fans for the RTX 3080 Mobile GPU. The laptop also has multiple outlets for air intake and exhaust, which keeps the system cool even with continuous gaming.

One of these fans uses 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D fan technology, which offers 89 blades (more the blades, better the cooling) which is said to deliver over 10 percent improved airflow when compared to the 4th Gen AeroBlade 3D fan technology.

Besides, the 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D fan technology is also said to keep the surface temperature of the components like DDR RAM cooler to maintain the peak performance for an extended period. On top of that, there is a dedicated button to enable the turbo mode, which makes the fan run at the highest speed to offer the best possible cooling solution.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE CPU Performance

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE CPU Performance

The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is based on one of the most powerful mobile CPUs from Intel -- the Core i9-11900K. This is a Tiger Lake processor with 20 PCIe Gen4 lanes and offers a peak CPU clock speed of 5.0GHz on a mobile platform. Similarly, the processor is based on 14nm fabrication with eight cores and sixteen threads design.

On Geekbench 5, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE posted 1518 points on single-core and 9500 points on multi-core CPU tests. The laptop has outperformed the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE, powered by the AMD Ryzen 5800HX on both single-core and multi-core tests. The Triton 500 SE has also outperformed the ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED, powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10980H.

We also ran Cinebench R23 on the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE, where the laptop scored 1454 points on the single-core and 10887 points on the multi-core CPU rendering test. In this test, the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE offers slightly better multi-core performance while the ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE with the Intel Core i9-11900H continues to lead the single-core performance.

Lastly, on CPU-Z single thread and multi-thread test, the laptop got 595.3 and 6037.4 points, respectively. Single-core performance is always associated with gaming, where, a CPU with higher single-core performance is likely to offer a better gaming performance while the CPU with better multi-core performance might offer better productivity on tasks like 3D rendering, video editing, and computational tasks.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE GPU Performance

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE GPU Performance

The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is based on the most powerful laptop GPU -- the RTX 3080 Mobile. This is GPU is based on the 2nd gen RTX architecture with 3rd Gen Tensor cores. The GPU also offers features like Max-Q, which helps to deliver high performance on thing-and-light laptops.

Similarly, the graphics card does support resizable bar technology, which enables to CPU to access the entire GPU buffer at once, which is confirmed to improve gaming performance on demanding AAA titles. The graphics card also supports DLSS, a smart unscaling technology to further improve the graphics performance, especially at 4K resolution.

We ran the 3D Mark Time Spy benchmark on the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE, where, the laptop scored 10,808 points with a graphics score of 10,781 and a CPU score of 10,970 points. According to benchmarks, the laptop is more than capable of handling Battlefield V at 1440p and can offer over 105frames per second.

Additionally, we also noted that the CPU was clocked at 4.4GHz during benchmarking and the GPU was clocked at 1.4GHz. In terms of heating, both the CPU and GPU were around 66 degrees centigrade (average) during the course of testing. Similarly, we also ran the Superposition benchmark (8994 points), which confirmed that the laptop can even handle 4K gaming and can offer over 60fps with optimized settings.

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Gaming Performance

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE Gaming Performance

The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is one of the most powerful mainstream gaming laptops of 2021. Though it might not be as powerful as a desktop PC with the RTX 3080, it does offer the best possible performance on a laptop form factor.

Cyberpunk 2021 is one of the most demanding games with support for real-time ray tracing and the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE easily offered an average FPS of around 80 at 1440p resolution with ray-tracing turned on. We also ran GTA: 5, where, the laptop offered an average FPS of 120 at 1440p resolution. Do note that, both games were played with the power adapter connected to the laptop and in turbo mode.

Though I did not notice any major heating or performance throttling issues on both of these titles, I did feel that the ASWD keys did get hot, especially after playing for more than an hour. Do note that, I did not use any sort of air-conditioner while gaming and the room temperature was around 32degree centigrade.

These numbers do indicate that the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE can handle every AAA title, that too at 1440p resolution, and can easily offer over 60fps with graphics set to medium or high. Hence, the laptop does make sense even for those, who are looking for the best gaming laptop in the market with an unlimited budget.

Verdict: For Those Looking For Sheer Power

Verdict: For Those Looking For Sheer Power

You might find a few laptops with desktop-grade CPU and GPU that could easily outperform the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE. However, those devices will not be practical, especially for those, who are into traveling or even for those who carry their laptops around.

For a laptop that offers the most powerful laptop CPU, GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD-based storage, a large 99.98Whr battery, a 16-inch 1440p display with 165Hz refresh rate, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE seems like a laptop that is priced well. This is a laptop for those, who want a high-performance machine that might not attract the crowd.

If you looking for a gaming laptop with a unique design, then you might have to consider products like the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE, which actually costs a lakh more than the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE.

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