Acer is one of those laptop makers that often tries too hard to stand out. Think of the Predator Triton 900, a wild machine with a 360-degree rotating screen that I found almost useless. Earlier this month, Acer also announced plans to introduce its SpatiaLabs 3D technology without gaming laptops. Ambitious swings are nice and all, but these days I’m more interested in laptops that are fine for their gaming skills. And after testing the Predator Triton 500 SE last week, I learned that Acer can do pretty well.
Gallery: Acer Predator Triton 500 SE | 12 photos
Gallery: Acer Predator Triton 500 SE | 12 photos
The Triton 500 SE contains all the power you’d want from a large gaming laptop, in a sleek metal frame that won’t look out of place in a stuffy office or lecture hall. No need for flashing LEDs (except for the keyboard backlight, which you can always turn off) or other disgusting glare on the case. We are ready to get to work. And of course, this isn’t the only fine gaming laptop, but competitors like the Razer Blade cost more than Triton’s starting price of $ 2,300.
Professionals
- Beautiful and smooth 16-inch screen
- 12th generation fast processors and NVIDIA GPUs
- Exquisite design
- Great performance
- Easy overclocking
- Plenty of ports
Against
- I can use a better keyboard
- The trackpad is solid
- Tiny speakers
What sets the Triton 500 SE apart from your typical laptop in terms of performance, apart from the powerful hardware, is its magnificent 16-inch screen. It has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which makes it slightly taller than typical widescreen displays and more useful for working with documents. Our scanner comes with the 240Hz WQXGA (running at 2560 by 1600 pixels), which in my book is the perfect balance between sharpness and silky smooth refresh. There is no HDR support, but at least it offers a relatively high brightness of 500 nits, as well as full coverage of the DCI-P3 range. And while the screen is a big reason why the Triton weighs 5.3 pounds, it’s still better than most 17-inch gaming laptops (the Razer Blade 17 runs at 5.5 pounds).
The power of this magnificent display is powered by Intel’s 12th generation processors and the latest NVIDIA RTX 30 series graphics processors, all the way to the saliva-worthy RTX 3080 Ti. The device we received included this GPU, as well as Intel’s highest class Core i9 12900H, 32 GB LPDDR5 RAM and a fast 1TB NVMe SSD. Honestly, it was this configuration that inspired me to review the Triton 500 SE in the first place. I was wondering if this unpretentious laptop can really satisfy gamers? It turns out, yes.
Halo Infinite, for example, reached a solid 85 frames per second at Triton’s natural resolution at ultra-graphics settings. Although I missed the HDR and expansive look I was used to on the Alienware QD-OLED ultra-wide monitor, I was surprised at how immersive the game felt on the 16-inch display. You can thank the higher 16:10 ratio for that – sometimes I felt like I was about to dive headfirst into Halo Infinite maps. (This may also be a sign that I need to make my desk a little more ergonomic for laptops.) The 240Hz display also flashed when I reduced the game’s graphics settings to reach a higher frame rate. I’m still not fully sold at such a high refresh rate, but it’s nice to see laptop manufacturers who insist on smoother and more realistic gameplay.
Gearheads will probably appreciate the Triton 500 SE’s built-in overclocking capabilities. Acer software makes it easy to set clock speeds and thermal profiles. Personally, however, I was glad to have a simple “Turbo” button on the keyboard. It speeds up the fans completely and automatically overclocks the system. In Halo Infinite and all the benchmarks I’ve used, this usually results in an 8 to 10 percent increase in performance. The big drawback? It’s so powerful that you probably wouldn’t want to use it without headphones.
Devindra Hardavar / Engadget
Even without overclocking, the Triton 500 SE destroyed all the tests we threw at it, providing performance on par with the Razer Blade 15. There were a few cases where Razer overtook, such as PCMark 10 and the Geekbench 5 computational test (which focuses on GPU). But in others, including Cinebench R23 and 3DMark’s Port Royal beam tracking benchmark, Triton took the lead. This is partly due to our review device, which has a slightly faster processor than the 12th generation. Press this Turbo switch and the Triton numbers go even higher.
PCMark 10
3DMark (TimeSpy Extreme)
Geekbench 5
ATTO (top read / write)
Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (2022, Intel i9-12900H, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti)
6,779 th most common
4,887 th most common
1,736 / 11,382
6.4 GB / s / 4.9 GB / s
Razer Blade 15 (2022, Intel i7-12800H, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Ti)
7,085 th most common
4,798 th most common
1,795 / 9,529
4.32 GB / s / 6.45 GB / s
ASUS Zephyrus G14 (2022, AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS, Radeon RX 6800S)
7,170 th most common
3,821 th most common
1,543 / 9,839
3.5 GB / s / 4 GB / s
ASUS Zephyrus G15 (AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS, NVIDIA RTX 3080 Max-Q)
6,881 th most common
4,530 th most common
1,426 / 7,267
3.3 GB / s / 2.85 GB / s
NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus feature, which intelligently switches Triton’s GPU between integrated and discrete graphics, also works flawlessly during my testing. I didn’t see any performance issues with older Optimus machines, where discrete graphics processors had to be squeezed through integrated graphics. There is also a MUX switch that allows you to manually switch between the two GPUs without restarting the entire system.
After comparative analysis and playing several games for several hours, the Triton 500 SE remained relatively cool. The CPU typically ran around 78 Celsius under load, while the GPU reached 83 Celsius. He never felt hot to the touch, although it’s worth noting that I tested in my cold basement. Fan noise was roughly what I’d expect with Triton’s default performance settings – audible but not as annoying as turning it all the way up with the Turbo button.
Devindra Hardavar / Engadget
But while Acer has proper cooling and overall performance, it’s unfortunate that some of the Triton 500 SE’s hardware keeps it going. The keyboard is good for gaming, but I’d like more feedback for long typing sessions. And while I appreciated the large and smooth trackpad, the actual click mechanism felt solid – it was especially bad at registering right clicks. I’m also not a fan of the fingerprint sensor right on the trackpad, as it often gets in the way while I’m gliding around. Just stick this sensor on the power button or add a Windows Hello webcam already! I’d also like to see Acer bundled with more than just a pair of slim stereo speakers, especially since Razer, Dell and others cram many more drivers into their laptops.
Battery life is another disappointment, although I guess we’re used to it in powerful gaming laptops. The Triton 500 SE lasts five hours and twenty-five minutes in our benchmark, which includes looping HD video. That’s 17 minutes less than the Razer Blade 15. During my typical work day, it usually lasted about five hours before I had to recharge. Unfortunately, this is typical of big screen gaming laptops. You will never want to be too far from the plug.
However, I guess most people would like to keep their workstations turned on for best performance. Acer also includes all the ports you need to make it a real workstation, including two USB 3.2 Type A connections, a dual USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, HDMI, Ethernet and an SD card slot. And fortunately, Acer hasn’t gotten rid of the headphone jack, something more laptop manufacturers are doing these days.
The Acer Predator Triton 500 SE starts at $ 2,300, which is $ 200 less than the Razer Blade 15 with 12th generation Intel chips and $ 400 less than the latest Blade 17. Be prepared to spend $ 3,000 if you want all the hardware from our review unit (still cheaper than comparable machines from Razer and others). But if you can live with last year’s 11th-generation Intel chips, you can also find older Triton 500 SEs for $ 2,000 or less. However, we recommend that you do everything necessary to get a 12th generation chip, as the difference in performance is huge.
Devindra Hardavar / Engadget
If nothing else, the Triton 500 SE proves that Acer is doing more than just chasing gaming tricks. After years of being known for producing cheap and simple laptops, it’s good to see that Acer can make a sophisticated gaming laptop without the glamor.
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