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Acer brings some good old innovation to its gaming laptops with the flexible 2-in-1 design of the Predator Triton 900. For $3,799, you can get a foldable 17.3-inch, vibrant 4K screen along with a robust Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 GPU. Though you will have to deal with an uncomfortable keyboard and a short battery life, and the Triton is quite expensive. Although the Acer Predator Triton 900 is not The Best gaming laptop, overall, it is a reliable machine. This is our Acer Predator Triton 900 Review.
| ACER PREDATOR TRITON 900 SPECS | |
|---|---|
| Touchscreen display | 17.3-inch 4K IPS |
| Graphics card | Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 |
| Webcam | FullHD |
| Battery | 72Wh |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-9750H six-core |
| RAM | 32GB DDR4 2666MHz |
| Storage | 2x 512GB NVMe SSD |
| Weight | 9.04-pound |
Acer Predator Triton 900 Review – Design
The Triton 900 has the typical Predator laptop design and mounts an exoskeleton on the back and sides that allows the screen to rotate and fold, similar to the HP Spectre Folio. The black aluminum cover of the laptop is home to the steel Predator logo. When I opened it, I found a forward-facing keyboard with a touchpad on the right and a pair of top-fire speakers around it. Just above the keyboard is a glass panel with the heating solution and a recess for the intake fans on the left.
There are asymmetrical bezels on the screen combined with the exoskeleton mentioned above that supports the screen along the sides. The display can be folded forward, lying against the upper end of the keyboard in a presentation mode, which is the optimal way to play games. You can also fold it flat against the keyboard in tablet mode. It’s pretty innovative, especially for creatives who need a CPU and GPU from Bangin.
Like any good gaming machine, the Acer Predator Triton 900 has ports for days. On the left, there is a USB 3.1 port, a microphone connection, a headphone connection, and a USB 2.0 port that folds in towards the chassis so that it does not protrude. Meanwhile, the right-hand side has room for an RJ45 Ethernet port, a USB 3.1 port, a USB Type-C DisplayPort, a Thunderbolt 3 port, the on/off button, and a security lock. The back contains the power connection, an HDMI 2.0 port, and a DisplayPort.
Keyboard and TouchPad
When I think of a mechanical keyboard, I imagine pleasant clicks with a deep travel. All the mechanical keys supplied with the Predator Triton 900 were squishy feedback, thanks to incredibly low movements. I hit 72 words per minute during the 10FastFingers type test, which is close to my typical average of 70 wpm. However, I would not like to type on this keyboard, let alone gaming on it, especially since it has no palm rests.
The keyboard has lighting per key, which is controlled via the PredatorSense app. There are also a few macro keys above the keyboard that are divided into three groups when you press the P key. On the right, there is also a Turbo button for the fans.
The 2.4 x 3.6-inch touchpad feels smooth and offers two click-sensitive, responsive buttons. Double tapping the corner of the touchpad turns it into a digital numeric keypad. Windows 10 gestures, such as two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabs, worked well thanks to the Windows Precision drivers. Consider taking a look at our best gaming mouse page if you are looking for something more precise.
Acer Predator Triton 900 Review – Display
The 17.3-inch, 3840 x 2160 screen of the Predator Triton 900 is vivid and bright enough for gamers to enjoy wonderful cinematic experiences and creatives to indulge in Adobe Photoshop. It is close to one for the Best 4K laptops out the re. When Rafiki came upon Karen Gillian in Jumanji: The Next Level, his blue face and red nose jumped on the screen of the Triton 900. In a dimly lit room, I could see the detail in the wall behind Jack Black, but the glossy screen made it difficult to focus on the dark parts of the shot. Of course, Black’s beard was just as sharp as ever.
The gold on Lara Croft’s Blue Heron tunic in Shadow of the Tomb Raider was silky and daring. And while I was plundering a grave, I could see the serrated edges of stalagmites in the corner of the light, but I could also see a lot of myself in the reflection. With the focus on Lara, the thread in her tunic was sharp and clear.
According to our colorimeter, the Predator Triton 900 screen occupied 167% of the sRGB color range, beyond the average of 148% premium gaming laptop. The Area-51m (118%) and ROG Mothership (102%) could not get close, but the GT75 Titan crushed it with 178%.
But with 324 nits of brightness, the Acer Predator Triton 900 climbed over the competition, from the category average (320 nits) and the MSI GT75 Titan (271 nits) to the Alienware Area 51m (284 nits) and the Asus ROG Mothership (286 nits).
Acer Predator Triton 900 Review – Audio
The double top firing and dual bottom-firing speakers of the Predator Triton 900 are pretty robust. I felt relatively immersed in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The low clicking and drumming of the background music made me push my way as I walked through a tomb. The sound of an arrow snarling at a dripstone was thick and loud. And the low rumble of mechanisms beneath me was satisfying when I turned a doohickey that looked like a booby trap.
You can adjust the sound with the Waves MaxxAudio app, which has settings for bass, details, and width. It also has a full equalizer if you want to go ham. You can configure these settings within any preset: Gaming General, Gaming FPS, Gaming Sports, Movies, Music, and Voice.
Graphics and Gaming
This machine packs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 GPU with 8 GB VRAM, which Shadow of the Tomb Raider could perform at 79 frames per second (highest, 1080p) while I jumped from platform to shifty platform in an underground grave.
On the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Very High, 1080p), the Acer Predator Triton 900 healed 83 fps and surpassed the 66-fps premium gaming laptop average. It also beat the MSI GT75 Titan (76 fps), but could not get past the Alienware Area-51m (92) or the Asus ROG Mothership (86) – all of which have the same GPU as the Predator Triton 900. At 4K, the Triton has 26 fps, which is slightly better than the category average (20 fps).
The Triton 900 averages 132 fps on the Hitman benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), sailing past the premium gaming laptop average (108) but falls short of the MSI GT75 Titan (140 fps), Alienware Area-51m (143 fps) and Asus ROG Mothership (135 fps). When it was raised to 4K, the Predator Triton 900 received 66 fps, which means that the category average was switched off again (56 fps).
On the GTA V benchmark (Very High, 1080p), the Triton 900 hit the butt, hit 106 fps, with the average of the premium gaming laptop (80 fps), the MSI GT75 Titan (90 fps) and the Alienware Area-51 m (105 fps). The Asus ROG Mothership beat it with just a few frames, with 108 fps. At 4K, the Triton 900 reached 32 fps and climbed above the average of 30 fps.
Acer Predator Triton 900 Review – Performance
With an Intel Core i7-9750H processor and 32 GB RAM, the Predator Triton 900 burst through 40 Google Chrome tabs and five 1080p YouTube videos without sweating while Shadow of the Tomb Raider was running in the background.
On the Geekbench 4.1 overall performance benchmark, the Triton 900 scored 24,749, which is a distance from the average of the premium gaming laptop (24,793). The Core i9-8950HK CPU of the GT75 did slightly worse with 24,569, while the Core i9-9900K of the Alienware Area-51m and the Core i9-9980HK of the Asus ROG Mothership did incredibly well, with 32,591 and 34,879 respectively.
The Predator Triton 900 has a 4K video transcoded to 1080p in 9 minutes and 55 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which is slightly slower than the category average (9:55). The MSI GT75 Titan (8:00), Alienware Area-51m (6:00), and Asus ROG Mothership (5:50) have completed it all much faster.
Acer’s 512 GB dual SSDs copied 4.97 GB of data in just 6 seconds, which translates to 848 megabytes per second, which slides just beyond the average gaming laptop of 789 MBps and matches the 512 GB SSD of the GT75 Titan. Meanwhile, the double 1 TB SSDs of the Area-51m and the double 512 GB SSDs of the ROG Mothership have nailed 1,272 MBps.
Acer Predator Triton 900 Review – Heat
With a relatively thin chassis packed with a powerful GPU, it’s no wonder this thing gets hot. After playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider for 15 minutes, the bottom hit 127 degrees Fahrenheit, flying over our comfort threshold of 95 degrees. The center of the keyboard and touchpad touch 94 and 92 degrees, respectively. The warmest that the machine got, however, was 142 degrees on the middle opening at the bottom, which felt quite warm. In the regular heat test (streaming of a 15-minute 1080p video), the bottom reached 100 degrees, while the keyboard hit 87 degrees, and the touchpad measured 83 degrees.
Battery Life
Even for a 4K gaming laptop with that much power, the battery life of the Triton was far below average. The Predator Triton continuously surfs the internet via WiFi with 150 nits of brightness and lasted just 1 hour and 48 minutes, far away from the average of the 3.23 premium gaming laptop. The GT75 Titan (2:20) and the Alienware Area-51m (2:36) did not match the average, but at least they did not go below 2 hours. In the meantime, the ROG Mothership hit 4:41 (keyboard attached) and 5:09 (keyboard detached).
I tested the basic model of the Triton 900, which costs a whopping $3,799 and comes with an Intel’s Core i7-9750H processor, an Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 GPU with 8 GB VRAM, 32 GB RAM and two 512 GB SSDs. The next step is the $3,999 model, which comes with a maximum of two 1 TB SSDs. The maximum version of $4,799 comes with a Core i9-9980HK processor and two 512 GB SSDs.
Acer Predator Triton 900 Review – Conclusion
The Acer Predator Triton 900 is a unique gaming laptop that offers a way to use a touchscreen practically and at the same time, pack some essential components. It has excellent graphics performance and a vibrant 4K screen, but for $3,799, you shouldn’t have a worthless keyboard and a short battery life. If you can throw away the 2-in-1 screen and you have the money to spend, we recommend using the Alienware Area-51m ($5,099), which offers a much more powerful processor and lightning-fast SSDs, as well as a beautiful design.
But overall, the Acer Predator Triton 900 is an excellent choice for any advertisement that needs a folding screen and graphics performance.