ACER Predator Triton 700 Review: A Synergy of Power and Form

A few years back, gaming laptops were known to be big, bulky, and quite a hassle to carry. They’re powerful alright, but they’re also a pain to move around, which kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop in the first place.

Now though, technology has once again done its job. And as a result, we have the Predator Triton 700. Powered by a Core i7 processor and a GTX 1080 Graphics Card, it’s a machine that carries massive firepower in a slim and beautiful form factor.

We were very fortunate to be given a chance to test this monster, so we went on with our full suite of tests, to find out if it’s worth the PhP220K price tag.

Acer Predator Triton 700 Specs:

• Intel Core i7-7700HQ Processor
• 32GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM
• 2 x 512GB PCIe Gen3 NVMe SSD
• 15.6-inch Full HD IPS Display, 120Hz
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q with 8GB of GDDR5 VRAM

Design and Build Quality

Subtle. That’s the word i’d use to describe the Triton 700. The design isn’t overwhelmingly eye-candy, but it’s enough for it to assume an identity. It’s also very light for what it offers on the inside.

The key to the Triton 700’s form is in its graphics card, the GTX 1080 featuring NVIDIA’s Max Q design, which specifically allows for gaming laptops to be slim, while maintaining desktop grade graphics performance.

In terms of ports, there are three USB ports on the left side, one of which can be used for keeping the dongles of your wireless mouse, keyboard, or headset away from plain sight. There’s also dedicated jacks for your headphone and microphone, though using an in-line mic works just as well.

On the right side is a Thunderbolt 3 port, a dedicated LAN port, and another USB port. At the back is the power port, HDMI port, and Display Port.

The Triton 700 is equipped with a mechanical keyboard, though I really couldn’t feel it. It’s clicky, but the travel distance is just too short. There’s enough space between each key for typing, except for the arrow keys which should’ve been given more separation.

Another notable difference in the design, is the placement of the touchpad, which is now just above the keyboard. It’s responsive, and suprisingly, not awkward for normal use. For  gaming however, well, I just can’t see any reason to use it over a dedicated mouse.

It also has RGB lighting, but there’s a catch. You can’t set how bright or dim the lighting is. There are also no indicators for the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys, except for prompts on the screen itself (which don’t actually show up in some instances).

The Triton 700 has a 15.6-inch IPS Panel with Full HD Resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. As such, you get vibrant colors, sharp text, and fluid animations. I think it would’ve been better with a 4K display to exploit that colossal firepower. But then again, it’s probably a matter of balancing performance and battery life.

Performance

The Triton 700 is powered by an Intel Core i7-770HQ quad-core processor along with an NVIDIA GTX 1080 Graphics Card, 32GB of DDR4 2400MHz RAM, and two 512GB SSDs. As such, bootup times were quick, so as opening of and switching between running apps.

Both benchmarks and actual game statistics both show that this combination of hardware can yield more than satisfactory performance. We tested the Triton 700 with a number of games: PUBG, Dota 2, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Project Cars, The Witcher 3, and Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation, and here are our findings.

PLAYERUNKNOWN’s BATTLEGROUNDS

PUBG isn’t exactly a well-optimized game. But the Triton 700 was able to yield good frame rates, even in Ultra preset. There were drops here and there but, that’s probably the game more than the laptop.

Movement and aiming was also noticeably smoother and more fluid, thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate of the display.

Dota 2

Dota 2 wasn’t even a challenge for the Triton 700, as frame rates were consistently high even in Ultra.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

Known to be a demanding game, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst ran pretty well in Hyper preset, with frame rates going consistently above 60 fps, even better in High.

Project Cars

Performance was more than satisfactory in Project Cars. There were a dips of below 60 fps in some instances, but hardly noticeable. What’ even more amazing is the level of detail on the vehicles and the environment when cranked to Ultra settings.

The Witcher 3

Known to be an extremely demanding game, the Triton 700 still managed to output decent frames at Ultra preset, with occasional drops in highly complex areas.

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Another resource intensive game, Ashes of the Singularity also ran at more than acceptable frame rates, though only bordering 60 fps on Crazy preset.

Temperatures

The Triton 700’s robust cooling system does a good job of managing temps, with only one instance of going over 80°C in Mirror’s Edge Catalyst.

Software

Acer’s Predator Sense app lets you easily overclock the GPU, change the keyboard’s RGB lighting scheme, and adjust the fan speed for gaming at the flick of a switch.

You can select from multiple lighting modes, such as the usual breathing and ripple effects. You can also set the RGB lighting for the GPU cooler. It’s a nice touch, but the light isn’t bright enough, and hardly noticeable.

You can also assign a different lighting color for each key, or for a certain group of keys such as the Arrow Keys or just the WASD keys.

Acer Care Center is a handy tool for performing maintenance tasks on your machine, such as file cleanup, software updates, drive checkup, and managing startup apps. Though you can do these things manually in other ways, it’s always good to have a one stop shop.

Audio

The Triton 700 also features the Dolby Atmos app, which offers a number of presets to adjust the sound to your activity, whether your gaming or just listening to your favorite track. You can also adjust the settings on the built-in equalizer, if in-depth tweaking is your thing.

In Music mode, bass is punchy enough, but not overwhelming. Instrument separation is good, vocals are clear, and overall sound signature seems to be balanced, with a slight emphasis on mids. As for the speakers, they can get quite loud, but fall short in terms of clarity.

Battery

Gaming laptops in general aren’t really known for great battery life, so you’ll have to bring the power brick with you most of the time. It’s the trade-off for all the firepower that you get.

Verdict

The Acer Predator Triton performs very well across a variety of games, from eSports to AAA titles, thanks to a good combination of powerful hardware and a robust cooling system. Its design, while somewhat simple and subtle, is still pleasing to look at. The software it comes with is also quite straightforward, and easy to use.

The keyboard, while mechanical feels somewhat underwhelming, the arrow keys don’t have enough separation, and the lack of indicators for the num lock and caps lock keys, is quite odd, when it should be no-brainer.

The choice of RGB lighting effects are satisfactory, but the fact that you can’t change the intensity is also somewhat limiting, especially when you look at the lighting on the GPU cooler, which is hardly noticeable. Kind of defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong. This laptop is maxed out powerful, beautiful and fun to use, but the PhP229,999.00 price tag is still a bit too much, even for what it offers.

The Good

• Good Quality Display
• Excellent Gaming Performance
• Robust Cooling System
• Easy to Use Software
• Good Sound Quality for Headphones

The Not So Good

• Mechanical Keyboard Feels Underwhelming
• Not Enough Separation for Arrow Keys
• RGB Lighting Intensity Cannot be Adjusted
• No Card Reader
• No Physical Indicators for Num Lock and Caps Lock
• Battery Life
• Price

Emman Tortoza

Website

Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.