If you’re looking to get a compact gaming laptop, you don’t have a lot of choices. Last year, only the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 fits the bill, so thankfully enough, you have another option now. This is the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, which is basically Acer’s answer to the Zephyrus G14.

Packed with Nvidia’s brand new RTX 3060 GPU for laptops and Intel’s latest 11th generation H-series chips, the Triton 300 SE packs quite a punch for a compact gaming laptop. On top of that, it also sports a very understated design that wouldn’t look out of place in a professional setting.

After spending a brief time with the Triton 300 SE, I am definitely impressed with what it has to offer. Consider this gaming laptop if you want a capable gaming machine in a compact form factor.

As mentioned, the Predator Triton 300 SE is powered by Intel’s new 11th gen H-series processors. The highest-end configuration of this gaming laptop is equipped with a Core i7-11375H processor that offers a whopping 5GHz peak clock speed. It offers promising CPU performance, and it’ll be interesting to see how it would compare to AMD’s latest Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs once we have them in for review.

Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to run any games on the Triton 300 SE to see just how capable it is; I was told that the driver for the RTX 3060 GPU is not ready yet. Nonetheless, Nvidia promises up to 1.3 times better performance than the PlayStation 5 with this graphics card, so it’s very likely that this gaming laptop will be able to run most (if not all) AAA titles with little difficulty.

Further complementing the gaming experience of the Predator Triton 300 SE is the 14-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS screen with a 144Hz refresh rate – perfectly suited for a gaming laptop of this calibre. If you’re into fast-paced games, you would definitely appreciate the high refresh rate. The quality of the panel itself is also quite good with vibrant colours and wide viewing angles.

And then there’s the understated design of the Triton 300 SE, which I really, really like. Despite its positioning as a gaming laptop, I love the fact that it has such a subtle, almost professional-looking design that’s usually only reserved for productivity-focused laptops. It’s a breath of fresh air when compared to loud, aggressively-styled gaming laptops.

Speaking of which, I reckon the Predator Triton 300 SE can serve double duty as a productivity laptop and portable gaming machine. After all, it’s said to offer up to 10 hours of battery life. Not the best battery life for a laptop, of course, but this is a gaming-oriented notebook with some beefy hardware under the hood.

Besides that, with a 1.7kg chassis that measures only 17.9mm thin, the Triton 300 SE is also a very portable gaming laptop that you can easily lug around in your backpack. As for connectivity, this laptop has two full-size USB-A ports, a USB-C connection, an HDMI output, and of course, a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Last but definitely not least are the input devices of the Predator Triton 300 SE. The keyboard, for one, is…alright. While it has decent key travel, the keyboard itself doesn’t offer very pronounced tactile feedback, so I can’t type quite as accurately as I usually do. Granted, I’m sure I can get used to it over time, but it’s certainly not the best laptop keyboard I’ve come across.

The trackpad of the Triton 300 SE, on the other hand, works as intended. It is largely accurately, it can recognise gestures reasonably well, and there’s even a fingerprint sensor on the top left of the trackpad for quick authentication. Basically, I wouldn’t mind using the trackpad exclusively for productivity tasks.

Overall, as a fan of compact gaming laptops, I’m really intrigued by the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE. More brands are finally focusing on this particular segment, which was previously (solely) occupied by Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14. It’ll be interesting to see if other laptop makers will also follow suit.

Of course, the only thing that remains now is for Acer Malaysia to reveal the local availability and pricing of the Triton 300 SE. For the US market, it retails from $1,400, which comes up to about RM5,660. Yes, it is not an affordable gaming laptop, but it is a premium product with some beefy hardware under the hood.

I absolutely cannot wait to put the Predator Triton 300 SE through its paces in a full review to see just how powerful the RTX 3060 GPU and Intel’s 11th gen H-series chips really are. I’m curious to see if the Triton 300 SE can serve as a good productivity laptop as well, given its compact form factor and quoted battery life of up to 10 hours.