Laptop, Review

Acer Predator Triton 500 Review: Striking the Right Balance

The Acer Predator Triton 500 is the Taiwanese company’s latest thin and light gaming laptop, and I’ve been using it as my daily driver for a few weeks now. Not only is it a really impressive gaming machine, the Triton 500 works surprisingly well as a productivity laptop too.

Even though it’s not exactly an affordable gaming laptop, the Triton 500 strikes a good balance between price and performance. This is especially the case with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 model I am reviewing here.

Specifications

Display15.6-inch 144Hz FHD IPS (1920 x 1080)
ProcessorIntel Core i5-8300H (2.3GHz with Turbo Boost up to 4GHz, 8MB cache)
GPUNvidia GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 VRAM
RAM16GB 2667MHz DDR4
Storage256GB + 256GB PCIe NVME SSD (Raid 0)
CameraHD resolution
Battery82WHr
Dimensions358.5 x 255 x 17.9 mm
Weight2.1kg
AudioBottom-firing stereo speakers
Ports1x USB Type-C (Thunderbolt 3)
3x USB 3.0 Type-A
1x RJ45
1x HDMI
1x Mini DisplayPort

Design

As far as gaming laptops go, the Triton 500 has an understated, minimalist design. It doesn’t have any aggressive styling commonly found in other gaming laptops, and the only indicator that this is a gaming machine is the illuminated Predator logo on the lid.

Personally, I really like the Triton 500’s design language. It wouldn’t look too out of place in an office environment, and it’s a breath of fresh air to see a gaming laptop that doesn’t scream “gaming” when you look at it.

Another strong suit of the Triton 500 is its solid build quality. It feels incredibly robust, the metal chassis feels good to the touch, and it doesn’t creak with applied pressure. The Triton series has always been touted as one of Acer’s more premium offerings, and the build quality of this laptop really shows that.

And then there’s the Triton 500’s highlight feature: its thin and light nature. Weighing only 2.1kg and measuring 1.79mm thin, it’s one gaming laptop I wouldn’t mind lugging around. In fact, I would happily bring it around in my backpack while I’m out and about covering media events.

Of course, you’ll still feel the weight of the laptop, but this is a powerful gaming machine in a relatively compact form factor.

Like most modern gaming laptops now, the Triton 500 has very small screen bezels. Even though there’s still a chin at the bottom of the display, it still looks very sleek. Plus, the small bezels also reduce the overall footprint of the laptop, making it that much more portable.

In terms of connectivity options, the Triton 500 has plenty of them. It has three full-size USB-A ports, one USB-C connection with support for Thunderbolt 3, an HDMI input, a mini DisplayPort, as well as an RJ45 connection.

Overall, the Triton 500 is a well-designed, lightweight gaming laptop. I love its understated design, small screen bezels, and of course, thin chassis. Now, let’s get to the actual experience of using the laptop – it has a couple of surprises in store.

User Experience

Now, gaming laptops usually have disastrous battery life, but that’s not the case with the Triton 500. With the power plan set to power saver and the display dimmed to a comfortable level, I managed to get about six hours of battery life with this laptop consistently. This is not exactly groundbreaking battery life, but it’s certainly much better than most gaming laptops.

I mentioned how the Triton 500’s keyboard could use with more key travel in my hands-on, but after using it for a few weeks exclusively as my daily driver, it doesn’t bother me as much as I initially thought.

The keyboard has just enough travel to provide a comfortable typing experience, and I really like the tactility of the keys. I wouldn’t mind doing a lot of typing with the Triton 500, and gaming with this keyboard is an equally pleasant experience too.

However, I do have one issue with the keyboard’s layout: the key to activate the PredatorSense software is located right beside the backspace key. I hit that key by accident so many times I honestly lost count. It’s quite annoying to have the software pop out every time I’m working on an article.

Nonetheless, let’s move on to the Triton 500’s excellent trackpad. As it uses Windows Precision drivers, the trackpad is very accurate. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t even bother plugging in a mouse when I’m using the laptop to do anything besides gaming. The accuracy of the trackpad really surprised me quite a bit.

Sporting a fast 144Hz 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display, the Triton 500 has a fantastic screen too. Thanks to the high refresh rate, everything looks incredibly fluid on this display. Whether I’m gaming or working on this laptop, the 144Hz display makes a huge difference compared to a conventional 60Hz panel.

As for the display quality itself, I have no complains at all. It can get really bright, viewing angles are great, and the panel itself is quite colour accurate as well.

While the Triton 500’s display is impressive, its audio quality isn’t quite as remarkable. Even at maximum volume, the bottom-firing stereo speakers aren’t quite loud enough. That being said, the stereo separation is really good: I can clearly differentiate between the left and right channels.

Speaking of which, the system noise of the Triton 500 is reasonably good too. In heated gaming sessions, the laptop does make itself heard, but it’s not all that unpleasant. With headphones on, I can barely hear the fans spinning up.

When it comes to thermals, the Triton 500 does a respectable job for a thin gaming laptop. Under prolonged gaming sessions, the GPU went up to 75°C, while the CPU got up to 91°C. The CPU temperature certainly isn’t ideal, but it’s not in critical territory either. Nonetheless, no matter how hot the laptop got, the palm rest area stayed cool.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed using the Triton 500 as a gaming laptop and my daily driver. It has very good battery life for a gaming laptop, and I can’t get enough of that fantastic display. Its input devices are above average too.

Performance

Powered by an Intel Core i5-8300H processor paired with 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU, the Triton 500 is a very capable gaming machine. Without a doubt it is powerful enough to serve as a productivity-focused laptop, and it can run most – if not all – modern games with good frame rates as well.

I tested a number of games with the Triton 500, and even at maxed out graphics settings, the games ran very well. See for yourself with the table below.

Games (Maxed Out Settings @ 1080p)Average FPS
Witcher 3 (HairWorks disabled)57.39
Apex Legends89.49
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds70.82
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice59.68

It’s worth noting that both Sekiro and Witcher 3 are locked at 60fps, which is why the average frame rates on these two games are not quite as high as the others. Considering the fact that all these games were running at maxed out graphics settings, these are very good numbers.

Sure, the RTX 2060 can’t quite make full use of the Triton 500’s fast 144Hz display, but these are very playable frame rates. Rest assured, you are getting very good performance level with the Core i5 CPU and RTX 2060 GPU, especially if you take into account the price to performance ratio.

Competition

There are three different variants of the Triton 500 in Malaysia, and the one right here is the most affordable one, which retails at RM6,799. Recently, however, Acer refreshed the Triton 500 with Intel’s 9th generation processors.

Instead of this review unit’s Core-i5-8300H processor, the newer model ships with a slightly faster Core i5-9300H chip. That being said, the updated Triton 500 also costs more at RM6,999. Nonetheless, at this price point, this gaming laptop has a number of noteworthy competition.

MSI GS65 Stealth

Much like the Triton 500, the MSI GS65 Stealth is a thin and light gaming laptop. In fact, it is ever so slightly smaller than the Triton 500, and it also measures only 17.9mm thin. To top it off, it is also a tad lighter, tipping the scales at 1.9kg.

Other specifications of the GS65 Stealth are very impressive too, which include a higher-end Core i7-9750H processor paired with 16GB of RAM, an RTX 2060 GPU, a whopping 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD, as well as an even faster 240Hz 15.6-inch 1080p display.

But all of that power comes at a very dear price: the GS65 Stealth costs RM9,999. That’s RM3,200 more than the Triton 500, and the latter still offers an equally thin and light chassis with only slightly less power and half the SSD storage – 512GB of space is still plenty.

Asus ROG Strix Hero II

If you can live with a slightly thicker and heavier gaming laptop, the Asus ROG Strix Hero II is a good alternative to the Triton 500. Although it measures 26.1mm thick and weighs 2.4kg, it still has a sleek-looking design with small screen bezels.

Plus, the Strix Hero II also comes with a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS display with 144Hz refresh rate, a faster Core i7-8750H processor (albeit only paired with 8GB of RAM), an RTX 2060 GPU, and a 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD. How much does it cost? RM6,499. That’s right, it’s slightly more affordable than Acer’s offering.

Opting for the Triton 500, however, will get you a sleeker gaming machine. Its Core i5-8300H processor isn’t quite as powerful, but you’re getting 16GB of RAM in exchange, as well as a lighter, thinner, and more compact gaming laptop.

Conclusion

The Acer Predator Triton 500 is a fantastic thin and light premium gaming laptop that strikes a very good balance between price and performance. Yes, the RM6,799 price tag doesn’t make it a particularly affordable gaming laptop, but considering its feature set, you’re getting a lot of value for your money here.

If you want a powerful gaming laptop that you can carry around easily, the Triton 500 is a very attractive option. On top of that, it can even serve as a very good productivity laptop with its remarkably good input devices and battery life – not many gaming laptops can offer what the Triton 500 does.

3 Replies to Acer Predator Triton 500 Review: Striking the Right Balance

  1. If I could afford this laptop i’d definitely grab one. Lightweight, thin and easy to carry. Tbh, I am having a hard time choosing between Predator and ROG now

  2. For me this one pretty competitive cause more brand with same spec and price i like can choose more gaming laptop from the price range

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