One of the most powerful laptops on the market with a 4K touch monitor
Acer surprised last year with the Predator Triton 500 going strong with the lineup of notebooks equipped with graphics cards with ray tracing capability. Now the brand based in Taiwan is back with what undoubtedly seeks to be the best option in terms of power with the Predator Triton 900, a laptop that despite being a gaming machine, serves to do practically everything. Here is our Reviews after several weeks of use.
Hardware
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8750H 6 cores and 12 threads @ 2.20 Ghz
- 32 GB of Ram DDR4 at 2666 Mhz
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card
- 1TB Intel Solid State Drives
- 17.3 ”IPS UHD touch monitor with Ezel Aero Hinge with 3840 x 2160 resolution
- Customizable RGB mechanical keyboard and numeric panel above the touchpad
- Two stereo digital microphones
- Bluetooth, 3 USB 3.1 Ports, HDMI, Displayport, USB-C Thunderbolt 3 and a normal USB-C,
- 1 USB HDMI 2.0., 1 USB-C Thunderbolt 3
- E3000 Killer 2.5G Ethernet and 1550 Wireless Controller
Hardware Rating: 10
Performance
We use this laptop under normal conditions in different scenarios without presenting problems of any kind with various packages, in fact, it is ideal for content generation and even streams and gameplay at the same time with programs like OBS. Its 4K touch screen is perfect for designers and video editors, as its processor and ram memory allow for editing without problems.
Video games such as Horizon Zero Dawn within its benchmark connected to a Predator Z35 monitor with 2560 x 1080p resolution gave us an average 57 FPS all in ultra and in 4K it reached 44 FPS with textures and reflections in the middle, shadows and clouds in high, quality of the Anisotropic models and models in ultra, anti TAA aliasing and active blur.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey with everything in ultra in 4K gave us 39 average FPS within its benchmark. Lighter titles like Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris in 4K kept the 60 FPS.
For an approximation of how games would run, we suggest reading our GeForce RTX 2080 desktop review.
The battery lasted up to 1 hour 50 minutes at half brightness without sacrificing resolution.
Performance Rating: 10
screen
The fact that it is 4K with a 60 Hz refresh rate, gives you more focus to enjoy games at higher resolutions with an 8-bit color depth, although it is necessary that it be HDR. However, this refresh rate is important to note that it is not recommended for competitive games unlike the Predator Triton 500 which has a 144 Hz monitor and 3ms latency.
A favorable point is that its bezel allows you to position the screen in 4 different ways, either as a screen, tablet, normal laptop or design by approaching the monitor diagonally, even this has a sensor that allows you to accommodate the content of vertical way.
Screen Rating: 9
Sound
Their speakers have a good balance of tones and the Waves Axx Audio software comes with 6 EQ presets: General Games, FPS, Sports titles, Movies, Music and Voice. Some cons is that the speakers are placed in the fulcrum of the hands and this can affect the experience. The maximum volume falls short compared to other machines with this type of hardware.
Plugging in headphones enables Waves NX 3D sound software that emulates a surround audio system.
Sound rating: 8
Special functions
Like the Triton 500 series, it includes the Predator sense that gives access to:
- Monitor the temperature of the CPU, GPU and the system in general
- Setting the keyboard lighting
- Control overclocking between normal, fast or extreme
- Configuration of the 3 hotkeys modifying the fan, operation, audio and keyboard configuration.
- Control the speed of the fans
- A monitor to monitor the temperature in real time
- Game settings with custom profiles
- Application Center
It also includes Killer control center to improve and monitor our network connections, this function is best exploited if you have a modem compatible with this protocol.
For content generators, Cyberlink PowerDirector 14 and a 6-month license for Xsplit Caster are pre-installed.
Qualification of special functions: 9
What was missing?
Face unlock or some additional security system such as a fingerprint reader. Also the fact that your touchpad is on the right side can be a problem for left-handed people. The keyboard on the right side has the shift key the same size as the others, which implies constant involuntary page advances by how they placed it and the power button placed it on the edge of the right side so when moving it, it can be turned off accidentally. All this plus the lack of an SD card reader and that the screen is not HDR are points to consider, taking into account that it is a team that is around $ 130 thousand pesos ($ 5,900 dollars approximately)
CONCLUSION
The Predator Triton 900 is an amazing laptop on a hardware level, the fact that it comes equipped with a GeForce RTX 2080 gives it a longevity factor. Content generators, editors and designers who do not have contemplated playing competitively may have it as an option in 2020, especially because of its touch screen and the ability to become a tablet.
THE BEST
- 4K Touch screen
- Good performance
- Ideal for designers and content generators
WORST
- It’s not HDR
- The touchpad is not for lefties
- It does not have a card reader
- No face unlock or fingerprint reader
