The most anticipated update came with the launch of the ‘special edition’ of the Predator Triton 500, which now gets updated internals, as well as a clean aesthetic design that won’t look out of place in the workplace.
For this special edition, the company fitted the model with a 12th Gen Intel Core i9 processor, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU. It is further paired with up to 32 GB of 5200 MHz LPDDR5 memory for extreme performance in the latest games. You can also get up to 2TB of high-speed PCIe Gen4 storage for all your work and gaming needs.
These internals power a massive 16-inch WQXGA (2560x1600) panel, which has a 240Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time. The 16:10 display gets decently bright at around 500 nits of max brightness, which is good enough for most use cases but not something you would expect in a dedicated gaming machine. Thankfully, it makes up for this with 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, as well as support for NVIDIA G-SYNC.
The setup is rounded off with a generous IO selection, which features a full range of USB 3.2 Gen2 ports, including two Thunderbolt™ 4 Type-C ports with support for DisplayPort and power delivery. There is an HDMI 2.1 port that supports 4K@120Hz gaming via an external display. For internet connectivity, you can rely on Intel Killer E3100G 2.5G Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6E 1675, and Control Center 2.0. Or you can go completely old school, with a standard SD 7.0 card reader.
It is hard to imagine how the company fits so much material in such a slim design, which measures just 19.9 mm (0.75 in) at its thinnest point. The all-metal spartan-styled aesthetics really help sell this image of an undercover gaming rig masquerading as a work laptop.
The great thing is that despite the slim design and powerful internals, you don’t have to worry too much about thermal throttling, as the system features state-of-the-art cooling technology, that utilizes a triple-fan system, including two 5th Gen AeroBlade 3D fans with 89 metal blades each. These fans work around Acer’s Vortex Flow technology, which redirects the airflow to critical components, while strategically-placed thermal foam, liquid-metal thermal grease on the CPU, and four heat pipes further improve cooling.
This system also takes care of the massive 99.98Wh battery that powers this system. You need such high density to ensure a proper cord-free gaming experience that can sustain ultra-setting graphics for long periods of gaming. This is something we certainly expect from a laptop that starts at EUR 3,499. After all, this is a lot of money to pay for a gaming laptop, even if you get a month of Xbox Game Pass for free with the purchase.
