Acer Predator Triton 16 hands-on impressions: My kind of gaming laptop

Acer’s big new laptop for Computex 2023 is the beasty Predator Triton 16, and on first glance, the team loves it. In fact, Kimberly Gedeon has gone on the record to say she wants one for herself, too!

Is she on the money with her desires? Or is the Triton 16 not all it’s cracked up to be? On paper, it should be — a slim, sleek powerhouse with the raw horsepower of 13th gen Intel and RTX 4070 combined.

But does that attempt to do a lot in a limited amount of space cause any problems? Let’s find out.

Acer Predator Triton 16 price and availability

The Acer Predator Triton 16 is set to launch in September at prices starting from $1,799. Bearing in mind this is for an RTX 4070 system, that’s a mightily tempting price when you take into account what similarly specced systems are worth at the moment.

For example, you could be spending up to $3,500 for the same in the likes of the Razer Blade 16. This reinforces a strong value message for this system that gives me quiet confidence that it will be a hit.

Acer Predator Triton 16 design

Gaming laptops aren’t usually top of the list in terms of design prowess. They’re usually gargantuan gaming machines with a ton of RGB and butch, angular aesthetics. The Triton 16 is a direct response to that, and I absolutely adore its sleekness.

At 14.11 x 10.33 x 0.86 inches, this is an easy laptop to get your hands around — reinforced by the 5.3-pound weight. Comparatively, you’ll notice that the Predator’s biggest asset is not its size, it’s that lightweight construction. For example, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 is smaller in some areas at 13.94 x 10.39 x 0.89 inches, but is far heavier at 5.51 pounds.

But numbers aside, I love the versatility of this design in looking both DTG (down to game) and up for business too. That sleek matte plastic silver exterior feels great to the touch and gives the whole laptop a nice utilitarian vibe, kind of like what you get from the 16-inch MacBook Pro. I love it!

Acer Predator Triton 16 display

Then you turn it on, and you’re greeted by a jaw dropper — a 16-inch 2560 x 1600-pixel IPS panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 100% DCI-P3 color coverage and a 500-nit peak brightness.

During my time with the laptop, I powered my way through a ton of vampires on Redfall and watched the trailer for the new season of Swagger. In both of these examples, there’s a mightily impressive HDR-esque quality that helps bright subjects pop off the screen.

Meanwhile, the gorgeously vivid colors work hard to even make the rather dull, repetitive village of Redfall look good while maintaining an impressive accuracy, and the uber smooth 240Hz refresh rate ensures every frame slides into your retinas like butter. It’s just a shame that the matte finish of the display means that direct light sources (like the spotlights in this exhibition center) seem to overwhelm the display’s brightness upon first glance.

I’ll wait for our test results to give you a proper opinion, but on early impressions, this panel is going to be great for work and play.

Acer Predator Triton 16 ports

Port-wise, you’re getting a respectable selection that is able to handle your gaming peripherals and productivity needs. On the right, you’ll find gigabit ethernet, USB 3.2 Type-A, Thunderbolt 4 and a 3.5mm audio jack.

On the left, there’s the HDMI 2.1, a second USB Type-A, and the power port. Then sneaking in round the front is a microSD card slot. Would I have loved to see an additional Thunderbolt 4 port? Sure. A full size SD card slot? Absolutely. But this is more than enough for most users.

Acer Predator Triton 16 keyboard and touchpad

The user experience of the Predator Triton 16 is a tale of two halves. The chiclet keyboard has a great amount of travel under each key with a satisfyingly cushioned landing. If you’re quite an aggressive FPS player like I was with Redfall here, you won’t be feeling that telltale fatigue in your finger pads that comes from shallower, firmer keyboards. Oh, and the even backlighting ensures gameplay can continue late into the night.

Now the touchpad. Don’t get me wrong, there is some convenience built in here, such as support for all of Windows 11 multi-touch gestures and a fingerprint reader in the top corner. The surface area is satisfyingly large and smooth for all your graceful interactions. But the click itself feels a little soft and mushy. Left and right clicks are where you need a satisfying snap, and I didn’t really feel it here.

But then again, it’s a gaming laptop, so you really should reach for one of the best gaming mice instead. Touchpad gameplay is basically a form of personal torture!

Acer Predator Triton 16 performance

Under the hood of the Triton 16 we tested, you’ll find an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU (capable of running at speeds up to 5.4 GHz), GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of DDR5 memory and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD. 

With Redfall turned up to high graphical fidelity at the full 1600p resolution, not once did the game fall below 100 FPS — a true testament to the huge gains we are seeing from RTX 40-series GPUs. Chances are this could be even better with DLSS 3.0 turned on too, but you can be confident of a great powerhouse for all your AAA titles.

But one thing I did notice under certain stresses of gameplay is the fans kicking up quite a storm. Not only that, but the center of the keyboard deck did get noticeably warm, while the underside (picking it up for photography) was a bit of a scorcher. It seems that 5th gen Aeroblade technology with liquid metal thermal grease has its work cut out in such a tight  body.

Now, as someone who was melting quicker than an ice cream on a summer’s day in the Taipei heat, take what I say here with a pinch of salt. It could be better in cooler conditions, in fact I’m confident it would be (wait for our lab testing results for proper analysis). But regardless, I would look to buy one of the best gaming headsets to beat that fan noise.

Outlook

Now with hands-on time, I’m beginning to agree with Gedeon — the Acer Predator Triton 16 is a laptop that I want for myself. This is a seriously sleek powerhouse with a ton of performance, a nice, tactile keyboard, and a smooth, vivid display to boot.

That’s not to say it’s perfect — those beasty internals that can stress the slim and sleek chassis’ thermal management upon touching it, and that touchpad is a little has a bit of a spongy click. 

But when it comes to inconspicuous gaming laptops, this ranks up there as one of my favorites for sure.