Previously, we talked about the Razer Blade 15 which, in my opinion, was the most subtle gaming laptop ever. However, the one we’ll be looking at today is the complete opposite. It’s called the Acer Predator Triton 900 and it’s a complete showstopper. Like Razer, Acer has had experience in making good gaming laptops, as it can be seen with the Predator lineup.
Apart from the extreme design, the Triton 900 also offers some top-of-the-line specs to fulfill your gaming needs. How does it overall stack up against the ever-growing competition? Let’s take a look at all the features this beast has to offer and find out.
Design
The Predator Triton 900 has one of the most unique hinge design out of any laptop that has ever come out. You’re probably thinking that this is a bold statement but you’ll soon understand why I said it. Normally, laptops only have a single hinge between the clamshells. That’s where the screen pivots and folds up. On the Triton 900, however, you get a second pivot point where the screen can swivel independently 180°.
The overall design itself is also bulky and angular as if the laptop is shouting at everyone to look at it. Even though the display is large, it still makes do with huge bezels. This was probably done to integrate the mechanism for the second hinge so that can be forgiven. Up top, you get a single webcam and down on the chin, you have the “Predator” script in bold lettering.
Move down, and the interesting design theme continues. Above the keyboard, you have a glass panel, through which you can look at the internals of the laptop. Acer didn’t have to do this at all yet they still did and it looks cool. Because of that window, the keyboard is pushed all the way down, eliminating any space for a trackpad below. However, like on the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo, the trackpad is moved to the right side of the keyboard and it doubles as a number pad. The keyboard itself is backlit and has individual key RGB color mapping like on the Razer Blade 15.
Move to the back and you get a fairly simple and plain lid. You just get a Predator logo and script in the center. Below the hinges, however, you get those crazy cooling vents that are a hallmark of a gaming laptop. Thankfully, the back end isn’t flared as much as the one on the Lenovo Leigon Y740.
Performance
It’s no surprise that being a gaming laptop, the Triton 900 packs some muscle under its aluminum skeleton. Under the hood, you get an 8th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-8750H CPU. Paired to that is an 8 GB GDDR6 NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2080 GPU. While the GPU is as good as it gets, I feel like the Triton could’ve done with a better CPU option. Perhaps a 9th Gen Core™ i7, like the one available on most of the competition.
As far as memory is concerned, you get a 32 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM. The storage has a similar situation. You get two PCIe M.2 slots that are occupied by two 512 GB NVMe SSDs, giving you the best-in-class storage. Unfortunately, you don’t get any options regarding the spec of this Predator, which may lead to abysmal pricing, that we’ll talk about later.
Coming to the display, you have a massive 17.3″ 3840 x 2160 IPS touch panel. It’s bright, it’s vibrant enough, it’s sharp and it uses NVIDIA® G-SYNC®, which is a perfect recipe for a gaming laptop display. Again, I wish there would be an option for an OLED panel to further enhance the colors but Acer doesn’t offer any choice.
Lastly, let’s talk about the battery. It comes with a 72 Wh unit that, in theory, should be good. However, testing has proven otherwise. The Triton 900 lasted only 1 hour and 48 minutes in Tom’s Hardware battery test while the category average was 3 hours and 27 minutes. The Predator also comes with a huge 330W charger that takes portability all the way down.
Connectivity
Unlike its battery life, the connectivity on the Predator Triton 900 won’t leave you disappointed. It has USB-C™ Thunderbolt™ 3 ports, 2 regular USB 3.0 ports, 1 HDMI 2.0, a display port, a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack, and an Ethernet port. This is everything you need and more to hook up multiple 4K external displays, in case the one that comes with it isn’t enough. You also get a wireless card for 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® 5.0.
Price & Verdict
The Acer Predator Triton 900 starts at around $4000 which, even by gaming laptop standards, is crazy expensive. Don’t get me wrong, the specs are insane but I wish Acer gave us options to spec out Predators the way we liked. I would’ve preferred a 9th Gen Intel CPU over the 1TB SSD storage but, unfortunately, that’s not possible.
If you’re looking for a full-sized gaming laptop, you’ll be better off with an Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701. That has better specs than this, costs less and can be configured according to your taste. However, it lacks the crazy double hinge design which the Triton 900 has. Therefore, if you’re into crazy new design and money isn’t an issue, the Predator is the way to go.