Want something all-powerful yet super slim, just like your imaginary superhero girlfriend? Well, the new Predator Triton 500 is probably the closest you'll ever get to fulfilling your fantasy.
A refresh of Acer's flagship 15-inch gaming laptop, the 2020 Triton 500 sees a couple of nice upgrades from its predecessor, most notably a 10th Gen Intel CPU.
Our model is packing an Intel® Core™ i7-10875H high-performance mobile CPU, along with an RTX2070 Super Max-Q GPU. It is also equipped with 16GB of DDR4-2933 RAM which is upgradable to 32GB, as well as 512GB of PCIe NVMe SSD storage.
Classic design, slim exterior
The exterior features Predator's signature black with blue accents. On the lid you'll find the Predator logo all by itself - the 'Predator' word has been removed, resulting in a much cleaner and classier design.
The chassis itself is fully metal, giving it a more premium feeling in your hands; however, the bezels are made of cheaper-looking plastic, which detracts from the overall beauty of the machine once you open the lid.
At 2.1kg, the laptop is actually pretty light for the amount of power it contains. Coupled with its svelte 17.9mm profile, this is a beast you can easily bring anywhere.
One thing to note however, is that the power brick is pretty hefty at over 910g, bringing the total package to almost 3kg if you're planning to use it for more than a couple of hours on the go.
Bless your eyes with a buttery smooth display
Possibly my favourite thing on the Triton 500 is its speedy 300Hz FHD IPS display. There's something to be said about creamy smooth visuals especially when playing competitive shooters - I mean no, it's not going to help you rank up if you suck to begin with, but it makes losing so much more enjoyable when your eyes are blessed with sky-high framerates.
The 15.6" display is also G-Sync compatible, in case you were wondering.
One downside as I mentioned earlier are the cheap-looking plastic bezels, which look rather out of place on such a high-tier machine. It also doesn't help that the screen is super bendy, flexing even under the simple act of opening and closing the lid. There is also quite a lot of backlight bleed, which thankfully isn't super noticeable while gaming - you'll only notice it when the screen is totally dark.
On the bright side, it does have a webcam, unlike some other gaming laptops out there *cough* you know which ones I'm talking about. This is great, especially now that distance learning and work-from-home situations are more common than ever.
Audio is just okay, but that's alright since most of you will opt to plug in a headset for full gaming immersion anyway.
Lots of ports, and some snazzy RGB
The Triton 500 is kitted out with a wide array of ports, including 1x USB Type-C™ port supporting Thunderbolt 3, DisplayPort over USB-C, and USB charging 5V; 3A, 3x USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (with one featuring power-off USB charging), a HDMI 2.0 port, a Mini DisplayPort™ 1.4 port, as well as headphone and mic jacks.
Pretty much everything is covered save for an SD card reader, but hey you could just grab an adapter and plug it into one of the many USB ports available.
The keyboard also features per-key RGB lighting, which pretty much unlocks all kind of lighting configurations to please your inner nerd. You'll also have dedicated Turbo and PredatorSense™ keys, which serve to enable instant overclocking and open the utility app respectively.
Typing on the Triton 500 was also enjoyable - the keys were bouncy with a decent travel distance, and although the touchpad was a tad small, it was super responsive and pleasant to use.
Performance
With this kind of specs, it was unsurprising that the Triton 500 could handle pretty much anything we threw at it in terms of games. The notoriously poorly optimised Monster Hunter World clocked in between 65-80 fps on the highest settings, while more lightweight competitive games like CS:GO and Overwatch were a real joy to play, thanks to the super smooth screen and outstanding performance.
As usual, we put the machine through its paces, running a slew of synthetic benchmarks including 3DMark's TimeSpy, CrystalDiskMark, plus the Port Royal and DLSS benchmarks since it's running an RTX 2070 Super ray tracing-capable card, as well as Cinebench to test its processing capabilities. Oh, and we also threw in Far Cry 5's benchmark just cause we could, along with PCMark 10 for shits and giggles (if can play Triple-A titles but cannot open spreadsheet, cham liao lor.)
Time Spy
CrystalDiskMark
Port Royal
NVIDIA DLSS Feature Test
Cinebench R20
Far Cry 5
PCMark 10
As with any powerful laptop - especially slim ones - you must be wondering: how are the thermals?
Well, we're pleased to report that the Triton 500 did admirably even while running Triple-A titles. Sure, the fan might get a little loud (which is par for the course at high loads), but otherwise it kept the laptop at a reasonable temperature and dodged any sort of thermal-related slowdowns. This is probably thanks to Predator's Vortex Flow fan design which optimises airflow, as well as its Aeroblade 3D technology, which features ultra thin metal blades which reduce noise while increasing airflow.
One thing to note however, is that the battery life isn't exactly outstanding, clocking in at a pretty underwhelming 3 hours plus of use before requiring a top-up from the charger.
Conclusion
The updated Predator Triton 500 is a powerful yet sleek machine, packing an intimidating amount of horsepower into a slim chassis. If you're looking for more power, you can opt for even higher-end configurations featuring up to an RTX 2080 Super Max-Q.
Predator has pulled out all the stops to ensure an unfettered gaming experience on a portable device, and while it isn't perfect (which laptop is?) you'll certainly be getting a whole lot of power with the latest components for its RM8,999 price tag.
For more information on the Predator Triton 500, you can check out the official product page here.
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