Acer Predator Triton 500 SE gaming laptop (Source: Acer)
Advertised by Acer as a slim gaming laptop, the 0.8-inch thin Predator Triton 500 SE has been available since mid-2022 with Alder Lake processor options and GeForce RTX 3000 series GPUs. With a list price of US$2,999.99, the model with Intel Core i9-12900H, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, 32 GB LPDDR5 memory, and a 1 TB SSD is now down to US$2,499.99.
Back in June 2022, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (PT516-52s-70KX) visited our labs for an in-depth analysis. Now, the PT516-52s-99EL is below the US$2,500 threshold on Amazon, thanks to a 17{b7c9e2c88beb1a84f22d94ab877a147f4adc4b3519717f3f957a0f34e16918d1} discount that pushed the US$2,999.99 to the lowest value in 30 days. While it shares the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti mobile GPU with the reviewed model mentioned above, this unit comes with a slightly faster processor and twice the amount of installed memory. However, most of our review’s findings obviously apply to this model as well.
In addition to the graphics adapter with 16 GB dedicated memory mentioned above, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE (PT516-52s-99EL) features the Intel Core i9-12900H processor, a 16-inch WQXGA IPS 240 Hz G-Sync compatible display with 500 nits brightness, 32 GB of LPDDR5 memory, a 1 TB PCIe Gen 4×4 SSD, Intel Killer DoubleShot Pro with Ethernet E3100 and Wi-Fi 6E AX1675, and runs Windows 11 Home out of the box. The list of connectivity options includes HDMI 2.1 with HDCP support, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 and USB charging, and two additional USB 3.2 ports (one Gen 1, and one Gen 2).
In our aforementioned review, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE didn’t fail to impress, proving capable of offering premium performance. Also priced at a premium level, this laptop has shown some drawbacks in the upgradeability sector, since it comes with soldered-in memory and the SSD is inaccessible without removing the motherboard first. When subjected to heavy loads, the Acer Predator Triton 500 SE becomes pretty hot and very loud. However, for less than US$2,500, the PT516-52s-99EL model provides good value to those looking for a potent mobile gaming machine with a rather simple and slim design.
Disclaimer: Notebookcheck is not responsible for price changes carried out by retailers. The discounted price or deal mentioned in this item was available at the time of writing and may be subject to time restrictions and/or limited unit availability.
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Codrut Nistor – Senior Tech Writer – 5899 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2013
In my early school days, I hated writing and having to make up stories. A decade later, I started to enjoy it. Since then, I published a few offline articles and then I moved to the online space, where I contributed to major websites that are still present online as of 2021 such as Softpedia, Brothersoft, Download3000, but I also wrote for multiple blogs that have disappeared over the years. I’ve been riding with the Notebookcheck crew since 2013 and I am not planning to leave it anytime soon. In love with good mechanical keyboards, vinyl and tape sound, but also smartphones, streaming services, and digital art.
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is Acer’s first gaming Chromebook.Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
It’s been a while since I’ve been on a Chromebook. I was a dedicated user of the Google Pixelbook when it launched. Its 2-in-1 form factor fit my life surprisingly well, and I even turned it into a podcasting machine on the go. But then the laptop started aging out, and I needed something that could handle video and photo editing in a way that Chrome OS couldn’t. I also wanted to play games on it. The Pixelbook became redundant once I upgraded my computer to a Windows-based Dell XPS 15, and it’s been collecting dust ever since.
Now, we have gaming Chromebooks, a phrase I never thought I’d be typing out. These are different from the gaming laptops you’re used to from brands like Razer or Alienware—they don’t even have the power of my Dell XPS 15. Instead, they have specs tuned to launch games from the cloud. The benefit of all this is it makes the overall ChromeOS experience feel more premium for a fraction of what I paid for the Windows-based XPS.
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is one of the three models that Google has trotted out in this latest campaign. The GE stands for “Gaming Edition,” and it refers to Chromebooks that have screens with high refresh rates, recent generation Intel processors, and unique gamer-y touches like RGB-lighted keyboards. The Chromebook 516 GE has all those things, making it a great all-purpose laptop. I’m particularly struck by how light and easy it is to cart around—I miss that part of having a Chromebook. This is my first experience with cloud gaming on ChromeOS outside of Stadia (RIP). Some features felt like the Windows gaming experience I’m used to, but there were instances when I remembered ChromeOS also has limitations.
Meet the gaming Chromebook
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a 16-inch laptop weighing slightly less than four pounds. It’s not dense like my Dell, so it feels easier to tote around one-handed. It has a 2560 x 1600 resolution display, though it’s not a touchscreen like most Chromebooks. Instead, you get a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, convenient if you’re subscribed to a cloud service like Nvidia GeForce Now or Xbox Game Pass, which lets you stream games at high refresh rates. If you’re thinking of getting one of these Gaming Edition machines, nabbing a subscription to one of these services is something you’ll want to consider, especially because you’re not going to hit those frame rates locally.
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Inside, the Chromebook 516 GE runs on the Intel Core-i5-1240P, which is a mid-range Alder Lake-P series processor. The chip is paired with Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics and 8GB of RAM, enough to broadcast the game from the cloud. The Chromebook 516 GE is only available with 256GB of space, and you’ll feel its limitations if you frequently deal with large image and video files and prefer to do it all offline. There’s a 16GB variant of the Chromebook 516 GE with more storage space coming to market soon.
The right side of the Chromebook 516 GE has an HDMI port, a USB-A port, and a USB-C port.Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
The left side of the Chromebook 516 GE has an ethernet port, a charging port, and a headphone jack. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Acer’s Chromebook 516 GE has plenty of ports, which is always an excellent addition to a Chromebook—the Pixelbook only had two USB-C ports, so I had to Frankenstein it with dongles whenever I needed it to podcast. On the 516 GE, there’s a USB-A 3.2 port, HDMI port, and USB-C port for charging on one side, and on the other side is an additional USB-A port, another USB-C port, and an Ethernet plug-in, which is seriously necessary for cloud gaming. There’s also a 3.5mm audio jack and support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is the relatively “no frills” choice of the Gaming Edition devices that Google introduced last year. The other models include the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming Chromebook with similar specifications and the Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip, a convertible model with a display with a high refresh rate of 144Hz. All three laptops are around the $600 mark.
What it’s like playing games on a Chromebook?
The Chromebook 516 GE can be paired with any compatible Bluetooth controller to play cloud games. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Just because this is a gaming laptop doesn’t mean it performs like a gaming laptop. The integrated graphics are merely there to help the apps keep up with the graphics the cloud is rendering for you. In the case of Nvidia GeForce Now, there was an RTX 4080 graphics card in a distant server farm running the copy of Control that I booted up to test the Chromebook’s ability to handle ray-tracing.
Reader: it did fine, and it’s because the Chromebook had to do very little except send my inputs to the cloud and show me video of the game. You will have to pay $20/month for GeForce Now’s highest tier. You might also endure fan noise, but paired with a SteelSeries Stratus+, it felt as native as playing a console on a small screen (the screen is much smaller than any TV I’d play on). Also, GeForce Now works with my Steam library, so I could play through the first hour of Half-Life 2 like I was back in my college bedroom, avoiding schoolwork on my laptop.
I used the Chromebook 516 GE to play games on several platforms. In addition to Nvidia GeForce Now, I played through Xbox Game Pass, Amazon Luna, and Steam, which went into beta on Chromebook only a few weeks after this laptop launched. On Xbox Game Pass, I hopped into Disney’s Dreamlight Valley to play the character I started on the Nintendo Switch version of the same game. It’s almost surreal that I’m so easily able to jump into the game between two platforms.
Games can be launched natively from ChromeOS’s app drawer. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Steam was the client I had the most trouble setting up, but only because it took me a while to figure out there was a specific option I had to enable so that games wouldn’t launch in a fixed resolution. Also, it’s technically still in beta, so it’s not a finalized experience. I followed all the instructions I found online, and it was a relatively simple process to get it installed. It requires switching ChromeOS into developer mode and toggling on Chrome flags, developer-centric features you can enable to test this out on your own. I then figured out I had to enable another flag called borealis force double scaleso Steam games could display adequately on ChromeOS.
I tried downloading Sid Meier’s Civilization VI and Shadow of the Tomb Raider to run their respective benchmarks out of curiosity. I managed to get a campaign in Civilization VI started, enough that I was almost curious to look up a guide to figure out how to play the game. But when I tried the built-in benchmark, the Chromebook crashed, and I had to force restart. On the heavier side, Shadow of the Tomb Raider didn’t go beyond the splash screen. I tried running that benchmark, and each time, the Chromebook 516 GE would shut down and force a restart.
For my final trick, I downloaded Far Cry 5 and Total War: Warhammer II to see if they would take. That’s when I remembered the Chromebook 516 GE only has 256GB of storage space. Far Cry 5 is nearly 67 GB when locally downloaded, while the latter is 57 GB. When I tried downloading anything else, the Chromebook was out of space. Rather than clear up some space and wait for the downloads, I figured you’d get the idea by now: don’t expect this thing to run even casual modern games locally.
I did play older games using Steam on the Chromebook 516 GE. Stardew Valley runs fine, as do older titles like Torchlight II. The Chromebook may have integrated graphics, but they’re better than anything from around 15 years ago. I also played through the beginning of 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot while the frame rate hovered between 30-35 fps.
It’s still a Chromebook
The Chromebook 516 GE is emblazoned with Chromebook markings. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
Now that we’ve established you can get some gaming done on the Chromebook 516 GE, let’s talk about getting work done. I wrote a few end-of-the-year articles on this machine before all the CES hype, and found the keyboard especially comfortable, but only after I had lobbed off my claws. Acer’s keycaps, in particular, are thin enough that I couldn’t tell if my nail was on the chassis or the key, which made typing a little frustrating. I managed about 110 words per minute after cutting my nails.
The Chromebook 516 GE has a neat RGB backlit keyboard. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
I mentioned earlier that some of these Chromebook gaming laptops have RGB backlights—this is one of those models. I love being able to change the lights on the Chromebook directly from the settings panel without having to download some third-party keyboard suite. Even when I wasn’t playing a game, it was nice to have rainbow keys while I was typing away at an article. Acer even outlines the WASD keys, so you’re ready and prepared for gaming with a mouse and keyboard.
My only other annoyance was the small arrow keys. When on a laptop, I rely on them for scrolling through web pages. The trackpad also feels like something I’d find on a cheaper Chromebook. It’s not the most fluid, especially when attempting something precise, and I often felt like the pointer could overshoot at any time. I found any excuse to use a Bluetooth mouse to control the device.
Needs better battery
The Chromebook 516 GE is light and portable, but don’t leave the charger behind. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
The Chromebook 516 GE is fine for getting work done. It’s light enough to cart around in a backpack all day and the ample amount of ports—for a Chromebook, anyway—helps get various use out of the machine. There’s even HDMI out so that you can tether an external monitor. I could see this Chromebook serving as a cloud gaming hub for a dorm room, the way a streaming dongle does for the TV in the living room.
But I’d caution leaving without a charger in tow. Acer promises nine hours on battery, but the Chromebook 516 GE lasted a mere six hours in our internal battery rundown test. We test by looping a YouTube video with the screen brightness set to about 200 nits. There are proper gaming laptops with worse battery life, but in the world of ChromeOS, it’s not enough to leave without a backup power situation. At the very least, the Chromebook 516 GE is a fast charger. I got it up to 100{b7c9e2c88beb1a84f22d94ab877a147f4adc4b3519717f3f957a0f34e16918d1} in about 90 minutes.
Another affordable way to get into gaming
It’s nice to know you can run a game on ChromeOS. But don’t try running a recent one. Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE isn’t going to take you to the esports arena, but it makes a massive archive of cloud based PC-based gaming available at an accessible price point. This laptop will also do well with indie games, which are just as engaging as the titles coming out from major game publishers, and often less resource intensive.
At $650, it’s $300 more expensive than other Cloud gaming solutions like the Logitech G Cloud, but it also provides you with a full laptop. For a dedicated gaming machine, you might want to look to either the G Cloud or something like the Steam Deck, depending on your needs, but this is a good entry level option in a similar price point for someone who moonlights as a gamer.
On the productivity side, the Chromebook 516 GE is a fine Chromebook for day-to-day use. The keyboard is comfortable for long bouts of typing, and ChromeOS has improved since Google introduced more ways to sync up the software with an Android smartphone. But this is far from a gaming laptop like in the Windows world. If anything, at least Chromebook manufacturers have found a way to “beef up” the systems without increasing the price point, as Chromebooks are still considered secondary machines rather than primary ones.
Here is another great deal going on during Best Buy’s early Black Friday sale. You can save $500 on a fantastic gaming laptop from the ASUS TUF Dash lineup. That’s a huge chunk of money off a really well-equipped machine. And remember while these deals may stick around through Black Friday, they are unlikely to get any better. Might as well take advantage of what you’re seeing now and grab it while you can.
The ASUS TUF Dash includes a 12th-generation Intel Core i7-12650H processor, 16GB DDR5 4800MHz RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive. The graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, which is a great mid tier graphics card that should be able to play most of your favorite games at the highest of settings. Plus it will all look good on the computer’s 15.6-inch display with 1080p resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate.
Walmart’s Black Friday Deals for Days event continues as we head into actual Black Friday season. No sense in waiting though because there are some great discounts available today! The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is a fantastic computer, and you’d be crazy not to latch onto this discount considering it’s such a great low price compared to what it normally goes for.
The Legion 5 Pro includes an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H computer processor, 16GB RAM that can be expanded up to 32GB, and a 512GB solid state drive. It has a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card as well. It has a beautiful 16-inch display with 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution, too, so your games will look fantastic.
This is another really solid deal out of Best Buy, where you can find a ton of great laptops whether you want a gaming machine or something slicker with Intel Iris Xe graphics or whatever. The Zephyrus lineup is a great one that often has some really nice price drops.
The technical specs for this machine include an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive. It is also powered by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, which will come in handy when trying to get your games up to the 144Hz refresh rate on the 14-inch display.
It has a lot of other great features, too, including two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports for connecting all your extras. It also has a four speaker system for excellent audio while playing your favorite games.
Well, if that last entry was a budget pick, this one definitely is not. It will cost you a few doubloons but the investment may be worth it if you’re looking to go all out on your gaming machine. Plus, you are still saving a huge chunk of change off the laptop’s regular price thanks to Walmart’s Black Friday Deals for Days sale. Heck, even when this laptop has gone on sale in the past it hasn’t dropped this low.
The MSI GP66 Leopard is a beast of a machine with an 11th-gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, a 512GB solid state drive, and a powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, multiple USB ports, and a 15.6-inch display with 1080p pixel resolution. You can expand the RAM and other parts as you want. It even has per-key RGB backlighting on the SteelSeries keyboard.
On average, you should expect to pay more for a gaming laptop. Truly high end laptops can cost thousands, and even the mid tier machines can set you back a pretty penny. If you’re shopping on a budget though, you do have options. This is one of those options at an incredibly low price.
The MSI GF63, even at less than $500, does come with a discrete graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q GPU. That’s a couple of generations behind at this point, but that’s why it’s a budget machine. And it’s still a very good card. Other specs include a 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. It also has a 15.6-inch display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.
I’m not sure how long this deal is going to last because it has already expired once. It’s great that it’s back, but don’t expect to get a lot of time to think on it. This is a fantastic price for a laptop that not only includes a discrete graphics card but an OLED panel on its beautiful display as well.
What you get is an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB solid state drive with NVMe technology for fast read/write times. It also has a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. The 15.6-inch display uses an OLED panel and has 1080p resolution along with touchscreen support.
Extra features include a USB-C and USB-A port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and a media card reader.
Want to learn about one of the better open secrets when it comes to looking for great deals on gaming laptops and other kinds of tech? It’s eBay. Did you know a huge chunk of retailers and manufacturers have official eBay storefronts where they often sell things they can’t sell through their main pages? Or, at the very least, make the eBay store makes it a lot easier to see everything in one place. This deal, for example, comes from the official Acer page where they share refurbished units. In this case, it’s already discounted because it’s a refurb and then it has a bonus discount on top of that to bring it as low as we’re seeing it right now.
The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE gaming laptop is a fully loaded machine with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive. It’s powered by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card and has a 14-inch display with 1080p resolution and an IPS panel.
I love a good bang-for-your-buck sort of deal, that’s what this is. It’s hard to find laptops that specifically have discrete graphics cards for less than $700. They usually don’t drop that low unless they’re on sale like this one is. You get a lot of value here, especially if you want a gaming laptop while on a budget.
This is also a 2022 model so it has some very new tech inside of it. You get an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor, 8GB DDR5 RAM, a 256GB solid state drive, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. It has a 15.6-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate.
It’s also worth noting this laptop comes with three months of Xbox Game Pass for free so you’re going to get to play a lot of awesome games at no extra cost. At least for a while.
Plenty of sites, including Newegg, are advertising some early Black Friday deals. This sale, however, comes from the Newegg Shell Shockers, which are daily deals that rotate out quite frequently. The savings available here will disappear by this time tomorrow so you’ll want to grab it while you can if you’re interested.
The Acer Nitro 5 is a great laptop that we’ve answered some gaming questions about and found it worked well. This model is even more powerful than the ones we’ve tested before. The technical specs include an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM, a 512GB solid state drive, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU. You also get a 15.6-inch laptop with a 165Hz refresh rate, which is great for gaming.
Walmart’s Black Friday Deals for Days is a great source of ongoing deals right now. You should definitely browse the whole sale if you want some more ideas. Walmart has sort of turned all of November into Black Friday for them by featuring some huge sales each weekend leading up to the major event weekend.
You may not have to search for much though because this laptop may be all you need. The Legion 5i is a powerful computer. It is loaded with an Intel Core i5-10500H processor, 8GB RAM, and a 256GB solid state drive. It also has a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card for gaming. You’ll be able to put that GPU to work and make your games look good on the 15.6-inch display with 1080p pixel resolution and a very high 240Hz refresh rate.
Here’s a deal that’s part of Amazon’s early Black Friday sale. You can save up to 22{b7c9e2c88beb1a84f22d94ab877a147f4adc4b3519717f3f957a0f34e16918d1} on this laptop, but you should know there’s a limited quantity available. It may not last long at this price.
The basic technical specs include an Intel Core i5-11400H processor, 8GB RAM, and a 512GB solid state drive for storage. It’s also powered by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, which you can use for some intense gaming thanks to the laptop’s 17.3-inch display with 1080p pixel resolution and 144Hz refresh rate. Other features include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, an RGB keyboard, and even a 30-day free trial to PC Game Pass so you can play all the games you want.
This deal comes from antonline, a respected eBay seller that often has a lot of great deals on computers and accessories. We recommend them often, especially when they have great prices like this.
The Gigabyte Aorus is a fantastic laptop that’s equipped with a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card. That’s important because its 15.6-inch display has a refresh rate that can reach 360Hz. Your games are going to look and feel fantastic, and the laptop has the power to back it up with an Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, and a 512GB SSD.
The G16 is a relatively new entry from Dell, which means this laptop has a lot of modern features including some of the latest tech. In this case, the laptop includes a 12th-gen Intel Core i7 processor with up to 4.7GHz speeds, 16GB DDR5 4800MHz RAM, and a 1TB SSD with NVMe tech for fast read and write times. It’s also powered by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card.
Not only will you be able to play your favorite games, but they will look great on the 16-inch display that has 2560 x 1600 pixel resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. Dell laptops also come with Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports along with several other USB ports.
We have reviewed the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3i, so be sure to get all the information you could possibly need about this gaming machine. It’s a great device, and this one in particular comes loaded with great features.
The technical specs include a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 processor with up to 4.50GHz speeds, 8GB RAM, a 256GB PCIe 4.0 solid state drive, and a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. The best part about this machine is the 15.6-inch display that includes an IPS panel, 1080p pixel resolution, and a 120Hz refresh rate that’s great for gamers.
Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE performs well and delivers solid battery life, though its performance is blunted by mediocre build quality.
Price When Reviewed
$2,199.99
Best Prices Today: Acer Predator Triton 300 SE
$2099.99
Gaming laptops and professional laptops are beginning to converge, and Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE is one example of this trend. It’s a large, powerful laptop with a 16-inch screen, Intel Core i7-12700H processor, and Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics. Yet it delivers this hardware in a relatively slim, elegant design that weighs 5.29 pounds and packs a huge 99 watt-hour battery. The result is a portable powerhouse, though a few mistakes leave it a step behind the best in this category.
Acer Predator Triton 300 SE specs and features
The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE I received for review was stacked with the best hardware currently listed for this model. It includes Intel’s 14-core Core i7-12700H processor and Nvidia’s speedy RTX 3070 Ti mobile graphics. The graphics chip is capped at a slim 115 watts of power, however, which has consequences in gaming tests.
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H
Memory: 16GB DDR5
Graphics/GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti
Display: 2560 x 1600 IPS 240Hz non-touch
Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 M.2 solid state drive
Webcam: 1080p
Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4/USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts Power Delivery, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Ethernet
Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2
Biometrics: Fingerprint reader
Battery capacity: 99 watt-hour
Dimensions: 14.1 x 10.3 x 0.86 inches
Weight: 5.29 pounds
MSRP: $2,199.99
This mode retails at an MSRP $2,199.99, but is already available for less from a few online retailers. Its pricing, though not inexpensive, places it beneath competitors like the Razer Blade 15 and Alienware X15 R2. Acer sells a more modest alternative configuration, with an RTX 3060 GPU and just 512GB of storage, for $1,749.99.
Design and build quality
IDG / Matthew Smith
Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE 16-inch is a simple, unassuming laptop with a silver finish and almost zero badging. In fact, the Acer brand appears nowhere on the laptop (not including the model and serial number label on the laptop’s bottom). This sleek, clean look is meant to lure in professionals and creatives who see gaming laptops as great all-in-one machines that can handle any task thrown at them.
Unfortunately, the Predator Triton 300 SE takes its pursuit of elegance and simplicity too far. It lacks the more distinctive display lid found on the smaller 14-inch Predator Triton 300 SE. The result is boring, unremarkable design that fails to stand out from competitors.
Build quality contributes to the problem. Laptops like the Razer Blade and Apple MacBook Pro make the most of simplicity with high-quality materials that look and feel premium. The Predator Triton 300 SE uses metal panels for most exterior elements, but feels thin and flimsy when touched. Both the display lid and lower chassis allow visible flex when handled.
Some might consider these acceptable trade-offs for a lower price, and the Predator Triton 300 SE does significantly undercut the price of the Razer Blade 15 and Blade 17. Still, anyone considering this laptop as a less expensive Blade alternative should be wary: it certainly feels built to a budget.
Keyboard and trackpad
IDG / Matthew Smith
The 16-inch version of the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE has plenty of space for a large keyboard. An absent numpad only improves the situation. However, the keyboard layout doesn’t take advantage of the space. Individual keys are on the small side, leaving significant spaces between each key. Some keys on the left side, including Tab, Caps Lock, Shift, and Control, are noticeably downsized. It’s an odd situation given the wealth of space available.
A keyboard backlight is included in the model I reviewed and can be customized across three zones through Acer’s PredatorSense software. The software is attractive and easy to use. While the keyboard backlight supports pulsing, patterns, and other dynamic lighting, Acer wisely leaves this distracting feature off by default.
The touchpad is responsive and large, measuring about five inches across and three inches deep. This is smaller than the touchpad on Corsair’s Voyager a1600 and Dell’s XPS 17, but still a healthy size for a gaming laptop. There’s plenty of space to use Windows’ multi-touch gestures, which proved easy to execute in my testing.
Display, audio
IDG / Matthew Smith
Acer opts for a 2560 x 1600 IPS non-touch display for the 16-inch Predator Triton 300 SE. It also packs a 240Hz refresh rate, a maximum brightness of 500 nits, and support for both Nvidia G-Sync and Nvidia Advanced Optimus.
The display’s 16-inch size and 16:10 aspect ratio are excellent for productivity. This is a large, practical display with added vertical space that’s handy when viewing documents, spreadsheets, or webpages. Many of Acer’s competitors have also gone this route, so the 16:10 aspect ratio isn’t necessarily an advantage. Still, it’s a useful improvement over a 16:9 widescreen.
Gamers are sure to appreciate the display’s 240Hz refresh rate. It offers great motion clarity when playing games with a framerate at or near 240 frames per second. Fast-moving text remains legible and interface details, like health bars, are usually distinct. Details are preserved when panning the camera, as well, making it possible to see distinct objects that would be obscured on run-of-the-mill 60Hz LCD screen.
And there’s more to the display than the refresh rate. It also supports Nvidia G-Sync for smooth frame pacing and Nvidia Advanced Optimums for improved battery life. These features aren’t uncommon but certainly not guaranteed, so it’s great to see both make an appearance here.
Yet there is a downside to the display.
Image quality is merely fine. It’s sharp, vivid, and colorful, but lacks the contrast and dark, detailed black levels available in OLED and Mini-LED displays. There’s a big gap in quality between this 16-inch model, with its IPS LCD display, and its 14-inch sibling, which has an OLED screen with a maximum refresh rate of 90Hz.
Upward-facing speakers are found above the Predator Triton 300 SE’s keyboard and provide strong, clear audio that won’t be muffled by the surface the laptop is placed on. Audio is solid with crisp, clear dialogue and a hint of bass in music. Maximum volume is high, as well, so the laptop can easily fill a home office with tunes.
Webcam, microphone, biometrics
The 16-inch Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, like the 14-inch model, has a 1080p webcam. It provides a noticeable increase in quality over a typical 720p laptop webcam. Video looks sharper and more defined, especially in good lighting. It’s nowhere near a “real” DSLR or mirrorless camera, of course, but solid for a webcam.
I can say the same of the microphone. It picks up good volume and crisp vocals. The tinny, hollow quality of most laptops microphones remains but I found my voice easy to hear, even when I reduced a recording’s volume significantly. That’s a good sign.
A fingerprint reader is included and integrated into the touchpad surface. I’m not a fan of this implementation, as it takes up a chunk of the touchpad’s usable space in exchange for a mostly reliable, but sometimes inconvenient, means of biometric login. Fingerprint reading works in ideal circumstances but can’t deal with wet, greasy, or moderately dirty fingers. I had to wipe the Cheeto dust off my fingers before I could log in.
Connectivity
IDG / Matthew Smith
IDG / Matthew Smith
The 16-inch Acer Predator Triton 300 SE has a single Thunderbolt 4/USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternate Mode and 65 watts of Power Delivery. It’s good to see use of Thunderbolt 4 but disappointing that Acer only provides one port. Most mid-range and high-end laptops provide a pair, at the least.
Older devices are served by a pair of USB-A ports. The laptop also provides HDMI 2.1, a 3.5mm audio jack, and Ethernet. This is a good range of connectivity but merely whelming for a laptop priced above $2,000. I particularly dislike the lack of an SDcard reader. This comes standard on the Corsair Voyager a1600 and Razer Blade 15, among others, and it would make sense for a laptop targeting gamers and professionals simultaneously.
Port location is a problem. Like the Predator Triton 300 SE 14-inch, the 16-inch places many ports near the front of the laptop. This means wired connections are obvious and take up significant desk space. Those who like a clean desk with few excess wires will find cable routing a chore.
Wireless connectivity offers some good news, as the laptop supports both Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. This provides support for modern devices and excellent Wi-Fi speeds when connected to a Wi-Fi 6E router. Wi-Fi 6 performance also seemed great in my testing, with Steam downloads hitting up to 60 megabits per second. This is close to the maximum performance I experience over Wi-Fi 6 on my home network.
Performance
The 16-inch Acer Predator Triton 300 SE I tested was a top-end model with an Intel Core i7-12700H processor and Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti mobile graphics. It had 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 solid state drive. It’s clearly a capable system on paper, but no more so than its competitors.
IDG / Matthew Smith
Acer turned in a disappointing score of 6,925 in PCMark 10. This is the lowest result out of a bundle of similar laptops, coming below even the Corsair Voyager a1600. On the bright side, however, the difference between the best and worst results is rather small. This gives hope that Acer could catch up in other benchmarks.
IDG / Matthew Smith
Cinebench R15 validates that hope, as the Predator Triton 300 SE turns in the highest score of all similar laptops recently tested. It manages this consistently, with surprisingly modest fan noise, and in spite of a thinner profile than many competitors. It’s an impressive result.
IDG / Matthew Smith
The good news continues in Handbrake, where the Predator Triton 300 SE comes within one second of achieving the top spot. It’s beaten only by its larger, thicker cousin, the Acer Predator Helios 300. Acer must be doing something right with its cooling solution, as its laptops clearly deliver better performance in sustained workloads.
Now we pivot to graphics performance. There’s reason to worry the Predator Triton 300 SE won’t be up to par, as it provides only 115 watts of power to its RTX 3070 Ti. The Predator Helios 300 and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, by contrast, deliver 150 watts. Does it make a difference?
IDG / Matthew Smith
The link between power delivery and performance isn’t immediately clear in 3DMark Time Spy, as the Predator Triton 300 SE achieves a respectable 10,289. That’s behind the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro and Alienware X15 R2, but ahead of the Acer Predator Helios 300 and Razer Blade 15.
IDG / Matthew Smith
Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE begins to show weakness in Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as it averaged just 126 frames per second at 1080p and Highest settings. That’s an extremely playable result, of course, but noticeably behind several similar laptops. The Acer Predator Helios 300 and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro stand out most here, as both deliver great results at slightly lower price.
IDG / Matthew Smith
It’s a similar story in Metro Exodus, where the Predator Triton 300 SE turns in an underwhelming average of 42 frames per second. This isn’t too far off the pace of similar laptops, but clearly not the best possible in this price range.
I also put the Predator Triton 300 SE through a few personal favorites including Total War: Warhammer III and Cyberpunk 2077. It maintained its relative position in these tests, providing playable results just above 60 frames per second at 1080p resolution and Ultra settings, yet running a few frames per second behind value leaders such as the Acer Predator Helios 300 and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.
The Predator Triton 300 SE’s performance results are good overall. It performs well in heavily multithreaded processor tests but lags a bit in gaming benchmarks. This may be disappointing for gamers, but it makes sense if you want a laptop for both productivity and entertainment. The Predator Triton 300 SE can handle both video editing and demanding games without much issue.
I also must praise the laptop’s thermal performance. The fans are readily audible in heavy loads but never become an ear-piercing whirr. Over-the-ear headphones make the fans unnoticeable.
Battery life
The 16-inch Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is crammed with a huge 99 watt-hour battery, the maximum typically found in a laptop due to the FAA’s limitations on the size of lithium-ion batteries allowed in carry-on luggage.
IDG / Matthew Smith
Going delivers an obvious advantage for the Predator Triton 300 SE, as it lasts nearly eight hours in our standard battery test. Most gaming laptops last between four and six hours. Corsair’s similar Voyager a1600, which also has a 99 watt-hour battery, endured less than five hours of use, while the Razer Blade 15 achieved a hair more than five hours.
This is an important win for Acer. Gaming laptops that also target professionals and creatives often provide good performance, but it’s too often paired with truly awful battery life. The Predator Triton 300 SE’s battery life isn’t amazing, but it’s good, and that’s enough to provide an edge.
Conclusion
Acer’s 16-inch Predator Triton 300 SE ultimately delivers the same strengths and weaknesses found in many Acer gaming laptops. It’s reasonably priced for the hardware on offer, scores well in most benchmarks, and delivers good battery life (for this category). It’s a laptop that, if scored by benchmark results alone, would be easy to recommend.
Build quality and design is where the Predator Triton 300 SE falters. It tries to strike a professional look but lacks the material quality and rigidity of some competitors. The keyboard is a miss, with an oddly cramped layout given the laptop’s size.
Still, there’s no denying the Predator Triton 300 SE’s overall performance and value. Gamers, professionals, and creators who want a beefy and capable machine at a more reasonable price should put it on their short list.
