Kısa inceleme: Acer Predator Triton 700 (i7-7700HQ, GTX 1080 Max-Q, Full-HD) Laptop

After criticizing the design of the Predator 15 and Predator 17, we are happy to find more subtle looks on the Triton 700. We would even go as far as crowning it the most beautiful gaming notebook on the market – even above the ROG Zephyrus.

The case has a pleasing design from top to bottom that comprises classic and modern aspects, e.g. the blue outline of the Predator logo on the lid or the triangular fan exhausts with blue colored cooling blades. We most definitely welcome the absence of red elements that are stereotypical for gaming notebooks and value the understatement of the entire concept.

The area above the anti-ghosting keyboard is visually prominent due to the shiny Gorilla Glass surface that accommodates the touchpad and allows us to peek into the interior where we can see the left cooling fan. The fan on the right can be seen through a grid in the case. The asymmetric design is due to the cooling system.

The build quality of the case is very impressive. The lid and the top of the Triton 700 are made of aluminium. And although, the (relatively thick) bezels of the display are made of plastic, we subjectively perceive a full aluminium body. 95% of the surfaces blend seamlessly into each other, but it is not perfect, since some elements like the transition between lid and logo are a little too sharp-edged, leaving some space for dust and dirt to collect.

The hinges allow for opening the notebook one-handedly and are well built. The base is very rigid, despite its thinness, and cannot be bent even with relatively strong force. Only the lid should have been built sturdier as is the case with most notebooks. In conclusion, Acer has done an exemplary job with the case.

The 2.4 kg (5.3 lbs) light 15-inch device would allow for some on-the-go gaming if the limited battery capacity was not bottlenecking the fun (more on that later). The Aorus X5 v7 (2.6 kg/~5.7 lbs), the MSI GS63VR (1.9 kg/~3.2 lbs), the Asus GX501 (2.3 kg/~5.1 lbs), and the Eurocom Q5(2.2 kg/~4.9 lbs) weigh more or less the same with some minor differences.

Regarding the height, the Triton 700 with its 18.9 mm (0.74 inches) lies in between its rivals, which are situated from 17.9 mm (0.70 inches) for the GX501 up to 23 mm (0.91 inches) for the X5 v7.

The number of ports lives up to the high-end aspirations. The only flaw may be their unfortunate position in the middle of the left and right sides of the device because of the ventilation system that exhausts to the sides and to the back. Hence, the plugs and cables of peripherals might disturb the use of a mouse. There are four USB Type A ports, three of them are USB 3.0, one is USB 2.0, two 3.5 mm jacks for headsets and microphones, one RJ45 port, and one opening for a Kensington Lock.

The biggest highlight is the Thunderbolt 3 Type C port and its support for USB 3.1 Gen2 and DisplayPort. In combination with the HDMI 2.0 port (4K @ 60 Hz) and the normal-sized DisplayPort, both of which are located on the back, users can output the video signal to up to three external monitors simultaneously. We are not happy about the absence of a card reader in both, the Triton 700 and the ROG Zephyrus.

For data transfer, Acer relies on gaming-optimized products by Killer. Wired connections via Gigabit E2500 and wireless connections via the Wi-Fi 1535 adapter with support for 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.1 are possible.

At 1 meter (~3.28 ft) distance to our reference router (Linksys EA8500), transmission rates of 551 Mbit/s position the Triton 700 just slightly behind the MSI GS63VR. With 682 Mbit/s (receive) it comes in second behind the Asus Zephyrus GX501.

As with most notebooks, the Triton 700 does not come with many accessories. The box includes a quick start guide and a warranty booklet. There is no USB flash drive that might contain recovery of driver software. The included 230V power adapter has dimensions of 18 x 9 x 3.5 cm (~7.08 x ~3.54 x ~1.38 in). 

The Triton 700 can be opened after loosening 13 screws and can be better serviced and upgraded than the ROG Zephyrus that has only 4 screws. Neither of them has a maintenance flap. After removal of the GX501´s base plate, only a part of the fan becomes visible. On the other hand, after opening the Triton 700 from the top (a rare sight for notebooks), the entire interior is exposed. The motherboard is attached to the bottom. 

There are two DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM slots, two passively cooled M.2 2280 slots, the Wi-Fi card, and the 3-cell battery. The cooling system consists of two AeroBlade 3D fans and five heatpipes. The GPU and the CPU are soldered onto the motherboard and cannot be upgraded. Storage devices, working memory and wireless card can be exchanged.

Acer omits to specify its warranty services, but a standard warranty can be assumed.

The Triton 700 loses a couple of points for its unconventional touchpad. Not only is its position not ergonomical and impractical, its gliding properties are only moderate. Greasy fingers do not glide as well over the glass surface than they would over a plastic surface.

Furthermore, the touchpad is only visually distinguishable from the normal surface by a thin line at the corners. This made it already hard to see during the daylight and is practically invisible during at night. Another issue is posed by the missing buttons for left and right click. Virtually all touchpads without dedicated mouse buttons still have a haptic click function on the bottom. The Triton 700, on the other hand, only recognizes gestures and finger taps. Finding out how to right-click might be an adventure.

We could not be bothered to actually use the irritating and badly positioned touchpad and immediately went for an external mouse.

The display fulfills all the criteria for a modern gaming notebook: Full HD? Check. 120 Hz? Check. G-Sync? Check. Whether it was a bad decision or not to implement an IPS panel instead of a TN panel is up to the individual user. Positive is undoubtedly the stable viewing angle and natural colors, even when looked at from the sides that is characteristic for the IPS-technology.

A black value of 0.22 cd/m² and a contrast ratio of 1323:1 are fair, given its RRP. The ROG Zephyrus is equipped with the same panel, although, due to slight deviations in the manufacturing process of every panel, some test results may grade it a little better or a little worse than the one in the Triton 700. In any case, the combination of G-Sync, 120 Hz, and a GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q allow for an incredibly smooth viewing experience in both, the Triton 700 and the GX501.

With 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB of SSD-RAID, and a GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q, our tested configuration is obviously intended for the upper high-end segment. The quad-core processor will be sufficient for years and years of smooth performance in most, if not all, applications.

Turbo Boost is a nice feature, as well, and makes it possible to clock from 2.8 GHz up to 3.8 GHz, assuming the cooling system plays along. While single-core scenarios are able to exploit all this horsepower, an intense multi-core workload leads to clock speeds of up to 3.4 GHz.

Expectedly, CPU performance results from the Cinebench R15 and the Cinebench R11.5 fall within the average of comparable notebooks with Core i7-7700HQ. 

Our continuous Cinebench R15 loop shows that the quad-core CPU keeps its performance over a long period of time.

Perhaps to justify its high RRP, Acer has equipped the Triton 700 with two SSD drives arranged in RAID-0. Our test device comes with SSDs by SK Hynix. Transfer speeds of small file sizes (which are most relevant for daily use) do not differ much from a single SSD solution and sometimes even perform a little worse. Sequential tasks, however, are handled lightning fast compared to most other gaming notebooks.

Expensive RAID systems are on a descending branch nowadays. Sure, they do sound good for marketing purposes, but recent SSDs such as the Samsung SM962 or the 960 in the ROG Zephyrus or the Eurocom Q5 perform similarly.

In the PredatorSense settings, users can, however, easily overclock the CPU to either 1365 MHz (Faster mode) or even 1440 MHz (Turbo mode). This leads to perfmance increases in the 3DMark 11 benchmark of 2% or 5%, respectively. 

All in all, the GPU performs only marginally faster than the GTX 1070. Naturally, the GTX 1080 Max-Q beats any GTX 1070 Max-Q with ease: a difference of 24% compared to the Eurocom Q5 can be measured. The normal GTX 1060 inside the MSI GS63VR is no match for the 60% faster GTX 1080 Max-Q either. The Asus GX501 is, in terms of hardware and test results, on par with the Triton 700.

To assess long-term performance of the GPU, we ran the role-playing game “The Witcher 3” for 60 minutes on ultra settings. Over the course of the test run, the GPU does not suffer from significant performance losses thanks to its turbo feature, which allows for speeds of up to 1710 MHz without overclocking. 3D applications are handled with ease at 1430 MHz on average.

As long as one does not use a 4K display, there is nothing to criticize about the gaming performance of the Triton 700. With the exception of the evidently poorly coded survival game “Ark Survival Evolved" that makes every notebook sweat, all tested games run smoothly in native Full HD resolution at maximum settings.

The 120 Hz refresh rate of the display may not always get a chance to shine (“Ghost Recon Wildlands” remains below 60 fps on ultra settings), but it is still worth it. We have assessed the performance of the GTX 1080 Max-Q beyond the Full HD resolution on our GPU page. To compare frame rates of different graphics cards you can visit our game list.

When idling, our test device reaches a maximum of 33-34 dB(A), according to its tech specs. The fan noise, however, is plagued by a very high pitched noise and one fan seems to run not perfectly round. The Asus GX501 is quieter once more, even more so by the Triton 700´s 40 dB(A) during system start-up. It is still a very quiet device for its intended purpose, which is gaming, and receives an overall good grade it this category.

The under load struggling GeForce GTX 1080 Max-Q reaches temperatures of up to 82 °C (~180 °F) at a stable 940 MHz clock speed while throttling. The Core i7-7700HQ does not throttle and reaches 90 °C (~194 °F) on average - a high, yet uncritical value. The GPU and the CPU are limited to maximum temperatures of 87 °C (~187 °F) and 96 °C (~205 °F) respectively.

Frequenzdiagramm im Vergleich (Checkboxen oben an-/abwählbar!)

What surprises us is the high energy consumption of 28-41 watts on idle, despite the Max-Q design of the GTX 1080. Under load, we measure 94-222 watts. These values might as well originate from a significantly cheaper GTX 1070 notebook (e.g. the Aorus X5 v7). The quite economical ROG Zephyrus idles with 18-31 watts and works under load at 79-196 watts. The 230-watt power adapter is sufficient.

Alongside the poorly designed touchpad, the short battery runtime is another annoyance. Despite the Triton 700´s aspirations of being a mobile high-end laptop, it will shut off after 2.5 hours - on idle. The absence of the Optimus technology and the tightly designed battery were already the reasons for the overall lowered score in the Asus GX501. Abandoning G-Sync while integrating a graphics changeover would have been the better choice for many users.

In theory, a dual system as it is implemented in several of the Clevo barebones might be possible. The Schenker XMP P507 allows users to switch from G-Sync and Optimus back and forth after a reboot. Gaming without a power adapter leaves the system hopelessly stuttering. In our test, the frame rate of “The Witcher 3” dropped two thirds.