Acer Predator 17X : Honest Review

The 17-inch Acer Predator Triton 17X is a powerful gaming laptop with an Intel i9-13900HX CPU and RTX 4090 GPU. Not only that… This laptop is durable, has great ports, and boasts an insanely good QHD+ mini-LED display with a 240Hz refresh rate. A few seconds after loading, futuristic music and a blue flashing RGB light dance around the keyboard keys before ending in a rainbow RGB configuration. All that glitz is for the show, but Acer’s most powerful gaming laptop, with an Intel i9-13900HX CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, definitely deserves it.

Acer Predator 17X  Specs

Features

Intel Core i9-13900HX and Nvidia RTX 4090 GPUs are standard on the Triton 17X. Two identical Acer Predator Triton 17X models with different model numbers and 2TB SSD storage and 64GB RAM are listed on Acer’s website, but one costs $200 more. It’s unclear why, yet Micro Centre sells the lesser version for $3599.99.

Design and Construct

If laptops were tanks, the Acer Predator Triton 17X would be among the largest, fiercest, and meanest. It’s huge, but entertaining to use. The joy lies in the Triton’s massive CNC-milled aluminum slab chassis. The metal is visible in the build, and it feels robust around the base. You can pummel it all day, and it will stay the same. It is hard to obtain lid flex either. That leads me to a key concern regarding this laptop’s design: it looks like a Razer Blade laptop in almost every manner, including its durability. The all-black rectangular design, sharp angles, narrow bezels, and tall display with a 16:10 aspect ratio provide that impression. This is a departure from Acer’s 17X, which has had more unconventional designs. Some customers may have wanted the gamer-centric look of the 2016 Acer Predator Triton 17X, which had a cut-out lid, translucent WASDF and arrow buttons, and a touchpad that leaned left of the laptop’s center and back.

Heat

The Triton 17X’s cooling hardware controlled overheating well. Vapor chamber and Tri-Fan System with 5th-generation Aeroblade 3D fan technology The cooling system uses fast-cooling liquid metal thermal grease. The laptop has several air vents on the back and sides. Despite my parallels to Razer laptops, the Triton 17X lacks Acer style. The predator logo on the lid and the RGB micro-engraved predator logo on the laptop’s right base were my choices. Both are unobtrusive, and you could get away with them at business meetings if you brought the laptop. Since the Triton weighs 6.61 pounds, you may not want to do it often.

Keyboard

To justify buying a gaming desktop over a cheaper one, their keyboards should be better than most 13- to 16-inch laptop keyboards. Thankfully, the 17X keyboard is superior. It’s broad and spacious enough for both hands to extend out. The keyboard has several choices, including hotkeys, which saved me a lot of time in menus. A Mode key shifts the laptop between Eco, Balanced, and Turbo modes, while a key launches the PredatorSense utility program for these and other settings modifications.

Display, audio

The 17-inch MSI GT77 HX 13V had a 4K mini-LED display with a 144Hz refresh rate earlier this year. Acer Predator Triton 17X offers a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) mini-LED display with a 240Hz refresh rate, down from MSI but up from MSI. Nvidia G-Sync helped this combination deliver superb motion clarity and sharp detail in my playtesting. Mini-LED displays have 1000 local dimming zones and are quite bright—I measured 889 nits in SDR mode, almost enough to impose ray bans. The Triton 17X boasts some of the greatest contrast I’ve seen in a laptop panel this size, with deep, dominating darks even at the display’s edges.

Batteries perform

Despite its 99.9WHr battery, the Triton 17X’s battery life is typical of desktop replacement gaming laptops. Setting a 4K Hollywood movie to loop on Microsoft’s Movies & TV app tested battery life. First, I plugged in inexpensive headphones and turned the volume down to 50% to prepare the laptop for testing. Switched Wi-Fi to aeroplane mode. Finally, I timed the laptop’s battery drain. The result? The Triton 17X entered standby mode after 4.5 hours.

FAQs

Compare the Acer Predator Triton 17X to competitors.

The above performance testing reveals the Triton 17X outperforms its three main competitors. The Triton 17X can compete with the MSI Titan GT77 13V and Razer Blade 18; however, the Asus ROG Strix 18 has a little edge.

Should you buy it?

The 17-inch Acer Triton 17X is one of the most powerful gaming laptops available, despite being between 18 and 16 inches. While our benchmarking reveals the Asus ROG Strix 18 outperforms the Triton 17X, there are still many reasons to pick it, including its sturdy chassis and better display.