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- Acer Predator Triton 900: the complete Review
Acer Predator Triton 900: the complete Review
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It took a little while before finally being able to get hold of this Triton 900 from the Predator range. It was announced with great fanfare at IFA 2018, then again shown by Acer at CES 2019. Between the model sold last year and the version that we have in our hands today, Acer operated a few component changes such as the transition from an Intel Core i7 processor to 8e generation to a model of 9e generation.
The concept of this strange machine? Difficult to define. Let's be clear, it is above all a technological showcase for the brand. Then, more concretely, it's a hybrid laptop for gamers of 17.3 inches, which is not trivial. The 4K screen is touchscreen and it is mounted on hinges which allow it to turn around to transform the laptop into a large touchscreen tablet. We can also just tilt this screen so that it is at your fingertips.
As much to warn you right away, the Predator Triton 900 that Acer sent us is difficult to find on the market. We spotted it only online and not in large stores (at the time of writing). However, its price is generally around 5,000 euros at the last score. It should be noted that the starting price is 4,200 euros: this Triton 900 cannot be bought on a whim.
Count around 1000 euros per kilo
So for such a price – that of an over-equipped PC tower, we are aware of this -, Acer has put the small dishes in the big ones. "Large" is a good match for the size of the machine. Lying on the desk, impossible not to notice it. She imposes (46 x 30 x 3 cm) and her weight of 4 kilos screws her to her place of residence. Just like the weight of its power adapter – almost 1.5 kg – which is essential for the proper functioning of the Triton (305 watts max. Measured). In any case, do not plan to go on the road with the Triton 900 under your arm. Its autonomy does not exceed 2 hours of autonomy, whether streaming or versatile use.
The case does not suffer from any defect in finishes. We like or dislike the lines and the aesthetic choices made, but it's beautiful work. However, he appreciates fingerprints a little too much. For the rest, everything is well assembled, the screen hinges are massive, but robust. For the more geeky, on the front, just above the keyboard – which has changed places – a small transparent window lets see a part of the mechanics and the cooling system.
As shown in the image above, the keyboard of the Triton 900 has a set of separate keys, the backlight of which can of course be personalized via Predator software. We also note the presence of three programmable shortcuts according to several profiles (visible below), in the upper left corner. All of this bodes well, but in practice, as we will see, it is a disaster.
In addition to the external mouse, also plan a keyboard
The whole piano is too picked up, the keys are a little too close to each other. In fact, their layout is unbearable. In addition to being small (the SHIFT key on the left is tiny), some are not at all in the right place! The question mark, in particular, which is strangely located between the ALT and CTRL keys at the bottom left. And as we had the machine with a QWERTY keyboard, it's a safe bet that it will be even worse on an AZERTY model, where some additional keys are present. The worst part is that the touch and the mechanics are very pleasant. A real mess.
The reason for this lack of space on the board is the virtual touchpad / keypad. A model similar to that which Asus offers on its most upscale Zephyrus. Admittedly, this is not the most used part of the keyboard on this type of PC. This 2-in-1 format therefore fits like a glove! Except it's really wide …
Full of more or less well-placed sockets
We end our observation phase with the connection round. Acer had the good idea to move a part of it to the back of the Triton 900, namely the ehealth outputs and the hole for the AC adapter. If the wired network socket had been able to reach them, we would have appreciated.
The rest of the ports are distributed on the sides and there is even a USB (2.0) socket hidden behind a small hatch, in case, as the following pictures show.
Our biggest regret? This is because Acer has placed as many plugs on the right side. This is indeed where the external mouse of the players will come and the cables or peripheral devices smart health connected will necessarily interfere. In addition, having positioned the power button on the right side is a call to come and hit him in full. Either the risk of turning off the machine unexpectedly unless you have made all the appropriate settings in Windows so that this does not happen.
A well-contrasted but poorly calibrated 4K screen
The hybrid format is already not always happy on conventional laptops, so on a gaming machine, this is quite unexpected. Before talking technical, let's talk practical. Being able to vary the inclination of the slab is a good idea and provides appreciable comfort.
On the other hand, allowing it to make a complete revolution in order to transform this laptop into a large tablet is not very useful. To make a part of Hearthstone, if need be … and again. Given the size of the machine impossible to use it as a conventional tablet, carried at arm's length in the sofa.
Opting for a 4K screen, even on a powerful machine like the Triton 900 is irrelevant. Incorporate G-Sync either. Indeed, the refresh rate of the screen is limited to 60 Hz at 3840 by 2180 pixels and the RTX 2080 will not often display more than 60 fps in the AAA games of the moment, full of details and effects. But we will come back to it.
On the technical side, the touch screen offers a fairly good brightness of 325 cd / m2 with peaks at 339 cd / m2 in the upper right corner. The value of the contrast ratio is also correct: 1092: 1, it is a little better than the average recorded on the recent machines tested. In terms of homogeneity, we get a score of 0.004 which is really very good. The dark areas are well marked, but not burnt and the colors are vibrant … but totally wrong.
This big Triton stumbles over the colorimetry Review: the measured Delta E is 5.9. Ouch! The Acer replaces Dell's Alienware Area 51m on the top step of the podium for the worst students in this area (5.43). The green hues are the most distorted, then come the reds. Only the variations of blue are almost good. Finally, the color temperature is between 6600 and 6800K. On a machine of this price, it is unforgivable.
If you are looking for the right thing to retouch your photos with precision, it is a failure, do not count on it. For creation, turn to the latest ConceptD Ezel 7 and 7 Pro announced at CES 2020.
Choose Full HD over 4K
Considering the price displayed on the label, Acer releases the big game with an Intel Core i9-9980HK processor, 32 GB of DDR4 memory, 1 TB of SSD in RAID 0 and a real Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (not a Max-Q) . Clearly, on paper, this Triton comes to measure against the Area 51m from Dell. No more no less.
The Triton 900 announces color in PC Mark 10, with an overall score among the highest of current gaming machines. It turns everything, without the slightest concern, and the applications that will manage to trip it have not yet been developed.
But what interests us is the game. The Triton aims to generate polygons by the hundreds, to taste complex textures at breakfast, for the years to come. Below, you will find the performance of the machine in Full HD. Let us put to the credit of the screen that it accepts quite well to go down in definition, the image distortions being hardly noticeable.
In 4K, however, things are changing drastically.
Dirt 3 : 302 frames per second (Full HD) against 247 fps (4K) or 16.6% loss
The Division DX11 High : 152.7 fps (Full HD) against 59.2 fps (4K) or 60% + loss
The Division DX11 Ultra : 127.7 fps (Full HD) against 58.9 fps (4K) or 50% + loss
RoTR DX12 : 151 fps (Full HD) against 58.9 (4K) or 60% + loss
Optimists at heart, we will say that the 30 fps level is largely exceeded on recent games (Dirt 3 serves more than a standard meter for old generation titles). And since the 60 fps bar is almost all the time, Acer almost succeeds in making us lie. It is possible to play in 4K with the machine.Activating G-Sync will visually compensate for the slowdown effects caused by falling ips. However, do not use it in older titles. You will restrict performance more than anything else.
In addition, do not kid yourself, on the next AAA to come, you will have to resolve to run everything in Full HD rather than 4K in order to have the pleasure of pushing the graphics further, and making the rendering of textures more complex. . Especially if you engage ray tracing, for example, particularly greedy.
An efficient and noisy cooling system
We did not resist the pleasure of dismantling the machine. This allowed us to contemplate the cooling system imagined by Acer but, also, to appreciate the complexity of arrangement and assembly of the Triton.
During our tests, even by stressing this funny beast, we did not manage to make it overheat. No throttling on the processor, the Intel turbine chip full; the same goes for the Nvidia chip. And it is by contemplating the cooling system that we understood how Acer had succeeded in this feat.
There is no shortage of copper. GPU graphics memory and power stages are fortunate enough to take advantage of all the metallic structures. The Intel and Nvidia chips each have a dedicated cooling duct and share two others. The heat is then removed through the pair of radiators and fans.
We note that the design of the blades is quite specific. They are all made of metal and there are several dozen. According to Acer, developing such a solution required many months of research before finding the right alchemy between the shape, the material and the number of elements to be crimped in the rotor to effectively dissipate the calories collected by the network of pipes.
The entire system can emit up to 46.5 dB under extreme load. It's pretty noisy, but it's the price you pay for not having throttling. As a reminder and comparison, the Alienware 51m emitted only 41.4 dB in full activity. Let’s take a quick detour through Mercury. The maximum displayed by our measurement tool is 59 ° C under the machine, at the feed level (against 53.4 ° C for the Alienware). On the palm rest, the thermometer can go up to 34 ° C and a little more at the top of the keyboard.
To conclude, it should be noted that memory and SSDs are accessible once the keyboard is removed. It is therefore possible to upgrade them later if your version of the Triton 900 is not over-equipped at the time you buy it.
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