Acer – Predator Triton 500 SE 16″ 2560×1600 165Hz Laptop – Intel 11th Gen i7 – GeForce RTX 3060 – 16GB DDR4 – 512GB SSD

I am in love with this laptop! Acer is a big name in PC gaming and the new Predator Triton 500 SE lives up to the brand’s reputation of designing and manufacturing quality products. If you’re seriously considering purchasing this laptop, you already know its specs. You also know that with those specs, you can run pretty much any PC game currently available at its recommended settings. I’ve had mine for about a week now and here are the things that I’ve come to like and dislike about this device:
Likes/ Pros:
– Build quality is superb. This is one of the first things you notice when you unbox this laptop. The laptop body is metal with rubber feet and plastic keys. It feels very solid with no bending when you pick it up. The plastic keys are nice and quiet.
– Color choices. I like that Acer went with a more subdued color for this laptop. Many gaming laptops on the market have bright colors letting everyone around you know what it was built for. The slate-like gray and dark blue accents are beautiful, but also nice so that if you want to use this computer for work or other tasks on the go, it isn’t so flashy.
– Acer gives you a carrying/storage sleeve that matches the color and logo on the laptop. This is actually a standout feature for me because so few brands do this. I just like that I don’t have to go guessing when buying one from Amazon on whether or not the laptop will actually fit. Acer gives you one made specifically for this device. Much appreciated.
– Having a fingerprint scanner for login is quite nice. It’s also fast.
– Plenty of ports for gaming accessories. I appreciate the dedicated headphone jack and SD card slot reader so I can edit photos.
– Integrated 720p camera is nice to have if you would like to use this laptop for Zoom calls or other video chat software. Definitely not the best resolution, but it’s nice that it was included.
– PredatorSense has a hotkey and allows you to play around with laptop settings easily. Want to change modes? Go to PredatorSense. Want to change up the RGB backlighting on your keyboard? Go to PredatorSense. I appreciate the one stop shop for these things.
– Not a lot of bloatware. Norton Security is a little annoying, but is also easy to remove.
– Speaking of RBG backlighting, it’s solid. Three zones are customizable and I haven’t noticed any fading along the edges like you get with some cheaper devices.
– The nearly 100W battery lasts a long time, especially when doing work. Doesn’t last quite as long when gaming on battery power alone.
– Storage is expandable with an additional PCIe slot so you don’t have to compromise or choose which games to keep on your computer. You will need the right tools to access the motherboard. I’m sure there are DIY videos on YouTube if you don’t know how to do this.
– The monitor tho. She’s beautiful. The 2560×1600 resolution is crisp and 165 Hz refresh is smooth for FPS games. I haven’t noticed any backlight bleed at minimum or maximum brightness. 500 nits is blinding in low light conditions, but really nice to have in your back pocket when there’s lots of sunlight in the room.
– And finally, performance. It’s REALLY good. The 11th gen i7 blazes through everything you throw at it and the 16gb of DDR4 ram lets you do a lot at once. Of course the dedicated NVIDEA GeForce RTX 3060 also needs a mention here. Combined, I’ve been able to run both games like Stardew Valley and poorly optimized games like Warzone with no problems whatsoever.
Dislikes/ Cons:
– 720p camera resolution isn’t amazing, but it does the job for normal Zoom calls or to video chat friends and family. Again, just nice that it was included.
– I love the fingerprint scanner, but would have liked to see it integrated into the power button. Feels a bit weird reaching across the trackpad (as a right hand dominant person).
– While portable, it’s also heavy. But you already knew that.
– One of the biggest drawbacks to gaming laptops of all shapes and sizes is noise and cooling. This laptop is no different. When you’re in the middle of playing even smaller games, things get hot and loud quickly. I always personally recommend a cooling pad while gaming on a laptop.
– Price is definitely up there, but with many things in life, you get what you pay for!
As you can probably tell, there are far more things I like about this laptop than dislike. And even those things that I dislike are kind of negligible/ things I knew when I got myself into this computer. All in all, the new Acer Predator Triton 500 SE is a solid performing device for just about anything you throw at it. At a glance, you’d never expect what’s under the hood. I highly recommend this laptop!

When you think of Acer products, you think of excellent gaming gear. Acer’s new Predator Triton 500 is no different and provides some of the best specifications a gaming laptop can have. The Predator Triton offers many features that can visually improve your gaming experience as well as improve performance. In this review, I will go into my experience using this laptop.
*TLDR at the bottom
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IN THE BOX/SET-UP:
In the box, you get the Predator Triton which weighs a bit above 5lbs, a hefty power adapter, power cord, soft carrying case, and paperwork. Set-up is fairly quick if you do already have a Microsoft account. All you need to do is log in and Windows is all yours. Although, a bit of a warning, the Predator Triton 500 initially does come with a loud bootup sound that can be disabled with either the Predator Sense software or BIOS. Surprisingly, this laptop did not come with a lot of bloatware. Kudos to Acer for not poisoning the laptop. Once I was finished tweaking a couple of settings, I downloaded a couple of apps, and the laptop was ready to go!
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DESIGN:
The Predator Triton 500 is designed brilliantly. Its made with both metal and plastic. I seriously love the steel gray color which I found lowkey and didn’t holler gaming laptop like some others. There is some weight to the laptop coming in at a little above 5lbs. The display is a 16:10 display and minimal bezels allow for the display to pop out more when open. Ventilation holes are all around the sides and back to allow for cooling. A small design addition that I noticed was that the laptop’s hinge (where the power/battery indicator is located) tends to change color depending on the light reflected onto it. The keyboard is a 3-zone RGB keyboard that can be completely customized using Acer’s Predator Sense software. The keyboard is not loud, and I found it incredibly satisfying when using it. The laptop’s trackpad is large and there is also a fingerprint sensor located on the top left which works extremely fast.
There are plenty of ports on the Predator Triton 500 to allow for peripherals. They are DC-In, Ethernet, USB 3.2(2), USB-C Thunderbolt 4(2), Aux, HDMI 2.1, and an SD 7.0 card slot.
Overall, the design of Acer’s Predator Triton 500 is incredible. Ports are well placed, the material used feels sturdy, and the steel gray color offers a low-key vibe for a gaming laptop!
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PERFORMANCE:
The Predator Triton 500 should run pretty much all the games on the market. From running “Can You Run It,” the laptop received a score of 100% minimum and 95% recommended. This score shows the percentage of games that can run on the laptop at the minimum and recommended requirement levels. In short, this laptop is a beast of a machine.
The 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor allows for quickness all the way around. Whether you are gaming, rendering 3D models, viewing/editing your media; this gaming laptop is quite fast and should not slow down your daily tasks. I am also a student and doing some schoolwork on this laptop was all a breeze. I use Autodesk Inventor and the laptop handled it extremely well. My gaming experience was truly stunning. The GPU on the Predator Triton 500 is powered by NVIDIA’s new GeForce 3060. I tried out a myriad of games using this laptop. From fast-paced games such as Control to more casual/adventure-type games like Detroit: Become Human. This laptop handled them all well and I had all my graphic settings set on high.
Overall, performance was as expected. I played my games on the highest settings and did not run into any issues. The Predator Triton 500 should not disappoint when it comes to performance.
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DISPLAY/SOUND
The 2560×1600 display is indeed stunning. All my games appeared visually beautiful and the 165Hz refresh rate allowed for a seamless and smooth gameplay experience. The colors were accurate and overall, I have nothing bad to say about the display. It works wonderfully for gaming!
Sound is powered by DTS X Audio. The external speakers are on the louder side and do sound splendid for the most part. I mostly used the laptop with over-the-ear headphones and all my games, media, music ended up sounding great as well. Games specifically contained 360 audio which was amazing and made my gaming more immersive!
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FEATURES:
The following are some other notable features for the Predator Triton 500:
– Fingerprint sign-in is located on the upper left of the touchpad.
– Predator Sense software allows for system monitoring, overclocking, keyboard RGB customization, and more.
– Fans are indeed quiet when in Quiet mode (great for Zoom meetings) but do get noisy in Turbo mode.
– The DTS X: Ultra Audio software allows for EQ customization when external speakers or headphones are connected.
– The laptop does allow for a customizable bootup. Be warned that the boot sound is on the louder side. You can enable/disable the sound
by going into Predator Sense or BIOS.
– Killer Control Center allows you to view network data, run network speeds, and prioritize network bandwidth to certain apps
-The laptop does have an extra M.2 SSD storage slot and RAM is upgradable up to 32GB.
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CONCLUSION:
Overall, using the Predator Triton 500 was a breathtaking experience. It can run pretty much any game in the current market. Performance-wise, it performs extremely well. The processor and GPU work is high-end and did end up running most of my games on the highest settings. Visually, the 16:10 display shows some incredible visuals whether you are gaming or watching movies. Who is this for? If you are a gamer needing a laptop that runs most games, this one is it. A student or professional who wants to use 3-D rendering modeling software, this laptop is also for you. In short, if you need to tackle tough tasks like heavy gaming, video/photo editing, and 3-D rendering; I wholeheartedly do recommend you try out the Predator Triton 500.

Came in with discoloration and dead pixels not sure if shippings fault or what returned same day not purchasing again. Just going with a desktop instead.customer services said it would take 15 days for a replacement…

Acer has managed to package an affordable gaming powerhouse into, let’s say, a medium body. Laptops come in all shapes and sizes. Netbooks, thin and lights are on one end of the spectrum while desktop replacement big boys are at the other. At 16” it’s hard for me to squeeze this into the thin and light category, but Acer did a great job making just a laptop and using what they’ve learned from thin and light chassis to cram it full of IO and Battery.
What I like:
– Design – If you’re going to appeal to a wider audience, make a design that might draw a glance in the conference table, but doesn’t distract from the conversation, while still giving edges and design cues of a modern gamer. The Triton SE does that. When closed, you can see the aluminum lid with two different textures, one being a diagonal, brushed styled texture, with the other being a flat matte with the logo centered at the top. Where the lid mounts to the chassis, there’s an iridescent bar that is either purple or green, depending on the position, which is a nice look. Build quality is pretty solid and the aluminum likely helps with heat dissipation.
– Performance – Depending on your daily use and gaming preferences, your mileage may vary. CINEBENCH R23 is my go-to for processor performance. With all things being equal, I hover around the 13,300 mark, depending on running applications. Time Spy came in at 8308, which is around the average for 11800H and a 3060 RTX. My go to games however, Destiny 2 and Apex, didn’t sweat at all. I hover around 80 fps in Destiny 2, max settings. I can get higher frames if I optimize through GeForce Experience but it drops quality down a bit here and there to achieve this. Apex doesn’t have any issues, running around 100 fps. I would imagine most games would run smoothly on high settings and with some older titles, you may get away with ultra-settings.
– Features – So there’s a few bells and whistles that come with this laptop and they ring and whistle well.
o Windows hello through the fingerprint scanner built into the track pad works well. I thought at first, it’d stall the mouse as I moved my finger across it, but it will still track your finger without issues.
o Turbo Mode – There’s a dedicated button on the chassis that will allow maximum power draw as well as turning the fans up to 100% constantly. This does make a performance difference as the PC is less likely to thermal throttle at the cost of fan noise.
o Dedicated Predator Sense button for getting into the application to change power settings, fan speeds, sound settings, etc.
– I/O – I love the options and flexibility you’re given on this laptop. Two type A USB 3.2 Ports, TWO Thunderbolt 4 ports, Headphone, Ethernet, HDMI, and SD reader. If you’re gaming on the move, you have the juicer 230 watt charger, if you’re packing light and have one to spare, a 65 watt and above wall adapter will allow you to charge via USB C, albeit at slower speeds.
– Screen – The screen size and 165hz refresh rate allow gaming real-estate you don’t see on smaller form factors. At 2k resolution, games look crisp and smooth. The 16:10 ratio is a bit different than the 16:9 that I’m used to, but It’s close enough that I don’t seem to notice that much.
– Largest battery you can fit and still get on a plane. In flight Skyrim? Sure.
What could be better:
– In this day and age of working from home and social distancing, it would have been nice to have something more than a 720p webcam. It’s better than nothing, and I’m glad it’s there, but wouldn’t complain if it was 1080p.
– Speaker quality isn’t about to blow your socks off. Along with the webcam, I can only assume it’s a cost saver. You can adjust the profile in Predator Sense, and I’ve found that movie mode works best.
– Upgrade access is not for the faint at heart. I would like to upgrade the storage and it appears the motherboard is installed “upside down”, meaning, you have to remove the bottom panel, then remove enough screws and cables to get the underside of the motherboard to get to the ram and M.2 slots.
Final Thoughts TLDR:
You’re getting close to a desktop experience with this laptop. You can play popular games at high settings at 165hz 2k resolution. I/O is a dream. The design affords some luxury you can’t get with thin and lights, at the cost of being a bit larger and a bit heavier while remaining portable. I love this laptop and look forward to using it years to come.