Acer unveils Predator Triton 700, aiming for 'thin' gaming laptop

[WMGroomAK]

At the Acer event today, they have unveiled their new 'thin' gaming laptop that is taking aim at the Razer Blade for performance.  The Acer Predator Triton 700 measures only a bit thicker than the Razer Blade at 18.9 mm vs the Blades 18mm.  According to Tech Spot:

http://www.techspot.com/news/69119-acer-unveils-predator-triton-700.html

Quote

According to Associate Marketing Manager Steven Funcke, in benchmark testing, the Triton 700 beat the Razer Blade with a 3DMark score of 17,000 to 11,139. In fact, for notebooks under 20 mm, no other laptop could come close, with second place only scoring 12,423. The Predator even outperformed thicker systems with the Schenker XMG P507 PRO (29 mm) coming closest with a score of 16,383.

The design team was able to achieve this high, yet “conservative” benchmark by cramming Nvidia’s latest GTX 10-series graphics cards into the chassis, backed by up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM and driven by a seventh generation Intel Kaby Lake Processor. It also has dual PCIe solid state drives. The company did not reveal precisely what configuration the Nvidia graphics would entail, but for comparison, the Predator 21X uses dual GTX 1080 SLI cards. Acer CEO Jason Chen also seemed excited to point out that the Triton uses overclocked components.

Of course, the biggest problem with all this power is heat. Funcke explained that Acer has also improved its AeroBlade fan technology. The Triton's dual AeroBlade 3D fans now push 35 percent more air through the system. This improvement is a 10 percent increase over the AeroBlades in the 21X.

 

The resolution of the screen appears to be 1080p and of course it will have an illuminated keyboard but the most interesting part is that they are moving the trackpad to above the keyboard.  This seems like poor placement to me, however, I'm guessing they figure people will probably have a USB mouse for gaming on it...  There is no firm pricing, however, Tech Spot is speculating it'll probably be around $3000 to $4000 US and should be available in late summer.  It would be nice to know how much it weighs, but no specs on that either in the article.

 

EDIT:  Hot Hardware has a bit more details on this...  Basically, it'll be an aluminum chassis with a 15.6-inch FHD IPS panel supporting G-Sync and weighs about 5.7 pounds.  As for the Touchpad:

 

http://hothardware.com/news/acer-announces-predator-triton-700-and-helios-300-gaming-laptops

Quote

Interestingly, Acer has pushed the RGB-backlit mechanical keyboard all the way to forward in the chassis, positioning the bottom row of keys near the laptop’s leading edge. The touchpad, which is covered in Gorilla Glass, moves into a position between the top row of keys and the bottom of the display. This glass panel also serves as a “window” into the innards of the machine, giving you a glimpse at the AeroBlade 3D fans and five heat pipes that make up the notebook’s cooling system.

I still don't see this as a natural position for the touchpad though...

Edited April 27, 2017 by WMGroomAK
Additional Article

[Wheatly]

Just now, WMGroomAK said:

the most interesting part is that they are moving the trackpad to above the keyboard

God what a bad idea, makes using the laptop as a normal laptop awful

[givingtnt]

3 minutes ago, WMGroomAK said:

The Acer Predator Triton 700 measures only a bit thicker than the Razer Blade at 18.9 mm vs the Blades 18mm.

 

 

The resolution of the screen appears to be 1080p [better be IPS]    Tech Report is speculating it'll probably be around $3000 to $4000 US [ridiculus 

tbh I still think 1.25" thickness is the best thickness.

 

best balance betwene portability, battery power and cooling.

 

razor blade and msi gs70/60 are way too thin and can barely last a few hours. (my gs70 can barely survive 1h sometimes with just browsing.)

[Bouzoo]

Quote

According to Associate Marketing Manager Steven Funcke, in benchmark testing, the Triton 700 beat the Razer Blade with a 3DMark score of 17,000 to 11,139. In fact, for notebooks under 20 mm, no other laptop could come close, with second place only scoring 12,423. The Predator even outperformed thicker systems with the Schenker XMG P507 PRO (29 mm) coming closest with a score of 16,383.

Acer was not forthcoming with pricing. However, we should expect a price point between $3,000-4,000 based on competitive pricing models

Except that an XMG (GTX 1070, 7820HK, 32GB 2400 MHz RAM, Samsung 512GB PRO M.2 SSD, 60 Hz IPS or 120 TN 1080p) costs ~ 2200 Euros (current exchange rate gives $2400). 

[vanished]

What size is it?  15.6"?  13"?  21"?  How is that not front and centre information?  I'm guessing 14" by the keyboard layout...

[WMGroomAK]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

What size is it?  15.6"?  13"?  21"?  How is that not front and centre information?  I'm guessing 14" by the keyboard layout...

I found a bit better article that is putting it at 15.6-inches & 5.7 pounds... 

[JAKEBAB]

That looks really sleek but the trackpad wtf.... wresting your hands on the keyboard, how will this work?

[Stefan1024]

The trakpad position is great if you use an regular mouse because you are not so close to the screen what allows a more natural position.

The trackpad is just for auxillary use.

 

On the other hand this is more important for desktop replacements and in this setups you probably have a seperate keyboard as well.

 

But don't push me to look at the fans througth the window. It's bad enougth I have to hear the sound!

[Belgarathian]

Acer is making one hell of an entrance to the premium marketplace. 

[Notional]

Acer.,.Aaaacer..... ACER! People are destroying their super expensive curved ultrawides, just to get rid of that ugly AF Predator logo. Listen, no one who can afford these pieces of tech, are 13 years old, and like Klingon looking "gamer" crap. Cut it out. There's a reason @LinusTech loves the overpriced and underperforming Razer laptops: They look like Apple! Clean, nice looking, stylish and minimalistic. Not some gaudy awful Predator branding or logo:

 

[Prysin]

HOT TAMALE HOT HOT TAMALE, HOT TAMALE, HOT HOT!!!

[kokakolia]

3 hours ago, Wheatly said:

God what a bad idea, makes using the laptop as a normal laptop awful

I played some Diablo 3 on my MSI GE62 laptop. For some reason the left palm rest gets really hot under load. If the trackpad was above the keyboard, it would be much comfier because only my fingers would touch the laptop. 

[SansVarnic]

3 hours ago, WMGroomAK said:

I still don't see this as a natural position for the touchpad though...

I agree. Since I don't use touch pads this will not both me at all.

Beside it is a "gaming" laptop, who uses a touch pad over a mouse while gaming? I certainly would not.

[WMGroomAK]

Looks like @LinusTech has his hands on one to at least play with a little (assuming there isn't an "accident")...   Hopefully, we'll at least get some good information on how hot and loud it gets under load and how the weird placement of the track pad feels to work with.

[HelplmChoking]

Trackpad looks like it would be truly awful, the laptop will be basically unusable without a mouse, the keyboard is way too close to the edge and laptops should really be 16:10, it makes more sense on a square-ish device like this.

[HelplmChoking]

1 hour ago, Stefan1024 said:

The trakpad position is great if you use an regular mouse because you are not so close to the screen what allows a more natural position.

The trackpad is just for auxillary use.

 

On the other hand this is more important for desktop replacements and in this setups you probably have a seperate keyboard as well.

 

But don't push me to look at the fans througth the window. It's bad enougth I have to hear the sound!

 

Sure it'll be great if you use a mouse, but people often use a laptop as a laptop. Plus it pushes the keyboard to the bottom edge, which will be uncomfortable.

[tlink]

3 hours ago, Wheatly said:

God what a bad idea, makes using the laptop as a normal laptop awful

seems like a good idea to me tbh. you're not going to game on a trackpad anyways so ergonomics meh and this way you won't accidentally click mouse buttons or move the cursor or something when you're just doing type work as a student or something.

[AlTech]

Can we stop with the stupidly expensive laptops and start making more normalized laptops better?

[NumLock21]

I want a laptop with a maximum of 13" or less. Can turn into a tablet, quad core, a current gen dedicated gpu and be like 1.5 to 2 pounds.  Needs to have user upgradable ram and storage and a single latch to access everything including the cpu and gpu cooler.

[vanished]

8 hours ago, JAKEBAB said:

That looks really sleek but the trackpad wtf.... wresting your hands on the keyboard, how will this work?

 

8 hours ago, Stefan1024 said:

The trakpad position is great if you use an regular mouse because you are not so close to the screen what allows a more natural position.

The trackpad is just for auxillary use.

 

@JAKEBAB I don't like the trackpad idea with this either.  I get that with a gaming laptop, you're intended to use a mouse most of the time since it's more of a semi-portable AIO desktop than a "laptop", but this isn't the 21X; it's relatively slim and normal looking, indicating you might actually use it like a normal laptop, ie, with the built in trackpad.  But, because of how they've positioned it here, that's going to be very awkward.  I can see why they might do this - move it further up so that it's not tight against your body when using it in close quarters - but personally, if I had to choose between being cramped on the trackpad or the keyboard, I'd take the trackpad any day.  It's not hard to use a trackpad with your arm coming in from the side at a weird angle (at least for me) but it would be very awkward to type with the keyboard, and thus your hands, crushed up against your body.

 

And, on the topic of the keyboard, looks like they've sacrificed shift and bunched the arrow keys in to that space... inb4 more Linus rage about that  

[Mooshi]

7 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Can we stop with the stupidly expensive laptops and start making more normalized laptops better?

1080p for the small size, improve the keyboards for tactile feel, have power for a comfortable 60fps, single 256gb ssd + 2TB hdd..this is all I want.

[suicidalfranco]

if it has good palm rejection on the keyboard when using the trackpad, i don't think the placement of the touchpad is too much of an issue imo

[elfensky]

13 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

Except that an XMG (GTX 1070, 7820HK, 32GB 2400 MHz RAM, Samsung 512GB PRO M.2 SSD, 60 Hz IPS or 120 TN 1080p) costs ~ 2200 Euros (current exchange rate gives $2400). 

XMG unite lel. Most of their laptops are customizable rebrands though.

 

For example, my C504 is the Gigabyte P35v2 rebrand with custom RAM/SSD and software.

[Bouzoo]

1 hour ago, ElfenSky said:

XMG unite lel. Most of their laptops are customizable rebrands though.

 

For example, my C504 is the Gigabyte P35v2 rebrand with custom RAM/SSD and software.

That specific XMG is a Clevo/Sager rebrand. And that's not a bad thing at all. 

[WMGroomAK]

11 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

I don't like the trackpad idea with this either.  I get that with a gaming laptop, you're intended to use a mouse most of the time since it's more of a semi-portable AIO desktop than a "laptop", but this isn't the 21X; it's relatively slim and normal looking, indicating you might actually use it like a normal laptop, ie, with the built in trackpad.  But, because of how they've positioned it here, that's going to be very awkward.  I can see why they might do this - move it further up so that it's not tight against your body when using it in close quarters - but personally, if I had to choose between being cramped on the trackpad or the keyboard, I'd take the trackpad any day.  It's not hard to use a trackpad with your arm coming in from the side at a weird angle (at least for me) but it would be very awkward to type with the keyboard, and thus your hands, crushed up against your body.

 

And, on the topic of the keyboard, looks like they've sacrificed shift and bunched the arrow keys in to that space... inb4 more Linus rage about that

If I were to speculate (and this is pure speculation), my guess on why they are placing the trackpad above the keyboard probably relates to the cooling solution that they have installed, providing a decent travel distance for the keys and trying to keep the thickness below 19 mm.  I don't think it'll make the trackpad very useful, but it might have bought them a couple extra mm of space for the cooling of whatever GPU and CPU they have installed while still providing a somewhat more tactile typing experience...