Acer - Predator Triton 300 SE 14" 144Hz Laptop - Intel 11th Gen i7 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti - 16GB DDR4 - 512GB SSD

I went into the store to buy a different laptop but they didnt have any so i looked at this one since it was close to the same specs. I am glad i did! I am a full time rver and needed a gaming laptop to pass the down time. I have consoles but they use a ton of power and consume the tv which isnt fair to my husband. I play a lot of survival style games; NMS, Long Dark, Valheim, ARK. This little beastie is perfect for them. I loaded up my steam and epic accounts and started playing straight out of the box (which is very high end packaging, by the way). Its AMAZING. I would venture that NMS is actually better on this laptop than on Xbox. Yes, the max fan is loud. I expect that. As a programmer, its very normal for me to hear the fan when im working the gpu. It sounds clean and you can feel how quickly it cools. It looks great and is a perfect size. I have a programming laptop (HP) that is significantly heavier and bigger so i wasnt immediately convinced i would appreciate the size. Its so much more comfortable to use as an actual laptop than my programming machine. And that fan keeps it from being to hot to sit and play without a table and external cooling fan (which i use for the other one). Graphics are as good as ive ever seen aside from console, appearance is cool and classy (not gaudy like many gaming laptops). Plays out of the box (obviously after Win setup) and you can adjust gpu settings on the fly, Keyboard is fun and responsive, trackpad has a fingerprint reader that is better than my phones. Nothing negative to say at this time. Price point was epic. I wont work this little guy as hard as some playing CP and such but for my purposes, its ideal.

This laptop worked great for casual gaming. The screen looks good and it is pretty fast. The only negative is the battery life but that’s to be expected with a gaming laptop.

TL;DR Very satisfied with the laptop. It's easily portable and has solid build quality. It also offers enough performance to run most modern games at 60+fps with maintaining good temps and low fan noise. Use an external monitor for a 7 to 10% performance increase. Minor gripes with the key layout but nothing that's a deal breaker. The Triton 300 SE is designed for portability. Build quality is great, it's thin and light but still feels sturdy and I love the finish on the lid. Lighting effects on the keyboard look very nice without going over the top and can be turned off very easily. The track pad is very smooth, nicely sized and includes a fingerprint scanner. The monitor looks good and covers 99% SRGB while supporting 144hz, plenty for gaming and content consumption but maybe not content creation. There were a few times that I wished it would go slightly brighter, but this was only in areas with very bright ambient light. The included Predator Sense software is easy to use and well laid out. It offers controls for lighting, battery optimization, fan control and preset power profiles. You can choose from Quiet (silent), Default (barely audible), Extreme (Loud but not annoying) and Turbo (Loud, headphones required). In my testing there was only about 6% performance difference from Quiet to Turbo with most of the difference hitting at Default and a considerable increase in fan noise at Extreme and again at Turbo. I will be using the Default profile as it still runs very quiet and gets almost peak performance in most titles. I tested the 3050ti with a handful of games and I was happy with the results. Results which saw a 7 to 10% increase using an external monitor. Starting with Hitman 3, in the Dartmoor bench I got 64 fps with the settings shown on the attached screenshot. Witcher 3 on ultra with hair works off resulted in 60 to 65 fps. Sniper Contracts 2 yielded 65 to 70 fps with a mix of high and very high settings. Destiny 2 on high saw the biggest difference between the inbuilt screen and the the external monitor with 80 to 85 fps and 105 fps respectively. I also ran Time Spy receiving 5895 on Turbo, 5537 on Quiet and 6042 on an external monitor with Turbo. I also tested using a cooling pad but did not notice any benefits in either temperatures or score. This tells me that the laptops cooling solution is more than capable of handling the i7 and 3050ti which is good as voltage control is locked out in BIOS and not supported in Throttle Stop or XTU. My only minor quibbles are mostly related to the keyboard. The keys are fine, but I wish the power button wasn't located next to others keys and was swapped with the Turbo button. The monitor brightness controls are opposite of what you'd expect based on the icon. Lastly, I wish the volume up and down controls were swapped. All of these are things that you can get used to but still were initially jarring. All in I am very happy with this laptop, sure there are some with higher specs but the Triton 300 SE offers all the performance I really need while maintaining great temps in a small package. 

I wanted both a powerful gaming laptop to be able to play graphic intense PC games, but also wanted to be able to use with VR. Ran the Steam VR performance test out of the gate and it’s on their very high end of “VR Ready!”. Games like Beat Saber in VR are very fluid and pop. Standby’s like Fortnight render flawlessly and are easily handled by this amazingly slim laptop. The Predator Sense app let’s you monitor the health of the pc, measure temps of the CPU/GPU, customize lighting of the keyboard, CPU/GPU fan control with different modes (Quiet, Default, Extreme, Turbo). Turbo is also available with a quick activate button above the F1 key. There’s also custom audio modes and the Dolby dts X sounds great. WiFi is latest gen and it downloads games super quick. Steam downloaded in about 2-3 mins and by itself is 2GB! If you use the laptop keyboard I did notice it got a bit warm leaving the fan settings on default - mostly on the top section of the keyboard area (the GPU is underneath that section). Kicking the fan up or putting it in “Turbo” mode helps a lot. With the fan in turbo mode the fan makes a bit more noise, but you can’t hear it if playing with a decent gaming headset or ANC headset. It’s actually much quieter than my previous gaming desktop fan wise. Initial setup was quick and easy - took about 15-20 mins. Cortana walks you through it. Not a ton of preloaded bloat ware which I appreciate! Has an integrated fingerprint reader on the mousepad for quick / secure login. Overall very pleased, didn’t break the bank, and looking forward to being able to “bring the VR party” to friend’s houses!

I decided to test this laptop since I have been travelling more, and I wanted a smaller laptop that would still be able to handle gaming while providing decent graphics. The Acer Triton 300 SE is a very nice looking machine; the metal chassis gives it a sleek look and the feel of a premium built laptop. The first thing I noticed when powering up the laptop is the sound; it was fairly impressive... nothing like you get with headphones, but very loud, crisp and clear, especially for a small machine. The display is also nice, although I'm used to a 2560×1440 display, but it is only 14" so maybe 2560×1440 is out of the question. Acer's PredatorSense software allows you to control and monitor many of the aspects you'd expect such as key lighting, fan speed and what mode you want (Quiet, Default, Extreme, or Turbo). However, the mode can only be changed when the machine is plugged in and there's more than 40% battery life. I've tried the laptop both on battery and plugged in, and although I'm sure there's some difference between the modes, I really didn't see a huge increase in gaming performance from Default to Turbo. The gameplay using the battery is smooth, but I am also using Nvidia's GeForce Experience which optimized all of the games to lower settings when using battery power. I overrode these settings and the gameplay was still smooth, but you pay for that with less battery life. One thing I really like about the laptop is the keyboard. I have large hands, so one of the things I was worried about was feeling cramped when it came to the keyboard, but this isn't the case at all; my hands fit comfortably on the wrist rest areas without any trouble at all. The only trouble I've had is that a thumb will sometimes contact the touchpad when I'm typing or playing. The keyboard has a nice overall layout and feel to it, and the keys have good response. You can't change the color of each key, but the keyboard is divided into three zones, and the color can be changed for each zone. Overall I think this is a solid gaming laptop; it's not the best I've seen, but for its size, it gets the job done pretty well.

At first glance it seemed boring, bland, straightforward, and very simple, things that a gaming computer shouldn't ever be. The power button was replaced, or so I thought, with a "Turbo" button and like every kid-at-heart that's been told not to push the red button, I pushed the red button once past the setup process. Now on to the "Red button." I played a very demanding MMORPG on the highest settings without hitting the turbo button and I experienced a bit of lag. Nothing you couldn't look past. When you hit the turbo button the fan takes off and begins cooling the GPU and allowing you to handle games with a much better response. This was the case. The sound was pure delight. The DTS:X audio codec makes music and cinematic cuts in your favorite video game scenes or movies stand out that much better. A great addition to the already mini powerhouse. The cool bells and whistles is the complete customizability that it has. The "PredatorSense" button (Separate from the turbo button) opens up the app and this lets you control the light pattern, fan speed, mode, etc. Last but not least was the fingerprint scanner. Now, I've personally never cared for fingerprint scanners. I didn't like the scanner this came with because I kept having to redo my finger. As a gamer I get sweaty hands pretty fast in intense gaming sessions, yeah I know gross, but its a fact and can't use my finger to log in due to that fact so it was pointless but not a negative. I don't see it affecting the computer performance therefore it shouldn't affect my rating. Its a simple computer at first. The predator logo on the corner of the laptop signals the user that the laptop isn't just professional but gives you a Neo, down the rabbit hole, type of vibe that just captivates you and makes you want to explore what else is intriguing about this tiny titan and it doesn't disappoint when you do decide to take the dive. Being able to deliver everything I mentioned above at 144 Hz 1080p is the cherry on top. Great buy!

Off the bat opening the package of this computer it looks very sleek and cuz this thing is beautiful and it doesn’t look toyish or have cringey lines and logos it looks very designer and mature I came from a nitro 5 with a 1650 and compares nothing for looks . Felt like I went from a sedan to a foreign sports car. ONLY problem is coming from a 15.6” screen is that the 14” felt rlly small and was hard for me to spot enemies or catch details well. Performance is pretty amazing everything I play graphically demanding games but ran smooth but you NEED to turn on that turbo cuz your laptop will get hot and you will start to see stutters and a little bit of frame lag. Speaking of turbo it is very LOUD sounds like your basic house fan on the highest setting but it rlly sets the difference in performance and cools down from a hot laptop and most of the time you would play with headphones so it’s not bad most games you will play will be preset on high or ultra some medium graphics. Pros Stunning design and looks Strong performance (Turn on turbo for best and secure experience for demanding games) nice rgb keyboard lighting Easy to move around and good for travelers Good audio for streaming movies and YouTube Fingerprint scanner for passwords and good High frames Cons 15.6” laptop is the sweet spot for gaming and the 14” feels small for some games Really Loud turbo sounds

Immediately upon taking it out of the box, I thought the Triton 300 SE looked more like a business netbook than a gamer laptop. Although the top is made of plastic, it imitates a silver brushed aluminum slate finish, and the Triton logo compliments it very nicely. The same goes for the chassis. It simply looks classy in my opinion, and I wouldn't mind taking it into a work meeting. Although most of the laptop is made mostly of plastic, it is quite sturdy. This makes the laptop easy to carry at about 3.8 lbs. The screen is a bit flexible but stays in whatever position –even fully flat and can be lifted with one hand. The bezels are small, except for the “chin” which makes it a bit odd. The keyboard feels great with nice travel, spacing, and responsiveness. I do find that the side option keys on the side can take a bit to get used to as I kept hitting the “Predator” button while trying to press “backspace”. The trackpad is small and made of plastic but is still responsive enough. There’s also a nifty fingerprint reader for signing into Windows Hello for security. As far as connectivity, I think it will accommodate most of the accessories you may need. You have a USB-Gen 2, USB-C Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, and 3.5mm audio jack. Oh, and it’s WIFI 6 ready. The non-reflective IPS screen is well lit and can get quite bright, which helps in sunny settings. I found the 14” screen is perfect for 1080p gaming. The colors are accurate and pop quite nicely, making any content look lively. The 144Hz refresh rate is impressive, but I am afraid this is not always taken advantage of. At 6-7 hours with full brightness, some productivity use, and light gaming, the battery life is decent. When it comes to performance, I was pleasantly surprised. The i7-11375H 4-Core (8 threads) paired with the RTX 3050 Ti provided some nice framerates. Of course, games like GS: GO, Overwatch, and Doom Eternal all performed well above 120fps at max settings. Older AAA games such as Resident Evil 3, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Battlefield 5, and The Witcher 3 gave me 60-90 fps at ultra settings. Newer blockbuster titles such as Cyberpunk, Biomutant, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla performed at 60 fps, but at tweaked medium-high settings, which is still impressive. Unfortunately, only games that go over 100 fps and above can truly take advantage of the screen’s 144Hz refresh rate, and I feel that’s kind of a waste. The 300 SE is also great for productivity. The 16GB RAM and the I7-11375H combined are enough for basically unlimited web browsing and medium-layered photo/video editing –all while watching YT or working on some spreadsheets. I did notice that while playing games the fans start to become quite loud almost all the time. The PC can get noticeable hot, but never above 80-90c. This can be seen with the implemented Acer “Predator Sense” monitoring software. By the way, this app also has options to change the performance, cooling, and keyboard RGB (which makes this a Bonafide gamer’s laptop). The 512GB SSD is fast, which helps with loading times, but I think it’s way too small for a gaming laptop. I quickly ran out of space with only 5-6 games installed, so one must make tough decisions as to what to install or get an external SSD. The bottom line is that the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is an exceptional portable gaming laptop. It’s powerful enough to play AAA games at higher settings and still sleek enough to make it a compelling work companion -all at a competitive price.