Acer Predator Triton 14 review: Fast gaming and a bright HDR display

Introduction of newer processors such as Intel’s 14th generation H series This does not prevent laptops with older 13th generation chips from being worth buying, especially with their lower prices. The Acer Predator Triton 14 is a good example of this and will likely become a bargain as alternatives emerge and as its cost continues to fall.

There are two models of the Triton 14, both of which include an Intel Core i7-13700H CPU and 16GB of RAM. Entry form (PT14-51-78B4) is nominally $1,500 but is discounted to just under $1,200 right now and comes with a 512GB SSD, a GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, and a 1900 x 1200 display at 165Hz. I’ve seen it as low as $850, which is a great price for it. The top model I tested sports up to a 1TB SSD, an RTX 4070 GPU, a small 2560 x 16000 LED display with a dynamically switchable 125Hz/250Hz refresh rate, and Display HDR 600 certificate. It lists for around $2,000 but is currently going for $1,600. That’s a good price for what you get.

The laptop’s design doesn’t stand out from the crowd as particularly good or bad. It has a relatively chunky 14-inch profile, but the lid opens to be almost flat; The full range of obtuse angles gives you plenty of leeway when trying to find a good angle on your lap, for example. The keyboard action feels a bit shallow but responsive, and the bright per-key RGB lighting can be a little tricky to configure — Acer’s PredatorSense software has basic monitoring, power configuration and lighting controls, but it could use a facelift.

There are no dedicated macro keys, which is unsurprising given the size of the laptop, but it would be nice if the software gave you the ability to rebind at least some of the standard keys, such as the media playback controls down the right side. And if you’re a big user of arrow keys, you might want to look for something that doesn’t have built-in keys. But there’s a dedicated button to cycle through power profiles (Quiet, Balanced, Performance, and Turbo) or toggle Turbo. The Triton can get a bit loud and hot in some places, such as the wrist rest area.

The touchpad is a bit small but serviceable, with an old-fashioned built-in fingerprint reader. Although it has a 1080p webcam, it’s pretty mediocre.

I’ve never been a fan of the type of port and power delivery layout a laptop uses; The air vents on the sides push the connectors to the middle of the sides — I hate having the power connector in the middle of the side, because it gets in the way, and I would have liked another USB-C port, even if it’s not a Thunderbolt.

It supports Nvidia’s advanced Optimus, which means you can force it to use the discrete GPU exclusively without rebooting via the Nvidia driver.

Performance and screen

Acer doesn’t provide any color or gaming-specific color profiles for the display, and they’re not very accurate, but they’re good enough for gaming and general-purpose use. The gamma is 2.0 instead of 2.2, but this brings out detail in dark areas, which is fine for gaming. Contrast scores high because blacks are excellent, but those very bright shadow areas may make it appear less contrasty because you’re exposing a lot of dark areas through games, web, and apps compared to zero blacks.

It hits the common white point of 6500k, which I find can be hit and miss with small LED backlights, which is great. It gets as bright as required by the DHDR 600 specification. HDR has the same very bright shadow areas, which means video doesn’t look as great as you’d expect, but it’s still very good.

The screen has a high refresh rate of 250Hz – you can actually set it to 125Hz or 250Hz or dynamically switch between the two (in addition to the 60Hz setting) in the SDR; In HDR you don’t have the 125Hz option, and it’s not variable refresh, but you can use G-Sync to control it if you want. I saw some flickering at both refresh rates, so if you’re sensitive to that, I’d suggest avoiding the mini LED.

Laptops with newer generation CPUs may provide better performance but not significantly since Intel’s H series processors do not have any major technical changes from the 13th to the 14th generation. It performs well and outperforms some larger models. It helps that the GPU can operate at up to 105W, at the higher end of the RTX 4070 scale.

There is a significant drop in performance when running on battery, which is not uncommon but something to be prepared for. And the battery life isn’t great.

The 2023 Predator Triton 14 isn’t the most attractive gaming laptop, but if you can find it at a good price as 14th-gen models come to market, it could be a great deal.