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Title: Acer Predator Triton 14 AI review: A true ultraportable gaming laptop

Link: https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/ac...

When I review products, I try to take other perspectives and use cases into
account as much as possible. I'm very aware that I'm not the target audience
for every device. But once in a while I run into something that seems like it
was designed specifically for me and it just hits different. With the Acer
Predator Triton 14 AI, that's pretty much the situation. While it isn't the
flashiest or most powerful gaming laptop on the market, it has pretty much
everything I look for in a portable system that lets me play games on the go
ΓÇö and then some.

Design and display

The term ultraportable is typically reserved for more traditional thin-and-
light productivity machines, but I think it definitely applies to the Triton
14 AI. At just 3.5 pounds and 0.71 inches thick, Acer's rig is actually a
touch lighter and just as thin as a Dell 14 Premium (3.7 pounds and 0.71
inches), despite featuring a much beefier GPU. And even compared to rivals
like the Razer Blade 14 (3.6 pounds and 0.64 inches thick), the Triton 14 AI
isn't losing much ground there either.

Furthermore, while some gaming notebooks go overboard with edgy aesthetics
and an abundance of RGB lighting, the Triton 14 AI looks refreshingly
understated. Sure, it still has customizable LEDs behind the Predator logo on
its lid and per-key lighting on its keyboard. But aside from that, the laptop
feels like an exercise in restraint for a category that often favors
excess.The other small design flourish is a pixelated Predator logo (that
looks like it was made from a tiny dot matrix display) to the right of the
touchpad.. I think it's a clever touch that hints at the notebook's gaming
focus without hitting you over the head with it.

Despite its size, the Triton 14 AI also has excellent connectivity. You get
two USB-C ports (one on either side), with Thunderbolt 4 support on the right
while the other is used for power and USB 4 data speeds (both can be used for
charging). There are also two USB-A 3.2 jacks, 3.5mm audio, a full-size HDMI
2.1 connector and even a microSD card reader. That means you can easily hook
it up to an external monitor (which you really ought to have when fragging at
home). Alternatively, when you're not gaming, it can be a great mobile
editing station because offloading photos and videos from a camera via
microSD is a cinch.

The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI's right side features a microSD card reader,
two USB ports (one Type-C and one Type-A) and a full-size HDMI jack. Sam
Rutherford for Engadget

Acer didn't cut corners with the Triton 14 AI's display either. Sure, its
120Hz refresh rate could be a touch faster or it could have gone with a
slightly higher 3.2K display like on the Dell 14 Premium, but those are real
nitpicks. The OLED panel produces rich colors and in my testing, the display
on my review unit actually exceeded Acer's stated 340-nit brightness by a few
percent.

While Acer included six speakers that get plenty loud, my one small gripe is
that they aren't located in the best spots to maximize audio quality. There
are two drivers hidden behind tiny grilles on each edge of the laptop and
four more located on the bottom. This means unless the laptop is sitting on a
hard reflective surface like a desk (without something like a desk mat in
between), audio often sounds muffled or dampened. It's not a dealbreaker and
I understand that the Triton 14 AI's petite dimensions didn't leave much room
for up-firing drivers, but I wish Acer had found an arrangement that sounds
slightly better.

Keyboard, touchpad and an unusual special feature

The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI features a keyboard with per-key mini LED
lighting and a touchpad with built-in stylus support. Sam Rutherford for
Engadget

In addition to per-key lighting and a pleasantly bouncy typing experience,
Acer added a few extra features to the Triton 14 AI's mouse and keyboard that
you don't normally see on gaming laptops. On the left above the function row,
there's a physical button that makes it fast and easy to switch between
various performance modes with a single press. There's also a dedicated
Predator key that acts as a shortcut to Acer's app, where you can do things
like tweak settings or adjust the laptop's lighting.

Down below, the Triton 14 AI features a large seamless touchpad made from
Gorilla Glass, similar to what you get on a Dell 14 Premium. However, to
address the issue of you not knowing where the trackpad ends and the rest of
the notebook's deck begins, Acer added two light strips on either side.
ItΓÇÖs a simple and elegant solution that looks nice too.

Not only does the Predator Triton 14 AI's touchpad feature stylus support,
Acer included an active pen in the box, so you won't need to buy one
separately. Sam Rutherford for Engadget

However, the Triton's real party trick is that it also supports stylus input
(via MPP 2.0) with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity. This means you can
use it like a small built-in Wacom tablet. On top of that, the laptop ships
with an active pen, so you don't need to shell out extra money for one. And
because Windows recognizes the stylus out of the box, there's no extra setup
required. So while this isn't something I will use all the time, it's nice to
have for times when I feel like taking notes, sketching or just need to sign
a document electronically.

Performance

Our $2,500 review unit features an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU with 32GB of RAM
and a 1TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD along with an NVIDIA RTX 5070 GPU. Notably, this is
as big a graphics card as the Triton 14 AI can handle, but considering
similarly-sized rivals like the Razer Blade 14 have the same limitation, it's
hard to be upset. More importantly, even without the option for an RTX 5080
or 5090, Acer's tiny gaming laptop still boasts respectable performance.

The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI features a vivid 14.5-inch OLED panel with a
WQXGA+ (2880 x 1800) resolution. Sam Rutherford for Engadget

In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and Ultra RT settings, the Triton 14 AI hit 55
fps, which is a notch above the 45 fps I got from the Radeon 8060S in the ROG
Z Flow 13. It also means that with just a tiny bit of tweaking, it's easy to
push framerates above 60 while keeping almost all of the graphics settings
maxed out. Meanwhile, in Returnal at 1080p on Epic, the Triton 14 AI fared
even better, hitting 115 fps. That falls short of what I saw on the Alienware
16 Area-51 (154 fps), but considering that's a larger system with an RTX
5080, the difference between the two machines is understandable.

As for cooling, Acer went beyond simply using a built-in vapor chamber.
Instead of the paste or liquid metal used by the competition, the company
says this is the first time a graphene-based thermal interface material has
been used inside a gaming laptop. This makes a difference, especially on a
notebook this thin, because it means for less demanding games like Teamfight
Tactics, if you adjust its performance mode you can actually play them on
your lap without worrying about scorching your legs. That said, you still
have to watch out because there are two largish fans on the bottom as well,
so for more serious titles you'll still want to switch to a table or desk.

Battery life The Acer Predator Triton 14 AI's stay relatively cool in normal
use thanks to a vapor chamber and a graphene-based thermal interface
material. However, under heavy loads, it will still get a bit toasty. Sam
Rutherford for Engadget

Longevity is often a concern for small, power-hungry gaming laptops like
this. But somehow, Acer managed to fit a more than adequate 76Whr battery
inside. On PCMark 10's Modern Office rundown test, the Triton 14 AI lasted
seven hours and 26 minutes. That's three hours better than larger systems
like the Alienware 16 Area-51 (4:13) and half an hour better than smaller
rivals like the ASUS ROG Z Flow 13 (6:54). And even though it fell short by
an hour when compared to a traditional ultraportable like the Dell 14 Premium
(8:30), that's still very solid when you consider the TritonΓÇÖs more
powerful graphics.

Wrap-up

If you're in the market for a more powerful and sedentary type of gaming
laptop that might only get moved around a couple of times a month (if that),
the Triton 14 AI might not be for you. But as someone who prefers gaming
laptops that are, you know, actually portable, this thing is pretty much my
ideal notebook.

Even though it's a gaming laptop, the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI's design is
refreshingly understated. Sam Rutherford for Engadget

For $2,500 as tested, the Predator Triton 14 AI has a vivid OLED display,
solid performance, surprisingly good battery life and an incredibly sleek
chassis that begs you to take this thing everywhere. It's a bit pricey, but
considering a similarly-specced Blade 14 costs $2,700 (before sales or
discounts), you might even say it's a bit of a bargain. What puts this thing
over the top though, is that Acer could have stopped there and no one would
have complained. But then it added extra features like ample ports, powerful
cooling and built-in stylus support (not to mention the included pen). In a
lot of ways, this isn't just a travel-friendly gaming machine, it's a true do-
everything ultraportable.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/ac...
a-true-ultraportable-gaming-laptop-145300067.html?src=rss

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