Review: Acer Predator Triton 300 SE 

For gamers, this tiny laptop is a great bargain.

The RTX 30 series from Nvidia is now the trendiest thing in PC gaming. It’s so popular right now that finding a desktop RTX 30 series graphics card is nearly impossible, while laptops with the technology are flying off store shelves.

In many ways, Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE is a mid-range gaming laptop, but it excels at one crucial task: it offers the Nvidia RTX 3060 Max-Q at a fair price, and it’s genuinely in stock not only at but often even below, MSRP. The Triton 300 SE stands out against enticing competitors like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 because of its affordable price.

Small but strong design

I’m surprised Acer didn’t designate the Predator Triton 300 SE as “Pro.” The specs may scream gaming, but the laptop’s appearance and feel are more akin to business computers. This laptop is kept understated by its metal body and plain silver inside. In comparison to the slick beauty of Razer’s Book 13 or the aggressive design of Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14, it’s a little bland.

The Triton 300 SE is 0.7 inches thick and weighs just under 3.5 pounds. These numbers aren’t out of the ordinary for 2021, but they’re excellent for a laptop with considerable gaming capabilities. It’ll fit in most backpacks or messenger bags, yet it’ll outperform most recent gaming consoles in terms of performance.

It’s also a tough little beast. On the other hand, the chassis feels like a slate. When you hold the laptop up by one corner, there is almost no flex. The display is a flaw, and opening the laptops might result in a few creaks and groans.

Physical connection is a hybrid of ancient and contemporary technologies. Two USB-A 3.2 ports are linked with a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 connector that supports Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort Mode. There’s also an HDMI output as well as a 3.5mm audio connector for audio input and output.

All of the ports on the laptop are located at the front of the chassis. When compared to a laptop with most ports on the back, you’ll have to deal with tangled cords more frequently. When utilizing an external mouse, I found this inconvenient because wires sticking from the laptop’s sides frequently touched my hand when playing games.

What’s New: There’s something unique about this one.

The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE differs significantly from previous Predator Triton and Helios versions. The speaker grill, fans, and PreadtorSense software share a few basic aspects, but the rest of the design is unique.

Display: Much better than it appears at first glance

The display of the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE didn’t instantly impress me. It lacks the dazzling, eye-catching look that high-end laptops with glossy, high-brightness displays are known for. It’s also not very bright and has a matte finish, so it lacks the brilliant, eye-catching look that high-end laptops with glossy, high-brightness displays are known for.

However, after I loaded a game, I was pleased with what I saw. The screen resolution is 1080p, which is more than adequate for modern games to look sharp and clear. It also has a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, which provides an ultra-smooth image in older games with high framerates.

For a mid-range gaming laptop, the display has amazing contrast and rich color. This was something I observed in every game I played. Bright, high-color visuals appear vibrant, but melancholy tones appear dark and frightening.

One drawback is the low viewing angles. Although I’ve seen this behavior in many high-refresh laptop displays, it’s unique in a modern laptop. Given its overall superb performance, I can’t blame the Triton 300 SE too much for this.

Performance: Excellent in games, mediocre in all other scenarios

The Intel Core i7-11375H CPU in the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE is the most unusual feature. It’s strange since it only has four cores (but runs eight threads) but is still marketed as a high-end component.

The Intel Core i7-11375H features faster minimum and maximum clock speeds than the Intel Core i7-1165G7, which is used in slimmer laptops. The i7-11375H has a clock speed of up to 5GHz. A 512GB solid-state hard drive and 16GB of RAM were also included in my evaluation device.

PCMark 10 received a total score of 5,534. Geekbench 5 achieved a single-core score of 1,418 and a multi-core score of 4,493 on the single-core test. The multi-core Geekbench 5 score is behind the curve; new AMD Ryzen 7 5000-series laptops can nearly quadruple that score.

Content makers who rely on CPU-intensive applications will be disappointed. In such workloads, the Acer Triton 300 SE will fall behind AMD-powered competitors like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14.

In Conclusion

IF you are looking for a dedicated gaming laptop that is small and durable, then look no further than the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE