The Acer Triton 900 gaming laptop has a unique design that allows you to move the screen into different positions, all while being on the thinner side considering the powerful hardware that’s inside, so let’s check it out in this detailed review and find out if it’s a laptop worth considering.

My configuration of the Triton 900 has an Intel i7–9750H CPU, 180 watt Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics, 32gb of memory in dual channel, a 17.3” 4K 60Hz screen with G-Sync, and a 1TB RAID 0 array made up of two NVMe M.2 SSDs. For network connectivity there’s 2.5 gigabit ethernet, WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5. The Triton 900 is also available with some different specs, such as with i9 CPU, you can find examples and updated prices linked in the description. The lid is a clean matte black aluminium, and the interior and bottom are the same.

The whole laptop felt very well built and sturdy and I didn’t find any of the edges sharp. The weight is listed at 4.5kg, although mine was around 400g under this. The single 330 watt power brick and cables are another 1.5kg, so we’re looking at about 5.6kg total, not that portable. The Triton 900 is on the larger side for a 17 inch laptop in terms of width and depth, however it is on the thinner side considering the RTX 2080 graphics inside. The extra width seems to be due to the custom screen hinges, and in order to maintain structural integrity it seems that the screen needs a gigantic 2.4cm bezel. The screen is really what makes the Triton 900 unique, so let’s check out how it works.

The 17.3” 4K 60Hz IPS touchscreen has a glossy finish, viewing angles looked fine, and it has G-Sync. There’s no option of enabling Optimus, so it’s stuck using the RTX 2080 graphics. I’ve tested the screen with the Spyder 5, and got 99% of sRGB, 92% of NTSC, and 96% of AdobeRGB. At 100% brightness I measured the panel at 315 nits in the center with a 810:1 contrast ratio, so fairly average brightness and contrast but above average colour gamut. Backlight bleed wasn’t ideal, but I never noticed any problems when actually viewing darker content, but this will vary between laptop and panel. There was almost no screen flex at all, the metal lid was extremely sturdy, due to the massive hinges on the sides. Acer call these Ezel Aero hinges, and they’re made out of metal and felt very sturdy. There are four different ways you can use the screen.

There’s the normal default laptop position, otherwise you can pull the screen out of the hinge and rotate it around pretty much how you like. You can have it on the same angle as a normal laptop screen but pull it forward closer to you. You can also pull it out all the way and basically use it like a tablet, which would be better for drawing on with the touchscreen, although no pen was included. You can even turn the screen around and use it from the back if you want to do that for some reason.

To me personally, it mostly felt like a bit of a gimmick. The most practical scenario was using it as a drawing tablet, so depends if that’s useful for you. I found it stable enough when using it like this, the screen only moves if you intentionally push hard towards an edge, so you can draw on it ok on different angles but there is some wobble. It was much more stable in tablet mode though as there’s more points of contact between the screen and chassis. This is marketed as a gaming laptop afterall, and I doubt most gamers would care about the different screen positions at the expense of a larger and heavier machine.

If you do also want to use it for other tasks though like drawing, then it’s definitely a unique product that will give you the best of both worlds. I found it a little awkward to pick up due to the hinges. If you pick it up by the sides, you’re grabbing the hinge which is stuck to the screen, so it starts to open the lid. It was possible to open it up with one finger most of the way, but due to the heavy screen hinges once it’s almost open it starts tipping back as a result of the balance shift.

The 1080p camera is found up the top, no Windows Hello support though. The camera and microphone are both below average. Here’s what typing on the keyboard sounds like, and this is what it sounds like if we set the fan to max speed, so you can kind of hear me but it’s not doing a great job of isolating my voice. As it’s got the option of moving the screen forward, the keyboard has been moved towards the front so that the screen doesn’t cover it. I didn’t personally mid the position as long as you’ve got space on your desk to push it back a bit, but I wasn’t really a fan of the touchpad being on the right. The precision touchpad doesn’t click down as it’s instead got physical left and right click buttons below, and you can double tap the top right icon to enable numpad mode.

Unfortunately in numpad mode you can’t use it like a normal touchpad, which has been the case with other laptops I’ve tested that use this feature. Back to the keyboard, it’s got low profile mechanical switches with per-key RGB backlighting. Unfortunately the secondary key functions are not backlit. The lighting can be adjusted between 4 brightness levels or turned off by holding the function key and pressing F7 or F8.

The predator sense software can be used to control the lighting, there are 17 built in effects included and you can also control effect speed and direction. I had some problems with the keyboard, the right shift is tiny, and it’s in the spot where the forward slash key normally is, which has been moved down, so that was annoying when I needed it. I didn’t expect compromises like that from an already large 17” laptop.

It took a little getting used to, but I liked typing on the keys after a while due to the clicky feel. Here’s how typing sounds to give you an idea of what to expect. There are some extra buttons above the keyboard on the left. There are three numbered keys that can be used as macro keys, and the P key on the left lets you swap between different groups which are colour coded, meaning the 3 macro keys can be used for 9 different functions. There’s a turbo button on the right which boosts performance and fan speed, more on that soon. The back half of the laptop has a glass panel, so you can sort of see the heatpipes inside for cooling.

There’s an air intake for the fan on the left, while the fan on the right is covered by glass, however that one has RGB lighting. The fan light is very subtle though, and you can set it to any colour through the Predator Sense software. There are two front facing speakers right down the front on either side of the keyboard, and two underneath at the front, so four in total. They sounded above average, and there was a little bass although it was harder to notice at higher volumes, as they get pretty loud at maximum volume, and the latencymon results looked good.

Speaking of sounds, it also makes this sound by default when you turn it on. Thankfully you’ve got the option of turning this off through the predator sense software or BIOS. As for the BIOS, there’s not too much option or customization available there. There was only a little keyboard flex when pushing down hard, overall the metallic body felt quite solid. Fingerprints and dirt show up on the matte finish, and although it’s smooth, it was a little harder to clean with a microfiber cloth.

On the left from the back there’s an air exhaust vent, USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port, 3.5mm mic and headphone jacks, and a USB 2 Type-A port that swivels out and has a protective cover on it. I’m not exactly sure why it works this way, the board on the left for the other I/O could probably have just been extended. Acer’s Concept D9 Pro which is basically the same chassis doesn’t seem to require it. On the right from the front there’s a Kensington lock, kind of awkwardly placed if you use a mouse with your right hand, the power button, Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port, USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port with DisplayPort support, USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A port, 2.5 gigabit ethernet port and another air exhaust vent.

There are a couple more air exhaust vents on the back towards the corners, then from left to right there’s full size DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0 outputs, both of which are connected directly to the 2080 rather than Intel graphics, along with the power input. The front is just all smooth metal. The predator logo on the lid gets lit up blue when powered on. It seems to be lit from the screens backlight, so cannot be controlled. There are some air vents underneath towards the back. To open it up you’ve got to remove 12 phillips head screws from the bottom, then flip it over, open the lid and pull off the keyboard panel. You’ve got to be careful as there are 3 ribbon cables connecting the keyboard panel to the motherboard.

Once inside we’ve got the thin battery down the front, two M.2 drives just above this on the left, one of which appears to be covered by a heatpipe, so getting to that may involve taking it apart further. There are two memory slots in the center below the heatpipes, and the WiFi card to the right of that.

The Triton 900 is powered by a 4 cell 72wh battery. I’ve tested it with the screen brightness at 50%, background apps disabled, and keyboard lighting off. While just watching YouTube videos it only lasted for 2 hours and 5 minutes.

The poor battery life is a result of there being no optimus, it’s always using the RTX 2080 graphics, so this boosts performance at the expense of battery life. Considering the larger battery size, the battery life was pretty pathetic, but I guess that’s to be expected with the high end graphics. While playing the Witcher 3 with medium settings and Nvidia’s battery boost set to 30 FPS the battery lasted for 63 minutes, and it ran at a solid 30 FPS the entire time without dipping. Despite the RTX 2080 graphics, the Triton 900 just has a single 330 watt power brick, however during my testing after an hour of gaming the battery did dip down to 91%, though that seems to be pretty normal with many laptops. Now let’s find out how hot the Triton 900 gets, if you want in depth information on thermals check the detailed video linked in the top right, I’ll just summarise the results here. The Acer Predator Sense software lets us to swap between normal, fast and extreme modes, and these overclock the graphics and adjust power limits as listed here. The software also allows fan control, and I’ve tested with the fans either on the default auto speed, or at maximum.

By default the Triton 900 undervolts the CPU by -0.1v, so all testing was done with this default configuration in place. There are a few heatpipes shared between the CPU and GPU, and both fans are using metal blades. Thermals were tested with a 21 degree Celsius ambient room temperature. Idle results down the bottom were cool. Worst case stress tests were done with Aida64 and the Heaven benchmark, and gaming was tested with Watch Dogs 2. The CPU was thermal throttling any time it was at 90 degrees Celius, however it could be removed simply by increasing fan speed. By raising fan speed we’re able to pretty much hit the full 4GHz all core turbo boost speed of the i7–9750H, so although it was thermal throttling, the clockspeeds are actually quite good for this CPU considering the laptop is just 2.3cm thick.

The Acer 900 guide

The higher CPU temperatures are a result of the power limit being capable of going above the 45w limit we usually see under combined CPU and GPU workloads, and we can see extreme mode is required to get full performance from the GPU. In CPU only workloads like Cinebench, the 9750H would run up to 77 watts before being capped to the 70 watt PL1, so much higher is possible when the GPU is idle. I’ve tested Control to see how the different modes actually affect gaming performance. There’s not that big of a change between normal and fast modes, probably as both still cap the GPU power limit to 150 watts, so there’s a larger boost in extreme mode. Here’s how it looks in the areas you’ll actually touch, at idle it was quite cool, below the usual 30 degrees of most laptops.

As the heat generating components are at the back, the keyboard and touchpad are still cool even under worst case stress test. The back area gets a little warm to the touch, but it’s not hot, and given you don’t need to touch there anyway this is perfectly fine. Let’s have a listen to how loud the fans get. The fans were still audible at idle, but even under stress test in normal mode they’re below average compared to most gaming laptops I’ve tested, and as we saw earlier, you can still play games with good results in normal mode. It was quite loud in extreme mode or at max fan speed though, you’ll probably want headphones for that. Next let’s take a look at some gaming benchmarks to see how the Triton 900 performs, we’ll look at 1080p, 1440p and 4K performance. Some games crashed in extreme mode as the GPU overclock seemed a bit optimistic, so I had to lower it a little to these values. Battlefield 5 was tested playing in campaign mode, and I’ve tested with both RTX enabled, as shown by the green bars, and RTX off, shown by the purple bars.

At 1080p, RTX on was actually playable with ultra settings as it was able to average above 60 FPS, however we could almost double this with RTX off. At 1440p RTX on still went kind of ok at high settings, but medium was needed to sustain good frame rates, making it a little more pointless given RTX off with ultra settings looks and plays much better. At 4K RTX is basically a write off, however ultra settings with RTX off was still close to the refresh rate of the screen. Control was also tested with and without RTX enabled. At 1080p with max settings RTX was still almost able to average 60 FPS, although RTX off felt smoother, as shown by the 1% lows from RTX off which are higher than even the averages from RTX on. At 1440p RTX on was sort of ok at low settings, but at this point I’d stick to not using it for improved performance, as the high setting preset was still able to average above 60 FPS with it off. This game wasn’t running that well at 4K, low settings was still a playable experience with almost 60 FPS averages, so depends if you want to sacrifice graphical settings to run at this higher resolution. Red Dead Redemption 2 was tested using the game’s built in benchmark tool.

Even with all setting set to ultra the Triton 900 was able to average above 60 FPS at 1080p, with 100 FPS and above achieved at medium settings and below. At 1440p the high setting preset was needed to maintain an above 60 FPS average, while low was just behind 100 FPS now. Performance drops back quite a bit at 4K, with low settings only just holding on with the 60 FPS average result. Fortnite was tested using the replay feature, and is a far less demanding title compared to the others. At 1080p even maxed out at epic settings the 1% low results are well above the refresh rate of the display, so absolutely no issues here.

It’s a similar story at 1440p, although the results drop back, even at epic settings this level of performance is still more than enough. At 4K it was still possible to average 60 FPS even at epic settings, while high settings was close to this in terms of 1% low performance, so even with good settings at this worst case resolution you can play it without issue. If you’re after more gaming benchmarks check the card in the top right corner where I’ve tested way more games on the Triton 900. Now let’s see how the Acer Triton 900 compares with other laptops, use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times with different drivers. In Battlefield 5 I’ve got the Triton 900 highlighted in red near similarly specced machines. In this case it’s performing very similarly to the other RTX 2080 laptops that I’ve tested, at least in terms of average FPS. The 1% low is notably lower compared to most of the machines above it, likely because they all have higher powered i9 CPUs, while my Triton 900 has the i7, although you can get it with an i9 too. These are the results from Shadow of the Tomb Raider with the game’s built in benchmark at highest settings.

Again, the Triton 900 was very close to the other RTX 2080 laptops above it, just slightly behind, but still a nice step up over even the 2080 Max-Q laptops below it. These are the results from Far Cry 5 with ultra settings with the games benchmark tool. This test is typically more CPU heavy, so the lower results compared to the i9 machines above it were expected, however I found it interesting that the Aorus 17 with higher specs was beaten so easily in this test. Overall the gaming performance from the Acer Triton 900 is next level, as expected due to the RTX 2080 graphics. The i7 CPU does seem to limit it a little in some more CPU heavy titles, though as we saw it does still perform better than most other i7 based laptops I’ve tested, as most cap out at 45 watts in combined CPU and GPU workloads like gaming. If you’re playing at higher resolutions that are more GPU bound though, the CPU matters less. As we’ve got G-Sync, we’re seeing higher levels of performance as Optimus isn’t a bottleneck, in addition to smooth tear-free gameplay.

Although the performance is pretty good, at 1080p and even 1440p resolutions we’re frequently limited by the 60Hz 4K panel. If you’re after a 4K gaming laptop though and willing to take the compromise of 60Hz, then plenty of games can still run quite well at this resolution with fair settings, just maybe not maxed out for modern AAA titles. I’ve used Adobe Premiere to export one of my laptop review videos at 4K. As there’s no Intel graphics for quicksync, export times aren’t quite as good as many other laptops, despite the RTX 2080 graphics.

Now for the benchmarking tools, I’ve tested Heaven, Valley, and Superposition from Unigine, as well as Firestrike, Timespy and Port Royal from 3DMark, just pause the video if you want a detailed look at these results. I’ve used Crystal Disk Mark to test the storage, and the 1TB RAID 0 array was performing very well for both read and write speed, as you’re getting the performance of two 512gb NVMe M.2 drives together.

For updated pricing check the links in the description, as prices will change over time. At the time of recording, in the US we’re looking at around $4200 USD for the specs I’ve tested here, or an extra $500 USD for the i9 version. You’re definitely paying a premium for the unique screen design of the Triton 900, as we can get similar specs in say the Aorus 17 for $1000 USD less, however the Aorus is also 1.5cm thicker too, and thinner comes at a cost with laptops.

Here in Australia we’re looking at around $6000 AUD. With all of that in mind let’s conclude by summarising the good and bad aspects of the Triton 900 laptop. In terms of raw gaming performance, the Triton 900 does well due to the 180 watt RTX 2080 graphics. Even the i7 CPU is performing better than most other gaming laptops I’ve tested as it’s undervolted by default and can run with an above average power limit, while realistically not getting too hot, especially if you’re willing to boost fan speed. It still performs very well even with lower fan speed though, so decent levels of performance at better operating volumes are certainly possible.

Externally where you actually touch is was quite cool despite the high powered hardware. This is all while being in machine just 2.3cm thick, the thinnest I’ve ever tested with a full blown 2080. The overclocks from extreme mode seem to be a bit optimistic though, as I had some games crash until I dialed the settings back through MSI Afterburner. Despite this level of power, it still only needs one power brick, rather than the two most other 2080 laptops have.

The mechanical keyboard was nice to type with, but despite being a larger 17” laptop it still makes compromises such as smaller keys in strange spots and there’s no secondary key backlighting. As the keyboard has been moved to the front to accommodate the swivelling screen, the touchpad is crammed over to the right. Although the camera was 1080p, it was one of the worst I’ve ever tested in a laptop. Despite the 72wh battery, the battery life was low as there’s no MUX switch, so you’re stuck with using the 2080 graphics. I think this is a fair decision considering the weight of this thing, it’s unlikely you’ll be moving it and running on battery that much. If you’re getting something this pricey at this size and weight, you probably want performance. Getting inside was a little more involved than usual due to the three ribbon cables attaching the keyboard panel to the motherboard, and accessing one of the M.2 drives appears to require removing the cooling solution. Then there’s the 4K 60Hz touchscreen.

Although the specs are definitely capable of playing many games at 4K, even if you want to use 1440p or 1080p resolutions you’re limited by the 60Hz refresh rate. The brightness and contrast were about average, but colour gamut was good. Having G-Sync also offers improved performance and smoother gameplay. Personally I found the swivelling screen to be a bit of a gimmick, I can only really see the tablet position being useful for people that want to draw with it, but given it’s marketed as a gaming laptop I’m not sure how big of a cross over there is there. I could understand it from a content creator perspective, but Acer also have the Concept D9 Pro which uses a similar chassis but has a better screen with options of quadro graphics.

I could see that being better for that use case, so from the perspective of a laptop designed for gaming, I can’t say I found much use from the screen myself, especially considering how much extra size and weight it adds on to a device that’s meant to be portable. All things considered, the Triton 900 performs quite well considering its thickness, although it is quite wide and heavy.

The main feature is clearly the swivelling screen design, so if that’s something you may benefit from then it’s worth considering, otherwise in terms of performance for the price, there are better options available if you’re willing to go a bit thicker. Let me know what you thought about the Acer Triton 900 gaming laptop down in the comments, and if you’re new to the channel consider getting subscribed for future laptop reviews and tech videos like this one.