We have officially passed the first half of the year, and there’s still a ridiculous number of gaming laptops yet to land—phew! Today, we’re looking at the brand new Acer Predator Triton Neo 16, which is a name that is far too long but mercifully makes sense. It’s also not to be confused with its sibling, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16.
It took me more than a minute to figure out the differences between the two Neos, but suffice to say that the Helios Neo 16 is the more rugged, brutish, puritan gamers’ device, while the Triton Neo 16 is more of the MacBook for gamers vibe. That maybe doesn’t make sense, but just go do a comparison on Acer’s website, and you’ll see what I mean.
The Triton Neo 16 I’m reviewing comes in a svelte plastic and metal body with a 16-inch, WQXGA+ IPS, 165Hz display, Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor, 32GB RAM LPDDR5X, 2TB SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics chip. It will set you back a cool $4,699.00, which places it very well in the premium gaming laptop class.
This puts it against very stiff competition from the likes of Asus’s excellent ROG Zephyrus G16 and the Razer Blade 16. Both of which easily beat the Acer in terms of aesthetics and features like OLED and full machined CNC metal bodies. I used the Triton Neo 16 for two weeks as part of this review, and I’ve learned some good things and not-so-good things that make this new Acer a little hard to recommend.
Design and build
The Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 presents itself with a more subtle gaming laptop design. It comes in a sleek silver finish that combines metal and premium plastic, though the flexing when force is applied to the keyboard deck betrays the use of plastic. At this price point, it’s disappointing that Acer didn’t opt for a CNC-milled metal chassis like some of its competitors.
Nevertheless, it’s a handsome machine that could easily be mistaken for a business laptop rather than a gaming one. The lack of loud branding or aggressive gamer lines and etchings helps maintain a professional appearance. The Predator logo on the lid does not light up, and there are no wrap-around light bars like on the Asus ROG Strix. You can definitely use this laptop in a corporate setting without drawing unwanted attention.
Measuring a mere 18.8mm thick and weighing just over 2kg, it’s a very portable machine. Despite its slim profile, it offers a good selection of ports. You get two Type-C ports with power delivery and DisplayPort support, one Type-A port with power passthrough for charging devices, and a MicroSD card reader, though a full-size reader would be preferable for content creators. For those who prefer a big screen experience, there’s an HDMI 2.1 port.
The display on the Triton Neo 16 is a bit of a mixed bag. It features a now-standard 16-inch size in a taller 16:10 aspect ratio but has an odd resolution of 3200 x 2000. Most gaming laptops in this range opt for a 2560 x 1600 resolution. Additionally, it’s an IPS display with a slower 165Hz refresh rate, which is unexpected at this price where others offer 240Hz.
That said, it’s a beautiful display boasting a Calman Verified factory calibration that can switch between DCI-P3, sRGB, and Adobe RGB color modes with a Delta E<2. This is clearly aimed at professional creators who need assurance of color accuracy. Unfortunately, there is no HDR or Dolby Vision support, which is disappointing for content consumption and gaming. Regardless, most things look good on this display, but coming from OLED displays, it leaves a bit to be desired.
Above the monitor is a 1080p webcam with PurifiedVoice 2.0 AI-assisted noise-cancelling microphones to ensure you can be heard clearly on your Zoom calls. However, I’ve often found these AI mics can sound more distorted than helpful and tend to avoid using them. Speaking of audio, the Triton Neo 16 has rather disappointing speakers. They get loud but lack body and depth. It’s shocking that the Asus ROG Ally can produce better audio than this laptop.
The keyboard isn’t bad, though. Keys are nicely spaced with good travel and responsiveness. The typing experience is decent. There are additional shortcut keys to the Acer Predator Sense software and a dedicated performance toggle above the main keyboard. Pressing this cycles through different power profiles, with an LED changing color to indicate the active profile at a glance.
Continuing the trend with modern laptops, there is a dedicated Windows Copilot key to quickly access Microsoft’s AI assistant. Sadly, since this isn’t a designated Copilot PC, there isn’t much benefit here as the AI assistant doesn’t use the NPU hardware in the system but rather your internet connection and Microsoft’s servers. This makes the AI slow and not really helpful in the heat of the moment when I just want a quick fact check or explanation. Perhaps Microsoft will give us a native version of Copilot in the future but for now, it’s not particularly impressive.
Unfortunately, though there is RGB backlighting, it’s not per-key. Acer has opted for three-zone backlighting, which is unheard of for a gaming laptop over $4000. The lighting is okay with clear passthrough the keycaps, but it doesn’t dazzle. You can still customize it with the Predator Sense software, but I was honestly disappointed with this lighting implementation.
The touchpad is a saving grace, though. It is large and wide with a precision surface that is responsive and fluid. It uses the so-called ‘diving board’ design, which implies that it’s more clicky towards the bottom and less at the top, preventing your palms from accidentally clicking on it while you type. The clickiness is good and satisfying, but I mostly used the tap feature.
What I really like about the touchpad on the Triton Neo 16 is the embedded fingerprint reader in the top left corner. Although I find this position slightly awkward — I’d prefer the reader in the power button — it’s super fast and accurate. This allows the Triton Neo 16 to use Windows Hello biometrics for signing you into Windows 11 as well as other apps. It’s handy and I like it.
Performance and gaming
We’ve already touched on the specs of the Triton Neo 16, and as you can imagine, it’s no slouch in the performance department. I ran it through my usual gamut of synthetic benchmarks, and the Core Ultra 9 185H hexadeca-core processor delivered impressive results. It’s not nearly as fast as the Core i9-14900HX processor but comes dangerously close to the i7 HX’s performance.
So if you need heavy rendering and CPU-intensive tasks, this might not be the best chipset for you. But for most users, the combination of this CPU and RTX 4070 makes video editing, 3D animation, and graphic design a breeze. Additionally, the 185H is more power-efficient with its split of power and efficiency cores and NPU for AI tasks, offering better thermals and battery life.
But gaming is where this machine shines. With an RTX 4070 running at a maximum TGP of 115W, the Triton Neo 16 easily hits over 60fps in most games at its native resolution of 3.2K. Drop that to 1440p or 1080p, and you can easily max out the 165Hz refresh rate of the display. And being an Nvidia card, if you use DLSS and Frame Generation, those numbers quickly go up in supported games.
Games look and feel great thanks to the 165Hz refresh, especially faster-paced shooters like COD Warzone and Destiny 2. The extra pixels make everything look sharper and clearer, with no evidence of smearing, ghosting, or tearing. The audio isn’t the greatest, but you do have a 3.5mm jack to plug in your headphones for a better experience.
Best of all, the laptop maintains excellent performance without cooking itself. I saw GPU temperatures hanging around the 65-69°C range after heavy load for over half an hour. The CPU stayed in the mid to low 60s depending on the game and resolution. Fan noise is actually decent too. Yes, everyone will still know when you are gaming, but at least it’s not enough to make people throw shoes at you, especially in the balanced and performance profiles. The laptop also has a silent profile for more mundane tasks like web browsing or emails.
Sadly, none of these things help much with battery life. The Triton Neo 16 can barely last 3-4 hours on battery and far less if you play any games. Coming off the honeymoon of laptop battery life with the exceptional Dell XPS 16, which could easily hit 9-12 hours, the Triton Neo 16 gave me serious battery anxiety.
Yes, it has a MUX switch and Nvidia Optimus to turn off the GPU to save battery, but that didn’t help much in my testing. This isn’t surprising for a gaming laptop, but I would expect more in mid-2024.
Verdict
The Acer Predator Triton Neo 16 is, as you can see, an exercise in contradictions. There are standout elements like the build quality, excellent performance, and efficient thermals. However, compromises such as the use of less premium materials, an old-school IPS panel, cheap RGB, and weak battery performance give you pause. The laptop is good but just not $4700 good.
At this price, it struggles to compete with offerings from Razer, Alienware, and Asus. Had it been $1000 cheaper, many of these choices would be far more palatable. As it is now, the Triton Neo 16 is just too expensive and doesn’t offer the features or performance to justify its price tag.
Acer Australia kindly loaned the Triton Neo 16 to PowerUp! for the purpose of writing this review
