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The Acer Triton 300 SE is a pretty good laptop in many ways. And that’s not taking into account that the Triton is ultimately a gaming laptop.
Despite a prominently but discreetly displayed Decepticons-like logo on its face, the Triton’s form factor is unlike a gaming machine. In fact, it resembles a heavy-duty business laptop.
The Triton 300 SE is decked out in modest and mainstream silver colours, although the relatively compact body is quite light by gaming standards, tipping the scales at 1.7kg.
To put it into perspective, regular ‘workhorse’ laptops like Acer’s own Aspire – weigh more than the Triton 300 SE. A gaming machine that weighs as much as a regular laptop? Sign me up.
Only a few gaming laptops can claim to offer this level of portability: the Razer Blade 14 Ryzen 9 6900HX, Alienware x14 i7 RTX 3060 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (GA402RK).
The Asus ROG Flow is essentially a tablet-based system, so that doesn’t count.
The bumpy look is a good thing if you’re not into the over-the-top style and indiscriminate RGB eye attacks often associated with gaming laptops.
In fact, the only thing that gives the game away is the presence of heat vents on the back and sides of the laptop.
Even the included 180W charger doesn’t feel like too much of a hassle to carry around, and you only need it for intensive tasks.
If you only intend to use the laptop to type some word documents you can even set up to charge the laptop via USB-C; I carried a compact 65W GaN charger around and it worked pretty well.
Good first impressions
The IPS 240Hz, 3ms WQXGA (2,560 × 1,600) display looks more than decent, thanks in part to the wide color gamut (100 percent DCI-P3) and the 500 nits brightness.
I certainly had no complaints when it comes to visual quality, and audio-wise, the Triton 300 SE is just about adequate for a laptop that wants to check all the boxes at a reasonable price in its class.
That said, I’d opt for headphones or speakers at every opportunity.
The included 1080p webcam sounds good on paper and is above average in reality, making it suitable for work calls unless the lighting is really bolock.
The keyboard is a no-frills affair; Acer uses a traditional chiclet keyboard with backlighting and shine-through keycaps, and comfortable enough to work for long hours.
The mouse has a contoured bevelled edge frame and the fingerprint reader is embedded in the tracking surface. It might be an odd place to put a fingerprint reader but at least for me, it never felt like it was in the way.
That said, putting it on the power button would be much more elegant and more in line with the design theme of this laptop: hidden in plain sight.
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What is not hidden is the independent Turbo button at the top left corner. While you can use PredatorSense to use overclocking mode, you can also start things with that button.
However, you will need to use the 180W power adapter for this to work.
Despite the extra girth that comes with gaming laptop territory, physical connectivity options are quite limited – it’s more like an ultraportable in this respect: one Thunderbolt 4 port, two USB-A (3.2 Gen 2), one HDMI 2.1 , and a headphone jack.
Surprisingly there is no ethernet port, so you need to rig an adapter to a Thunderbolt 4 port if you have a wired connection.
At least it has a built-in Killer Wi-Fi 6E (AX1675i) module, so no. Unless you’re an upper-echelon gamer with insane reaction times, I think it’s okay.
The performance is quite moderate and more or less in line with what you can expect from the combination of Intel Core i7-12700H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX3060.
PCMark and 3DMark scores are outstanding at around 7409 and 8603 (Time Spy) and more demanding games like Cyberpunk run at 60 fps in Full HD resolution.
Turbo mode generally gives you about eight to ten percent more performance graphically and you have the flexibility to set profiles to run the games with Turbo automatically.
Unfortunately, it also introduces a lot more noise. It doesn’t bug me but I’m sure it bugged people around me. The Triton can get quite hot even if you are not pushing its limits, but you are not too hot strictly.
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Ultimately, what makes the Triton 300 SE stand out is that it reasonably feels like a one-size-fits-all laptop for PC gaming enthusiasts.
Yes, it weighs a good 300g or so more than borderline ultraportable laptops, but no one is realistically expecting a gaming laptop in an ultrabook form factor anyway.
Battery life is good enough for almost a day’s work; Just carry a small generic 65W GaN charger that you can use universally for all gadgets as a failsafe.
The bottom line is that the Triton 300 SE delivers more hits than misses, making it a very strong package for those who want a single laptop to work for their computing needs.
While it’s true that you can buy similar Intel i7 and RTX 3060 laptops for less, the Triton 300 SE offers a quality of life you never thought you needed—or had available.
For that reason, it’s also cheaper than the light gaming laptops mentioned earlier around $300 (although not necessarily the best performer).
I think I’m not too far off the mark with this: if you don’t know that a gaming laptop can be this light, you’ll find the price very strange.
If you’ve tried this laptop in person, you might find it hard to accept anything heavier.
ALSO READ: Acer Vero shows that eco-friendly laptops are viable
This article was first published in Potions.sg.
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