In brief: There are new Acer gaming laptops in town that you can configure with high refresh rate Mini LED displays and the latest high-end chips from Intel and Nvidia. The company is also launching new Predator gaming accessories including a new Cestus 335 mouse, a Predator Connect X5 Wi-Fi router, and a Predator Connect D5 5G dongle.
Acer’s 2021 laptop lineup has several unique models, including a 17-inch Chromebook and a new line of ConceptD laptops aimed at creators that come in a variety of form factors. There’s even a prototype ConceptD that developers can use to test Acer’s progress on a project to make stereoscopic 3D displays more useful and easier on your eyes, while doing away with the goofy glasses.
The company also has something new in store for gamers in the form of new Predator Triton and Helios gaming laptops. The most powerful of the bunch is the Predator Triton 500 SE, which not only comes with bleeding edge hardware in a metal chassis that’s only 19.9 mm thick but also sports a 16:10, 16-inch display that will give you a little extra vertical space when you need to be productive.
You can choose from three different panels — a 165 Hz IPS LCD panel, a 165 Hz Mini LED panel with 100 percent sRGB coverage and a peak brightness of 1,250 nits, and a 240 Hz IPS PolarBlack panel with full DCI-P3 color gamut and a 3 ms response time.
The Predator Triton 500 SE is powered by Intel’s 11th-gen Intel Core H-series CPUs paired with an RTX 3080 Laptop GPU and up to 64 GB of 3,200 MHz DDR4 memory. You can pack up to 4 TB of PCIe SSD storage of the PCIe 4.0 variety, and Acer says the battery lasts up to 12 hours if you’re doing light tasks such as streaming or web browsing. You also get a variety of ports such as two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, two USB4 ports with Thunderbolt 4, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an SD card reader.
Then there’s the Predator Helios 500 for people who want a bigger, 17.3-inch display. You get a choice between a 4K Mini LED 120 Hz panel and a 1080p 360 Hz panel with a 3 ms response time. As with the Triton, it can be configured with up to an 11th-gen Core i9 CPU, RTX 3080 GPU, and 64 GB of 3,200 MHz DDR4 memory.
Where the Triton 500 SE is designed to have a minimal aesthetic, the Helios is unapologetically RGB with strips of lighting on all sides and large vents to keep the internals cool. Acer enthusiasts can opt to replace the WASD keys with the company’s Racing and MagForce keys that feature mechanical switches.
If the Predator Triton 500 SE is to your linking, expect to pay $1,749.99 for the base configuration that comes with an i7-11800H, RTX 3060 GPU, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of PCIe SSD storage, and the 165 Hz IPS LCD display. The first units will start shipping in June for the US and Chinese markets.
Those of you looking at the Predator Helios 500 will have to shell out at least $2,499.99, which comes with similar specs as the Triton 500 SE base except for the 360 Hz 1080p display. The Predator Helios 500 starts shipping in August, assuming they don’t get snapped up by voracious cryptocurrency miners looking to bypass the GPU drought.