Gaming laptop manufacturers love to name their laptops like beasts waiting to pounce at you. Take the Acer Predator 17 that I received a few days back- it’s definitely a very aggressive looking laptop. But does it perform as well as it sounds? Lets find out.
Design
First things first, as if it wasn’t obvious enough, the Predator 17 is massive. It is so big that it wasn’t easy taking it home from the office. It measures 424 x 322 x 40.6 mm and weighs around 4 kilos. Calling it portable is really stretching it.
But, as massive as the laptop is, it’s just as powerful and well designed. On the top, there are two red LED strips as well as a huge predator logo, with its own LED of course. On the bottom, we can see the cooling vents along with the sub-woofer. Once the laptop is opened, it has a pretty simplistic design. There are the programmable macro buttons, standard for any gaming keyboards now, as well as LED for the keyboard, which we will get to in a while. The design team also went with a different look for the power switch, which is now a triangle, again with the red LED.
The overall design is not something that looks pretty, but is quite a head turner. The angular design and red vents do look menacing, but that combined with the weight make it impossible to carry around. As with most gaming laptops, Acer decided to go with the whole black, grey and red look, which doesn’t look all that bad, but it is starting to get incredibly repetitive. The laptop is entirely covered with a smooth matte finish, which as usual, attracts a lot of dust.
Features and specifications
The Acer Predator 17 comes with a very impressive display, with a wide range of colors, but sadly has a maximum resolution of 1080p. However, the wide range of colors make up for it. Watching movies, or playing games look stunning. What confused me was the fact that the Predator comes with a Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M, which is more than capable of powering a 4K display, so it seems like a waste of potential.
The Predator has a pretty decent keyboard, which while not being a fully fledged mechanical keyboard, works quite well. On the left side of the keyboard, there is a profile key for switching between three profiles, along with five extra keys that can be used for some Acer-exclusive features or macros. To be honest, I never felt the need to use it.
I did like the design of the keyboard. As it is a gaming laptop, the WASD keys as well as the arrow keys were given an extra red outline as well. As expected with gaming laptops, LEDs for the keyboard are pretty standard. The whole keyboard splits into four lighting zones, three red and blue for the numpad. Using the laptop during the day made these LEDs look average, but it was when I switched off the lights I realised how wrong I was.
In short, the keyboard has a durable, strong and heavy feeling to it, which is a great pleasure as opposed to the chicklet type keys normally seen in laptops. The touchpad is as good as it gets. It measures 4.2 x 2.6 inches, and has a smooth feel and a super responsive touch. I personally liked the buttons though, mainly due to its heavy feel which felt a whole lot more durable. The trackpad is perfect for browsing and other small uses, because for gaming however, you will need to use a gaming mouse or controller.
The Acer Predator 17 offers a whole range of ports. It comes with four USB 3.0 ports, one of which can be used as a charger with the laptop off, a USB Type C port, a DP port, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, headphone and microphone jacks, a built in SD card reader and a slot for a Kensington lock. It also has an optical Blu-ray drive that can be removed and replaced with an additional fan, which was provided. It also has a webcam that is capable to shoot in 720p, but it still seemed a bit grainy. It is perfect for Skype or conferences, but if shooting VLOG videos is your idea, then you might want to invest in something better.
Specifications wise, the Acer Predator 17 comes with an Intel Core i7 6700 Quad Core 2.60 GHz processor and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphic card with 4GB dedicated memory as well as an Intel HD Graphics 530 with 4GB memory, so that there is no pressure on the device when you use simple tasks like videos or browsing. Our review model came with 64GB DDR4 SDRAM and 1TB HDD with 512GB SSD. It comes preinstalled with a 64bit Windows 10.
Performance and Battery Life
Finally, the part you have been waiting for, how well does this monster of a laptop perform? I must say, it is quite a powerful machine, if not the most powerful gaming laptop I have reviewed. This is not surprising as the 980M graphics card, 64GB RAM and Intel i7 processor work hand in hand to deliver an amazing performance. The Acer Predator 17 scored an impressive 13,524 on the Geekbench 3 benchmark, but that is just an overall performance benchmark.
In terms of gaming benchmarks, it scores pretty well too. I used Tomb Raider, Metro 2033 and Bioshock: Infinite for benchmarking purposes.
As you can see from the table above, the Predator managed to rake up to 25 fps on an average with Tomb Raider, which is quite a demanding game. I then moved on to Metro 2033 which gave me around 22 fps on an average. Finally, Bioshock: Infinite gave me a stunning 122 fps on average. Overall, gaming performance was smooth and textures looked great. After all, what more can we expect with its NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M graphic card powering it.
One of the most impressive features I found while gaming on the Predator is the fact that it does not really heat up as much. Sure, it does not mean you can keep it on your lap, the sheer weight would be highly uncomfortable. It comes with dual fans located at the rear, which are pretty quiet, but fire up once heavy gaming commences. The Acer DustDefender technology also helps to keep the insides clean. To be honest, the fans are quite loud, but the audio is pretty loud as well, so you really don’t hear it.
Speaking of audio, this is one area where the Predator excels. The audio is simply superb, thanks to its four speakers with two subwoofers on the bottom of the device. It also comes with Dolby audio software that helps the user to customize the audio experience, complete with presets such as Music, Game, Movie or Voice. The audio is very balanced, and it does not disappoint if you use headsets as well. So unless you dont want anyone to hear what you are playing, headsets are not really needed.
In terms of battery life, the Acer Predator actually surprised me. The Acer Predator is advertised with up to 5 hours of battery life, and when in actual use, it gave me close to 6 hours instead. I used the laptop for my daily editing, browsing and even some gaming, and the battery life surprised me the most, as gaming laptops are not really famous for its battery life. However, when some heavy gaming kicked in, I got approximately between 2 to 3 hours. But honestly, who doesn’t use a charger while gaming?
Verdict
The Acer Predator 17 is, in short, an amazing gaming laptop. From its design to its configuration, it literally shouts (or roars, being a Predator) that it is built for gaming. It may not be the best option for on the go gaming, due to its weight and size but it makes up for that with its performance. However, I do wish it had a 4K display, as it is actually capable.
It costs close to AED 9550, which I would say is quite expensive for a gaming laptop. However, if you are looking for a replacement for your desktop, this is a good option. Sure, there are cheaper alternatives, but the Predator’s impressive GPU and other configurations makes its prey on games today (no pun intended) and hopefully those yet to come.
By Tony Luka
