Acer Predator Triton 14 AI

A top-quality creative laptop with superb styling, plenty of GPU acceleration and a clever touchpad

- TIM DANTON

PRICE £2,083 (£2,500 inc VAT) from currys.co.uk

The Triton 14 AI is not what I expected when Acer offered to send in its latest Predator laptop for review. That brand is all about gaming, about eye-zinging RGB and flashing logos, but the Acer Predator Triton 14 AI is genuinely stylish. Finished in matte black, with a metal frame that resisted all my attempts at bending, it even benefits from a square-jawed finish reminiscent of Razer. I also love how the sides of the touchpad glow white when you touch it, adding style and function.

There's no Acer branding here. Only those familiar with the Predator logo will spot its origins, with this depicted by a square array of RGB LEDs beneath the End key in colours that match your choice for the keyboard. Likewise on the lid, and if you head into the PredatorSense app then you can set this to whatever colour you like - selecting black essentially switches it off, leaving the imprint of the logo. You can switch off all the RGB lighting if you prefer, which could be very handy for professional meetings, but then you'd miss out on the RGB glow from the fans on this laptop's undercarriage, visible through a pair of grilles.

This laptop is extremely portable, too. Considering all the power within, it's both light and slim at 1.6kg and 17.3mm, with the only obvious drawback being battery life: in our light-use tests it puttered out after six hours. Realistically, you'll need to take the power supply with you, and note that it's a 140W "rat and tail" unit that weighs 500g.

This plugs into one of the two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C 4 ports, which are conveniently located on either side of the Triton. Even with the 140W adapter this is a slow-charging laptop, only moving from empty to 20% in an hour. If you're charging via a USB-C docking monitor then it will be even slower, as these usually offer 100W at best.