Unveiled at IFA 2015, the Acer Predator 17 is a top-end gaming laptop, one set to sit among the most expensive and capable portable(ish) systems of 2016. It's a pretty important machine.
It's going to duke it out with the Asus ROG G752 as one of the biggest-name machines from the next wave, laptops that pack-in Intel's sixth-generation 'Skylake' Core processors. For an early preview of whether it has a chance at the gaming laptop crown, we took a closer look at the machine during IFA 2015.
Design and Features
The Acer Predator 17 is an unashamed gaming laptop. Unlike some of the recent systems we've looked at, it doesn't try to be remotely slim or light, instead letting its body bloom out with big heat outlets and a bold design featuring plenty of Predator series's staple red highlights.
One part that really comes to define the look is the great big heat grille on the back, pretty similar to what you see on the back of the Asus G751: one of the top gaming laptops of the moment.
Like most laptops in this class, the body is made mostly from plastic rather than the metal you get from a skinny Ultrabook, but from a quick feel the Acer Predator 17 seems as well-made as you'd hope. After all, with a top-end spec this laptop will end up eye-wateringly expensive.
Little extras to note include the three-zone keyboard backlight, letting you set the side macro buttons and the keypad to light-up with different colours to the main keys. The Acer Predator 17's macro keys are arranged in a column to the left of the keyboard. As ever you'll be able to program them as you like.
Much more unusual, though, is the hot-swappable drive on the left side of the Acer Predator 17. If you need an optical drive, that's fine: you can get one. However, CoolerMaster has also made a special cooling insert that contains another fan, designed to keep the heat down if you're really going to push the graphics card for a good long while. Acer calls it the Predator FrostCore.
The hardware isn't gamer-centric just in its look. There are also highlighted W/A/S/D and directional buttons on the keyboard, plus a dedicated 'trackpad off' button below if you're going to use a 'proper' mouse. Left with the trackpad? The Acer Predator 17 sensibly uses clearly defined buttons with a fairly deep action rather than ones integrated into the pad.
Just as the Acer Predator 17 will ideally be used with a mouse, you'll probably want to plug in a headset for the best audio experience. However, it also has a reasonably impressive, on paper at least, speaker array too. It has four mid/treble drivers and two subwoofers, which sit on the underside of the laptop, and are highlighted in Predator-classic red.
We can't tell you whether it sounds any good, as a technology show floor is no place for judging audio quality. We'll save that for the full review.
Aside from the annual spec upgrades you get with a new wave of laptops, the most exciting part of the Acer Predator 17 is its screen. As the name implies, it has a 17.3-inch screen.
What's so interesting is that Acer says the display's configuration will go up to 4K resolution. That's not when outputting to a monitor, but the resolution of the panel itself. Until now pretty much all 17-inch gaming laptops have had 1080p screens, simply because higher-resolution panels at 17.3 inches are not available.
It's finally time for true high-res, large screen gaming on the go. Of course, you shouldn't expect the Acer Predator 17's battery to last more than an hour or so when actually playing games.
Sadly, Acer was not actually showing off the 4K version of the Predator 17 when we had a look the machine. It was the plain old 1080p version we saw, but there is nothing in particular to complain about in quality terms. The colours are vivid, the display finish super-practical matt rather than glossy, and contrast seems to be strong. As with sound, we'll leave the conclusions to our review, though.
The prospect of a 4K display is what makes this laptop, and indeed other upcoming laptops in this class, particularly exciting. With the top specs heading the Acer Predator 17's way, it should not struggle to cope with games at this resolution.
The top-end model will use a GeForce GTX 980M CPU, 64GB RAM, a 6th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU (i7-6700HQ) and 512GB SSD storage. While the performance may not prove a gigantic improvement over the top 'current' 2015 gaming laptops, this is by some margin the most serious gaming laptop we've seen from Acer. The Predator series really turbo charges what the company offers for gamers, if not those after the cheap deals Acer so often comes up with.
Early verdict
In the US, the $1499 entry-level price tells you it'll start off with significantly lower-end specs, for those not ready to spend masses on their gaming laptop. In Europe the entry-level price is 1799 Euro, suggesting the spec floor there may be slightly higher. The exact specs and prices of the Acer Predator 17 remain to be seen, but from an early look this model has the potential to become one of the most desirable high-end laptop families out there.
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