Acer Predator 17 review: who would want a gaming laptop?

You might not want to carry your laptop or upgrade your gaming PC

It is easy to see why PC makers are targeting gamers - what other demographic consumer is willing to pay higher prices for premium Windows hardware? But the problem with PC gamers is that many of them do not require PC makers to assemble components for them, because you can get better results for less money when you yourself are built.

You really can not do that with laptops, however, which perhaps explains why a number of PC manufacturers have produced high-end, portable super powerful with the express purpose of playing in them. And Acer is the latest to jump on the field with the new Predator 17, one of the first portable game machines ts. It's everything you expect from a gaming laptop: heavy huge, juicy and specifications.

A gaming laptop is also much more expensive than a desktop computer with similar performance, and its design seriously compromises the advantage of portability is expected of a laptop. So why do you want one?

I have some ideas.

A lot of gaming laptops has an ultra-aggressive style, and Acer says the design of the Predator 17 was "inspired by intergalactic cruise," which at least earn the points of the company to find words that never I would get in a video Jony Ive. And it's not an inaccurate description - this is like a Star Destroyer on my desk. It features a combination of black and aggressive red with bright LEDs that illuminates the keyboard and bright stripes on the back of the screen, and it is very safe to say that Acer had no coffee tables into account in the design of this colossus. I do not like the finished soft-touch rubber collecting fingerprints too easily, but the Predator 17 is very well put-together otherwise. In addition, you can exchange the Blu-ray drive for an extra fan called the FrostCore, which made basically no difference in my tests, but I love that exists.

Not a single bag I possess Predator 17 fits into the inside. At 8.7 pounds and 1.6 inches thick, it is simply not practical to move this laptop anywhere outside the home unless you will be sitting in the passenger seat of his car. The battery will not last nearly as long as what can be found in many more laptops, either - I tried to use it for a day's work, but only made it to 3 hours and 40 minutes from paraffin and light and using Chrome, with 3 hours and 56 minutes on the Verge website-loop battery test. Move from one room to another is one thing, but is unlikely to want to take it much further than that.

None of this has stopped the players loaded with desktop PCs over the LAN for decades holidays, however, and only one thing really matters for the type of person who wants a portable game: performance.

The Acer Predator 17 model that has sent me a cost of $ 2,599.99, and is a ridiculously powerful machine. It has a 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel i7-6700HQ Skylake processor, a GeForce GPU Nvidia GTX 980 million, a USB-C port Thunderbolt 3, an SSD of 512 GB hard disk copies of 1TB, and a 32 GB, frankly free of DDR4 RAM. The screen is an LCD screen 17.3-inch 1080p IPS. (Low-specced models are available.) All this is top-of-the-line or near it - the better i7-6700 CPU Intel mobile gaming and is best GTX 980 million mobile GPU from Nvidia, although some competing notebooks include card 8GB instead of 4GB version found here. The screen does not have the best viewing angles in the world, but punchy and vibrant front looks, and 1080p is the right resolution for a gaming laptop, even if it seems that lacks high-resolution side ultrabooks.

In practice, what this means is that the Predator 17 just breezes through virtually anything you can throw at it. I installed the most difficult titles of my libraries steam and origin - think Ryse: Son of Rome, Crysis 3, dying light, and so on - and saw smooth frame rates at the highest graphical settings at all. Ark: Survival Evolved, a title Early Access steam notoriously bad optimization, can be played on higher settings although it stops at my table. Last month bought the witness to prove he had heard that the PC port was inflexible and a lot of people had trouble running it. My result? almost flawless performance, broken occasionally frame when looking at the puzzles. In desperation I tried to Star Wars Battlefront, arguably the most visually advanced game there today and one that I have been playing on Xbox One for months. I learned two things: Star Wars Battlefront looks much better on a good PC in the Xbox One, and the Predator 17 handles quite well ultra settings with frame-rate drop odd. Turn the shadow detail a touch and you're golden.

So no, the performance is not a concern with the Predator 17 - at least not at the beginning of 2016. A problem with gaming laptops is that you really can not update them later, which means you have to buy a completely new machine once inside the GPU is not up to snuff. And considering that the 980M came out in 2014, which may well be a concern. But the Predator 17 runs all with such aplomb that I can not see any reason why it would not be suitable for this purpose for several years.

I also want to draw attention to the keyboard 17 Predator, I'm pretty sure it's the best I've used in a notebook. It does not feel as heavy mechanical keys favored by many players, but offers a comfortable ride and a quick response equally well suited to games and write - my only problem was having to adjust my hand position due to the sheer thickness of the machine . The giant figure of Predator 17 also means there is room for a complete design with a numeric keypad and customizable macro keys. I was less impressed by the trackpad, it feels like, well, a trackpad at a cheaper Acer laptop. If ever a laptop manufacturer could be forgiven for assuming the presence of a mouse, however, it would be in a gaming laptop; That's why it even has a glowing discreet button to change the trackpad out altogether.

Actually, my biggest problem with the Predator 17 was only to find a chance to use it. My main computer is a 12-inch MacBook, which is as different from a laptop, as it is possible, and is obviously much more suited to a portable typical things like browsing on the couch or working in a cafe. My other computer is a desktop game Alienware X51, it really was smoked by the Predator 17 in terms of performance, but I think it is much more convenient to use - I have a configuration with a 21: 9 screen ultra wide and comfortable chair to lean back on. Hunched over a table to watch the games on a laptop screen smaller is not so attractive, even if the graphics are better.

But you know, a machine like this is a compromise. It is getting power high-end places that would not normally be able to. And that could be a godsend for any frequent traveler can not be without their Witcher 3 character for weeks. I? I stay with Persona 4 at PS Vita and Downwell on the iPhone. But the Predator 17 finally wormed his way into my heart when I left it on the bar counter in my kitchen, perhaps the last place in my apartment I otherwise make a PC game. It turns out that making a drink, sitting on a stool, and pushing his way through Tomb Raider is a very good way to relax at the end of the day.

And that's what a gaming laptop get: a PC game in which not or could not put one otherwise. You pay a premium for performance monitoring and sacrifice on the accumulation, yes, but also give you comfort and a different kind of flexibility. Although the current Predator 17 does not meet the requirements for Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, I can see the future gaming laptops as an attractive option for anyone interested in entering VR, for example; at CES this year I took a demonstration by a similar HTC Vive powered laptop, and performance was excellent. Laptops make sense for Vive in particular, because you may want to move your experience of walking-around-the-space for different parts of your house, and that will be an easier purchase all-in-one any PC novice whose interest has been awakened by Oculus.

A gaming laptop like the Acer Predator 17 will seem like a ridiculous product to a lot of people - even for many players. The entire category of gaming laptops is without a doubt niche, and $ 2599 is a lot to fall into this particular model. But it is hard to see how Acer could have run much better concept of what he did with the Predator 17, and I'm glad it exists. It is built with so much restraint and reckless abandon in all the right places focused machine, and I think it will make some people - not many, but some - very happy.

And it is an interesting strategic investment for a company like Acer, which has traditionally operated in high volume and low margins. Many fewer people will take a look at the Predator 17 which would consider purchasing one of the laptops $ 500 sub out the traditional market, but Acer will charge a premium for each sale. If the Predator 17 has proven to be a successful company, you can expect to see further search PC laptop manufacturers gaming as the industry in general continues to decline. After all, who else is going to spend more than $ 2,000 in a notebook of Windows?