Gadgetory

welcome back to hardware unboxed I'm a bit of a sucker for slim gaming laptops as they're the only real class of system that provides decent performance and decent portability especially since the release of invidious max-q series we can now harness the power of GTX 1080s inch a C's under 20 millimeters thick I'll be it with a bit of a down clock to keep everything in check I've been waiting a little while to get my hands on the slim gaming laptops I'm looking at today so they perhaps aren't the freshest releases of the year but to make up for it ASA pulled out all the stops and sent out to predator Triton 700s one with the GTX 1060 inside and another with the GTX 1080 max Q for us to take a look at and a big shout out to PC case gear for helping hook us up with these as well check them out if you're an Aussie in the market for a gaming laptop so a bit of background before I get into my thoughts on the Triton 700 if you want a GTX 1080 max Q laptop there are only a couple of options on the market the Zeus ROG Zephyrus which I checked out on a channel last year as well as the Auris x5 MD which you can't buy now for whatever reason and of course the Acer predator Triton 700 and it turns out the seuss ROG Zephyrus is a very unreliable machine according to user reviews on both Amazon and Newegg a significant chunk of buyers have been experiencing problems defects and even dead machines I quite like this efforts when I checked it out but with these sort of reports out in the wild it's hard to recommend even if it's a few hundred dollars cheaper than the Triton 700 in North America and just on the pricing the Triton 700 versus ROG Zephyrus is one of the weird cases where one model is cheaper in North America while the other is cheaper for us locally in Australia it's the Triton 700 that is $400 cheaper with an eye-watering price tag of $4,300 for the 1080 max-q variant in America you can expect to pay $3,000 so this laptop sits right at the top of the Shayne luckily those that want this sort of chassis at a more affordable price can grab the GTX 260 variant for two thousand US or twenty seven hundred Ozzie this is about twice the price of the cheapest and chunky escheat x10 sixty laptops but extreme portability has always come at a high price as laptops like you know the razorblade are also priced to ran this mark keep the msi ge62 three via and gigabyte air of fifteen in mind for cheaper options - so before you all jump into the comments to discuss how expensive the triton 700 is yes it is expensive and there are cheaper laptops with similar specs but slim and light builds have always come out of that hefty price tag the other thing I wanted to talk about is the GTX 1080 max Q on a couple of other laptop reviews I've seen comments suggesting max Q is nothing more than Nvidia crippling GPUs like with their previous M series parts such as you know the gtx 980m however while the 1080 max Q doesn't hit the same levels of performance as the standard 1080 it's definitely not in the same classes than 980m for starters the GTX 1080 max Q is the exact same GPU as the geotech sten 80 in larger laptops or desktops it has the exact same cooter core count of 2560 which incidentally matches the desktop 1082 it has the exact same 8gb of gddr5 X memory a 10,000 megahertz where the difference lies is in power and clock speed management fully fledged e-text n 80s and laptops are equipped with beefy coolers allowing them to read Riven at their maximum clocks and at the maximum TDP delivering top performance equivalent to the desktop GPU max Q GPUs are designed for slimmer laptops with less capable coolers so rather than melting the laptops in an attempt to cool the GPU the driver lowers the power target and less aggressively boost the clock speed think of it this way if you had a standard GTX 1080 went into an overclocking utility and lowered the power target you've essentially created the GTX 1080 max Q Nvidia did tweak a few other things and optimize the power delivery hardware but the basic story is it's the same GPU just with a lower power target and this is the perfect excuse to look at the perform of the Tritons 700 in both its GTX 1060 and GTX 1080 max-q variants both systems pack an Intel Core i7 7700 HQ CPU which is the go-to standard for gaming laptops along with 512 gig SSD so the 1080 models SSD is a super-fast 256 gig raid 0 array there's also 16 gig of ram to go with the 1060 and if you get the 1080 moral you get 32 gig of ram I'm going to completely skip the CPU testing as we already know how the i7 7700 xq performs and there are no surprises with either triton 700 model instead let's hop right into the gaming results and see how these laptops stack up in GTA 5 the 1080 max Q model delivers excellent performance with the 1% low result above 60 fps a 1080p ultra detail settings the 1060 model also performs well here delivering a playable experience without stuttering at these settings neither laptop pulls any surprises either falling exactly where I expected for the hardware inside considering some of the past systems I've looked at in rise of the Tomb Raider it's much the same story nothing is a huge surprise at the maximum detail level possible only the 1080 max Q model delivered above a 30 FPS 1% low tuning down to high settings with the 1060 does deliver a good experience in this title though in Deus Ex mankind divided with the ultra preset at 1080p the 1080 max q2 of his fantastic results once again while the 1060 is better suited to the high preset here it's interesting to note that the 1080 max Q isn't that far ahead of the GTX 1070 outperforming it by just 11% though that's a similar story across most of the tests hitman is an interesting result because the Triton 700 with the 1080 max Q doesn't reach the same average performance as the Zephyrus but it is outperforming it on 1% Louis both systems are quite capable in this game using the DirectX 12 mode with ultra details I like to keep testing with watch dogs too because it's so punishing on both the CPU and GPU most laptops struggle in this game with the ultra preset although the GTX 1080 max Q Triton 700 does a respectable job of keeping the 1% frame rate above 30 the GTX 1060 model on the other hand performs well for a laptop with this GPU but could do with a few setting reductions not going to spend a lot of time discussing Mass Effect Andromeda as is both mediocre game and runs well and most laptop hardware the GTX 1080 max Q model pushes well above 60 FPS on average while the 1060 variant still delivers a decent experience here nothing out of the ordinary for either of these GPUs in prey the GTX 1080 max Q model exceeded my expectation C and actually outperforms the zephyrus by a fair margin I would say a recent driver update has given this tile a nice boost compared to some of the laptops I tested earlier Middle Earth shadow of war benefits from the GTX 1080 max Q's extra power allowing a 1% low result of above 50 FPS using the ultra preset while the GTX 1060 is stuck pushing just over a 30 FPS 1% low with that said the game runs really well on the high preset - without sacrificing much visual quality so as I've mentioned a few times both GPUs perform pretty much exactly as I expected in the Triton 700 the GTX 1080 max Q model is typically around 45% faster than the GTX 1060 model when looking at the all-important 1% low results when comparing the Triton 700s to other similar laptops with this Hardware inside the GTX 1080 max Q model is basically identical in performance to the rog zephyrus on average there's a bit more variance among the gtx 1060 models in some games but again on average you're getting roughly the same experience from the triton 700 as other gtx 1060 laptops a couple of other interesting things to note about these laptops the 1080 max q variant uses a blazing-fast 256 gig raid 0 array which produces outstanding sequential performance and decent random speeds the GTX 1060 model though isn't as impressive compared to other 1060 gaming laptops that include much faster single SSDs considering the premium price point of the 1060 variant this sort of performance is a little disappointing it's also a bit disappointing to see the 1080 max Q model getting a superior display both are 15.6 inch 1080 Bips LCDs but it's only the 1080 max queue that gets a 120 Hertz refresh rate and gsync again considering the price of these laptops I'd have liked to see the same display in both models sure that the 1080 max queue is more likely to use the higher refresh rate but premium laptops should include the best hardware possible the interesting thing about both triton 700 miles is they both use the same cooling solution in the case of the GTX 1080 max queue the cooler has to handle somewhere around a hundred watts of GPU power while the GTX 1060 you know it's only happening to cool about 65 watts or so this should give a thermal and noise advantage to the GTX 1060 model during gaming and looking at these results it does at least in regards to the thermals while playing watchdogs to the CPU and GPU both set at 6 degrees Celsius cooler after 30 minutes while noise levels work the same 42 DBA from 50 centimeters away neither system is particularly loud there is a slight high-pitched winch to the cooler but it can be easily drowned out with game audio the GTX 1060 does have a bit more headroom for either overclocking or running at a quieter level while the GTX 1080 max-q model runs close to the limits of this thermal solution as for design both Triton 700 miles are identical and like this efforts this is a design that has the keyboard along the front edge which is a bit unconventional but it allows the upper area to be used entirely for cooling it does mean the trackpad is relocated to an odd glass area above the keyboard which is one of the weirdest trackpad placements I've seen the track pad itself performs well but the position is too awkward for all but the most occasional use you'll definitely need to use an external mouse with this laptop for the best results continuing the list of unusual aspects the Triton 700 the keyboard uses very clicky key caps I think they're trying to imitate the feel of a mechanical keyboard with a loud click but it doesn't quite work and in stuff just feeling like the click is masking the usual rubber don't mush it's not a bad keyboard though it perhaps doesn't live up to the billing as a true mechanical keyboard so the general build quality acer has done a fantastic job here using a combination of metal and plastic the fuels neither cheap not over-the-top with game elements the competing asou Sepphoris uses a nice design too but I wasn't as sold on the separating based power or Seuss's more gamer aesthetic in this regard I like what else was done with the Triton 700 a lot more safe for the keyboard and trackpad oddities the Triton 700 is also reasonably portable and just 19 millimeters thick and 2.4 kilos heavy it's not as light as the razor blade does eros or the MSI tier 63 VR but I would take a bit of extra heft for the superior build quality and especially compared to the race of blade better cooling capacity all the standard i/o is on this machine including gigabit ethernet full hdmi and displayport Thunderbolt 3 and multiple audio jacks this is identical in both models and I especially like the inclusion of DisplayPort so you can easily attach external monitors and get the full benefits of features like g-sync so at the end of the day the reason why I wanted to look at the triton 700 is that I'm searching for the ultimate portable gaming laptop machines like the msi ge62 3 vr gigabyte air of 15 and razorblade either have loud coolers or top out adjust gtx 1070 max cues the asou severus as i mentioned earlier in this review has reliability problems and suffers from a few strange design choices the ace of Predator Triton 700 with the GTX 10 80 max Q is the closest to perfection I've seen you get excellent performance typically 40 to 60 percent ahead of the GTX 1060 and 20 to 35 percent faster than the GTX 970 max Q both of which are more commonly used in this sort of form factor the screen is exactly what you want with this hardware providing 120 Hertz refresh and gsync the build quality is fantastic as well with a decent selection of Io and the included raid 0 SSD is blazing fast but it's not perfect achieving better build quality has led to a heavier system than its competitors the trackpad is in a very strange and impractical location the keyboard is marketer's mechanical but it doesn't live up to that discreet and the cooler is basically right on its limits on top of all of this at nearly three thousand US dollars it's also a very expensive proposition for most buyers I think we may see some of these issues addressed in second gen max-q laptops though if you want to jump in right now and get the best-performing portable gaming laptop on the market it's the predator triton 700 with 1080 max-q you should be looking at especially considering the competition the GTX 1060 model is a harder sell at it's $2,000 price point there's nothing inherently wrong with the gaming performance thermals or builds but the msi gt80 the gigabyte Aero 15 should also be in consideration with its slim bezel design calibrator display and again lower price but huge shout out once again to PC case key for hooking us up with these laptops check them out if you're thinking of grabbing a gaming laptop they have loads of models on offer also consider supporting us on patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes videos and I'll catch you in the next one you