If you ask what are the first-tier notebook brands nowadays, I believe that many friends’ answers are Lenovo , HP , Dell and Apple , right? In fact, Acer and Asus from Taiwan, China can also be included in this list.
According to the market research agency's global computer market share list in the second quarter of 2022, the top six are Lenovo (24.8%), HP (18.8%), Dell (18.5%), Apple (8.8%), Acer (7.1%), and Asus (6.5%).
Of course, in the eyes of many gamers with fever, Razer and MSI are also first-tier brands, but the sales data are not that good-looking.
The protagonist of today's article is Acer (ACER, note that it is not "Acer"), which includes two major product lines: [ Shadow Knight ] and [Predator].
Among them, Shadow Knight has derived [Engine] and [Dragon] according to the different hardware platforms. The two use similar molds (the A-side, rear taillights and internal designs are different), equipped with the 12th-generation Core and Ryzen 6000 platforms respectively, positioning the mainstream gaming laptop market, the graphics card starts from RTX 3050, and the highest RTX 3060 is available. In previous years, Shadow Knights had 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch options, but Acer only promoted 15.6-inch models this year.
If you think Shadow Knight is not strong enough, it is the turn to position it higher. You can enjoy a 3-year warranty, 3-year door-to-door service, and 1-year international joint guarantee service [Predator] family has come on stage.
First of all, it is the Predator [Tomahawk] series that locates the fever gamebook. It should be noted that Acer only promotes the [Tomahawk 300] this year, which can be selected from 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch, and uses the combination of the 12th-generation Core i9-12900H+ RTX 3070 Ti independent graphics. In fact, the Predator family has a higher positioning [Tomahawk 500], but this product has not been able to usher in the 2022 iteration update model in China.
Next is the Predator [Blade] series, which includes two members: [Blade 300SE] and [Blade 500SE]. They both focus on a slim metal body design of about 19mm, as well as a 16-inch screen with a gold display ratio of 16:10 (Blade 300SE also has a 14-inch model, but unfortunately it is not launched in China). However, it is precisely because they pursue a slim and sexy figure that their power consumption and release level are far lower than [Tomahawk], and their overall performance has declined.
14-inch version of Blade 300SE's 14-inch version disassembly diagram
Overall, Acer's gaming laptop lacks a real fever flagship, that is, the 12th generation Core HX series processor and a fully-blooded RTX 3080 Ti independent display model. The Shadow Knight series, which has not been able to introduce new molds, is slightly worse than the same-level gaming laptops of other first-tier brands. Fortunately, the price is relatively affordable, and the entry threshold is similar to many second-tier brands. As for the Predator family, their brand influence is inferior to ROG and Saviors, so whether they are worth choosing depends on whether there is configuration or price advantage with competitors of the same level.
The price of this product is taken from the price of the JD flagship store in late October 2022. The price of the laptop fluctuates greatly. It may drop significantly when catching up with JD flash sale or Pinduoduo's 10 billion subsidy activities. Everyone should refer to the latest price at that time when purchasing! !
Shadow Knight·Qing2022
In the first-tier gaming laptop brands, the appearance of the Shadow Knight has not changed much in recent generations. The aesthetic fatigue + relatively bloated design has affected its appearance in the minds of players.
. The Shadow Knight 2022 version adopts a new A-side design, and the color fold lines are more recognizable. Compared with the old red and black color vents with a combat atmosphere, the new generation looks more technological and more in line with the aesthetics of today's players. In addition, it also focuses on the four-zone RGB backlit keyboard . The specially designed shaft can enable a one-handed opening and closing screen. Unfortunately, the body material of this product is still plastic, and the thickness of 26.7mm and the weight of 2.5kg are not light.
It should be noted that the screen of Shadow Knight 2022 has two specifications, and the model screen equipped with the i5 processor is 1920×1080 pixel resolution and 100% sRGB color gamut standard. Equipped with the i7 processor, the 2560×1440 pixels and the DCI-P3 color gamut standard.
Shadow Knight · Ying 2022 has many configuration versions. The processor can choose from the 12th generation Core i5-12500H, i7-12700H or i9-12900H. Among them, the power consumption of the i7 version when baking FPU can be stable at around 95W. In terms of graphics cards, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti (95W) and RTX 3060 (140W, this version of the machine is also called Shadow Knight Pro, which supports independent graphics direct connection), with dual-baking power consumption of 45W+115W, and the price ranges from 6399 yuan to 8799 yuan.
Another major feature of Shadow Knight 2022 is that it comes with standard killer wired/ wireless network card , built-in 2 M.2 slots, and 1 2.5-inch SATA slot. Up to 3 hard disks can be installed at the same time. The expansion potential is the strongest among gaming laptops (one of them).
Generally speaking, Shadow Knight 2022 is a relatively traditional gaming laptop. It has not been able to join the popular "slimming alliance" nowadays. The overall impression can be described as "solid". The appearance design of this product is more stylish than the previous generation, and the performance release of independent graphics cards also meets the full-blood standard, and its performance can squeeze into the first echelon of the same gaming laptop in 2022. However, its portability and appearance are still not as good as competitors such as Saveer and Shadow Elf , and can only impress consumers by lower prices than competitors with the same matching products.
Shadow Knight 2022
Acer Shadow Knight 2022 uses the same mold. The difference is mainly in the A-side design. The Qing enhances the three-dimensional sense through personalized neon painting. The Long has no other elements except the ACER letter LOGO on the top. The heat dissipation air outlet at the tail of the latter is matched with red and black (both are black and gray).
Shadow Knight Dragon 2022 currently only provides Ryzen 7 6800H processor, and can choose from three graphics cards: RTX3050 (6399 yuan), RTX3050Ti (6799 yuan) or RTX 3060 (7699 yuan). Among them, the RTX 3060 version also supports direct connection to the independent graphics, and has also been offered a low price of 6899 yuan on Pinduoduo. The single baking power consumption of this product is only 54W, which is very conservative. Fortunately, the RTX 3060 can be released at 140W full blood, and the dual baking power consumption is about 45W+120W.
It should be noted that although this product retains a 2.5-inch hard disk, the cable interface part is in a virtual welding state, so only 2 M.2 SSDs can be installed.
Overall, Shadow Knight Dragon 2022 is a conservative Ryzen gaming laptop. It is said that it is conservative because this set of molds has been used for many years, the quality and portability are very average, and the power consumption of the processor is also low. Therefore, whether it is worth buying depends on whether there are promotions or flash sale activities at present, which will open up a sufficient price difference with Ryzen version competitors such as Asus Tianxuan 3 and HP Shadow Elves 8 to maintain a certain cost-effective advantage.
Predator Tomahawk 300 2022
Although the Acer Shadow Knight series is cost-effective, its performance release is not extreme enough to meet the needs of enthusiast players. At this time, it is the turn of the Raiders series to debut. The 2022 Tomahawk 300 provides excellent combat power at a price of 10,000 yuan.
We can regard the Acer Predator Tomahawk 300 as a relative of Shadow Knights. The overall shape and interface layout are very similar, but the A and C sides of the Predator Tomahawk 300 have been replaced with metallic materials, and a miniDP1.4 interface is added on the back, and a larger capacity battery is built-in, and the overall design is more classy. The 4-zone RGB backlight combines the coastal breathing light at the front of the body, which can bring cool backlight effects when used at night. This product also adds an additional TURBO shortcut key to the upper left of the keyboard, which can release the performance of CPU and GPU with one click, and the fan will run at full speed.
Acer Raider Tomahawk 300 includes two versions: 15.6 inches and 17.3 inches. The latter is an enlarged version of the former in design. The thickness has increased slightly by 2mm and the weight has increased by about 700g, making it average portability.
Both sizes of Acer Predator Tomahawk 300 are traditional 16:9 display ratios, with a wide bottom border, which affects visual immersion. The screen has 2.5K resolution, 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms low latency, and supports NVIDIA G-SYNC tear-proof technology.
Acer Predator Tomahawk 300 can be selected as the 12th generation Core i7-12700H or i9-12900H processor, and can be selected as RTX 3060, RTX 3070 or RTX 3070 Ti independent graphics, with a price ranging from 9999 to 12999 yuan. Compared with Shadow Knight, the power consumption of the Raider Tomahawk 300 is stronger, and the processor's single baking power consumption can be stable at around 110W. The RTX3060 and RTX 3070 Ti can also run in a state that is approaching full health. When baking, the overall power consumption of the 15.6-inch version of Tomahawk 300 is about 170W, while the 17.3-inch is increased to 190W, which shows that the gaming experience of the latter is better.
5.6-inch version disassembly diagram
7.3-inch version disassembly diagram
In general, Acer Predator Tomahawk 300 can be regarded as a further tuning version of Shadow Knights Engine. The double-sided metal combines the logo recognition and class improvement of the Crazy School logo, combined with the more extreme performance release, which is enough to meet the players' demanding demand for game performance. However, the Savior Y9000P and Shadow Elves 8 Pro, which are at the same price, are also powerful players. I hope that the next generation of Tomahawk 300 can introduce a 16:10 gold display ratio. While maintaining the same power consumption, upgrade to a cooler and thinner mold.
Praider Blade 300SE 2022
As a member of the Blade family, the biggest feature of the Praider Blade 300SE is that it is thin, with a body of only 19.9mm, which is enough to compete with many thin and light laptops. The A, C and D sides of this product are made of alloy, and the silver body has a more metallic texture. However, the weight of 2.4kg is not light, which affects its portability.
Acer Predator Blade 300SE is equipped with a full-size 3-zone RGB backlit keyboard, but unfortunately there is no numeric keypad added. The upper left corner of the keyboard is equipped with a one-click overclocking button. The huge touchpad integrates a fingerprint recognition module, and can also enter the Predator control sensing system with one click to understand and adjust the system status at any time.
Acer Predator Blade 300SE is upgraded to a 16-inch screen, adopting a 16:10 gold display ratio, has a high resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, 240Hz high refresh rate and 500nits high brightness, supports DC dimming, G-SYNC tear-proof, and has a minimum delay of only 3ms. The display quality reaches the high level of this field of gaming.
Acer Predator Blade 300SE currently has only one configuration version (9999 yuan), equipped with the 12th-generation Core i7-12700H processor, standard with 16GB DDR5 4800 dual-channel memory and 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD (the official did not mention whether to reserve additional hard disk space), and it also armed the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 independent graphics, and supports direct connection to the independent graphics.
official does not indicate the power consumption and release status of the Predator Blade 300SE, but judging from its foreign official website parameters, the optional RTX 3070 Ti independent graphics version has a power consumption and release range of 115W, so the RTX 3060 independent graphics version of this product is definitely not a full-blooded version.
In general, Acer Predator Blade 300SE is a slim gaming laptop focusing on appearance and quality. Its weight is not light at 2.4kg, and it shows a 16:10 ratio of 2.5K e-sports screen. The combination of the 12th generation Core i7 and RTX 3060 independent graphics has good gaming power. However, the competitors of this product are also powerful players, such as Lenovo Saver Y9000X and ROG Fantasy 16, which are also high-end thin gaming laptops at a price of 10,000 yuan. In the domestic gaming laptop market, the momentum of the Predator brand is still almost the same. Whether it can gain an advantage in the same matched competitors must be implemented at the final price.
Pretender Blade 500SE 2022
In Acer's Predator family, there is a product named "suit thug". It is Blade 500SE. Under its slim and fashionable appearance, it hides the strongest hardware combination nowadays, which is stronger than the Blade 300SE we have introduced before. The 19mm body design is slim for a top-end gaming laptop. Although the weight of 2.4kg is not too light, it still cannot deny the excellent portability of this product.
Acer Predator Blade 500SE adopts a 16-inch screen with a 16:10 gold display ratio, with a high resolution of 2560×1600 pixels, 100% DCI-P3 wide color gamut, 240Hz high refresh rate and 500nits high brightness, supports DC dimming, G-SYNC tear-proof, and the minimum delay is only 3ms. The display quality reaches the highest level in this field of gaming.
Acer Predator Blade 500SE currently offers two configurations. The low-end version is the 12th-generation Core i7-12700H+ 16GB memory + 1TB SSD+RTX 3070 Ti independent graphics (14999 yuan), and the high-end version is the 12th-generation Core i9-12900H+ 32GB memory + 2TB SSD+RTX 3080 Ti independent graphics (24999 yuan), both of which support direct connection of independent graphics.
Acer Predator Blade 500SE has built-in luxury 3 fans 4 heat pipes and VC heat-smoothing plate. Two of the fans are the 5th generation 3D Blade Quick-cooling Metal Fans, supporting the metal liquid heat dissipation. Taking the top version of RTX 3080 Ti as an example, its CPU single-bake power consumption can reach 110W full-blood release standard, but the GPU single-bake power consumption is 115W, which belongs to the MAX-Q standard. The power consumption of CPU+GPU when baking is about 55W+90W. Although the total power consumption of 145W is not too high, considering that the CPU and GPU are not loaded twice during actual gaming, and the thickness of Blade 500SE is less than 20mm, this performance is acceptable.
It should be noted that the disassembly of the Acer Predator Blade 500SE is relatively complicated. It adopts a motherboard inverted design. After removing the bottom cover, the entire motherboard needs to be removed and flipped over before upgrading the hard disk.
In general, Acer Predator Blade 500SE is a high-performance gaming laptop with a slim and fashionable display, with excellent display quality 16:10 2.5K screen, a processor with up to 110W power consumption, a super large 99.9Wh battery, a top-level RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 3080 Ti independent graphics. Even if the independent graphics cannot be released in full blood, can we underestimate its gaming power? The starting price of the Blade 500SE is as high as 14,999 yuan, and the main premium comes from its simple and slim body design. If you don’t pursue higher performance, the Predator Blade 300SE is also a good choice for around 10,000 yuan.
