Acer Predator 21X hands-on, first impressions

Acer first introduced its stupendous gaming notebook — Predator 21X — last year and formally launched it at CES 2017 with a price of US$8,999 or around Php445,000 when converted. Just last night, Acer introduced it to local media and enthusiast. With our quick time with it, here’s our first impression of the Acer Predator 21X.

The Acer Predator 21X is one monster gaming notebook. We’re not going to call it a laptop because, obviously, you won’t be placing it on your lap. The body of the notebook is mostly polycarbonate or plastic but of high-quality. There are a number of key features here starting with the display.

The display is a curved 21-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 2560 x 1080 pixels and a wide aspect ratio of 21:9. The display is built for gaming with its 120Hz refresh rate and NVIDIA G-Sync support.

Next is it has a mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches and individual RGB LED lighting. Keys are tactile and a joy to just play with. Beside the keyboard is the trackpad that converts to a numpad. Mind you, the numpad still has RGB lights but they are not mechanical. On the far left side of the keyboard are macro keys that can be used to fire off specialized commands.

Port-wise, there are two full-sized USB 3.0 ports, a microphone and headphone jack, and SD card reader on the left. To the right-hand side are another pair of USB 3.0 ports and a Kensington lock.

Hiding behind the notebook are the HDMI port, two Display ports, USB-C, Ethernet jack, and two slots for the power supply. Yes, this laptop needs two power bricks to turn it on due to the processing and graphical prowess it has.

There’s an Intel 7th-generation Kaby Lake Intel Core i7-7820HK processor on the inside, in addition to 64GB of DDR4-2400 RAM support, and up to four 512GB SSDs in RAID 0. The juice is mainly needed for its dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 desktop-grade GPUs inside.

Apart from those, the Predator 21X also features Tobii eye-tracking which allows you to aim at your screen using your, well, eyes. We didn’t get the chance to experience this but no question that it’s a cool feature.

For audio, it has four speakers and two subwoofers with Dolby Premium audio. It also has a 1,280 x 720 resolution HD webcam for video chatting.

In a nutshell, the Predator 21X is a beast of a laptop. We personally don’t see ourselves getting this for our own since its price tag is equivalent of a new compact car but it’s definitely worth seeing.

Acer Predator 21 X specs:
21-inch 2560×1080 IPS curved display
7th-gen Intel Core i7-7820HK Kaby Lake CPU
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU in SLI w/ NVIDIA G-Sync
Up to 64GB DDR4-2400 RAM
Five cooling fans (three are metal AeroBlades)
4x integrated speakers
2x subwoofers
Mechanical keyboard w/ Cherry MX switches
2T2R 802.11ac + Bluetooth Wi-Fi module
2x USB ports
2x DisplayPort
USB Type-C port
HDMI
Integrated Tobii eye-tracking
Windows 10
8.8 kg

Acer didn’t specify the notebook’s local pricing and availability. Seeing this on display in stores is unlikely, so if you’re willing to shell out $8,999 to own this crazy beast, it’s best to contact Acer for your order.