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MagyarAcer Predator 15 G9-591-74ZV
Specifications
Pricecompare
Average of 6 scores (from 9 reviews)
Reviews for the Acer Predator 15 G9-591-74ZV
Beast of prey. Following the extremely successful V 15 Nitro, Acer presents its next gaming platform. Instead of an upper mid-range GPU, a genuine premium model is in the Predator 15. Can the GTX 980M stand up against the 15-inch competition?
Source: Ultrabook Review
Archive.org versionIf you're after a 15-inch laptop with Nvidia 970M or 980M graphics, the Predator 15 is a solid performer and it's more affordable than most of the alternatives. The bundle also includes good screen options, an excellent keyboard and a large battery, among others. At the same time, this laptop is thick and heavy for a 15-incher, so if you plan to carry your notebook around often, you'll probably want to look somewhere else.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 02/09/2016
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Laptop Media
Archive.org versionWe’re just as delighted with the results we got from Predator 15 as we were after testing the 17-inch version. Actually, even more – the smaller version has the same battery capacity (88 Wh) which managed to give us almost 8 hours of web surfing on one charge and that’s amazing, especially given the gaming nature of the laptop. Speaking of that, you won’t need to look twice to see that it’s made for gaming – it has aggressive and hard angles and elements, and we have to admit that it was a genuine case of love at first sight.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 01/27/2016
Source: IGN
Archive.org versionThe price you pay for a notebook with this level of performance is substantial, as it'll put equal amounts of pain into your back and your wallet. It's huge, heavy, and expensive. This level of girth comes with the territory though if you want maximum performance, and if we were shopping for a rarely-moved laptop to take over gaming duties we'd certainly put the Predator on our shopping list. It's an extremely well-made and thoughtfully-designed notebook with superb performance and features. The two-year warranty is the main drawback in our opinion, as something this nice should be covered for at least a few years.
Single Review, online available, Very Short, Date: 12/10/2015
Rating: Total score: 90%
Foreign Reviews
Source: Netzwelt
DE→EN Archive.org versionSingle Review, online available, Medium, Date: 01/31/2016
Rating: Total score: 83% performance: 90% features: 90% display: 80% ergonomy: 80%
Source: Ocaholic.ch
DE→EN Archive.org versionSingle Review, online available, Long, Date: 01/14/2016
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: HardwareLuxx
DE→EN Archive.org versionSingle Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/28/2015
Source: Benchmark.pl
PL→EN Archive.org versionSingle Review, online available, Medium, Date: 11/29/2015
Rating: Total score: 90%
Source: PC Lab.pl
PL→EN Archive.org versionPositive: Great performance; very good quality; low temperatures; comfortable keyboard; good sound quality; additional cooling module; competitive price (in this segment). Negative: Dimensions and weight; weak display.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 12/20/2015
Source: Notebook.cz
CZ→EN Archive.org versionPositive: High performance; quiet cooling; perfect mechanical processing; long battery life. Negative: acklit numeric keypad can not switch from blue to another color; audio out softly crackles.
Single Review, online available, Short, Date: 12/16/2015
Comment
Model: The Acer Predator 15 G9-591-74ZV is an aggressive looking gaming laptop and is packed with high performance parts. This gaming laptop is heavy at 3.6 kg and 39 mm high. The thick profile is needed to accommodate the precisely designed cooling exhaust vents as this laptop produces much heat, when it is used for heavy gaming. The Windows 10 system features an Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad core processor at 2.60 GHz, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and the high-end Nvidia Geforce GTX 980M with 4 GB of VRAM. As a result, the gaming performance is great. The 15.6 inch Active Matrix TFT Color LCD with LED backlight features Full-HD resolution and uses IPS technology.
A 1 TB HDD coupled with a 512 GB SSD provides enough space for modern gaming. The keyboard features a backlight and a number pad. The laptop also provides a webcam with microphone, one HDMI port, four USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and a Thunderbolts 3 port. The 8-cell lithium-ion battery with 6000 mAh lasts up to 5 hours of gaming according to Acer. There is a blu-ray writer, which can be replaced by the included Predator Frostcore Fan if extra cooling is preferred.
Series: “The last Predator generation with GTX 9xx GPU was a great hit and this was the laptop which proved that Acer can build one of the best gaming notebooks on the market” (quoted from page LaptopMedia). Last year (2016), the release of the Predator 15 aiming to gaming segment is the clearest evidence of Acer for the statement above. With the performance improved, yet the price reduced, the Acer Predator 15 is built in the strong 15-inch chassis with the high-end Intel Core i7 processor and Pascal-technology Nvidia GeForce graphics card. This one could be one of the most favorite laptops specialized for gaming despite some minor flaws, perhaps.
Design
Talking about the design, page TechRadar said that the Acer Predator 15 boasted an entirely inconvenient design: “It’s awkward and clumsy to lug around, what with its ventilation system protruding from the rear”. With the same point of view, the reviewer from page NotebookCheck also showed his opinion that the update had not really changed the very aggressive design with its red visual elements and the red illumination. Also from this page, only the fan exhaust at the rear differs a bit from old model, but we will have to see both devices to notice the differences really. However, according to page PCWorld, “The 15-inch model, whose sleek, rubberized plastic shell looks cool and does a fantastic job of repelling fingerprints. It’s huge: 15 inches wide and 12 inches deep, and just a smidge over 8 pounds, not including its sizable power brick”. Similarly, page DigitalTrends left their positive comment that the Predator 15 was an aesthetic we had seen a thousand times, and there were some elements that were starting to show their age. Specifically, as remarked on page ComputerShopper, “The formidable, edgy exterior is predominantly black, with red accents. The spiky silver Predator logo is positioned in the center of the lid, and repeated under the display. The logo on the back of the lit in red, as are the two stripes flanking either side” whereas “Except for the side, the laptop looks pretty much the same as its predecessor and that’s not bad at all - both of them have awesome looking and functional design” (LaptopMedia).
Display
Featuring a 15-inch 1080p screen and about 141 pixels per inch, as a review on page DigitalTrends, the Predator’s IPS panel delivers rich, lifelike colors, with a vibrant contrast ratio capable of competing with much bigger and much more expensive than desktop displays. In the similar perspective, “Contrary to its larger sibling Acer Predator 17, the Predator 15 is only available with a Full HD IPS panel. 1920 x 1080 pixels results in a pixel density of a 141 PPI on the 15.6 inch screen, which is a decent compromise between sharpness and size”, stated NotebookCheck. In addition, the new Predator 15, as a remark of page PCMag, adds support for Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, which coordinates the frame rates of the display with those of the game we are playing to reduce screen tearing and give us a smoother gaming experience. Positively, the ComputerShopper showed their mind for this display: “We have zilch to complain about in terms of the display’s picture quality. The colors are vibrant, with excellent contrast. There’s plenty of brightness for most any situation, even limited outdoor use, and the display’s matte surface does a good job of keeping reflections at bay”. Also, for LaptopMedia, Acer Predator 15 has an extremely good screen and that is something normal having in mind that they’re testing a high-end machine. It has excellent brightness, contrast and viewing angles. The resolution is Full HD and they consider it as optimal for a 17-inch screen.
Trackpad and Keyboard
Evaluated from page PCWorld, the Predator 15 has room to spare a full-size keyboard with several gaming-centric features such as LED strip around the trackpad, red keys for WASD and directional arrows, and of course, customizable backlighting. Moreover, the island-style keys are very easy to type with, and that’s coming from a mechanical keyboard fan. The input devices did not differ from the predecessors, so NotebookCheck summarized the most important aspects: “The illuminated chiclet keyboard is one of the better inputs on the market, and convinces with a comfortable typing experience thanks to the convenience key travel”. Nevertheless, TechRadar showed a complaint that the membrane keyboard and trackpad both feel rather decent to the touch, but they’re nothing special. Anyway, “This is a great keyboard, it’s a joy to use, and it even features a full-sized numpad. It won’t put a mechanical desktop keyboard to shame, but it feels snappy and responsive” (DigitalTrends). Besides, the mouse replacement of the Acer Predator 15, as an evaluation of NotebookCheck, is a classic touchpad with dedicated mouse buttons: The surface provides gliding capacities and the size is sufficient; only very small cursor movements are not always perfectly executed; multi-touch gestures on the other hand are no problem for the pad. Regarding to DigitalTrends, the Predator 15’s trackpad is decent: “It has rubberized coating that can feel a little weird, and it’s not as smooth as it could be. The trackpad is accompanied by two hardware buttons which feel a little flimsy, like you could pry them up without much trouble”.
Performance
Acer offers different configurations of the Predator 15 as a comment on NotebookCheck: All SKUS are equipped with the quad-core processor Intel Core i7-6700HQ. Users can choose between two different GPUs (GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070) and the memory capacity. “If you use GTX 1060 and if you’re expecting to play every new game that releases at 1080p 60 fps with the highest settings tickle, you’ll be saddened to know that this laptop just won’t cut it”, said TechRadar. Experimenting with the version of GTX 1060 GPU and 6 GB of DDR5 RAM, the reviewer of PCWorld supposed: “A laptop this thick could accommodate GeForce GTX 1070, but one nice side effect of the under-sized GPU is noise. Under heavy graphics loads, the Predator 15’s fans are relatively quiet, and the keyboard is relatively cool”. Following a remark on page DigitalTrends, taking on its own, the i7-6700HQ is a solid-processor, it delivers excellent performance without any hiccups or noticeable slowdown during everyday tasks, and it performs admirably in most games. As a result of the performance test by PCMag, the Predator 15 also returned strong results on the Heaven and Valley gaming tests: At 1366-by-768 resolution with graphics quality set to medium, it averaged 196 frames per second (fps) on Heaven and 103 fps on Valley. At 1920-by-1080 resolution, and with the graphics quality increased to Ultra, it averaged 68 fps and 73 fps, respectively, on the same tests. Also, with the GTX 1070, LaptopMedia also showed their good records for this notebook: 203 fps on Full HD and max setting on CS:GO, 52 fps on Full HD max setting on GTA V, 52 fps on Full HD max setting on Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016).
Emissions
About emission, LaptopMedia left a positive review that even at the hottest point at idle, the heat of the Predator 15 was pretty cool and that was normal when we weren’t playing games: “Its record is 36.3 Celsius degrees. When we put the notebook to 100% CPU + 100% GPU load, we measured 44.3 Celsius degrees at the hottest point which is a great result”. In the same perspective with LaptopMedia, TechRadar stated that due to its being huge and all, there were plenty of rooms for vents, and Acer took every opportunity to ensure that its system wouldn’t overheat. If we are champing at the bit for a gaming laptop that stays cool in terms of the temperature rather than fashion, this will be our choice (advice from TechRadar). For NotebookCheck, “The fans will reach between 40-45 dB(A) while gaming, which is typical for this class. The murmur is audible, but we could not determine any annoying frequencies. Overall, we would still recommend headphones while gaming”. As a remark of the ComputerShopper, the temperatures on the outside of the notebook were impressively low: “The Predator 15’s chassis thickness is most certainly a help when it comes to cooling”.
Battery
According to TechRadar, as with most gaming laptops, the Acer Predator 15 struggles when it comes to extensive use without the power brick connected. The PCWorld showed their experience on the battery that the Predator 15 lasted for four hours and one minute: “We could say that’s average for a high-power gaming machine and leave it at that, but there’s more to this result”. Also, like a comment on page DigitalTrends, we can push battery life to about three and a half, or maybe four hours if we’re just browsing or working, but the reviewer’s video loop test placed the Predator 15 at four hours and five minutes.
Verdict
In general, “The Predator 15’s primary downside next to competitors is its weight and thickness, a far cry from machines like the slim Gigabyte P35X v6. However, we doubt the Predator 15 would have such an excellent cooling system or speakers if it were ultra slim” (quoted from the ComputerShopper). Anyway, in my opinion, I found the Acer Predator 15 with such a lot of advantages, such as: the good gaming performance, great RGB keyboard, operation in rather cool and quiet condition, and a variety of graphics options for users (you could choose the GeForce GTX 1060 or either a little higher with the GTX 1070). Notwithstanding, the minus point for this notebook is it is pretty thicker and heavier than its predecessor. Anyway, TechRadar gave their conclusion: “Ultimately, the Acer Predator 15 falls short of success, if only because it is far too ambitious to carry its own weight”.
Press Review by Capuchino Saber
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M:
Fast high-end graphics card based on the Maxwell GM204 chip from the GeForce GTX 900M series.
Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
Intel Core i7: The Intel Core i7 for laptops is based on the LG1156 Core i5/i7 CPU for desktops. The base clock speed of the CPUs is relatively low, but because of a huge Turbo mode, the cores can dynamically overclock to up to 3.2 GHz (920XM). Therefore, the CPU can be as fast as high clocked dual-core CPUs (using single threaded applications) but still offer the advantage of 4 cores. Because of the large TDP of 45 W / 55 W, the CPU is only intended for large laptops.
6700HQ: Skylake-based quad-core processor for notebooks. Offers an integrated HD Graphics 530 GPU and is manufactured in 14 nm.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
15.60":
15-inch display variants are the standard and are used for more than half of all laptops.
The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, often allows high resolutions and thus offers rich details on the screen, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact - simply the standard compromise.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.3.6 kg:
Only a few laptops are in this weight class because the mobility is rather limited due to the high weight.
Acer: In 1976, the company was founded in Taiwan under the name Multitech and was renamed Acer or Acer Group in 1987. The product range includes, for example, laptops, tablets, smartphones, desktops, monitors, TVs and computer peripherals. Since 2007, the group has merged with Gateway Inc. and Packard Bell, which also market their own laptop product lines.
Acer computers are designed for a variety of purposes, including ultrabooks for mobile use, gaming laptops for gamers, affordable options for everyday tasks, and 2-in-1 convertible laptops for versatility. Acer's product portfolio also includes tablets that offer portable computing and multimedia capabilities.
84.88%: This rating is slightly above average, there are somewhat more devices with worse ratings. However, clear purchase recommendations look different.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.