Acer Predator 21 X review

The Acer Predator 21 X is the world’s most powerful gaming laptop, and while the price tag is likely to be far too much for most people, there’s still a lot to admire about this machine.

The Acer Predator 21 X is unlike any other device we’ve tested – which makes for a rather challenging – yet also enjoyable – review. This is an incredibly ambitious device that fits some of the most powerful gaming components available today into a (sort of) portable device.

In many ways, it is a proof-of-concept – Acer’s way of seeing just how far it can push laptop technology. Its aim was to make the biggest and most powerful gaming laptop ever – and it has certainly succeeded, filling the Predator 21 X with cutting edge components that give even the most powerful desktop gaming rigs a run for their money.

While the ambition on display with the Acer Predator 21 X is certainly impressive, it comes at a (major) cost. Calling this a premium or high-end laptop would be doing it a disservice.

Price and availability

That major cost we just mentioned? We’re talking about the price tag. At £9,000 ($8,999.99, around AU$15,120) this laptop will be prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people.

This is the conundrum when reviewing the Acer Predator 21 X, as we – like many people – would never spend that kind of money on a laptop. However, it is worth reviewing to see just how capable the world’s most powerful gaming laptop really is. Can the undoubtedly powerful components and premium features even remotely justify the price?

It’s also worth noting that, despite the price, there is a market for this machine – it's currently listed as out of stock on Acer’s website, and people have indeed been buying them. We were told of a dad who bought an engraved version for his eight-year-old son – surely putting him in the running for a ‘dad of the year’ mug, at the very least.

Of course, Acer will not be mass producing the Acer Predator 21 X, which makes talking about availability tricky, but should you be willing to put down such a hefty wad of cash for this laptop, we’re pretty sure Acer would be more than willing to oblige.

Design

As you’d expect from a gaming laptop with this amount of power – and because it’s part of Acer’s Predator line up – the design of the Predator 21 X is certainly striking. It’s loud and brash, featuring bright LEDs, sharp angles and edges, and a plastic body with black and silver paint, making it obvious that this is a laptop for gamers. While some people may love the look, it could also prove to be divisive, and it lacks the premium look – and materials – that we expect of expensive laptops.

The Acer Predator 21 X  definitely makes a bold first impression, as it arrives not in a box, but in a huge flight case. While the bulk of the flight case is filled with padding to protect the ultra-expensive laptop, the Acer Predator 21 X is still a bit of a behemoth, with dimensions of 3.3 x 22.4 x 12.4 inches (8.38 x 56.9 x 31.5cm) and a weight of 18.74 pounds (8.5kg). This is not a particularly portable laptop – though, of course, it is easier to transport than most gaming desktops.

The sheer size of the laptop is a necessity due to the powerful hardware crammed into the body – and the need to keep everything cool. So, the body includes a whopping five-fan cooling system. Three of these fans – which are metal Predator AeroBlade fans built by Acer to be ultra-thin and quiet – are dedicated to keeping the processor and graphics cards cool.

There are also nine heat pipes in the body of the Predator 21 X, which further help to dissipate heat from the components, while keeping noise levels down as much as possible.

While the large size of the Acer Predator 21 X makes carrying it around a bit tricky, it does allow Acer to add in some nice features, such as four Dolby Audio Premium speakers and two subwoofers touting cinema-like sound quality and virtual surround sound.

It also includes a full-size, backlit mechanical keyboard with Cherry Brown MX switches, which feels brilliant to use, especially when gaming. To the right of the keyboard is a unique module that on one side includes the numpad, but can be detached and flipped to become a trackpad via magnets. It’s a neatly designed feature – and works well – but it would have been lovely if Acer had made it able to function wirelessly, so you could position the numpad or trackpad wherever you like.

Regardless, you’re likely to be using a proper mouse with the Acer Predator 21 X, especially when gaming.

Along the left-hand side of the keyboard are five programmable keys that can be assigned various macros and functions. Above them is a sixth key, which is used to switch between three pre-set ‘groups’, effectively giving you 15 function keys.

These function keys (along with back lighting effects and overclocking options), are handled by Acer’s Predator Sense software, a well-designed app that lets you easily configure the laptop to suit your needs.

The main keys can also be removed and their switches changed, offering an excellent level of customisability, and there is a wrist pad included that magnetically attaches to the Predator 21 X’s body.

Above the keyboard sits the power button and a Perspex window that shows one of the fans running inside. To the left of that is a big plate with stylish illustrations of the hardware components located underneath (and this can be customised). This plate can be easily removed, giving you access to some of the hardware, which Acer told us could, in some cases, be replaced and upgraded.

This is a welcome feature for such an expensive laptop, as although the powerful components installed in the Acer Predator 21 X ensure a laptop that will be future-proofed for a very long time, at some point you may want to update it. Rather than ditching this uber-expensive laptop, you should hopefully be able to swap out some of the components.

Due to the size of the Predator 21 X, it’s little surprise that Acer has managed to pack in plenty of ports. These include a gigabit Ethernet network port, HDMI, four USB 3.0 ports, five USB 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort, and microphone and headphone jacks.

While there’s plenty of space for all these ports, there apparently isn’t any room for an optical drive. For many people who download their games from services such as Steam and Origin, this won’t be an issue, but it may disappoint some who still have games (and apps) that run off CDs and DVDs. It also means you can’t make use of the Predator 21 X’s amazing screen to watch DVDs or Blu-rays – unless you purchase an external drive.

As for that screen, well, it’s one of the most impressive aspects of the Predator 21 X, second only to the amazing components inside it. At 21 inches, it would be one of the largest screens available on a laptop anyway, but it also has an ultra-wide aspect ratio of 21:9. This adds extra space onto either side of the display – which makes playing games even more immersive.

We love ultra-wide monitors (such as the AOC Agon AG352UCG) for gaming, so it’s exciting to see one included here. The monitor is also curved, which makes using it more comfortable, as the edges fill your peripheral vision.

At 2,560 x 1,080 resolution, it’s not the most pixel-dense 21:9 screen we’ve seen, but it's certainly sharp enough for playing games on.

Further bolstering the Acer Predator 21 X’s gaming credentials is the fact that the screen utilises Nvidia’s G-Sync technology with a refresh rate of 120Hz. This means that screen tearing and input lag is kept to a minimum (if not eliminated altogether), and frame rates in games remain smooth.

Under the display sits a thin line of transparent plastic, with two LEDs flashing behind it. This is part of the Tobii eye-tracking technology included in the Predator 21 X. This allows compatible games to track your eye movement, which Acer claims gives the already-large monitor an ‘infinite’ aspect, as the in-game camera should move with your eyes, so you should never reach the edges of the screen.

While including a 21-inch, ultra-wide display further makes the Acer Predator 21 X big and unwieldy, the sheer audacity is impressive, and when you see it in action, you can almost forgive the size. What’s less forgivable – but still understandable – is that the Predator 21 X requires two (yes, two) chunky power supplies to power it. That is pretty ridiculous, and doesn’t bode well for its battery life. It also shows that portability and convenience aren’t the top of Acer’s priorities when it comes to the Predator 21 X.

Bulky box

Of course, the reason why anyone would spend such a huge amount of money on this machine, rather than a considerably cheaper – yet still as powerful – desktop gaming PC, is because it is at least somewhat more portable than the usual gaming rig. 

So, if you do want to carry the Predator 21 X around with you, Acer does have you covered by supplying a robust carrying case built by Pelican. This is a large, solidly built, flight case that comes with four wheels on the bottom and an extendable handle for dragging along with you. Inside, the case is filled with foam to protect the Predator 21 X, while cutouts in the material allow you to store the various extras – such as the power supplies – with ease. The case is also watertight and dust-proof.

Like pretty much everything to do with the Predator 21 X, the case is large, over-the-top and attention-seeking, but it is very well made, and you wouldn’t have to worry too much about carrying around your ultra-expensive laptop in it.

However, there’s a line on Acer’s official Predator 21 X website that is rather telling: “Despite its size, you might occasionally need to travel with the 21 X”. This is a laptop that isn’t really designed to be moved around – which begs the question: “what is the point?” 

Of course, the biggest selling point of the Acer Predator 21 X is the crazy amount of power that this laptop contains. For many people, the specs list of the Predator 21 X reads as a veritable wishlist. This laptop contains some seriously powerful – and currently cutting-edge – components which are usually seen in monster gaming PCs, rather than laptops.

This includes an Intel Core i7 2820HK quad-core processor clocked at 2.90GHz, a 1TB hard drive, and two PCIe SSDs set up in RAID 0. So, while the two SSDs are already incredibly fast, setting them up in a RAID 0 array can further boost the disk speeds.

Graphical grunt comes courtesy of two Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics cards in SLI. Having two GPUs in one laptop is rare enough, and the GTX 1080 is one of the most powerful graphics cards around, though it has been superseded by the GTX 1080 Ti and the Nvidia Titan Xp. 

While it is slightly disappointing that you don’t get the absolute latest GPUs, having two GTX 1080s in SLI is still mighty impressive for a laptop – and they are overclocked by Acer to eke out every ounce of power from them.

While these are impressive specs so far, Acer has really pushed out the boat when it comes to RAM, including 64GB of DDR4 memory at 2,400MHz. It’s here that a bit of restraint may not have been a bad thing – 64GB of RAM is certainly impressive, but it’s also overkill if you’re only using the Predator 21 X as a gaming device.

However, thanks to the incredible graphics power, combined with the RAM, SSDs and astonishing display, the Predator 21 X could be an excellent mobile workstation for people who use graphic-intensive tools – such as digital artists and video editors. It’s actually here that the price – and power – of the Acer Predator 21 X actually begins to make sense.

So, how does the Acer Predator 21 X perform? As you’d expect (and can see from our benchmark results), the Predator 21 X performs extremely well. At the standard 1080p resolution, it hit 38 frames per second for the incredibly taxing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided benchmark on Ultra settings. While it doesn’t hit that magical 60 frames per second (fps) on Ultra, it still blows its closest competitor, the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 out of the water, as it managed 18 fps in the same tests.

However, it’s important to note that while we say ‘closest competitor’, the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 costs $2,699 or AU$3,659 (about £2,105), which is still less than a third of the price of the Acer Predator 21 X.

While the Acer Predator 21 X comes with two GTX 1080 graphics cards in SLI, the Asus ROG Zephyrus GX501 ‘only’ comes with one. Another thing to note is that, while we ran the benchmarks in 1,920 x 1,080 resolution – for a better comparison with other laptops – you’ll actually be running games in 2,560 x 1,080 resolution to take advantage of the Predator 21 X’s ultra-wide screen.

In that resolution, the frame rates in the Deus Ex benchmark on ultra drop to 18.9 frames per second – which will be unplayable for many people. This will be disappointing for anyone who thinks by paying $9,000 for a laptop will allow them to play the latest games at ultra graphical settings, and with high resolutions with framerates to match.

To get better results, you can turn on GPU and CPU overclocking using the Acer Predator software. This makes both components work harder – and the software makes turning this feature on safe and easy. With GPU overclocking set to ‘Turbo’, the Deus Ex benchmark at 2,560 x 1,080 resolution brought back a marginally better average of 21 fps, with highs of 28 fps. That’s still not quite a rock-solid 30 fps, though.

We’d like to note here that the bunded Acer Predator software is excellent, making it easy not just to overclock your components, but also set up the macro buttons on the keyboard and configure the LED lighting that decorates the Acer Predator 21 X.

Things were better with the less graphically-intensive real time strategy game Total War: Warhammer, which typically taxes the CPU a bit more. Here, the Acer Predator 21 X scores an excellent 103 fps on Ultra at 1080p, with it dropping to a still-respectable 94 fps at 2,560 x 1,080.

So, there’s no doubt that the Acer Predator 21 X is an incredibly powerful laptop, and one with no peers – unless you start looking at desktop PCs.

And, that is the Acer Predator 21 X’s main problem – its high price tag and the power of its components means it actually competes with gaming desktops. It’s more portable than a desktop PC, but again, between its weight and need for two power supplies, it’s not actually that much more portable.

And, when you compare it to a desktop gaming machine, both its price and its power become almost indefensible. For a fraction of the cost, you could buy (or build) a gaming rig that equals – or beats – the Acer Predator 21X.

For example, last year’s HP Omen X costs $2,599 (£2,499, around AU$4100) and matches or beats the Acer Predator 21 X in the benchmark tests. This is with only a single GTX 1080 and 16GB of RAM – if you wanted to add a second GTX 1080 or up the RAM later, you can easily do that, and the price would still be drastically lower than that of the Acer Predator 21 X. 

If you’re a serious gamer who is concerned about getting as much power as possible, you’ll need to think carefully about whether the limited portability of the Acer Predator 21 X is worth an extra $4,000. Or, you could put your money in a less powerful, but far more slim and light, gaming laptop. Thanks to Nvidia’s Max Q technology, we’re now seeing some seriously slimline gaming laptops that balance gorgeous designs with powerful components.

But, enough about benchmarks, how does it actually feel to play games on the Acer Predator 21 X? The answer is, thankfully, very good – especially if you tweak a few graphical settings to make sure it’s running as smoothly as possible. The ultra-wide screen is a cool benefit, but while 21 inches is very large for a laptop screen, it’s still not big enough to really fill your field of vision and completely immerse you.

Meanwhile, the Tobii eye tracking technology does a good job, and we tried it with a few compatible games, including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Even in a busy room with bright lights, the eye tracking hardware accurately detected where we were looking and moved the camera accordingly. This worked best in games when you’re standing still and looking – or games in which you are sitting in a cockpit.

Fan noise was kept to a minimum – even when overclocking the components – a welcome and impressive feat. The size of the Acer Predator 21X ’s body, in conjunction with the large number of heat pipes and silent design of some of the fans, helps keep the laptop cool and quiet while running intensive games.

The screen is a joy to watch movies on – as the colors and detail are very impressive, while the 21:9 aspect ratio eliminates the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. Of course, for content that isn’t filmed in that aspect ratio, such as 16:9 widescreen TV shows, you’ll get black bars down the left and right sides of the screen, if you watch it in full screen.

As you’d expect with a laptop of this power, Windows 10 on the whole feels fast and snappy – though we were a bit disappointed with boot-up times considering the speeds of the SSD. 

From cold, Windows 10 took 37 seconds to fully load. This isn’t bad at all, but not quite the ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ boot up time promised by Acer. Games also took a while to load sometimes, but on the whole we were pleased with the performance.

Battery life

With a laptop of this size, with powerful and often overclocked components, a huge ultra-wide screen, and the need for two large power adaptors, it’s probably little surprise to learn that the Acer Predator 21 X’s battery life is incredibly slight.

In our battery life benchmark, where we run a looped high definition video file, the battery lasted just 1 hour and 28 minutes. The PCMark 8 battery life benchmark, which mimics standard use, such as browsing websites, making video calls and a bit of light gaming, was even worse; lasting just one hour and 16 minutes.

And, if you’re playing games, the battery life depletes even faster. Of course, with great power comes great power consumption, but the very short life of the Acer Predator 21 X’s 8-cell, 6,000 mAh essentially dismisses any notion that this is a portable laptop.

This again raises the question of why you’d pay over the odds for this device. It’s no more powerful than a decent gaming desktop PC, and not that much more portable. But it’s a heck of a lot more expensive.

We liked

There’s no denying that this is the most powerful gaming laptop ever made, and we love the ambition of the device. Having two GTX 1080 graphics cards, loads of storage and 64GB of RAM in a single laptop is ridiculous – in a good way.

The 21-inch curved ultra-wide screen is also impressive, and while we had the laptop on our desk, we had plenty of people coming over and giving it admiring glances. It’s certainly a talking point, and whoever owns the Predator 21 X is certainly making a statement.

We didn’t like

You probably already know what we’re going to say: the price – £9,000 ($8,999.99, around AU$15,120) is an absolutely huge price tag. While it will get you the most powerful gaming laptop ever built, this is a price that will be out of most people’s reach.

For that price you could buy an equally-powerful desktop gaming PC, along with a not-quite-as-powerful, but still pretty darn impressive, gaming laptop and have a grand or so cash left to spare. This is money that could buy you a car, or go some way to putting down a deposit on a house.

We’re also not hugely convinced with the design – in a world where Max Q laptops are proving that gaming laptops can be slim and sexy, the Acer Predator 21 X looks a bit… well, ugly.

And, while its power makes it a good choice for a mobile workstation, its ‘extreme gamer’ aesthetics undermine this a bit.

Final verdict

So, what can we say about this £9,000 ($8,999.99, around AU$15,120) gaming laptop? If you have that sort of money to spend on a machine, and you want the most powerful gaming laptop ever made, then there really is no other option. 

Acer obviously isn’t expecting to sell thousands of these devices, but there are enthusiasts out there that will want the very best no matter what the cost, and they won’t be disappointed with the Acer Predator 21 X.

A lot of thought and consideration has been put into this laptop, making it the ultimate premium gaming machine. This is backed up with a level of customer service for Acer Predator 21 X owners that goes beyond the usual offerings. If you buy this laptop, you will certainly feel like a member of an elite club.

But, what about the rest of us who could not even consider spending this much money on a laptop? Well, there’s still a lot to admire here, especially if you consider – as we suggested at the start of this review – the Acer Predator 21 X as a proof-of-concept design.

Looking at it this way, it shows how far laptop technology has come – and what they can achieve. Acer went out of its way to create a no-holds-barred, uber powerful gaming laptop, and it has certainly achieved that. Even if we could never afford it, there’s a lot to respect.