Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 15.6" Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H, GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Backlit Keyboard, PH315-52-78VL

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Overview: This machine does a pretty good job living up to its advertised capabilities. This review is based on my impressions after a couple of days with the unit - I may update it later if anything relevant occurs long-term. Testing Methodology: I dont have a lot of sophistocated instruments for measuring the actual brightness, color gamut etc... In general I stuck to sofware based tests and my somewhat subjective eyeballs. Construction: The top (back of the screen) is metal, as is keyboard and palm-rest area, the screen bezel and bottom are plastic. This was a pretty good design decision as it keeps the bottom from turning into a hotplate in your lap. The hinge feels solid and moves very smoothly. Screen: The screen is rated about 300 nits. Just based on comparisions with others with similar ratings this screen seems like it might actually be a little brighter than its rated. Its perfectly visible outside in daylight as long as there isnt direct sunlight on the screen. The 144hz refresh rate is a really nice feature and allows for some rock-solid motion. The contrast and color gamut are very effective and pleasing to the eye. I dont have a tool for measuring the colors so this could just be clever engineering, but nothing here feels like a compromise. The screen does suffer from uneven backlight blooming so on a completely dark image, there are bright splotches around the margin, but this is pretty typical for an IPS LCD. GPU: The GPU seems to be able to take just about everything Ive thrown at it on the most insane settings and I havent noticed any performance problems. The Witcher 3 and Darksiders Warmastered Edition look amazing in motion, with the latter running at a V-syncd 144hz with no problems at all. It pulled a very respectable score of 14,000+ on the Final Fantasy XIV Stormbringer Benchmark with everything turned up to maximum and every optimization turned off. The laptop comes pre-configured with an overclock setting called "Turbo" mode which is activated by a button to the upper-left of the keyboard. You can, of course, create your own overclocking profiles. In order to more efficiently use power, conserve battery, and cut down on fan noise, as with most contemporary gaming laptops, the Predator Helios 300 uses Intel Optimus. In a nutshell, Intel Optimus switches dynammically between the considerably less powerful and less power-hungry integrated Intel GPU and the GTX-1660ti. The system will attempt to guess which GPU should be used for a given process, but you can deliberately control this in a couple of different ways. From the Nvidia Control Panel, you can set the GPU to use for a given application so that whenever that program (i.e. your games) are launched it automatically does so under the Nvidia card. Alternatively you can tell the system to favor the Nvidia card for everything (not a great idea unless you want to listen to the fan all the time and watch your battery level drop before your eyes). And Lastly, theres a context menu item called "run with graphics processor" that lets you select which to use by right-clicking on an application before you launch it. So Optimus is pretty useful for balancing performance, but it somes with a couple of unfortunate tradeoffs. There is no "Display" option in the Nvidia control panel because Optimus dynamically manages those settings, and G-Sync and Fast Sync options are not possible though technically the GPU is capable of using them. Keyboard: The keyboard is, for the most part, great. The keys are spaced reasonably, slightly convex, quiet and just have a nice feel. Im used to pressing harder so my fingers have a tendency to bounce and I wind up typing double letters occasionally, but its nothing I cant adjust to. (I tried using the Windows "Filter Keys" setting to help with this but its more of an accessiblity option and is too restrictive) The width of the keyboard allows for the incorporation of a 10-key keypad on the right, however the keys are much narrower than the rest of the keyboard, and the 0 key has been shifted to the center column to accomodate the arrow keys, so its a bit of compromise. Its only really annoying when trying to type in a large string of numbers such as when entering a license key. Trackpad: The trackpad is generously large and very sensitive. There are no mouse buttons, but the bottom of the pad is clickable with the right and left corners representing the right and left mouse buttons. Sound: The laptop comes with a pair of down-firing stereo speakers that are okay for what they are. Theyre tinny and cant really get loud enough to overpower the fan noise when playing games. Noise cancelling or noise isolating headphones are pretty much mandatory for gaming or anything that drives the GPU. That said, the virtual surround effect is surprisingly convincing. Backlighting: They changed last-years red backlight to blue, which I think is somewhat more pleasing to the eye, but its kind of a deal breaker in the use-it-in-bed scenario because the blue light spectrum interferes with your ability to achieve REM sleep. Its a thing, look it up. Battery: It runs on a 3720mAh battery which is about 25% more capacity than last years model. Trying to give a "it lasts this many hours" number is kind of pointless in my opinion because its affected by background processes, screen brightness, what youre doing with it, the age of the battery, etc. Lets be honest though, no one is buying this laptop for its battery life. Nvidia has several settings which seek to improve battery life while gaming, but they all involve framerate throttling. If you want to game while not connected to mains power, then youre probably playing games that would work just fine on a laptop with a fraction of the power of this thing. Webcam/Mic The webcam maxes out at 720p30. That resolution also holds for still images so it seems like thats the geometry of the sensor itself. It works okay in relatively low light - with the brightness gain cranked all the way up, the glow of the screen is enough to allow it to capture a usable amount of detail in a dark room. In a normally lit room the image is a bit darker than what you would see with your eyes, and as with most webcams, colors are little washed out. And like most pinhole cameras, the brighter the lighting the clearer the picture and the more faithful the colors. This would be perfectly serviceable in a well-lit office, or outdoors. The stereo microphone picks up voices clean and clear. Network: The "Killer" WiFi chip in this machine is amazingly fast. My Internet service tops off at around 25MB/s, and this Wi-Fi card easily hit 23MB/s (thats bytes, not bits) when downloading games from GOG Galaxy. I was pleased to see that the laptop also maintains an RJ-45 for wired ethernet connnectivity - it uses a clever hinged port to maximize space while theres nothing plugged in. Hardware Accessibility/Upgrade difficulty: Unlike last years model, there are no quick access ports - if you want to get at the Wi-Fi, M.2, Memory or SSD area, you have to remove the entire bottom of the shell. Fortunately everything important is within reach after you take out the 10 philips screws and pull the bottom cover off. Cooling: This is by far the best vented laptop Ive ever seen. The heatsink fins and fans are clearly visible through the myriad slits on the bottom, sides and back. The fans are as noisy as any laptop Ive ever used, but not worse, though when you hit that Turbo button to kick in the overclocking profile and those fans crank up, it sounds like a jet preparing to take off, so if youre doing any moderate to heavy gaming, noise isolating or noise cancelling headphones are not optional. Storage: A 256GB PCIe M.2 drive is installed. It tops off around 1.5Gbps which is a pretty respectable speed and pretty performmant. Its not a lot of space though so its fortunate that theres another M.2 slot to install another card later on. Theres also a bay for a 2.5" drive, but the bracket and SATA connector kit comes with a warning that Acer no longer considers this a user serviceable operation and implies that your warranty may be voided by attempting to install it yourself. Instructions/Documentation: The documentation for the hardware was honestly a little disappointing. It gives you a tour of the ports and the keyboard, but doesnt include anything about how to install M.2 devices, upgrade memory or install a 2.5" drive - these arent exactly rocket surgery, but it still feels like an oversite that Acer doesnt want to show you what goes where. The SATA adapter for the 2.5" drive requires connnection to a proprietary ribbon socket which they altogether fail to tell you how to locate on the motherboard. Other Stuff: I had to chuckle when I saw the "Turbo" button. Im old enough to remember when that was a thing on the Intel 386 CPUs, and unironically it does pretty much the same sort of thing here. The BIOS is about the most bare-bones affair Ive seen recently, with no options for controlling and/or disabling the integrated GPU. The system came with Norton Ultimate installed. Thankfully thats about the only piece of garbageware installed by Acer. Microsofts default "Windows Defender" is far superior to Norton and unlike Norton it wont waste a ton of CPU cycles for no good reason. Windows Defender is already part of Windows 10 - just uninstall Norton and reboot to activate it. Its better protection and doesnt expire and beg for more money in a year. Ive attached an image of the installed applications to this review so you can see what it comes with. Summary: Pros: - Looks and feels sleek and solid - That 144hz screen is fantastic - 300 nits is not MacBook bright, but its usable in daylight - Comes with fast PCIe M.2 Storage - Wi-Fi is incredibly fast - Powerful GPU - Very effective cooling - I never saw it break 46C Cons: - Blue backlighting is bad for bedtime use - Fans get loud when the system is under a load - No option to disable Optimus and enable GSync (so no GSync) - Norton Ultimate - seriously? Updates: (As I encounter new things that I think are relevant, Ill update the review here) - The USB-C socket is not wired to the video card so its not possible to output video. The laptop provides HDMI and a mini-DPort so its not lacking in output options, but still.

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I almost cancelled my ordered when realizing the only reviews were all from Vine reviewers! I am glad I didnt. I have only owned 1 other laptop which lasted almost a decade. That and my PCs is what I have to compare it too. When I buy computer stuff I try to get the best for the money that will not be out of date for many years. In my mind I try to buy things that will be good for 8-10 years. After looking at many laptops from top brands, and reading reviews and articles from the PC world, I realized I wanted a monitor at or above 120HZ. This one is 144HZ amazing! My old laptop became no fun when the cpu was way passed its prime, so I wanted no less than a I7 8th gen, this one is the 9th gen! When it came to the video I wanted a 1060 or faster. This has the 1660ti, yesterdays beast card. The last on my concerns were heating up while under load. I am still concerned with heating up under load, but at this point it seems to handle everything I have put at it so far. The Predator Key pulls up the CPU, GPU,and Laptop temps, which has not gone much higher than mid 70s. The 2 games my kids and I have played on it might not be the most demanding either at this point. I like the way the key board feels also, and I use a wireless mouse. I can not say enough about the monitor, it is just great! I have only had the laptop for a week at this point and will update my review if something great or terrible comes to light. Best of Luck! Troy

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Laptop performs great. Youll be able to run pretty much any AAA title at Max - Ultra at reasonable frame rates. Cooling much better then the 2018 model and I didnt notice any thermal throttling. You are unable to upgrade the Nvidia driver manually. You must use GeForce experience. 144hrz display is good not great but for the price its unbeatable. Average backlight bleed which is typicall for IPS. Little to no screen tearing without vsync. No GSYNC which is fine. Speakers better then expected for type of laptop. Fan is loud but not piercing under load. Keyboard is soft but deliberate, great for typing. Very intrusive junkware had to be removed so notifications werent popping up every 20 minutes, annoying but typical. Laptop is thinner then the more expensive ASUS & MSI competition. The half metal case is confidence inspiring. The bottom is very easy to remove with a few screws and gives you quick access to all replaceable parts Normally I would not buy an Acer but their Predator line shows quality they have not shown in the past. Im disappointed its not RGB like it was advertised on Acers website (cross-referenced specific model #) but for the performance its not too upsetting. Would recommend as long as the quality lasts as long as it looks good.

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So Ill start with the fact that this laptop came with undervolted cpu which I found kinda strange. Played PUBG on ultra settings, max cpu temps were ~80°C and gpu max temps were 70°C (max fans on both).

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After owning the last Helios 300 (GTX 1060) and selling it last year I was ready to be done with the Predator laptops. The old red laptop was just too big and bulky, and between the thermal issues and instability with the OS I was just done with it altogether. Then they released this Helios and Im truly blown away. LOOKS- For starters it is a thinner, sleeker, lighter, and much more visually appealing laptop compared to the big red "gamer" aesthetic they were going for with the old model. While performance matters more than looks to me and while it was a tremendous value for the price, it certainly drew a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. This one is a thinner, more modern looking computer with cleaner lines and a smaller profile while still keeping the same screen size. The blue theme to this is more appealing VS the red and I use it for gaming as well as at work. My colleagues presume it is a professional laptop but little do they know it is also a gaming powerhouse. PERFORMANCE- The 1660ti is only 7% weaker than my GTX 1070 that is in my PC tower. It will play pretty much anything at 1080p ultra settings with fantastic frame rates. Combined with the 144hz screen it is only trumped by my 4K monitor on my actual battlestation at home. You can look up benchmarks if youre interested, but bottom line here is youll have no problem with 1080p gaming. If you want to do 4k you can output to an external monitor. But that isnt the point of using a laptop. KEYBOARD- Its also an improvement over the previous Helios 300. Its no mechanical keyboard but it is definitely responsive and comfortable to type on. The inclusion of a numpad is also a plus SCREEN- Crystal clear with a high refresh rate. By far the best Ive seen on any laptop. Mine didnt have any screen bleed but I cant speak for everyone. Good size and the colors are nice and clear. BATTERY- Its simply OK. Youre gonna have better GPU performance with this plugged in but I can see general tasks being done on this for maybe a few hours before it needs to be plugged in. STORAGE- The 256GB drive is an M.2 drive and is crazy fast, but it doesnt hold a lot. You can add another M.2 drive and there is a bay to add another Hard drive or SSD. Youll have to actually wire the drive into your motherboard (the old Helios had the port pre-installed) and this is a service that could actually void your warranty. It isnt the hardest thing to do, but I would definitely recommend taking it to an Acer care center if you cant figure it out. FINAL THOUGHTS- The new Predator Helios 300 is worth every penny. With improved stability, thermals, looks and performance it is a no brainer. This thing is gonna be the replacement for my PC tower if and or when it finally kicks the bucket. If you held off on buying the last Predator due to all the issues you heard about I would say you made the right call. This is the solution to those problems you were waiting for and then some. If youre on the fence I can wholeheartedly say (with my name on the line) that this laptop is absolutely worth it. Yeah its expensive and I wasnt too thrilled about shelling out for another Predator after all the problems with the first one, but I am glad I got this and I know youll be too.

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Ive had this laptop for about 24 hours now and am seriously impressed with it. One thing I did have to do was to go into the nvidia control panel to set the Global Settings to use the nvidia 1660 graphics card. It defaults to the integrated graphics which is not as good as the nvidia card and why you are getting this laptop. I can only compare it to my only other Windows desktop which has the GTX1060 3G card from last year and this laptop is so much faster it is unreal. In one of my games I was getting over 100 FPS during FPP gameplay. Even over WiFi the laptop is responsive. The built in trackpad is okay. Youll definitely want an external mouse. The included software like Predator Sense is particularly interesting as it provides the ability to overclock the GPU and easily. So far I havent needed to but as far as having the software already preloaded is neat. Fan noise even without overclocking is noticeable but expected considering how much work this laptop is doing during game play. Audio through my bluetooth headset is really good. The Waves NX technology with my old bluetooth headset does make gameplay a lot better making it easier to hear which direction opponents are coming from. Im seriously considering getting a NX enable headset to see how much better it could be. WiFi is solid and Im connected to 5G for gameplay. Ive also ordered a PCIe NVMe M.2 module to expand the drive space. The stock NVMe had about 190G available on it so still plenty of space but it is nice being able to expand with the extra empty M.2 slot.

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What I like most about the Predator laptop is the wide, clear and bright screen which is not only great for gaming, but for any visuals such as art, photo editing, watching videos, etc. However, this is just one of the many features. The charging port is on the left side – I’d have preferred it in back as to not have the cord looping around if the nearest power source is on the right. Also on the left side is a Kensington lock slot (sorry, have no idea what that is), an AC adapter jack, an ethernet port, two USB ports and the headphone jack. The right side has a USB Type-C port, a USB port that allows power-off charging, an external display port and a HDMI port. Speakers are angled to the rear on either side of the laptop base for stereo sound, which is crisp and clear. Both left and right sides as well as the back edge have multiple ventilation vents for the cooling fan. The underside also has an expansive ventilation area. The fan, though not loud, appears to be powerful as I did not experience any notable heating of the laptop components. The keyboard is brightly backlit with a bluish white light. At the top on the left side is the Turbo button, which allows you to switch the overclocking and fan level. There is also a “PredatorSense” key which launches the PredatorSense software by which you can monitor and change those settings as well as customizing your gaming profile. The camera window above the screen has a reasonably clear picture, and there are two internal stereo microphones on either side. The wide buttonless touchpad is quite sensitive, though you can modify this. I know that I may be old school in this but I do wish it had dedicated left and right-click buttons. Comes with Window 10 preloaded and with Cortana personal assistant.

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I did a ton of research before landing on this laptop. I looked at Alienware, Razer and other brands but this one stood out the most. The amount performance for your hard earned money can’t be beat. Pair that with great build quality and cooling, this laptop hits all marks. I use this primarily with my Oculus Rift S and it’s able to run every game so far. For any one on the fence, I highly recommended this laptop. I also bought a 4-year warranty to hang onto this as long as possible without any worries.

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Bought the laptop for gaming purpose. Played on it for hours Total War 3k which heavily utlizes resources and with graphics on high setting I get a very nice fps. I didnt test the battery The laptop feels solid thanks to the aluminum screen back cover and keyboard frame. It is well built with slim design and very smooth keyboard with classy blue color. Thermal design of this model is better than the 2018 model. I played games on the laptop for hours in a warm room around 27°C and the CPU never exceeded 85°C while GPU was below 80°C also the keyboard never felt hot. I used stock setting without cooling pads but turned the coolboost option on ( that is different from Max fan speed) What I dont like is the limited storage but there is one empty slot for M.2 NMVe and another one for 2.5" ssd. I saw a youtuber who further undervolted the processor to -0.17 and worked for him with a decrease of -4°C for the CPU. Im planning to get mine done too. One more thing I disliked was the power cord partially blocking the side vent. However, I overcome this issue by turning the cord to the other side but it might be somehow inconvenient when using the left side ports frequently

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I recently got a job that requires me to travel a lot. My wife and I are avid gamers so I needed to find a good quality gaming laptop. I am extremely satisfied with this laptop so far. It has really great build quality. The graphics card (1660ti) is perfect for 1080p high FPS gaming. I get over 100FPS with ultra settings in almost every game I play (Apex Legends, Rocket League, PUBG, and CSGO). I dropped some setting in shooter games and easily get over 144FPS. You can not ask for much more out a gaming laptop, and all for $1200. This laptop is getting the same, if not better, frame rates than far more expensive and higher end laptops I looked into. I was also surprised by the "Waves MaxxAudio" software. I am a big music/audio enthusiast. I never knew about this included software until I actually got the laptop. It is not amazing, but it is much better than I expected. If I run into any issues, I will update this review. So far though, I am very happy with my purchase. Buy this thing before Acer realizes that they could sell it for more.

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