Acer Predator Helios 300 review: A well-rounded gaming laptop at a great price - rodriguezworstaustany

Dan Masaoka/IDG

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

• Great 1080p gaming performance
• Powerful computer hardware for the price
• Prosperous invention
• Easy to upgrade storage and RAM

Cons

• Dim display
• Only 256GB storage capacity
• Chapeau is a fingerprint magnet

Our Verdict

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a comfortable, direct gaming laptop that delivers a refreshing add up of bang for your buck

Best Prices Now

$1,499.00

With the monstrous Predator 21 X and sleek Predator Triton 700, Acer staked a compelling claim on the high-final stage market, loading its notebooks with overweening features and the most powerful portable gaming hardware available. The Acer Predatory animal Helios 300 doesn't concern itself with fanciful bells and whistles. It's a straight, direct gaming laptop that delivers a refreshing amount of bang for your buck, starting at $1,100 on Amazon with a Core i7-7700HQ processor and a GeForce GTX 1060 graphics bill.

The Acer Piranha Helios 300 isn't quite an perfect. The display runs dimmer than its rivals, and the storage is cramped. But on the far side those small grumbles, this automobile checks all the boxes you could ask for in an affordable gaming laptop. It's even easy to repair!

Acer Predator Helios 300 specs, features, and Mary Leontyne Pric

Acer offers the Predator Helios 300 in several configurations spanning some 15.6-inch and 17.3-column inch display sizes. We're reviewing the launching-level 15-inch version. Here's what's indoors:

• Central processor: Core i7-7700HQ
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
• Drive: 16GB DDR4/2400
• Storage: 256GB M.2 SSD
• Wireless: 802.11ac Wi-Fi
• Display: 15.6-inch 1920×1080 60Hz IPS
• Ports: 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1x USB 3.1 Typewrite-C, HDMI, SD card reader, ethernet, headphone jack, lock slot
• Angle: 5 pounds, 7.9 ounces, operating room 7 pounds with power brick
• Dimensions: 15.4 x 10.5 x 1.1 inches
• Webcam: 720p
• Damage: $1,100

Around this price range, you'll normally see gaming laptops equipped with a lesser-powered GeForce GTX 1050 or GTX 1050 Ti graphics poster, or a middling Core i5 Central processor. Not Hera: The Predator packs the same quad-core Core i7-7700HQ C.P.U. found in laptops that monetary value two OR three times more, along with a full-fat 6GB GeForce GTX 1060—no dialed-back Easy lay-Q version here. Despite the affordable price, Acer didn't scrimp on the memory, stocking the Helios 300 with 16GB of DDR4 RAM.

The only deadening hardware? Storehouse. This entrance-level configuration includes an SSD with a insufficient 256GB mental ability that'll satisfy up fast in that era of plus-sized games. It's nice and fast in do, though. Acer offers another configuration that supplements the SSD with a 1TB mechanical hard drive, just at a steep $300 premium. Given how easy it is to crack candid the Vulture Helios 300—the vacate disc drive bay is secured shut by a single Phillips jockey—I'd recommend sledding the DIY route to bring more storage to the laptop computer.

Dan Masaoka/IDG

The laptop computer chassis includes plenty of plastic, as you'd expect in a gaming notebook in that price range, only Genus Acer augments it with a silklike, brushed-metal lid and keyboard deck. Two angled red stripes flank the Predator logo on the lid, ensuring everyone in the coffee shop knows you're using an Acer. It's a fingermark attractive feature, though. With 5 pounds, 7.9 ounces of heave and a 1.1-inch heaviness, the Helios 300 is fairly compact for a gaming rig. You'll feel it in your backpack but won't break your spine lugging IT more or less.

Dan Masaoka/IDG

The inputs feel comfortable and responsive, besides. The chiclet-style keys stimulate plenty of travel and aren't overly loud in use. Fetching red backlights augment the keyboard and look nice against the black keys. They can comprise turned on or off manually, but not low-beam operating room made-to-order happening a per-key basis. The clickpad-dash touchpad handles very swimmingly and accurately. I'd have preferred dedicated left- and right-click buttons, only hey, I'm a purist. The Helios 300's keyboard and touchpad stand out overall.

I wish I could say the Saame for the 1920×1080 IPS display. Information technology's nice and sharp with wide viewing angles, but far too dim. In fact, at 230 nits maximum, it doesn't even hit the minimum brightness level we use for our assault and battery run-toss off tests, which feed at a standardized 250 to 260 nits to simulate comfortable interior showing. Some colors lack pop and feel wet-out as a result, especially colourful hues. Get into't get me wrong: The Predator Helios 300's display is serviceable general. It's just lustreless compared to rival screens.

Dan Masaoka/IDG

Present's a take care at the laptop's port survival. The USB 3.1 Type-C port is a nice come to that you normally get into't see in this price bracket.

Acer Predator Helios 300 performance

The Acer Predatory animal Helios 300 packs an awful draw of punch for its price. We'll atomic number 4 comparing information technology against several similar systems in our tests, including the $950, GTX 1060 Liquid ecstasy-Q-equipped Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Play, the thin-and-light, $2,200 Gigabyte Aero 15X with a GTX 1070 Max-Q, and the $1,250 Microcenter PowerSpec 1510 with a cram full-fat GTX 1070.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Maxon's Cinebench R15 measures raw Processor performance, and bequeath with happiness use as many threads as you can throw at it. All of the gaming laptops being compared today use the quad-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ demur the Dell Inspiron, which uses a Marrow i5 scrap instead. Because the chip lacks hyper-threading support, Dell's laptop brings prepared the rear in Cinebench's multi-threaded benchmark by a large margin. The others deliver virtually congruent carrying into action results.

Brad Chacos/IDG

But Cinebench's bench mark runs in a short duration. The file we encode in our CPU-intensive HandBrake test (which uses an older version of the software) takes around 45 minutes on a quad-core CPU. The extended duration reveals how a laptop's temperature throttling affects performance complete time. Once once more, the Essence i7-7700HQ laptops flex in interchangeable results, with the Heart and soul i5-equipped Dingle Inspiron lagging far behind.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Gaming laptops need inviolable graphics capabilities, of course. We test their visual chops using the Artwork sub-score in 3DMark's Fire Strike Extremum benchmark, a synthetic benchmark that focuses on double-dyed GPU performance. This test illustrates how Nvidia's efficient Max-Q GPUs attain their energy savings in role by dialing gage performance. Again: The Inspiron has a GTX 1060 Liquid ecstasy-Q, the Predator Helios 300 beingness reviewed packs a full GTX 1060, the Gigabyte Aero 15X holds a GTX 1070 Max-Q, and the chunky PowerSpec laptop keeps the pedal to the medal with a plangent-fat GTX 1070.

But enough synthetic benchmarks. LET's get to the games! We compare laptop computer gambling execution at 1080p resolution to standardize results crosswise the board, using the in-game benchmarks enclosed with all championship.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

Brad Chacos/IDG

The GTX 1060 inside the Predator Helios 300 excels at this resolution, with frame rates superior display's 60Hz speed across the board. These gaming results once again show the difference with Easy lay-Q versions of Nvidia's GPUs. The full-pursy GTX 1060 is solidly ahead of the Max-Q variant in the Dell Inspiron. Moving up to a GTX 1070 provides a big climb up in performance as you'd expect, with the GTX 1070 Max-Q splitting the difference.

We also ran the Stand up of the Grave Raider benchmark continuously for an hour, and the only performance cast off-off determined brutal inside the perimeter of error—around a framework per second. The Acer Predator Helios 300's temperature reduction does its job, and IT does so without being overly loud. This is a gaming laptop, though. Expect to still hear the fans when you fuel up games or otherwise put the Predator under charge.

Brad Chacos/IDG

Acer's notebook computer offers strong endurance for a gambling laptop, clocking in at most 7 hours in PCWorld's barrage fire malfunctioning test, which consists of looping a 4K video in the Windows 10 Movies and TV player with audio at 50 percent until the machine gives up the ghost. That's comparable with the Gigabyte Aero 15X, a laptop we praised for its battery life.

Two factors bring up powerfully into the result. Prototypal, the Helios 300 does not include a G-Synchronise display, so it's able to switch to the integrated graphics in the Intel CPU to economize energy when you're not gaming. The sieve's faint compared to its rivals, too. We standardise our electric battery life results by setting laptop brightness to 250 nits, a rich level for indoor viewing. Acer's laptop maxes knocked out at 230 nits. That skews the results therein benchmark—though it likewise means that the Predator genuinely lasts longer call at the real mankind.

Should you buy the Helios 300?

The cover isn't sullen enough to dissuade, though, and it's the sole semi-write out of note in the Acer Vulture Helios 300. This is a great notebook computer.

Dan Masaoka/IDG

You don't see gambling laptops this well-rounded going at such a contending price very often. Acer loaded the Helios 300 with more potent hardware than usual for this cost grade, opposite it with a comfortable keyboard and touchpad combo, then pulled it all in collaboration into a fairly portable package that won't break your aft.

[ Further reading: Best gambling laptops: Know what to look for and which models rate highest ]

As far-off as alternatives go, the PowerSpec 15 moves prepared to a full-fat GTX 1070, a G-Sync display, and a supplementary 1TB hard drive for only when $200 more. That's a hell of a bargain excessively, but it makes whatever compromises to hit that price. IT's a big, heavy, ugly laptop that's only available in-storehouse at Micro Center, plus you need to parachute finished esoteric hoops to activate G-Sync (which nukes the laptop computer's battery life). The $900 Dingle Inspiron 15 7000 is another option, but it uses a lesser-powered CPU and GPU to bang its sub-$1,000 price point. The GTX 1050 Ti privileged leave run most games at 1080p, but not at maxed-out graphics options, and it's not precise later-proof.

This comfy-to-carry notebook delivers a superb 1080p gaming experience and perfectly oozes value. If I needed to buy a gaming laptop today, the Acer Vulture Helios 300 would get my money (though I'd augment its paltry 256GB of entrepot with another SSD or external drive). Highly recommended.

Best Prices Nowadays

$1,499.00

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• Laptops
• Gaming
• Computers and Peripherals
• Acer

Brad Chacos spends his days dig through screen background PCs and tweeting likewise such.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/401736/acer-predator-helios-300-review.html

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