Acer Predator Helios 300 Review

We gave Acer’s Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop four stars and an Editors’ Selection award in 2020 and once more in 2021, however the 3rd time is not a attraction. The Helios 300 is to be had in a big selection of 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch configurations beginning at $1,199.99; this yr’s take a look at unit is the least-expensive we now have attempted at $1,299.99, with a 15.6-inch, 144Hz display screen slightly than the former 240Hz refresh charge. It kind of fits the very good MSI Katana GF66, however has a smaller solid-state pressure and prices $100 extra.

A Circle of relatives Resemblance

Much more than the MSI, the Predator Helios 300 examined right here (style PH315-54-760S) reminds us of the $1,100 Acer Nitro 5 we simply reviewed. The Helios is priced fairly upper basically as it has a 6GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU as opposed to a 4GB RTX 3050 Ti, and a multi-zone RGB keyboard as opposed to a undeniable pink backlit board.

However the two Acers proportion Intel’s eight-core, 2.3GHz Core i7-11800H processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of garage, and a 144Hz, 1,920-by-1,080-pixel show. They also have the similar ports in the similar puts, although the Predator provides a mini DisplayPort and its USB-C port helps Thunderbolt 4.

For $1,199.99, the lowest-priced Helios 300 provides a six-core Core i7 CPU and Nvidia’s previous-generation RTX 2060. The highest of the road is $2,299.99 with a GeForce RTX 3080, 240Hz display screen, 32GB of reminiscence, and a 1TB SSD.

Good-looking in black aluminum with a stylized, illuminated Predator emblem at the lid, the Acer is marketed as weighing 5.5 kilos, however my scale pegged it on the identical 4.8 kilos because the Nitro 5, whose dimension it fits precisely at 0.9 by way of 14.3 by way of 10 inches (HWD).

Quite thick bezels encompass the display screen, which just like the keyboard displays some flex below power. With neither a fingerprint reader nor a face reputation webcam, you will have to kind passwords as an alternative of logging in with Home windows Hi. The laptop’s left facet holds two USB 3.2 Kind-A ports, Ethernet and audio jacks, and a safety lock slot.

A 3rd USB-A port joins the Thunderbolt 4, mini DisplayPort, and HDMI ports at the proper; the AC adapter plugs in on the rear.

An RGB Mild Display

A unique key launches the PredatorSense software, which screens machine temperatures, provides multicolor animated patterns for the backlit keyboard, and allows you to toggle settings such because the keyboard lights timeout and a clashing startup sound. It additionally permits you to make a selection amongst Quiet, Default, Excessive, and Turbo efficiency modes, the final two promoting CPU and GPU overclocking and Turbo expanding cooling fan noise to a deafening roar. We used Excessive for our benchmark checks, although we did take a look at a couple of with Turbo and noticed a 2% or 3% growth in some checks (however no growth in our sport checks, which already maxed out the lovers).

The keyboard options devoted House, Finish, Web page Up, and Web page Down keys in addition to a numeric keypad, although they and different top-row keys like Get away and Delete are puny. It has a cushy, shallow typing really feel that’s not in particular responsive. A chrome-trimmed, buttonless touchpad glides and faucets easily, although it is tough to click on excluding on the very backside.

The webcam has the standard blurry 720p solution and no privateness shutter; it captures moderately colourful and well-lit pictures with noticeable noise or static. A speaker grille above the keyboard produces moderately cushy, slightly hole sound. Bass is nonexistent, however you’ll make out overlapping tracks. DTS:X Extremely tool provides an equalizer and presets for tune, films, voice, and gaming genres reminiscent of RPG and shooter.

Different preinstalled utilities vary from PhotoDirector and PowerDirector to Dropbox, ExpressVPN, and Planet9 (Acer’s gaming neighborhood) promos. Our take a look at unit has Home windows 10 House, although Acer is now promoting the machine with Home windows 11.

Whilst the Nitro 5’s 1080p display screen used to be clearly purchased within the cut price aisle, the Predator’s is extra spectacular, with plentiful brightness and wealthy, well-saturated colours. Distinction is excessive and ins and outs are crisp; viewing angles are huge. White backgrounds are white as an alternative of grayish.

Efficiency Checking out: A 5-Means Core i7-11800H Gaming Melee

For our benchmark charts, we when compared the Predator to four different gaming laptops. Now we have already discussed the Acer Nitro 5 and MSI Katana GF66, and the HP Victus 16 is in the similar worth ballpark. The XPG Xenia 15 KC has the similar CPU because the others, however its GeForce RTX 3070, 1440p display screen, and further RAM and garage make it extra pricey. You’ll be able to see their elementary specifications within the desk beneath.

Productiveness Assessments

The primary benchmark of UL’s PCMark 10 simulates quite a lot of real-world productiveness and content-creation workflows to measure total efficiency for office-centric duties reminiscent of phrase processing, spreadsheeting, internet surfing, and videoconferencing. We additionally run PCMark 10’s Complete Device Force take a look at to evaluate the weight time and throughput of a laptop’s garage.

3 benchmarks center of attention at the CPU, the use of all to be had cores and threads, to charge a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 makes use of that corporate’s Cinema 4D engine to render a fancy scene, whilst Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Professional simulates in style apps starting from PDF rendering and speech reputation to device studying. In the end, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to transform a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p solution (decrease occasions are higher).

Our ultimate productiveness take a look at is Puget Programs’ PugetBench for Photoshop, which makes use of the Ingenious Cloud model 22 of Adobe’s well-known symbol editor to charge a PC’s efficiency for content material introduction and multimedia packages. It is an automatic extension that executes quite a lot of normal and GPU-accelerated Photoshop duties starting from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving a picture to making use of mask, gradient fills, and filters.

The Helios 300’s effects ranged from middle-of-the-pack to the entrance rank, profitable a few our CPU checks. All five laptops have been effectively over the 4,000-point threshold in PCMark 10 that signifies very good productiveness for the likes of Phrase, PowerPoint, and Excel. Whilst no longer relatively qualifying as a content-creation workstation, the Predator can be nice for infrequent multimedia duties.

Graphics and Gaming Assessments

We take a look at Home windows PCs’ graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night time Raid (extra modest, appropriate for laptops with built-in graphics) and Time Undercover agent (extra hard, appropriate for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs).

We additionally run two checks from the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which stresses each low-level routines like texturing and high-level, game-like symbol rendering. The 1440p Aztec Ruins and 1080p Automotive Chase checks, rendered offscreen to house other show resolutions, workout graphics and compute shaders the use of the OpenGL programming interface and {hardware} tessellation respectively. The extra frames in keeping with 2d (fps), the easier.

Our subsequent three checks contain genuine video games—in particular, the integrated 1080p benchmarks from an AAA name (Murderer’s Creed Valhalla), a fast paced esports shooter (Rainbow Six Siege), and a sports activities racing sim (F1 2021). We run every benchmark two times, the use of other symbol high quality presets for Valhalla and Rainbow and making an attempt F1 with and with out Nvidia’s DLSS anti-aliasing era.

The Predator’s GeForce RTX 3070 is the most powerful GPU right here. Whilst the XPG Xenia led in some benchmarks, it did not dazzle us in real-world gaming—the three RTX 3060 laptops did really well, with the Predator profitable the fewer hard 3DMark Night time Raid subtest and slugging it out with the HP Victus within the different occasions. The more cost effective Nitro 5 predictably introduced up the rear.

Battery and Show Assessments

We take a look at laptops’ battery lifestyles by way of enjoying a in the neighborhood saved 720p video report (the open-source Blender film Tears of Metal) with show brightness at 50% and audio quantity at 100%. We be certain the battery is totally charged ahead of the take a look at, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting became off (and used the Predator’s Default slightly than Excessive energy mode).

We additionally use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite observe calibration sensor and tool to measure a laptop display screen’s colour saturation—what proportion of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 colour gamuts or palettes the show can exhibit—and its 50% and height brightness in nits (candelas in keeping with sq. meter).

The Helios 300’s battery lifestyles is first rate if unremarkable, but it surely has one of the highest two or three monitors, turning in excellent colour vary and the best brightness of the gang.

A Perennial Contender Does not Dominate This Time

This yr’s version of the Acer Predator Helios 300 delivers stable gaming efficiency and worth, however does not relatively exhibit the sizzle we think from an Editors’ Selection gaming laptop.

As we mentioned, the MSI Katana GF66 appears awfully excellent with a bigger solid-state pressure for $100 much less, however its worth is also fairly upper outdoor Micro Heart (the supply of our take a look at unit) and the Acer has a greater show. That makes it a toss-up; pageant amongst $1,100 to $1,300 gaming laptops is so intense you truly wish to search for new entries or reductions on a week-to-week foundation.