In the world of a gamer, having a laptop that is robust enough to handle all Gaming applications without throttling or losing frames is of paramount importance to every gamer. The Predator Helios 300 is a fairly decent Gaming laptop and doesn’t cost just considering it’s features and functionalities. One thing to note right out of the box is that the battery capacity is the predator laptop is quite little (About 3hours use time).
The predator Helios gaming laptop experienced a redesign recently, the laptop now boasts of a metal chassis, new teal color highlights, a 9th generation Intel Core i7 processor, and Nvidia’s GTX 1660 Ti.
The special feature about the GTX 1660 is its Turing architecture, meanwhile real time ray trailing is abandoned. When Nvidia first announced the 16-series GPUs, the company promised a 1.5x boost in performance and the ability to run Apex Legends or Fortnite at over 100 frames per second. And that’s been my exact experience over the past week of testing –Games have run impressively smooth, without any sign of slowing down.
Acer, of course, has multiple configurations of the Helios 300, ranging from the $1,199 model I tested all the way up to $2,399 for an RTX 2070 GPU , a 17.3-inch display, and 512GB of storage.
Here are the specifications of the $1,199 model. After reviewing the key specifications, we will talk a little about the design of the gaming laptop as well as review it’s performance based on some test carried out by an external source.
Acer Predator Helios 300 Specifications and Price
Processor:
Intel Core i7-9750H ( Intel Core i7 )
Graphics adapter:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Mobile – 6144 MB, Core: 1455 – 1590 MHz, Memory: 6000 MHz, GDDR6 (Micron), Nvidia 417.88, Nvidia Optimus
Memory:
8192 MB , DDR4-2666, dual-channel, both SODIMM banks occupied
Display:
Features 15.6 inch display with 16:9 aspect ratio, 1920 x 1080 pixel 141 PPI, AUO, B156HAN08.2, IPS, glossy: no
Mainboard:
Motherboard: Intel HM370
Storage:
WDC PC SN720 SDAPNTW-512G, 512 GB , 512 GB M.2 PCIe, 420 GB free
RAM: 16GB.
Soundcard:
Realtek Audio
Connections:
4 USB 3.0 / 3.1 Gen1, 1 HDMI, 1 DisplayPort, 1 Kensington Lock, Audio Connections: 3.5 mm combined headphone and microphone jack, USB-C
Networking:
E2500 Gigabit Ethernet Controller (10/100/1000/2500/5000MBit/s), Wireless-AC 1550i Wireless Network Adapter (9560NGW) (a/b/g/n = Wi-Fi 4/ac = Wi-Fi 5), Bluetooth 5.0
Size:
height x width x depth (in mm): 23.2 x 361.4 x 254.2 ( = 0.91 x 14.23 x 10.01 in)
Battery:
58.75 Wh, 3720 mAh Lithium-Polymer, 4-cell, Battery runtime (according to manufacturer): 7 h
Operating System:
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64 Bit
Camera:
Webcam: HD 720p
Miscellaneous:
Speakers: Stereo, Keyboard: Chiclet, Keyboard Light: yes, 180 W power supply, 24 Months Warranty
Weight: 2.311 kg ( = 81.52 oz / 5.09 pounds), Power Supply: 575 g ( = 20.28 oz / 1.27 pounds)
Price:
$1,199
Predator Laptop Review – Design
There are several new blue highlights found throughout the Helios 300. The new color scheme is found around the trackpad, on the lid, and under a handful of keys on the keyboard. You would see the new color peeking out at me through the cooling vents on the rear, which make the laptop look quite angry. Although the laptop is a bit bulky in weight and size, but it is fairly okay to carry around. But it’s not very ideal to use it this way, it can weigh you down while walking long distances.
Predator Laptop Performance
The Acer Predator Helios 300 in terms of processor packs a 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor with 16GB of RAM, the Predator Helios is on par with its peers. It handily streamed an episode of “Black Mirror” while running a full system scan with 15 open tabs in Google Chrome. Here are the results obtained from laptopmag in a performance test for the Acer Predator Helios 300.
During their File Transfer test, the Predator 15’s 256GB SSD duplicated 4.97GB of mixed-media files in 35 seconds, for a transfer rate of 145.4 megabytes per second. That’s in need of the 165-MBps average, but still enough to trounce the P55W (128GB M.2 SSD), which produced 124.1 MBps. The Strix’s 256GB NVMe PCIe SSD achieved an impressive 424.1 MBps, but the Stealth Pro’s 256GB M.2 SSD was the clear winner with 565.5 MBps.
Meanwhile, on the OpenOffice test, the Predator Helios 300 matched 20,000 names and addresses in 3 minutes and 44 seconds, beating the 4:27 category average as well as the Strix’s 3:56. The Stealth Pro and the P55W were slightly faster at 3:38 and 3:37, respectively.
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Conclusion
Considering the powerful features on the predator laptop, it’s hard to complain much about the gaming laptop. Although the battery capacity is low, it would make the laptop heavier and bigger trying to increase it. Considering the friendly upgrade paths, top-notch CPU and GPU, and hard-to-beat price of $1,199. The Acer Predator Helios is one of the best selling gaming laptops on Amazon. So if you’re looking for an affordable gaming laptop to buy in 2020, The Predator Helios 300 is a very good option to consider.