Acer Predator Helios 300
Acer Helios 300 is the latest addition to Acer’s Predator’s best gaming laptop range. It is part of Acer’s premium gamer-focused brand of computer hardware; Predator Series. The Acer Predator series is known for its futuristic computer chassis and high performance. The Acer Predator Helios 300 was released in the second half of 2017 and is still very good gaming hardware for such an affordable value. Acer has introduced a new architectural feature called the AeroBlade 3D which gives it a more aesthetically beautiful design and offers better cooling. The Helios 300 also features a new corning gorilla glass touchpad.
Best Gaming Laptop:
The Helios 300 comes in 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch screen sizes with a 1080p HD display. It’s really worth the money you spend on it and it is relatively cheaper as compared to other best gaming laptops range of similar specifications. It runs on a 2.8 GHz Intel i7-7700HQ Quad-core processor.
Design:
The elegant design of the Helios 300 is similar to the previous famous Predator models. The laptop’s body is brilliantly designed for a best gaming laptop and matches its nomenclature. A full black metal chassis with red accents are sure to catch everyone’s eyes and the texture of the metal chassis feels great. The front of the body is flat with tapered geometric angles with hard edges. The all-new AeroBlade 3D fan is all metal and is custom-engineered for better cooling with dual fans, the fan blades are also made of metal for a better airflow. The aesthetically bold and furious design of the exhaust vents gives an elegant look to the machine. The keyboard continues to match this red and black Predator theme; the red backlight illuminates the keys for convenient usage in low light situations and also gives an aggressive glow.
Display:
The 5.6 inches model is lighter and slimmer at 2.7 kg (compared to the 3.6 kg for the previous model). The screen is connected to the body with help of a single long hinge connected across the length of the laptop. The visuals are sharp with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution and the colours of the IPS panel are brilliant. The display is great for video playbacks with its bright and vivid colors but the brightness is bit low and in richly ambient environments even the maximum screen brightness can’t cope up. The screen has the flexibility to tilt as far as 160 degrees which is good. The surface of the 15.6 inches panel is non-reflective and it’s beneficial to work in places with direct artificial lighting.
Connectivity:
The physical connectors found on the Helios 300 include an HDMI port, a Gigabit Ethernet port, an SD card slot, and a headphones/ mic socket. A total number of 4 USB ports are present of which two are USB 2.0 ports one USB 3.0 port and one USB 3.1 gen1 type c port. There’s also Bluetooth 4, and WiFi 802.11ac with MIMO antennas.
Performance:
The Helios 300 is dependent on a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU. Although a bit older but the CPU is a hard runner and scored 3720 for home, 4558 for creative, and 3342 for the work on the PCMarck8 test suites. With Acer’s PredatorSense feature you can control the fan speed for the CPU and the GPU, it also lets you switch to Acer’s CoolBoost which increases the fan speed to the maximum during heavy usage. The graphics processing on the Predator Helios 300 is handled by HD graphics 630 GPU normally while an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is available and ready to take on any heavy tasks coming it’s way. The GTX GPU supports Optimus technology and switches itself off when not needed and is composed of 6GB of memory. The normal clock speed of Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 can be increased on Faster Settings and if you want more; it can be further pushed to the limits with the Turbo settings. But remember that you can only overclock the GPU with the power adapter plugged in and the laptop’s battery level above 40 percent.
Features:
It offers some juicy specifications like a single 8GB DDR4 RAM which is upgradable up to 32GB. The storages is a SKHynix 128GB M.2 SSD and a 1TB 5400rmp hard drive from Western Digital. The audio comes from stereo speakers; the basic audio is good but can be further enhanced with Dolby Audio Premium software. It also offers an HD webcam. The Helios 300 comes packed with Windows 10 Home 64 bit and its own featured software like PredatorSense, Care Centre and Quick Access.
Verdict:
The Acer Predator Helios 300 offers a striking design with an awe inspiring performance in games and the components are upgradable which is definitely a plus. The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is overclockable, which is an excellent feature which guarantees consumer satisfaction is also. Acer is offering the Helios 300 at a very reasonable street competitive price. Albeit, it is not all good news, the exhaust fans can get real noisy and the screen brightness is just not enough which exacerbates the display to some extent. And honestly we appreciate Acer’s effort for a gamer friendly keyboard design but it is just not practical enough for everyday use. Over all the laptop is great and offers good value for the money.
Summary;
- HELIOS 300
- Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700HQ (2.80 GHz)
- 8GB upto 32GB DDR4 Ram
- 256 or 512 GB SSD, 1TB HDD
- GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB
- 15.6″ Full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS Display
- Windows 10 Home 64Bit
- Weight : 2.7 KG