Acer - Predator Helios 18 Gaming Laptop - 18" 2560 x 1600 IPS 240Hz – Intel i9-14900HX – GeForce RTX 4090 - 32GB DDR5 – 1TB SSD - Abyssal Black

I own a desktop with a 4090 and 5800x3d, hooked up to an LG C2 42 inch TV, but sitting too long in my chair at my desk hurts back my after sitting for long and I wanted something more portable. This is my first time using a Mini-LED screen and I'm pretty impressed, coming from OLED the blacks obviously aren't as good, but they're still really good. I would say the brightness and no risk of burn-in is a positive that mini-LED has over OLED. I really love the Panel, it looks amazing. I'm a big fan of the touchpad and keyboard. The touchpad is really big and smooth. It hasn't taken me long to get used to and it's pretty comfortable playing Paradox games like CK3 and Victoria 3 with it. The Keyboard is also a good size. The swappable WASD keys are pretty neat and I like the full size arrow keys. I haven't played too many games yet, but I've tried Crusader Kings 3, Victoria 3, and Yakuza 0, all of them have been perfectly smooth and I can almost get to steady 200 fps in Yakuza 0 at ultra settings. I've added a 2TB SN850X SSD and upgraded the RAM to 64GB, it was a very easy process, just make sure you get a hex screwdriver if you don't already have one. The only downside, and the reason I'm giving it four stars instead of five, is that the cooling in turbo mode isn't the best. The 14900HX constantly throttles when playing games in turbo mode. I ended up buying a IETS GT600 cooling pad and that solved the issue completely. No more thermal throttling and the temps have dropped by more than 20 degrees Celsius when running the GT600 at full speed. The fans of the laptop and cooler are both pretty loud at high speed, but I don't care about the noise. I play games with headphones on and I always have a fan and an air purifier running in my room so it doesn't bother me. I bought this laptop on sale for $350 off, it's a great deal for having such a nice screen, a 4090, and a 14900hx, other laptops with the same specs and often worst screens are 1000-2000 dollars more. I would definitely recommend this laptop, as long as you don't mind buying a cooling pad and don't care about loud fan noises it's been perfect so far.

*** Summary *** The 2024 Acer Predator Helios 18 is an extraordinary gaming machine! From its understated somber-looking design and restrained RGB lighting, one might think it’s just a beefy corporate workstation laptop, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. Packed with the latest and greatest from Intel and Nvidia, the Helios 18 offers a top-class gaming experience similar to desktops in a portable form-factor. It’s not just great for gaming either – it’s also fantastic for everything else, like watching movies, listening to music, video and photo editing, browsing the Net, and “real-life” work like spreadsheets and PowerPoints. Its only true weakness is the battery life but that’s totally normal and expected in the realm of ultra high-end gaming laptops. Overall, I truly believe it’s worth every penny, and I would easily recommend it to friends and family. It’s a 5 Star Win~! _____ *Pros: -Super-duper fast. It’s one of the fastest laptops in the world right now. -The 2560x1600 mini-LED panel is well-calibrated, crisp, bright, and has low latency. -The 250Hz refresh rate provides excellent motion clarity and tear-free gaming. -Plenty of ports (USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, RJ45 ethernet, microSD) = no need for dongles. -The keyboard is pleasant to type on with good feedback, quick uptake, and low noise. -Very large MS Precision Touchpad with a smooth surface and responsive and accurate tracking. -Per-key RGB backlighting. -Has full-size arrow keys! -One-button toggle mode for different performance modes. _____ *Neutral: -Despite being 1080p, the webcam is kind of grainy, especially in low-light situations. -The speakers don’t get very loud, and the soundstage range is a bit lacking. So, use headphones or speakers. _____ *Cons: -None === Design, Build Quality, and Useability === I’ve gone through my fair share of gaming laptops over the years – seven within the past six years to be exact – and the 2024 Acer Predator Helios 18 takes the cake as the best-balanced, most performant, and easy-to-live-with gaming laptop I’ve ever owned. One big contributing factor has to do with its size – thanks to its 18” 16:10 2560 x 1600 screen, the view is very spacious, good not just for gaming but also for browsing the internet and reading stuff online, watching movies, and doing some occasional document and spreadsheet work. Besides the size, the display is also very crisp and clear, bright, and color-accurate (100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3). Acer put in a big and nicely spaced keyboard with full-size arrow keys and a number pad to the right, and I love it! It’s very easy to type very fast on this keyboard, and the keys are tactile and responsive, non-mushy, and they have quick uptake and relatively low noise. The keys are individually lit with customizable RGB lighting via the PredatorSense app, which is easy to figure out and use. Extra WASD keys are included in the box – the MagClick and MagSpeed variants – and I like the MagClick ones better because they provide a mechanical keyboard feel with some added tactility. The Microsoft Precision Touchpad is huge – I measured 6” wide x 3.5” high (15cm x 9cm) – and it’s a pleasure to tap, pinch, and scroll on. The surface is smooth, and it does a great job keeping grime away. To make my dongle-hating life easier, the Helios 18 comes with all the ports I need – 3x USB-A, 2x USB-C Thunderbolt 4, 1x HDMI, 1x microSD, 1x Ethernet, and 1x audio. Both USB-C ports are located on the back, and if I could have had it my way, then I would’ve added one more USB-C to the left side and swapped it out with the USB-A port. Being an ultra-high-performance desktop-replacement, the Helios 18 is understandably heavy at about 7.1 lbs. That is not a negative, though, for a laptop of this class, since Acer packed the machine with the latest and greatest components that money can buy with a beefy cooling system to prevent system meltdown. Speaking of presence and looks, I appreciate that Acer didn’t go RGB crazy with this thing and kept the lighting restricted to the keyboard, lid logo, and the stripe on the rear, which is customizable via the PredatorSense app. The Helios 18 doesn’t scream premium and luxe due to its heavy use of plastic, but it’s not a bad-looking machine at all – it’s kind of like those sleeper cars that are much more potent than they appear to be. With that said, I’m satisfied and content with the overall looks, build quality, and design choice of the Helios 18. === Gaming Performance === As expected from a machine that has the Intel Core i9 14900HX CPU (24 cores, 32 threads), 32GB of DDR5-5600MHZ RAM, 16GB GeForce RTX 4090, and a 1TB NVME hard drive, the 2024 Predator Helios 18 is an absolute performance champ. It just churns through the latest PC games like butter even at Maximum or Ultra graphic fidelity settings with Ray Tracing turned on, such as Alan Wake 2 (avg 60 fps), Horizon Forbidden West (avg 130fps), Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty (avg 100fps), and Baldur’s Gate 3 (avg 135 fps). Granted, at max settings, the newest games won’t even get close to the 250fps marker made possible by the 250Hz, 3ms display, but they still achieve more than 60fps, which makes for a smooth, stutter-free, and tear-free experience. Older games, such as Counter Strike and Left 4 Dead 2, however, can hit triple-digit frames easily, which is great for competitive gamers. The mini-LED display can get very bright thanks to HDR support, and it also takes advantage of Nvidia G-Sync, which provides a buttery smooth and tear-free experience. With a setup like this, the Helios 18 is pretty future-proof, and you should get years of gaming enjoyment out of it. === Is the Helios 18 good only for gaming? === Not at all! Although the powerful CPU and GPU inside the Helios 18 drive the high-performance gaming experience, the Helios 18 is packed with other goodies that enable it to be a good daily driver. The 32GB of RAM makes the Helios 18 an excellent multitasker, and the speedy NVME drive makes everything you do on the machine a fast and joyful experience. The 18” display is great for watching movies and office work (think long spreadsheets), and the latest Wi-Fi 7 chip makes Internet browsing and file transfers super-fast (provided you have a Wi-Fi system already). At our home, we have a TP-Link Deco BE16000 Wi-Fi 7 system, and my download and upload speeds are SUPER fast and stable. The keyboard is spacious, the keys are comfortable to type on and low-noise with a quick uptake, and the full-size arrow keys with the number pad next to it make life easier and simpler. The huge Precision Touchpad is lovely, and it’s completely responsive and accurate to my three- and four-finger custom gestures as well as the usual taps and swipes. The 1080p webcam is definitely serviceable but I found it to be a bit too grainy in low-light settings. The speakers were a bit disappointing as well, lacking some soundstage range, and the volume didn’t get as loud as I wanted. Fortunately, I have a nice noise-cancellation headset that I can connect via Bluetooth that solves the fidelity and volume issue. If you’re a dongle-hater like me, then you’ll appreciate Acer for including lots of ports. When you’re not gaming, you can place the Helios 18 under the Quiet or Balanced mode, and the machine will become whisper-quiet and distraction-free, not different from regular, thin-and-light non-gaming laptops. Acer did a great job creating a well-balanced laptop that can handle everything very well, and I’m very content. === What’s upgradeable on the Helios 18? === Thankfully, the Helios 18 can be upgraded with more RAM, a newer Wi-Fi chip, and up to two NVME drives. My unit came with one NVME slot occupied with a 1TB SK Hynix drive. 1TB, however, just isn’t enough for all of my favorite games so I’ve already added a 4TB Lexar NVME drive. To get the bottom panel off, you just need to remove all the screws and use a thin plastic pry tool to pop it off === Is it worth the coin? === Yes! For sure, $3,000 is no small change, but like the saying goes, you do get what you pay for. And to be fair, in the case of the 2024 Helios 18, Acer offers more value than most other competitors for the same component configuration. You may chalk that up to Acer using less premium build materials or having less RGB, but the truth is, the Helios 18 offers a great bang for your buck for a machine that is super performant with years of serviceable life built in. As mentioned before, it’s not just good for gaming – it’s an excellent all-rounder that can handle everything else equally well thanks to its big spacious screen, comfortable keyboard, huge responsive touchpad, and fast Wi-Fi 7. To sum it up, it’s completely worth the coin, and I give it a full 5 Stars.

The 2024 Acer Predator Helios 18, equipped with the powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card with 16GB of video RAM, Intel i9 14th Gen (14900HX), 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, and a blazing-fast mini LED 1000 nits 250Hz display, is a true powerhouse that takes gaming to new heights. This laptop is designed for serious gamers and those that want to have the fastest machine without paying more than they have to. The addition of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card ensures that this laptop can handle the most taxing games and applications without breaking much of a sweat. Whether you're playing Call of Duty, The Finals, or exploring virtual worlds in Fallout 76, the RTX 4090 delivers stunning graphics and smooth gameplay, and I am blown away. I no longer have to compromise on quality to get a good frame rate, on Call of Duty DMZ with the graphics on Ultra, I was easily pulling 95 FPS without a hitch and up to 120 FPS and zero lag. Wi-Fi 7 is supported with this laptop, but I only have Wi-Fi 6 at home, and I was not able to test out the speed, still I was pulling over 500 MB speeds from my 500 MB fiber connection. The NVidia G-Sync 18-inch display of the Predator Helios 18 is a wonderful to look at. With a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution and a 250Hz refresh rate, the display offers incredibly sharp visuals and buttery-smooth gameplay. The high refresh rate ensures that every frame is displayed with precision, making fast-paced games look incredibly fluid and responsive. In terms of design, the Predator Helios 18 is my first Acer gaming laptop and has a sleek and aggressive look that is sure to appeal to gamers. The “infinity’ lip on the back has a cool RGB affect that is not over the top, and the remaining RGB effects are not crazy but tasteful in my opinion. The laptop is built with high-quality materials that feel premium and durable, and the addition of customizable Magkey 3.0 keycaps for the WASD keys is great. You are given two additional sets in the box with a tool to swap them out. The MagClick keys simulate mechanical keys and the MagSpeed glow a bit brighter than the rest of the keys to really stand out. I personally like using a full mechanical keyboard, but the MagClick keys provide the best experience for me when I am using the keyboard on trips. Weight will be a big limiting factor for this laptop though, it is heavy and add the 330-Watt power supply and it’s not back pack friendly at all (nearly 8 lbs total), but that is the small price to pay for this power and I don’t mind it at all, I think of this as desktop replacement that you can travel with if you need to. The near full-sized keyboard boasts at 10-key on the right and a huge track pad. Typing on this is fantastic and to me it just feels right, everything is right where I would expect it to be and the track pad, is easy to use and very responsive and smooth. Performance-wise, the Predator Helios 18 is unmatched. The combination of the powerful RTX 4090 graphics card, high-end processor, and ample RAM ensures that you can run even the most demanding games and applications without any lag or stutter. The laptop also features advanced cooling technology to keep temperatures in check during intense gaming sessions and although the fans will get loud while in turbo mode or during taxing gaming sessions, the laptop itself stays cool to the touch. I have had laptops where the keyboard hits 120 degrees while you are playing, and you simply can’t play with a system like that. All this good stuff, but there are some not so good about this laptop. For one, the battery life is pretty terrible. I found that mine will discharge (on the quiet setting) at a rate of 1% just about every minute. This means that you will be lucky to get 2 hours and that was not even playing any games. I did have the screen brightness all the way up and the RGB lighting on at the time. Another downside is the speakers are not good out of the box. I didn’t play around with any software to see if I could improve them, but from the factory, they are not good. Overall, the new Acer Predator Helios 18 is a top-of-the-line gaming laptop that offers fantastic performance, stunning visuals, and a sleek design. If you're looking for the ultimate gaming experience in a laptop form factor, the Predator Helios 18 with this set up is the one to beat!