Customer Ratings & Reviews

Running games at high graphics with no issue. No heating issues, though I use a stand with a fan

I absolutely love this machine and it is a beast. But it isn’t without its faults, as it has several of them. But they are all things I can live with. From a performance standpoint this machine will destroy anything you throw at it… As long as it is plugged into power. As on battery performance is cut by like 75%. Plus, the battery life is atrocious, and this laptop should not be purchased if you are planning to use it on battery regularly. You’ll be able to game (whatever game you want) ultra settings at 1440p resolution at least 60 FPS, likely >100 FPS. Along with video editing, rendering, whatever else is resource intensive without any issues. Temps during normal use are excellent, and while gaming are acceptable but not great. The only real limiting factor is the 16 GB of RAM. Which can be upgraded to 32 GB at any time, but is extremely fast. For the price I would have liked it to come with 32 GB. Also, the SSD performance wise is average and should be upgraded if you want the full performance (Such as WD SN850x or Samsung 990 Pro). It does support 2x SSD NVMe Drives, but comes with one. The second is hard to see. The screen is excellent. Trackpad is excellent and will give Apple a run for their money. Keyboard feel is fantastic but layout is awkward. Speakers are terrible and some of the worst I’ve tried. Great build quality. Color is good but picks up smudges easily. Out of 10 games (Cyberpunk 2077, Dying Light, GTA5, Halo Infinite, The Last of Us Part 1, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Escape From Tarkov Dead Space 2023, and Calisto Protocol) I averaged 107 FPS on Ultra Settings (no FSR/DLSS) at 2560x1600 resolution. It says max TDP was 175 watts but I was only getting 89 – 91 in all my games. No matter the mode (balanced, performance turbo mode with balanced or high performance battery setting). Even in synthetic benchmarks I never saw it break 100. Which is odd. If that is normal, then I wonder if that 175 watt TDP is just a marketing ploy. CinebenchR23 Turbo/Max Powered = Multi Core: 29,051 Single Core: 2096. (Which is beating almost all CPU’s on the market even those in Desktops). Absolutely insane. Balanced Battery = Multi Core: 7,816, Single Core: 1,609. (Which is about average for a mid to upper end Laptop). 3Dmark CPU Profile = Max Threads 12,918, 16 Threads 9,963, 8 threads 7,757, 4 threads 4,307, 2 threads 2,254, 1 thread 1,143. 3d Mark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited = 28,688 3D Mark Fire Strike Score = 31,906, Graphics Score 38,796, Physics 42,444, Combined Score 11,799 PC mark10 = 8,690. Essentials 11,110, Productivity 10,818, Digital Content Creation 14,819. UserBenchmark = Gaming 205%, Desktop 121%, Workstation 254% vs Battery Balanced Gaming 19%, Desktop 90%, Workstation 18%. TEMPS/FAN: During gaming I recommend Balanced Mode – Auto Fans. As I had at most 10 FPS loss but usually it was the same frame rate at a hard locked 91 Celsius on the CPU and about 85 Celsius on the GPU (on my 10 games tested) with great fan noise (40 – 45 dB). When I had it on Performance or Turbo Mode with Auto or Max Fans CPU was hitting 100c and GPU was 70 – 80c without much performance boost in games, but a good bump in synthetic benchmarks. Making me recommend for non-gaming workflows to get the best performance as fans even then are rarely on or very loud. Whereas, during gaming on that mode they were about 55 – 65 dB and I could hear it in the other room clear as day. When doing normal work (emails, YouTube, word documents, and even when having a ton of things open), fans were practically silent and even completely silent as they weren’t on. Fan pitch is great, by not being annoying and easily turning into background noise. During normal use temps were 50 – 60 c. I am curious if the application of liquid metal and/or the mount for my CPU isn’t ideal. As the temp difference between it and the GPU is significant. The device itself when under extreme load doesn’t get warm to the touch (keyboard, where you rest your palms, trackpad, etc), with the exception of the bottom back of the device, and side vents. But even that isn’t bad. If anything the aluminum tends to be cool and my hand will get a bit cold while gaming due to the airflow. BATTERY LIFE: Battery life is atrocious. Even with the MUX switch and going off only the Intel UHD Graphics. I was getting about 2.5 hours with normal usage on balanced (email open, 4 – 5 edge tabs, word document, watching videos, and doing work) (keyboard lighting off, Screen 120 – 240 Hz Variable, wired for sound over speakers, brightness on like 20%). Whereas, about 5 hours if I went to low performance Eco in Predator Sense, Eco on Battery Setting, 60 Hz screen, 10% brightness, No keyboard backlight, Only have a word document and 1 – 2 tabs open. Expect maybe an hour if gaming. So, no matter how you cut it. Battery life is terrible. Which is unfortunate but not all that surprising seeing how powerful this PC is. Thankfully recharge time is about 60 minutes with the included charger. Fans either did not turn on or very minimally when on battery. KEYBOARD: Is interesting. It has a great feel to it. But the layout is unique. It has RGB Lighting. Which can be addressed individually in the Predator Sense Software, which I like a lot, and it looks good. Not quite Razer quality but solid. It has four levels of brightness. I was unable to find keyboard shortcuts to quickly change colors (which if absent I would like them to add). They have black keys with white font, so even with the lighting off you can easily see everything in dimly lit situations. There is also lighting on the back of the device. Which is completely invisible to the user but not those around them. Key quality feels great. With a good texture and minimal if any wobble. They feel more linear than tactile, but there is a nice bump at the end. Also, sound is excellent providing a nice thock and is very quiet. Travel time is long, being the most I’ve tried in a laptop (and I’ve tried a lot). Which is a double-edged sword. For gaming I like this a lot. Making it a solid choice. As latency was good, but not great. However, for typing I lost about 15 WPM due to travel time and weird layout (115 WPM compared to normal 130 WPM). In general I’m not a fan of the overall layout. It is growing on me though. I appreciate the dedicated forward/backward/play/pause button and full size arrow keys. But wish there were dedicated page up/down keys. Also, no FN lock. Making it so I have to press the F keys all the time to change quick settings. Unless if I’m missing it. If not Acer, you need to add this function. SPEAKERS: They are terrible. Super tinny (sharp, highly treble focused, like a headset mic) without body or bass. They get the job done. But are not fun to listen to. Surprisingly, the audio direction in games is quite good. Which makes no sense to me. It gets plenty loud. But makes my ears want to bleed. And I’m forced to use earphones/headphones. Thankfully, the 3.5mm Aux is at the front left of the machine. Making it easy to plug in and not get in the way when gaming. They need to seriously step up their game. As this is unacceptable at this price point. I even tried turning off/on the DTS settings without effect. SCREEN: It is 10/10 and I love it. Better than my Zenbook 14x OLED. It does have IPS Lightbleed but I don’t find it to be all that distracting unless in very dimly lit room with black background. Blacks are great while gaming and for media. Colors are highly accurate and it can be used for video editing/photography. Text is sharp and easy to read. It gets plenty bright. Latency is great. But found latency to be a bit higher with “Dedicated Nvidia GPU” over Auto or Optimus (by about 30 – 50 milliseconds). Strangely it only supports HDR video playback on Auto/Optimus only. MUX Switch: Honestly, I’m not 100% mine isn’t defective. As it seems very hit and miss when it wants to work. In Nvidia Control Panel you have three options “Automatic Select”, “Optimus”, and “Nvidia GPU Only”. Those options will often be greyed out only allowing me to select certain ones. Which sometimes does or does not change when I have it plugged in, on battery, or without or without an external display. And I understand that depending on certain settings it will grey out options. But even when those aren’t happening, they will still be grey sometimes. Restarting the device sometimes fixes it. TOUCHPAD: I really like it. I would even put it up against Apples Macbook trackpads. It feels like glass, very smooth to run your finger on, very accurate, the press itself is very satisfying no matter where you click (from the middle down) and requires just the right amount of force (mild/moderate) with very good feedback/click. Zoom in and out along with gestures are smooth and responsive. I can use it for normal daily tasks without any issues or frustration. HINGE: I like it a lot. Easy to open with a single hand. Has a nice feel when closing/opening. Smooth. Stays in place and doesn’t wobble when using. Can go up to 170% degrees. When the lid is closed it will turn off all lighting. Other than the power light (red) when charging. Which turns off after it is charged. CONS: I’ve listed a lot throughout the review. Some I haven’t mentioned, I don’t understand how a machine of this caliber doesn’t have touch ID or Windows Hello built in. Like why? Please add this. The webcam itself is not good. Probably about average when it comes to most laptops. Quite fuzzy. But will get the job done in a pinch. WEIGHT/BUILD Quality: It is heavy, I think around 5 lbs., but well balanced. I don’t have an issue lifting it with one hand on the edges and there is no flex to the body when I do that as everything is rock solid. The body is thick. Probably around an inch with the lid closed. It has an aluminum top and sides, but strangely the bottom outside is plastic, but inside is aluminum.

Best value gaming laptop available right now. Very happy with purchase. Buy a cooling pad, it gets warm!

This is my second Acer predator in a couple weeks. The first one I purchased had a defective battery and couldn’t stay on unplugged. I exchanged the laptop for this newer model and the screen is messed up right out of the box. It appears the housing is pinching the screen in 3 different places causing really bad “screen bleeding” along the top. Acer needs to figure out quality control on there $2k plus machines. 3 stars because it does run good and would be a nice computer without this issue.

From beginning to end it’s an experience. Packaging is superb. And defines the quality and build behind this laptop. It’s a heavy one so find a permanent space to keep this and your setup, your wrists will thank you later. I’m saying that to say that If you’re looking for a great laptop with space, the ability to handle heavy applications and common everyday tasks, this is a good one, but you can find one that does the same things but is more portable and pocket friendly than this. Now if you’re looking for a heavy hitter, that can handle heavy data and game play, fantastic screen display for high res games and much more than this is the gaming laptop for you. It checks off many things on a gamers list. The resolution is amazing and the large screen is great. Now I would highly suggest getting external speakers as the native ones aren’t the best. Also, if or when the fans are in use, they can be a bit jarring. They are loud. I’ve only heard them during initial setup, but I haven’t heard them during any gameplay so that’s a plus for me. Now, the battery life during gameplay from full to empty, not plugged in, does not last long. Im sure it’s different when not using it for gameplay. The last con but an understandable one is the massive power brick. It’s heavy but once you get your hands on this baby, you’ll understand why. It’s a powerhouse. If you are undecided about a gaming laptop, but have the budget, I suggest this one for sure. Oh and it comes with its own sleeve.

Loving it. My third gaming laptop and so far tge best one, no regreats here

Every once in a while, some things you buy will surprise you. Or even blow your mind. This gaming laptop from Acer is one of them. This is my second Acer gaming laptop, my first one was a Nitro 5 and it still runs after 5 years of intensive use. Let's face it, just the specs of this laptop would make a nerd salivate. It sports one of the most powerful CPUs Intel has to offer, a GPU which can plow through every game without breaking a sweat and enough high-quality components to support the prior two. Be it the Intel Killer network adapter, the DDR5 memory or the rather amazing audio chipset, all the stars seem to align. Sure, a 1 TB SSD seems a bit on the light side, 16 GB of RAM might feel somewhat limited for a gaming laptop of this caliber, but considering what it can dish out (and the fact that you can expand or replaced both at a later point) doesn't make this laptop any less impressive. Let's have a look at the good and the not so good. Pros: + The Intel CPU is blazing fast + The RTX 4080 with its 12 GB of VRAM is amazing and can plow through every game you throw at it + The look and feel of this laptop is excellent, down to the hinges of the screen, everything feels sturdy + The ports are all very well laid out + The ARGB keyboard has a great response time and is comfortable, and the lighting can be customized to your liking + The touchpad is made of soft-to-the-touch plastic which enhances its comfort massively + The 16" screen is gorgeous and can keep up with the GPU with its 240Hz refresh rate and its vivid colors and deep blacks + The cooling is very efficient + Memory and SSD can be replaced or upgraded or add an NVME SSD (note that you'll have to open up your laptop which will very likely void your warranty) Cons: - The power supply is huge and heavy, which makes it a bit challenging to carry around - The battery life is limited unless you throttle the CPU and GPU way down - The cooling system can get VERY loud if you choose to use the Turbo or Performance profile - The Predator Sense software can be confusing for beginners - The storage capacity is limited considering the size of current gen games - The cable from the power supply to the outlet has a tendency to come loose After running some benchmarks, it's clear that there's not much this gaming laptop can't handle. Horizon Zero Dawn runs at 244FPS on average on maximum settings and native resolution. Far Cry 6 runs at over 140 FPS on Ultra. Cyberpunk 2077 on max settings and raytracing enabled can run at over 60FPS with DLSS 3 active. The only real limitation was the available memory of the GPU. At 12 GB, it might be a bit tight for certain games which require 16 GB or more for HD textures. If you're looking for a gaming laptop that will be able to perform well for the next couple of years to come, look no further. Acer has done a wonderful job with this laptop, from the luxurious Predator Helios packaging to the components, this will be more than sufficient to run whatever you want at the highest settings for a while. It isn't without minor flaws, but you really can't go wrong with this one. It's a beast and I highly recommend it as it is very fairly priced for what you get.

Acer really outdid themselves with this laptop. The Predator Helios is competitive with any other major name brand. The difference? The cost. As the Helios is so much more affordable with great hardware and build quality. Starting from the unboxing, I love that it comes beautifully wrapped and boxed. I've always been someone who purchases a certain other manufacturer that's name starts with an "A". And after having and using this Acer, I'm not so sure why! The Acer has all the top end specs, from an i9 13900HX, 16GB DDR5 5600, and an RTX 4080 with 175w TDP. Not to mention copious ports, including 2 USB-C Thunderbolt! Though, one gripe would be that we only get 16GB RAM in this model. 2-3 yrs ago that was fine and felt premium, but as an IT professional, I can tell you 16 is basically the minimum nowadays. Also, you can only upgrade this to a maximum of 32GB(16x2). That should be fine for 99% of users, but disappointing to see that limitation. Fret not, though, because this laptop is an absolute powerhouse. This coming from someone who has tested this years GT77 Titan and Zephyrus Duo. The Predator Helios stands on its own, and stands well. Opening the laptop, there is little to no screen flex. The display itself is gorgeous with up to 500nits brightness and great color pallette and refresh/response rate. Not to mention this new 16:10 aspect ratio for a 16" screen, very nice in a discrete 15" chassis. The keyboard is....well....a laptop keyboard. Don't expect mechanical level feedback, that's pretty much non existent on any gaming laptop, except for one really expensive one, so no real complaints there. I do like that it is a 10key, that's important for me and for anyone that does actual work on their device. If I can complain about one thing, it's that this has a decent built in webcam, but it isn't an IR cam, and the Helios doesn't have any other type of biometric security to utilize Windows Hello. Not a deal breaker for me, but I wouldn't judge you if it was for you. When putting the Predator through it's paces, it easily handles most anything I throw at it, sitting easily at 100+ fps in Ultra detail level at 1440p. From Halo Infinite, to AC Odyssey, and even to a degree in Cyberpunk 2077, which ran solid 70+ with DLSS on Auto at Ultra. Now, in order to avoid making this a 4080 review, I can say this is a full fat laptop 4080, and will do just was good as any other laptops with a 4080 with maximum power. It has excellent cooling, but be warned! This thing sounds like a jet taking off in Turbo mode, something you won't be able to get away from with this level of power in any portable laptop. It has a very basic UI for the "PredatorSense", which is Acer's mode changing software to monitor and set performance levels. It works well enough and does it's job, though maybe not as intricate as competitors. Speaking of portability, this laptop is sub 6lbs...until you add in the power brick, which adds another 2-3lbs. Granted, this isn't a problem unique to this laptop, as any and every gaming laptop will have this issue due to the amount of power needed to run the components full force. In order to get the most, you need to be plugged in with all of them, with the Predator Helios being no exception. On battery on the preset balanced, I got approximately 3 hours of browsing and video watching with the screen at 70% brightness. So mediocre there. Overall, this is a great high end rig for someone on a budget, though it doesn't feel so budget with the amount of high end components and nice build quality incorporated into it. It does have its short comings in a few areas, but nothing I would consider a serious issue, and would urge anyone looking for a good deal and good power to consider Acer's current Predator Helios line.

First, some level-setting. This is 100% a gaming laptop with all that entails - that means it doesn't have super battery life (you might be able to eek out 3 hours if you're lucky - and turn some settings down), it has a beefy power brick (330W!), it's not lightweight, and it's hot and can be loud when you push it. And it has RGB / "gaming" patterns on it. But, if you're ok with all of that, OH MY what you get here. This is an amazing package - one that can (with it's 13900HX and RTX 4080 mobile version) exceed the capabilities of my fairly capable desktop (water-cooled 13700KF, RTX 4070) - IN A LAPTOP. It can play pretty much any game at pretty much maxed settings. Benchmarks don't phase it at all. If you want a super capable on the go PC for games (or any hefty computer tasks), this is it. A few notes. The Intel chip here - a Core i9 13900HX - is super powerful, with 24 cores and 32 threads (16 single-thread efficiency cores plus 8 dual-thread performance cores) and great for multi-tasking. The GPU - an RTX 4080 mobile - has up to a 90W TDP and 12GB of VRAM for high resolution textures and it supports DLSS 3.0 / frame generation so you can be sure you'll get great performance. The RAM is DDR5 at 5600mts and it's 16GB - it is slotted DDR5 (SODIMM) so you can upgrade if you like (see the picture of the internals). Likewise, you can upgrade the SSD and/or add a second 2280 sized PCI-e NVMe - it comes with a 1 TB Gen4 drive which is plenty fast and a good amount of storage...but you can never have too much. The screen is gorgeous - 16" WQXGA at up to 240Hz (you'll want to turn that down to 60Hz when on battery - helps a lot) with thin bezels on 3 sizes and the keyboard and trackpad are perfectly usable though I still prefer an external mouse when gaming. Ports are generous by 2023 standards - 2x Thunderbolt 4, HDMI, Gigabit ethernet plus additional USB-A ports as well. The Acer software isn't bad to control it - I wish it didn't make a boot up sound out of the box (which can be turned off in the BIOS) and that it had a few more options, but it's very usable.The gamer aesthetic here isn't as garish as some others - and the RGB can be turned off if you like - but it's certainly an unapologetic gaming computer. So on the whole this is a tremendously powerful gaming laptop with all the specs you could want and the performance to back them up. Is it for you? Well that depends on if you're going to put it to use - if you are, then it's a winner!

Going to try to give an in-depth review since I did a lot of research on this laptop. My first and overall impression, is that this thing is fast! As my title states, this is the first gaming laptop I’ve owned that can truly replace my gaming desktop. Keep in mind, my gaming desktop runs an AMD 5800x, RTX 3080 video card, with 64GB of memory. Its not cutting edge or top of the line, but it is a solid desktop for everything I’ve thrown at it for 2k gaming and more. This laptop’s benchmark scores meet or surpassed those of my desktop. I’ve been PC gaming for the past 25 years, and owned half a dozen gaming laptops, and this one by far takes the cake when comparing it to a desktop. The price of the Predator is actually pretty good when comparing it to other brands with similar specs, I was quite surprised. My one actual disappointment was that the laptop did not come with 32GB of memory, which should be the standard for any gaming machine in 2023. My work computer has 16GB and I max that out with Office and browser tabs. Luckily they give you the ability to upgrade memory, up to 32GB of memory which I have done. For the record, all my benchmark tests were performed with the 16GB of memory that came with it. I upgraded after running them. First impressions. First and foremost, the keyboard lighting effects are pretty awesome. I’ve never been a big fan of lights, whether added to monitors or other peripherals, but I gotta give Acer credit for keyboard lights, they are amazing! You pick the type of response you want from the PredatorSense app, many cool options there. Next the build quality is heavy, but not HEAVY. I like this because it makes it feel like quality. I’ve had some super lightweight gaming laptops that just made wonder how powerful can this really be? There is no question about it, quality feel all around. The 5 USB ports are nice to have too. Many laptops these days try to limit the ports to create an Apple clone of a minimalist style... no thanks. I want my gaming laptop flooded with ports, 3 USB A and 2 USB C are great to have. Not to mention ethernet and memory card slot. The screen is decent, can get pretty bright, 3ms response, and runs at 240Hz, but probably won’t win any awards. Most the time I’m hooked up to a larger gaming monitor, but a good screen in-between those times More good stuff…. The cooling on this laptop is insane. Every gaming laptop I’ve used heats up tremendously, even around the keyboard level. My gaming partner’s laptop gets so hot he can’t touch the keyboard sometimes. The keyboard or really any of the laptop doesn’t even get warm. Yet, I’m playing games on the highest quality of settings they offer. Its wild that there is no heat on the top. The fans can get loud, but that expected when gaming. You have different profiles you can switch between with one physical button which is convenient without having to jump into an app. You can also switch profiles within PredatorSense, which has its own physical key shortcut on the keyboard. Performance Wow is all I can say. The 2 main games I’ve been playing on it are MWII and Diablo 4. I have the settings set to Extreme on MWII, and get anywhere from 150-200 FPS on a 2k monitor still! Diablo is maxed out as well, colors look good and zero lag. For a gaming GPU, I’m very impressed. Gaming is super smooth and no lag is noticed. The hard drive that came with the laptop runs exceptionally fast as well, and they allow you to add a second drive which I have done too. My benchmark scores are below ran from out of the box: 3d Mark Speed Way Graphics Score - 4771 Port Royal (Default) - Overall Score - 11991 Time Spy (Default) - Overall Score - 18161 CPU Profile - Max Threads - 11916 Cinebench R23 CPU - Multi - 29210 CrystalDiskMark (oem C Drive)- See attached pic Even more good stuff… Stock memory runs at 5600MHz, but in order to get the full 5600 speed from newer memory sticks IF you upgrade the memory, you’ll need to update the BIOS to version 1.12 which just came out in July. They made this very easy, just go to their support section for this laptop and download the exe, you can just run it in Windows and it’ll reboot and install automatically. No need for a USB drive and fumbling through the bios menu. I also think Acer went above by offering a free silicone case included with this laptop. This goes without saying, but this computer is fast. Not just for gaming, but I run trading software along with keeping many browsers and tabs open, with software running in the background that I use throughout the day. Once I got past installing all the updates and programs, rebooted a few times, this computer is a beast. No lag, stutter, or stalling…but keep in mind I did upgrade to 32GB of memory, so I can throw more open apps at once at it. Also the boot-up time is speedy. The DTS-X compatibility is a nice option to have. I’ve mostly played with Atmos, but have heard DTS-X is just as good if not better for home theaters, so I look forward to comparing the two. The NOT so good stuff. I have to mention the bad with the good. First, I already mentioned that I don’t think 16GB is suitable for a gaming laptop of this caliber. Well in order to take off the bottom cover to add memory or another HD, you need a T socket (T5 or T6). I did not have one this small so on top of buying more memory, I had to buy this kit. Also, it says the max memory is 32GB, but I believe this chipset can handle more, would have loved to see this number increased to 64GB. Next, I wish they had the PredatorSense app search for new drivers for you automatically, or their website could automatically scan your computer to see what drivers you needed and upgrade them all with one click. Its more of a manual process from what I could find, but not a deal breaker compared to other vendors. They do have the Acer care center app which does provide updates, but not sure if its drivers since it didn’t pull any up for me before I updated. This last one is a little nit picky, but I like to have dedicated volume buttons near the keyboard. Instead these are tied in with the function buttons. Overall, I’m extremely happy with this gaming laptop. I’m actually surprised Acer stepped it up as a true competitor. I’m proud that I can use this as a true desktop replacement and my experiences with games and using it for work purposes has been excellent. Its definitely the best mobile gaming computer I’ve ever used and I feel like most of this tech is quite new, you are future proofing yourself for at least the next 2-3 years when it comes to top of the line gaming and probably 4+ years as a personal or work computer. I’d definitely recommend this.

The laptop is a gorgeous device. I will detail more about individual features below, but I will just start by saying that the build quality is excellent and this 16” screen laptop weighs just a little over 5 pounds (without the power adapter, more on that later). It is less than an inch thick and is surprisingly sleek, fitting into my 15.6” laptop-accommodating backpack. Even better, the laptop includes a custom neoprene zippered protective carrying case from Acer, so it is ready for use on the go right out of the box! The colors of the finish of the device look great. Granted, the keyboard deck and the top of the lid are fingerprint magnets, so you are going to need to keep it wiped off if you want to maintain a clean look. There is an abundance of I/O enough to make anyone happy, including two USB-C ports with the latest Full-Function Thunderbolt 4 certification and an HDMI 2.1 Port for ease of hooking up additional monitors with high refresh rate capability. One of the most positive aspects of this machine is, as expected, the incredible screen. The 240hz, 1600p IPS screen with 3ms response time is incredible for all different kinds of gaming. I am primarily an FPS gamer with games like Doom Eternal and Hunt Showdown, and this machine CRUSHES both of those games. That 240hz refresh also corresponds to really smooth experiences with regular computing tasks like web browsing and productivity. Also, this screen gets BRIGHT. The 500-nit screen is bright enough to make daylight brightness in a room still possible while playing games with darker sequences or night maps (like in Hunt Showdown). There is some perceptible blacklight bleeding in the top right and left corners of my particular screen, but it is not enough for me to worry about. Finally, the colors look GREAT on this screen. I am not a photo editor so I can’t speak to the precision of the colors, but for gaming and general productivity purposes, the images this screen produces look fantastic. The hardware this is equipped with is appropriately top-spec for a high-end laptop like this but is in need of special accommodations for optimized cooling. The Intel i9 13900HX is an incredible mobile CPU and crushes at multitasking and pushing out all of those crispy, high-end frames to the monitor on AAA title games like Doom Eternal. With HWmonitor, I did detect the CPU temps climbing up to 100C on some of my more intensive multitask workloads while gaming and streaming. By putting the fans into turbo mode through the PredatorSense app and putting the laptop on a cooling pad, I was able to keep the CPU temps at 90C and below and never noticed any stutters or frame drops while gaming. This laptop has visible fans on the bottom of the device with slats to allow plenty of cool air to be pulled in. As such, it is essential that you keep that air intake unobstructed by keeping this on a flat, hard surface like a desk while gaming or utilizing a laptop cooling pad. The good news is that my complaint of some finicky cooling needs only extends to the CPU. During my most intensive testing while gaming at full graphics, running a second monitor, and streaming via the GPU hardware encoder on OBS, the NVidia 4080 this laptop is equipped with never exceeded temperatures higher than 94C! For a high-power mobile CPU like this with 12GB of VRAM, this is fantastic for my use case and has left me completely satisfied with the performance for concurrent high-fidelity and frame-rate gaming combined with streaming on Twitch! Another thing that I really like on this laptop is the keyboard. It is a comfortable keyboard to type on, with just the right pitch and angle to the palm rests for ease of typing on a flat surface. The keys themselves feel great and the full number pad they included is a welcome addition for my Excel spreadsheet household budget crunching. The media control keys above the number pad are a welcome addition, as are the comprehensive and fully lit controls on the function row of keys. The keys themselves are beautifully lit with the mini-LED RGB per-key lighting. Also, there is additional lighting on the rear jutting portion of the laptop, right on the top of the deck! It looks so cool and honestly adds some edgy appeal to this device without overdoing it. Altogether, as an almost 30-year-old, I can get behind the looks of this high-end gaming laptop without being afraid it looks too unprofessional in certain business settings. The speakers on this laptop are actually a real surprise as to how loud and clear they are. There is a detectable bit of buzz to them occasionally on the very top end of the volume levels when an audio track gets dense with mixed trebles and mids, but it is not that bad or frequent. Frankly, I am an obligate headset and earbud user so the speakers on a laptop like this are not important to me. Most gamers I know are also using headsets, so the gamer crowd should be perfectly satisfied with the audio on this laptop. The webcam on this laptop is one of the reasons why I can openly say that a business professional or student would be thrilled to have it. It is a crispy 1080p full HD camera and has proved to be excellent in dim rooms. I am impressed that they managed to squeeze such a good camera into the top of this very thin bezeled screen without having to go with a notch design (thank goodness). I used this camera on OBS while streaming on Twitch and even though it isn’t the most flattering camera angle for my face, it worked great and was seamless to use. There is a green indicator light that lights up next to it when it is activated, but there is no physical shutter to block the camera. Now to just touch on a few of the identified downsides of a device like this. The first is that the power adapter this comes with is an appealingly rounded edged adapter but is an absolute brick weighing over 3 pounds with the cords included. To my testing, this laptop cannot receive power in through its thunderbolt 4 ports, even during eco and battery saver use, so that means that if you are expecting to use this beast of a gaming laptop on the go for more than a few hours, you are going to have to lug that large power brick with you. The next gripe is one that I am going to be reasonable about, but it is the short battery life. This beast is absolutely ravenous for power! In my battery test, I went as absolutely low power as possible, including using eco mode, setting the battery immediately to battery saver mode, setting the keyboard RGB to static color and to turn off after 30 seconds of nonuse, and turning down the screen refresh rate to 60. While that took away some of the beauty of the screen, it did not reduce my productivity on the machine. An addendum necessary to all my battery testing is that I am an obligate Google Chrome Browser user due to my online master’s college program being a Google University, so I recognize that there is less power efficiency there than with Google Chrome as my web browser. With all of these efficiency settings implemented, I did manage to squeeze out 2 hours and 4 minutes of unplugged use before I hit the 10% mark on the battery. While this is acceptable for my use case, I just want to make sure others are aware. I really wish that Acer could have included the ability to charge this over the USB thunderbolt connection with a 100W PD option or the like so that there might be a more portable way to juice this thing up on the go than that 3-pound beast of a power adapter, especially given that the laptop draws less than 100watts when fully charge and doing basic tasks that don’t involve the discrete GPU. One other issue I think should be mentioned in this portion of the review, is that the software of the PredatorSense app will not allow you to change the mode from balanced to Performance or Turbo, where it claims to overclock the GPU and CPU, until you reach 40% or more battery power, even while the adapter is plugged in. This makes sense I suppose from a voltage and device protection perspective, but it is still a limitation people should be aware of. That way, you know to plug your laptop in when you get home from the coffeeshop for some time (as an example) before you get your high-power gaming session started. Benchmarks: 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD in this laptop is a PCIe Gen 4 drive. It achieved over 6500MB/s read speeds and 4978MB/s write speeds! This is a beast of a drive. There is also one more M.2 slot open for additional storage to be added. Geekbench 6 (GPU) OpenCL score: 170020 Geekbench 6 (CPU) Single Core score: 2799 Multicore: 16022 Unengine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 with Ultra Quality, Extreme Tessellation at 1600p resolution: 105.3 FPS with a score of 2654 Overall, this laptop delivers exactly what I would expect at this price point in the way of being a beastly gaming laptop with some aspects that make it more reasonable for mixed business or school use like the FHD webcam and full-sized keyboard. I really don’t have any recommendations for how Acer could make this laptop better, except that I am always game for more ways to power mobile devices on the go such as with USB-C power input capability. Thanks for reading and I hope this review has aided your purchasing decision.

This Acer Predator Helios 16 gaming laptop is an absolute powerhouse that left me awestruck. Packed with cutting-edge technology and a jaw-dropping display, it's a dream come true for any avid gamer. Equipped with the Intel i9-13900HX 24 core processor, the Acer Predator Helios 16 flexes its muscles by delivering unparalleled performance. Multitasking, running demanding applications, and of course, gaming, feel like a dream come true. The laptop's 16GB memory ensures smooth operation even during resource-intensive tasks, making lag a thing of the past. As a gaming laptop, the Predator Helios 16 truly lives up to its name. The 240Hz refresh rate combined with the WQXGA resolution on the 16-inch display is a sight to behold. Playing games feels incredibly immersive, with buttery-smooth visuals and vibrant colors that pop. Competitive gamers will appreciate the ultra-fast refresh rate, as it provides a distinct advantage in fast-paced games where every millisecond counts. Cyberpunk 2077 runs so smooth on ultra settings with ray tracing enabled compared to my previous gaming rig that is a few years old. CS GO absolutely flies, as expected on an older game and is a pleasure to look at on this 240Hz screen. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 is a high end graphics card that will make running all the current AAA games at the highest settings a breeze. The laptop's design exudes a premium and aggressive feel, perfectly aligning with its gaming DNA. The backlit RGB keyboard not only adds a touch of style but also enhances the gaming experience. The build quality is exceptional, with a sturdy chassis that feels capable of withstanding the rigors of frequent travel and intense gaming sessions. Given the powerful components packed inside, thermal management is crucial. Acer has done an impressive job with the cooling system on the Predator Helios 16. The laptop features advanced cooling technology that keeps temperatures in check even during extended gaming sessions. This means you can push the laptop to its limits without worrying about overheating. The Helios 16 doesn't disappoint when it comes to connectivity options. It offers a variety of ports, including USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, and more, allowing you to connect to multiple peripherals and displays simultaneously. Wifi 6E gives the latest gen in high speed wifi. This versatility is a boon for both gaming and productivity tasks. Considering the sheer power of this laptop, I found the battery life to be surprisingly decent. While you'll definitely get more mileage out of less resource-intensive tasks, I was able to enjoy several hours of gaming and work without constantly worrying about finding a power outlet. The one drawback is the power card hooks up to a large power adapter. There are multiple performance/power modes you can choose to get the right amount of performance for battery life you want. The Acer Predator Helios 16 is a gaming laptop that doesn't compromise on performance, visuals, or build quality. With its Intel i9-13900HX processor and Nvida RTX 4080 graphics card, high-refresh-rate display, stunning design, and effective cooling system, it's a true gaming beast that's sure to elevate your gaming and productivity experiences.

This is a pretty remarkable machine. It's packaged beautifully, it includes a soft case. Upon installation, I made sure that Windows 11 (Home, I would have preferred Pro for the $s) was up to date, and that Predator Helios was updated, it did go throught 2 bios updates, but nothing unexpected.   But there are some issues you should be aware of.  For a 16" screen it weighs in just over 5 lbs (without 3.3 lbs power brick (the biggest I've seen)).  The first thing I did was some simple battery rundown tests.  If you are going to do any serious work on battery power, be prepared to plug-in within 2hrs.  I ran several tests, and even with only surfing the internet I only got just over 2.5 hrs (screen brightness 75%).  Running Diablo (@1440p) brought on the "jet engine" fans and cut battery life to just over 1 hour.  But I did not get this to run it on batteries.  Diablo ran very smoothly, no screen tearing, absolutely fantastic gaming.  This is what I expected from the latest Nvidia 4080  (with 12GB of VRAM); to excel, and it does. Keyboard customization is done with the PredatorSense app, it is very easy to make changes. The Predator key brings up numerous gaming/configuration/performance options.  The supplied Micron SSD is acceptable, but not outstanding.  I've attached an image showing CrystalDiskMark's benchmarks comparing the Micron to Acer's latest Predator SSD.  The touch pad is also superb, although I attached a logitech BT mouse, as I'm accustomed to it for several games. The screen's resolution is 2560x1600. Now I'm going to go a bit off road, and not exactly use this notebook as intended.  My biggest attraction to this beast of a machine was Intel's I9-13900hx processor (supporting 24 cores, 32 threads).  It's about as fast as you can get today.  This Predator ships with a somewhat underwhelming configuration. So it's time to do a couple of upgrades.  First I'll add a faster 4Tb Acer Predator SSD (GM7000).  And this notebook only has 16Gb of memory (although it's fast DDR5 memory), and Acer's spec sheets say it only supports 32Gb.  Yet Intel's spec sheets spec it can support 64Gb.  So I was not deterred from trying 64Gb.  At first, after removing the 2x8Gb sticks and replacing them with 2 Crucial DDR5 4800 SODIMM sticks...  Powered it on, and the notebook would not boot.  But I've seen this before.  I removed the stick from bank 2, and reboooted.  It took over 2min but the system did boot this time with a single 32Gb stick.  Power down, add the second stick back in. Reboot and wait another +2min, and the system booted with 64GB!!  One other note, that I don't know if it is normal, The Acer battery was NOT screwed in, and I didn't have any screws of that size. So powering on/off, testing, was complicated by the loose battery (there were 4 screw holes to afix the battery).  When re-assembling the LED panel on the tail end of the computer, has to be 'hooked on' before reassembly Why all the memory?  I want to run multiple virtual machines (preferably 4, Win 11, Win 10, Win 8 Pro and Win 7 Ultimate (32 bit).  I want to do this for support purposes, I'm a software developer and I need to be able to test my software on different versions of windows.  I also need to be able to run a Development SQL Server.  This machine should be able to do this, but only if it has sufficient memory. I know the CPU can deal with it.  I setup each Virtual machine (Oracle VirtualBox) with 16gb, 8gb, 4gb and 4gbof memory, and with between 100gb to 750gb of disk space. And still there is space left over on the 4TB drive.   So it can be done, and an image shows many details with all running. The screen on this Predator Helios   is excellent, plenty bright and very even backlighting (500 nit).  There are 3 USB-A (3.2) ports, 2 USB-C/Thunderbolt ports (rear), 1 Full size HDMI 2.1 port (rear), 1 Micro SD card slot, 1 Ethernet port and a headphone jack.  Very well outfitted.   As for sound quality, it's acceptable, it can get loud enough but the overall quality of the sound is not the best I've heard (or have).  And the camera is: so, so @1080P, it's pretty good with low light, better than most.  When the camera is on there is a green led to the right of the camera, but no physical shutter lock. I'd really hoped that this notebook could be powered via the thunderbolt input, at least in eco mode.  But I could not get that to work even with a 100W PD USB-C adapter.  So if you're going to travel with this 5lbs notebook you're going to also have to bring its 3.3lbs (with cords) power supply (really too bad this did not work).  If you're going to game with this, you won't be putting it on your lap, when running in turbo mode the heat from the fans is quite noticeable, and pretty loud, but not unexpected.  The fans run as required, if you're not pushing it, you barely hear them. I do some astrophotography and use an app that aligns stars, this I9 notebook is nearly 50% faster than my current state of the art notebook (w/Nvidia 3060).  The good news is it's a post processing process, where I process a "stack" of images.  I'm sure the 4080 GPU has something to do with this. In summary, this is a workhorse of a computer,  I wish Acer had included their own Predator SSD, as it's easily 10-15% faster than the Micron stock drive. I wish I could power the machine (maybe without the 4080, with a 100W USB-C PD device).  I also think that a machine of this quality should ship with 32GB memory.  And the battery should be screwed in. I'd also like the option of a touch screen, all the fingerprints on the screen are because I've become accustomed to touch screen notebooks. But in terms of performance, properly configured, this is a remarkable machine.

The Acer Predator Helios 16 is the powerhouse you have been wanting for your portable gaming. It is loaded with great features, it's upgradable, and amazingly fun to play on. Unboxing Acer knows how to pack a computer! There is careful attention taken to avoid vibration, dropping, or throwing damage. The laptop is securely bundled up in thick foam bricks and well presented in an awesome product box. It is nice to see this level of detail and care on packaging. It comes with some standard paperwork and a sticker sheet for Planet9 gaming league. In the product case there is the power brick and cables, and also 2 colorful magnetic fan port covers that you can swap out with the plain black covers already on the back of the laptop. Also included is a very nice zippered carrying pouch. It is slightly padded, and well crafted. Outside Features This laptop comes equipped with 3 USB 3.2 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a MiniSD port, Ethernet, Headphone jack, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, and charger port. Setup and initial thoughts Make sure you are plugged in to power, because there is quite a bit of updating to do. The startup button is actually part of the keyboard, which takes some getting used to. The initial splash logo on startup is accompanied by a sound clip that is quite startling and loud if you are not expecting it. This can be disabled in Predator Sense once windows setup is complete. There is a bit of bloatware installed, so you may want to visit add/remove programs and do a bit of cleanup. PredatorSense Acers overclocking, monitoring, and customizing software. You can quick access it by hitting the Predator logo on the keypad. It is full of details and abilities. You have your power mode, which can choose between quiet, balanced, performance, and turbo mode. Turbo mode overclocks the cpu and gpu, and max fan speed. It gets quite noisy on that mode, but really beast modes the hardware safely in Acers specs. Also is fan control, where you can set custom fan speeds for the gpu and cpu. There is also lighting control, and also sound enviroment control. Sound The sound leaves a bit to be desired through the laptop speakers, even with DTS X ultra on. Most of the contol and quality comes through headphones or bluetoothing to a stereo system. Display This laptop comes with a 16" WQXGA LED Panel with a whopping 240hz refresh with a 3ms response time. It comes with Gsync and Optimus, which lets the computer jump back and forth between the RTX4080, and the I9 13900HX's integrated graphics to save on battery. It seems to work quite well. The panel is 500nits of brightness, but with a resolution of 2560x1600, the picture quality is insanely detailed. Performance With the I9's 24 cores up to 5.4ghz, and the RTX4080's 12GB of video memory and dlss, games run on ultra settings with high fps, and process cpu rendering amazingly fast, especially on turbo mode. The 16GB of DDR5 5600 Ram really help quick boots and loading. Upgradeability There is 1TB of SSD storage that comes with the computer. There is a 2nd SSD port will let you add more memory, and the 16GB of ram is upgradable to 32GB and is super easy to access. Keyboard, touchpad, and camera They keyboard takes up almost the entire width of the case, and includes a number pad which I like. The keys feel pretty good to type on and have a nice response. There is also a hotkey to open PredatorSense, and another off the keyboard to quick adjust your mode between performance and turbo. The key lighting is fully customizable and looks good. The trackpad is large and feels very smooth with gliding and clicks. The camera seemed ok. It is 1080p, but depending on what program is running it, it can be kinda fuzzy or super clear and sharp. The Flaw The reason for 4 stars is that the panel bezel is very thin and has quite a bit of flex. This has left the screen to have a few bleedthrough spots, especially in the upper corners where you open the panel. Acer needs to find a way to better sturdy that. The bleedthrough is not very noticeable except on pure blacks. Overall This is an exceptional gaming machine and is so much fun to game on, and also video editing or using design software. It flows so well. Even with the screen issue and the subpar speakers, I would highly recommend this laptop.

I picked this up when my Asus Strix laptop with a 3070 and an AMD 8 core bit the dust. The big draw was that it was on sale, with a 4080, and with a super fast screen. 16gb of system ram seemed a bit low in my option, even just sitting at idle would consume maybe 40%. In game it would be nearly maxed. Getting a 32gb kit was no big deal and a piece of cake to install. That might be the best part about this laptop - accessing the internals is a series of torx screws and they all are easily removed. There is no RGB on the underside so there is no muss or fuss with wires connecting the bottom panel to the body. In game, it's an animal. There are 4 different fan speed settings you can select from. Turbo overclocks everything a little bit and turns the fans to maximum. It's rather noisy but you're going to get a ton of performance. If you have noise canceling headphones, this would not be a bad option to run. Performance turns the fans "up" a bit, but is much quieter than turbo. I switch to this mode if I'm playing something especially taxing. However, I keep the laptop in "balanced" mode most of the time because the fans are on, but they are rather quiet. The CPU and GPU are throttled, but with DLSS and other tricks in games, the performance drop is no big deal IMO. There is a second, unused M.2 slot which I immediately populated with a 2tb NVME. I have absolutely no complaints. I didn't think it was going to be quite as good as it was coming from my Strix, but this thing is a beast. Absolutely would recommend and would buy again.

This machine is an amazingly powerful build for the price, and i am so impressed by the quality of the laptop casing. If you plan to actually use the RTX- 4080 you should expect the fans to get loud, but you’ll forget they are there the moment you see Cyberpunk 2077 running at 90 FPS in native resolution with “Raytracing - Overdrive” graphics enabled. I can do manual retopology in Maya on a high-poly mesh without caching or doing any other sort of optimizing and never feel so much as a stutter. Abode Substance Painter and Designer run beautifully. My only caveat is the 16GB RAM offered, but the other stick of DDR5 RAM is a very inexpensive and wasy to install add-on, expecially if you are lucky enoungh to find this laptop on sale. Speaking of, there is room for a second M2 Solid State drive, which is awesome and great for turning this laptop into a power portable production workstation.

Overall this laptop should make any gamer or video creator very happy because of its top tier components. The battery life and fan noise can be annoying but its typical of what you would expect from a laptop with this much power. If you like high speed action games then this laptop is a perfect fit. Components: Acer built this gaming laptop with lots of power. The processor is the Intel i9 – 13900HX which supports 24 cores and 32 threads, the gpu is a Nvidia 4080, the display is a 2560x1600 WQXGA with a 240 hz refresh rate, the memory is 8gb x 2 slots of DDR5 5600 mhz and the storage is a Micron 3400 gen 4 NVMe 1 tb SSD. Upgradeability: The laptop comes with 2 x 8 gb = 16 gb but can be upgraded to 2 x 16 gb = 32 gb. If you look at the photo you will notice that the installed 2 x 8 gb of DDR 5 5600 RAM has both a heat sink and thermal/insulating wrap on the modules. If you upgrade the memory you are going to want to reuse both of these. I added a WD 2Tb NVMe 4th generation drive in the second M2 slot. Acer included the screw in the M2 NVMe mount so it was an easy install. The case build is solid and tight so after the screws are removed from the bottom its still a task to remove the cover. Modes: There are four operating modes Quiet, Balanced, Performance and Turbo which you can access via a dedicated button. In Turbo mode the noise from the fans can get rather loud just like other high powered gaming laptops I own. What I have found is that I can play most of my games in the Performance mode which lessens the noise without an enormous impact on the gaming quality. Below I listed the FPS difference as measured by 3Dmark in Turbo mode and Performance mode for comparison. Display: The display has a max resolution of 2560 x 1600 with a 240 hz refresh rate. I ran several display test and verified that the image quality at the 240 hz refresh rate was solid. The display is very bright and colorful. When playing F1 2022 and Forza 5 at full throttle the fast refresh rate and high FPS kept the image clear and distinct. Heat: The high powered components in this laptop generate some serious heat and to offset that Acer has done a respectable job with the fan management. There are two rear vents, two side vents and an open bottom. When gaming in Turbo mode I hear more wind noise than fan whine. One thing I have noticed is that the fans speed up and drop off rapidly with the gaming demands so they aren’t running high when you aren’t pushing the laptop. Software: The Acer Predator Sense app allows you to choose between modes, adjust fan control and set preconfigured and custom keypad and rgb lighting. It also has a monitoring page that gives you the status of the laptop components. The software is very intuitive and easy to use. Build: The laptop is mostly constructed of plastic but it feels solid. The rear vents extend beyond the display panel’s hinges and this tail assembly has some nice rgb lighting on the top. The keys are great for typing because they provide positive feedback when engaged. The power supply is a brick - as in big and heavy but it has to be to support the power draw. Ports: On the left side there is an ethernet port, Micro SD reader, Headphones jack and a USB-A gen 3.2. One the back there is the power port, hdmi 2.1 and two Thunderbolt type C connectors. On the right side there are two USB-A gen 3.2 ports. 3D mark Benchmark values for 1440p Ultra resolution: Battlefield V Turbo mode = 180+ fps; Performance mode = 165+ fps Apex legends Turbo mode = 140+ fps; Performance mode = 140+ fps GTA V Turbo mode = 125+ fps; Performance mode = 115+ fps Red Dead Redemption 2 Turbo mode = 75+ fps ; Performance mode = 70+ fps Fortnite Turbo mode = 95+ fps; Performance mode = 85+ fps Performance Graphic Score 17851, CPU score 15758 Turbo Graphic Score 18707

I have been building and repairing computers (PC’s and macs) for 34 years. The only negative reviews on this machine are people that have low tech levels and/or received units with issues(which is common ground with all products on earth) I will never give negative feedback for a faulty system unless the customer service isnt good to address my issue. People that give negative reviews because a product arrives with issues or is broken has clearly never worked in retail and have no business leaving reviews. Items being broken or having issues are a very basic occurance and every single product on earth isnt going to work perfectly and/or not be broken. Honestly, basic consumers shouldnt own high end hardware either because all high-end hardware requires tuning and fine tuning that takes a mild level of technical abilities before ownership. With all of that being said, This laptop is amazing. It is nowhere near my 13900k/4090 desktop, but for on the go gaming and for the price, you will not find a better high end laptop. The panel is great, the power delivery is great, the temps with the liquid metal on the CPU are great(even when set to turbo and manual overclocking through afterburner without predator sense running). The machine does NOT have much bloatware like some reviews are saying; im not sure where that is even coming from. Some games are developed for gsync, some are not. Some games need gsync and vsync, some do not, etc., etc. people with lower tech levels will blame the unit for weird performance in games when the reality is, its usually the user not understanding that optimization of software and games is very different from application to application and you need to have enough knowledge to know when and what to tweak playing games on computers. The negative reviewers need to stick to consoles where low tech levels is ok. Buy this laptop in this configuration and upgrade to 32GB of RAM (2x16GB 5600). The 16GB isnt enough, but that is a super simple fix. They sell it with 16GB to keep the retail lower than competitors. Gskill sells a ripjaws kit for a little over $110 that is compatible with the BiOS and will run at 5600mhz @CL40 on the 13900hx(the 13700 will max at 4800mhz). Get one. You wont regret it.

After searching for a while, the Acer was one of the most affordable if not the cheapest QHD+ 16” gaming laptops with an RTX 4080. As even a macbook fan because of the build quality, i was shocked at how rugged the build of the acer predator helios is. Many gaming laptops have aluminum, but not all will feel premium or have aluminum surrounding the keyboard. Also, the sleekness and simplicity of the laptop does wonders. It’s not in your face with RGB, yet the per key lighting and the RGB bar in the back are welcomed. As far as performance, i have been impressed with how well it performs even in “balanced mode”, i find mtself playing demanding games with the laptop remaining cool and the fans not blowing much. I was also glad to see the laptop come with a case. I will have to say though, I was drawn to this laptop because of the value at the sale price. If I paid retail, i might have been willing to pay a little extra for something a little fancier.

I'm happy with the performance of this laptop from Acer. The performance has been very good, and most importantly for me, predictable. Like every other gaming laptop, the fans do make noise when you're pushing it, but as someone very sensitive to this, the noise isn't bad. It's fairly low pitched brown noise which doesn't fluctuate very much. You can play most games on quiet settings. The screen is very bright, clear, and is anti-reflective. I think Nvidia Optimus is confusing and ended up and disabling it. The keyboard is great, but the off-center touch pad gets in the way... Acer, please move this. The touch pad is large, sensitive, and accurate, but again, it's in the wrong place. If you use WASD it's going to annoy you. Finally, as a note to Acer... please, please, please... we need high performance laptops that don't look and sound like Transformers.