Customer Ratings & Reviews

The 2025 Acer Predator Helios Neo is a very cool laptop with some standout features that make it a value in my opinion. Now, the nature of gaming laptops is always tradeoffs. No matter the brand or model, a gaming laptop is a product which pushes engineers to make decisions that sway the balance of features and design choices. Its up to you to decide which balance is most important to you, and I will try to convey my perspective as best as possible. Look & Feel: The laptop sports a nice matte finish with a combination of metals and hard plastics. The screen and the chassis that holds the keyboard and trackpad feels reasonably sturdy. If you go out of your way to push like a madman on the chassis it will flex, and the screen will bend. However, if you treat it like a normal laptop, I think the body is on par for the price point. I am actually writing this review on the Predator Neo during a work trip. I brought it along on the plane ride to provide entertainment at the airport and my hotel room. I’ve appreciated the light weight and thin profile tremendously. Its portability is further appreciated thanks to its smaller than usual power brick on the power cord. The keyboard features four zones of RGB lighting and feels nice to type on, but I do think they could have made them a bit more tactile. The touchpad is fine. Its made of plastic and has a decent level of feedback. I usually bring a mouse so its not a big deal, and is more than enough on the go. Ports are excellent, no complaints there. Lastly, I really appreciate Acer putting a number pad on this laptop. It makes it a viable option to get work done. Performance: If you have explored the gaming laptop rabbit hole long enough you will have likely noticed a common theme: thermals and how much voltage does the GPU get? When we talk about balance, this is the most common challenge. When you increase voltage on a GPU, you get more performance. However, the inverse effect is heat. Have you ever looked at a full size graphics card? They are usually thicker than an entire laptop. That’s a thermal challenge. What laptop manufacturers tend to do is offer thinner versions that are throttled down to not create excess thermals, and thicker, more hardcore gaming focused models where they can pump more voltage into the laptop. In this case, we have a thin laptop with a small power brick. Result? Lower voltage. However, this is where things get interesting. The thermal control tug of war becomes far more consequential with more powerful laptops (RTX 5070, 5080, 5090). With something like an RTX 5060 you end up getting way closer to desktop levels of performance in a laptop because the GPU itself doesn’t need so much voltage to begin with. This keeps the thermals at bay, and from what I’ve experienced, the fans on this laptop are very powerful. Where does that put the Predator Neo with an RTX 5060? Well, in the sweet spot of value. I played games like Forza Horizon 5, Marvel Rivals, Elden Ring Nightreign, and Expedition 33. Every one of them performed better than any console. I have a desktop gaming tower with RTX 5060 Ti which should be significantly more powerful than this laptop. However, the reality is that I only saw roughly a 25% reduction in performance on the games I played. When you consider this is a non-Ti laptop GPU that can be brought with you anywhere, a 25% performance hit is insanely reasonable. Display wise Acer put an OLED panel on this laptop which just makes the value so much higher. Sporting 240hz and a 2K resolution, this display is basically overkill. I like overkill. That means no matter the game, you have tons of runway FPS and resolution wise. It will also have great color thanks to the OLED panel. The balance this laptop hits portability wise, price, performance, thermals, just feels great. So many times gaming laptops get into insane territories when it comes to price to performance, this Acer Predator Neo with an RTX 5060 just falls right into a sweet spot. Battery life is fine. No gaming laptop in this price range is going to have incredible battery life. I think it’s a non-issue since the battery brick is so small and easy to bring. Conclusion: The Acer Predator Neo lives in the green zone of gaming laptops. The RTX 5060 keeps this laptop in check thermals and price wise. I think for the majority of users, they are going to find this laptop to be exactly what they need. Its light, decently well built, priced reasonably, good performance, and a strong display. The addition of a number pad on the keyboard also makes it a good choice for getting work done. I really enjoyed my time with this laptop so far, and its been easy to travel with. You won’t be disappointed.

It’s a great mid-level gaming laptop. OLED screen is another awesome thing about this laptop.

Good Laptop. Great picture. High performence. Good value.

terrific laptop, efficient and has a decent graphics display

Great laptop, Ive had it for around a month so far, Can do everything i need it to, Very satisfied.

Aside from the batter would recommend this for anything you wanna do in your everyday life and school/work like

Unit is as advertised. Only exception is that saying it's user upgradable is much more than removing 10 screws. Prying off the back cover is a bit of a challenge.

It needs more ran the 16gb are not enough for most games this days

The new Acer Predator Helios is here but is it everything you are looking for in a gaming laptop? Cpu is top notch with a Ultra 9 275hx at the helm. Runs decently cool enough for a laptop CPU and handles any game i've thrown at it. RGB all around is nice on the keyboard and the outer shell case. Plenty of ports everywhere, 2.5gb nic, hdmi out, usb of all shapes and sizes and a thunderbolt 5 port. 1TB SSD performs as you expect. Screen is buttery smooth oled at 240hz so all your fps games look amazing. This particular model though is a let down for me and here is why. They opted to cheap out at 16gb Ram which is barely the minimum this day in age especially with Windows 11 at the fore front. Should not be seeing any gaming laptops with less than 32gb in my opinion. They also took a cheap route by pairing all the bells and whistles with a lowly 8gb 5060, not even a ti just the basic version. All this while the next model up for a couple hundred more has all the things this one does not with 32gb Ram and a 5070ti. That's the model you want, this one I would pass on. If that model isn't available there are other better options out there. It's pretty, the battery life is good, but they really missed the mark on the internals. Also a quick note on the Quality Assurance from Acer could use some work, the bezel around my laptop was popped off and I had to snap it back in a few spots. For the money you are paying for this laptop, they need to put a little more care before shipping things out. Solid 4 stars but the ram and gpu, really gutted this beautiful machine.

As typical of high end computers, main components such as CPUs and GPUs will often garner the most attention especially with new hardware/product launches. It is certainly no surprise, therefore, that computer enthusiasts will savor any possibility of an upgrade that will increase their current level of performance. However, in the past, top-end hardware often meant sacrificed portability as a result. Fortunately, in recent years, that tradeoff has improved quite substantially; any modern 14 or 16’’ model no longer carries a 7-10lbs prerequisite (though they certainly still exist if weight is not an issue). Thus, I was excited about testing the recently launched Acer Helios Neo 16s AI, especially given the excitement regarding its value and slim design. As configured, this particular model features the recently launched Ultra 9 275HX 24 Core CPU, 16 GB DDR5-6400 MHz, 1 TB M2 Gen 4x4 SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce 5060 mobile with 8 GB GDDR7. Starting with the design of the Neo 16s, it is certainly impressive from a physical perspective. At less than 0.74 inches thick, and clocking right at 5lbs, the Neo 16s has nice sturdy build; most impressively, you can lift open the screen with ease while the main chassis does not shift or move. Additionally, the brushed aluminum body also feels quite impressive and smooth to the touch. As for connectivity, the Neo 16s should have everyone’s needs covered. Starting at the back of the unit, you will find a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port (10Gbps), one Thunderbolt 4 over Type-C, an HDMI 2.1 port, and lastly the DC jack for the included 230w power supply. In addition to the main power jack, both Type-C ports can charge the unit. Switching over the left side of the unit, there is an Ethernet 2.5G port as well as a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (5Gbps) and a micro SD card slot. Lastly, on the right side of the laptop there is a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (10Gbps) ports (the left furthest port supports device charging). Additionally, the Neo 16s features a vibrant 2600x1600 OLED 240 Hz display. Interestingly, while the panel is listed as glossy, in actuality it is closer to resembling a semi-glossy panel as it isn’t just pure glass like other laptops. Surprisingly, it still gives off that vibrant contrast that glossy is known for. For my performance tests, I wanted to focus on an out of the box experience, though as with any OEM installation, there are several tweaks that need to be applied. While keeping changes to a minimum, I did uninstall McAfee anti-virus and Acer QuickPanel, disabled all the startup executables, and set most of applications to never run in the background. For monitoring, I used a combination of HW Info 8.28, HW Monitor 1.58, and CrystalMark 8.0.6. Lastly, keep in mind the results I listed here are what I have personally observed; your results and experience will differ, but at least this will give you some basic idea on what to expect. Lastly, I used the Turbo profile found in the included Predator Sense software. Before I get into my synthetic benchmarks, I first wanted to begin with the testing of the RTX 5060 GPU. While criticism of the recent mid-range GPU offerings is no doubt warranted, the good news is that it is at least strong enough to push the native 2600x1600 resolution being offered here; conclusively, however, you should expect most of the 8 GB of video ram to be used in whatever game you run. Upon firing up Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016), I wanted to compare the in-game benchmark with my RTX 3070 mobile found in my previous laptop. I set the game to the Very High preset, with DLSS and film grain set to off. The anti-aliasing is marked accordingly below: RTX 5060 (FXAA): 141.92 FPS (Peak) / 109. 76 FPS (Syria) / 95.32 FPS (Valley) / 116.00 FPS (Overall) RTX 3070 (FXAA): 116.15 FPS (Peak) / 85.77FPS (Syria) / 71.23 FPS (Valley) / 91.35 FPS (Overall) RTX 5060 (2x SSAA): 95.83 FPS (Peak) / 69.58 FPS (Syria) / 65.59 FPS (Valley) / 77.44 FPS (Overall) RTX 3070 (2x SSAA): 85.62 FPS (Peak) / 64.48 FPS (Syria) / 61.48 FPS (Valley) / 70.88 FPS (Overall) With HW Info 8.28, RAM usage seemed to settle anywhere in the 6.8-7.3 GB range, while GPU temperature was around 81-88c. Connectively, the CPU was around 70-75c with occasional spikes up to around 90c. Accordingly, the GPU package was around 100-115 watts. Lastly, loading up the first level of the game on 2x SSAA, there were some occasional dips below within the 48-58 fps range when the weather affects kick in about midway up the mountain, but it quickly rebounds past 70 fps for the rest of the scene. As a side note, given how difficult this scene was on past GPUs, the performance is quite stellar (for reference, my old Maxwell based 970M GPU was around 20-30 fps at this same point on 1080p). Switching to my CPU synthetic tests, I ran Cinebench R23 and CPU-Z 2.15 against the previous generation Ultra 9. The results are as follows: Cinebench R23: Ultra 9 275HX - Single: 2,178/ Multi: 32,631 (24 Cores / 24 Threads) Cinebench R23: Ultra 9 185H - Single: 1,815/ Multi: 19,705 (16 Cores / 22 Threads) CPU-Z 2.15: Ultra 9 275HX - Single: 850.5/ Multi: 15,605.6 (24 Cores / 24 Threads) CPU-Z 2.15: Ultra 9 185H - Single: 758.0/ Multi: 9,129.3 (16 Cores / 22 Threads) Next, I wanted to benchmark the included internal M2 drive. According to HW Info, the SSD is listed as an SK Hynix Model: HFS001TEJ9X125N. Using CrystalMark 8.0.6, the results are as follows: Sequential Read Q8T1: 6,864.27MB/s / Sequential Write Q8T1: 5,765.59 MB/s Sequential Read 4K Q1T1: 66.84 MB/s / Sequential Write 4K Q1T: 139.17 MB/s Overall, performance of the laptop is quite good, however, there are a few nagging concerns that have ultimately lead to mixed feelings. While the hardware is where I expected it to be, including the high thermals that often accompany such hardware, I cannot excuse the OS installation bloat and some problems that I initially encountered. Before I speak to the OS, I first wanted mention that the Neo 16s initially did not power on when I first received it, despite checking several times the adapter physically clicked into the power jack. Luckily, the power adapter uses the same tip as an older Nitro 5 I had so I was able to rule out that the adapter was not DOA; thus, I continued to try and power on the laptop to no avail. However, luckily I had a spare 130w USB Type-C charger lying around so I gave that a go and miraculously the laptop powered on! Subsequently, after powering on the laptop and configuring the OS, the included adapter finally registered and began to charge the computer. Certainly, this is probably an isolated incident, but nonetheless it was worth mentioning. The second issue I wanted mention is upon the first boot of the OS, given the 16 GB RAM, you will boot at roughly 40-45% usage right off the bat. Once you connect to the internet and start heavily browsing, you may see usage upwards in the 70-75% range at any given point, though the good news is that you can upgrade the memory. Acer lists that 32 GB as the maximum, but various websites have 64 GB listed as maximum supported; unfortunately, I did not have any spare SO-DIMM modules for me to personally test the RAM capacity. As for storage, after updates/drivers, your installation will sit quite hefty at around 88 GB. Fortunately, there is a spare secondary M2 slot for an extra drive; the currently used slot could also be upgraded to a higher capacity. However, a word of caution: Acer has configured the Neo 16S as a RAID device, which means you will need the Intel VMD controller driver before the Windows installation will see your drive if you are going to fresh install! Unfortunately, the BIOS does not give provide an Intel VMD BIOS setting, so you cannot revert this drive back to an AHCI type configuration! The third issue I wanted to mention was that HDR videos on YouTube began to exhibit a prevalent stutter that did not arise until after my second day of use; initially disabling VRR seemed to fix it briefly, but it eventually came back. While this is a known issue, it seems most prevalent in 24H2 installs but it can affect any version; the cause of the issue is still unknown. The last issue I would like to mention is that there is something on this installation that is pegging the P-Cores. While sitting offline, P-Core load is usually anywhere from 10-30%, with elongated durations of 20-30%. While this doesn’t seem like a lot, this is not normal as 1-2 cores are boosting to 5.5 GHz causing 60-70c idle temps. Additionally, it seemed this was affecting the System process (ntoskrnl.exe) as I was experiencing 5-7% load instead of its typical 0.1-1% load on the CPU. Furthermore, I tried to install the Intel Extreme Utility so I could look into lowering the CPU voltage, but I could not get it installed nor is there an XTU option in the BIOS. Regardless, something within Acer’s install is causing an issue; even removing all startup/services does not fix the pegging of the P-Cores. As a computer enthusiast, I don’t think I have ever been as frustrated with an out of box installation as this one. Nonetheless, I usually clean install my desktops/laptops anyway, but for those who aren’t as familiar in proactively managing their machines, I strongly advise you keep my observations in mind. In conclusion, the Acer Helios Neo 16s is a mixed experience that features impressive hardware and exceptional value that is inhibited by a troublesome installation. Despite my issues, it still featured a slick design, strong CPU/GPU performance, and a stellar OLED display! In addition, I was also excited that you can upgrade the memory and add in a second SSD. While you may have a different experience than I did, there is certainly room for improvement. With that said, the Helios Neo 16Ss may fulfill your needs but only if you are aware that you will need to spend significant time configuring the laptop to your personal preference.

This laptop is the best Gaming laptop that I’ve tried from ACER and it’s a great laptop. It’s more for people who want those specs but want a cheaper lighter alternative that might have those specs but cost a pretty penny as well Specs Intel core ultra 9 275HX 16GB or DDR5 Memory 1TB SSD 240hz OLED screen QHD Nividia 5060 8GB GPU For the price and what you get this is a great laptop. It comes with a 230 watts power brick which isn’t that heavy and quite small. Build wise it’s fine but it’s an aluminum lid but otherwise plastic. The keyboard is soft feeling but quite good which is the first I can say for an ACER gaming laptop. It also has a num pad which is a nice thing to have but not a must. The 240HZ panel is nice and colorful but to be honest I think it should have been 1080p because the GPU is only a 5060. Would be much easier to reach 240hz with a 1080p screen. Otherwise the screen is great for gaming and viewing content. It gets bright enough considering it’s OLED. Quite easy to get into the machine as well to upgrade the storage and ram