Acer predator helios 300 review in Spanish (full analysis)

The Acer gaming notebook series has new members, and the one we tested today is none other than the Acer Predator Helios 300. A team that will practically meet all the expectations of a demanding gamer looking for the best price. It presents a very clean and futuristic design without giving up the aluminum caps and a thickness of only 2.3 cm, along with a 15.6 ”screen at 144 Hz.

This high refresh is justified by including as not the Nvidia RTX 2060 with Ray Tracing capacity, 6-core Intel Core i7-9750H and 16 GB of Dual Channel RAM. The complete pack of pure features accompanied by many storage configurations starting at 1199 euros as is this model. We are looking forward to seeing what it can offer us against equipment of up to 500 and 600 euros more expensive with similar hardware. Do you think it will be on par?

Before we know it, we thank Acer for trusting us in giving us this laptop for review.

Acer Predator Helios 300 technical characteristics

Unboxing

The box that the manufacturer has used for the Acer Predator Helios 300 is in the first instance a fairly thin and thick cardboard case considering that we have a second box inside. Its outer faces are completely painted in black without missing the Acer and Predator logo on each side.

As we say, inside we have a second box, this time in hard cardboard with sliding opening that is responsible for storing the laptop in the best possible way. To ensure integrity, it is held in place by polyethylene foam corners. Next to it we have a third box to store the external power supply.

So the laptop bundle has these elements:

• Acer Predator Helios 300 Notebook 180W Power Adapter Envelope with support and warranty information

Nothing else we find, and something that draws attention first is that a 180W power supply is used, while the usual thing for the RTX 2060 is to use 230W. We imagine that the manufacturer considers that it is more than enough.

Exterior design

This new generation of Predator Helios series notebooks bears little difference from the previous generation. The manufacturer understands that its design is good enough and different enough to last as an emblem of the family, which we see as correct.

And is that the Acer Predator Helios 300 is a laptop not of Max-Q design, but it is very thin and almost touching this feature thanks to only 2.3 cm closed. Its other measurements are slightly higher than other 15.6-inch laptops for the simple fact of having thicker frames, raising the width to 36.1 cm and the depth to 26 cm. With an HDD installed it will weigh about 2.4 kg, but our model does not carry it so we saved about 300 grams.

The top cover of the Acer Predator Helios 300 has been modified a bit, and now features two vertical lines finished in bright blue. The Predator logo continues to be used in the central part with its respective very striking light blue lighting. As well as its finish, since aluminum has been used with that satin dark gray and a slightly rough texture that help its grip.

Perhaps what stands out most of its construction is the excellent rigidity of the cover for this screen, with a thickness of about 6 mm is enough to be more robust than practically all gaming notebooks with thin frames tested today. We will have no problem opening it with a single finger from the corners.

The hinge system is fairly standard, on the inner base and on both sides with no part to hinder the rear vents. Speaking a little more about the frames, we have an upper 15mm where the webcam is located, the 8mm sides and the lower 30mm. It is not the screen with the largest usable surface but with the two corners in the shape of a chamfer it looks quite good.

The keyboard area is quite normal, although fortunately also made of aluminum with very good finishes and the same texture as the cover. With the keyboard positioned about 5 cm from the screen and with the keys at the same height as the rest of the base for greater comfort.

This chewing gum-type keyboard includes a numpad and virtually the same separation between all the large, backlit keys. The touchpad is notably tilted to the left to provide better comfort to handle it and for the arrow keys, let's remember that it is a gaming-oriented device.

The rear area of ​​the Acer Predator Helios 300 is also quite interesting, especially in terms of aesthetics, very aggressive and making the finned heatsinks finished in “Predator blue” clearly visible. They are two fairly wide openings which we appreciate, along with a central area also minimally open indicating that we do not touch this part because it is a heat zone. In any case, we will not find lighting of any kind.

The front is extremely simple, flat, with the two chamfers at the corners and completely made in block and without sharp edges. It is appreciated how the aluminum keyboard base takes part of the sides, although not the front of the PC.

We still have left for the lower area, which has a quite aggressive design although we will hardly ever see it, being made of plastic. Along with the two front side openings for sound, we have a rear area open enough to the outside to let air into the double fan system. Likewise, four relatively wide rubber feet are used that raise the equipment a timid 4 mm above the ground.

Ports and connections

We leave the general design of the Acer Predator Helios 300 and focus on the sides, which will be where all the ports of the laptop are located.

Starting from the right side we have:

• USB 3.2 gen1 Type-CUSB 3.2 Gen1 Type-AMini DisplayPort 1.4HDMI 2.0

Two of the 4 USB ports will be located next to the two video ports available on this equipment. Both working with the typical standards that the graphics card itself has. In this way we can connect monitors up to 4K @ 60 Hz on HDMI or 4K @ 120 Hz on DisplayPort and even more on the latter.

It should be said that the USB-C port is not Gen2, nor does it have Thunderbolt or video connection. One of them provides charging capacity for devices. What we do have is a grate located in the deepest part, similar to the ones behind and with a good opening to expel air.

And in the left area we have the rest:

• 2x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A 3.5mm 4-pole combo jack for audio and microphone RJ45 Ethernet port Kensington slot for universal padlocks 2x Activity LED for charging and power on DC-IN power jack

Here we have what we were missing, another pair of USB Gen1 like the previous ones and an Ethernet port that will be appreciated for lower latency connections than WiFi. There is no lack of a fourth ventilation grille exactly the same as the one on the opposite side and also to expel air.

15.6 ”144Hz display

We now continue with the analysis of the screen that mounts the Acer Predator Helios 300, being the same as in the rest of the models. In panel with IPS LCD technology and 15.6-inch LED backlight and consequently, standard 16: 9 format. It offers us a native Full HD resolution (1920x1080p), as always the most used for gaming equipment, the logical one for features and size.

It is a screen built for gaming, so it has a refresh rate of 144 Hz and a response time of 3 ms. This should ensure excellent performance in terms of tearing, ghosting and blinking, since it is also flicker-free. The manufacturer uses ConfyView technology to improve the image quality on the screen, something that we will later check with our colorimeter.

The maximum brightness power should be around 250-300 nits like most laptop screens, although it is not HDR. Acer does not provide data on the color coverage of this panel, nor additional data on its equipment in this regard. From the Nvidia panel we have no possibility to modify the color temperature or characteristics of the screen, something that we would have liked.

We only know that its viewing angles of 178 ^or like all IPS with a very good performance both vertically and horizontally. Yes, we noticed from the beginning that the screen tends to cold colors, something that is common in Predators, perhaps purposely done to combine with aesthetics.

Panel calibration

We have run some calibration tests for the main IPS panel of the Acer Predator Helios 300 with our X-Rite Colormunki Display colorimeter, and the free DisplayCAL 3 and HCFR programs. With these tools we will analyze the color graphics of the screen in the DCI-P3 and sRGB spaces. Likewise, we have checked if there are artifacts such as ghosting or tearing because it is a game-oriented screen.

Flickering, Ghosting and other image artifacts

For this test we will use the Testufo website . We have configured the test at 960 pixels per second and a separation of 240 pixels between the UFOs, always with a Cyan background color. The images taken have been tracked with the UFOs at the same speed at which they appear on the screen in order to capture the trail of ghosting that they may leave.

The ghosting in this case is quite slight at 144 Hz that the screen delivers natively. We only see a small trail in the images of higher contrast that later in the games becomes almost imperceptible.

We have not detected a day of bleeding on the screen, a quite restrained IPS glow and neither flickering nor tearing of the screen. It is undoubtedly a good panel to play, they are standard features for this type of laptop and they are solved.

Brightness and Contrast

Brightness Max.	Contrast	Gamma value	Color temperature	Black level
280 cd / m 2	1213: 1	2.24	6881K	0.2289 cd / m 2

As we announced, this screen is close to 300 nits of maximum brightness although it does not seem to exceed them in any of the panel's regions, making it slightly lower than some of its rivals. However, the contrast is extremely good with more than 1200: 1, as well as the brightness of blacks, less than 0.3 nits approaching absolute black. Finally, the color temperature reflects what we were already saying, a very distinctive trend towards cold colors of the Predator series.

Although it is not an impressive maximum brightness, the uniformity of the panel is splendid, always above the 260 nits minimum and consequently, differences between the brightest point of less than only 20 nits.

SRGB space

Calibration for this space is not bad, since the average Delta E that we have measured in the color palette is 2.21. Especially good are the grayscale registers, with Deltas not exceeding unity in most cases.

The total coverage in this space is somewhat discreet, with 87.7% and not reaching 90%, so it is not an advisable panel to dedicate to professional design. Likewise, the coverage in Adobe RGB is 63.7%, a much more demanding space. Finally, the graphics reflect a good fit in almost all cases, although the gamma is always below the reference and the RGB is slightly out of adjustment.

DCI-P3 space

In the DCI-P3 space the Acer Predator Helios 300 suffers a bit more with an average Delta E of 3.06, a point above 2 that would be our reference. Here the mainly warm saturated shades are somewhat misaligned precisely by this color temperature close to 7000 K.

Color coverage also drops to 67.4%, perfectly understandable and normal in a wide-ranging space like this. If we see in the graphics a very good luminance for the panel, as well as a good Gamma very adjusted until it reaches the whitest tones.

Results after a calibration

We have tried to perform a calibration although without being able to touch the color temperature since neither monitor nor laptop have an integrated application to perform this action. So it has not been possible to make the profiling, action to correct the coloration of the panel. In any case, the RGB seems to be quite well adjusted, so we leave the new figures as a reference, but we will not place the ICC file because we believe that the improvement is negligible.

Sound system and webcam

The sound system installed in the Acer Predator Helios 300 consists of a 2W double speaker with MAXXAUDIO technology. These two speakers are rectangular type with membrane as shown in the image.

For the purposes of experience, I always tell you that I like how this type of membrane works more than the plastic used in other speakers , since they provide a little more bass and higher audio quality at maximum volume. This is the case, with a fairly clear sound and a powerful enough volume while making sure they never distort. I can also say that it is a somewhat metallic sound, perhaps because of how rigid the chassis of this laptop is or simply because of a design issue.

It has functions called MAXXBASS and MAXXDIALOG that basically detect the different sound frequencies to increase the bass. We have not noticed major differences, but we consider that it is a very good sound system to be a laptop, without reaching the level of the Giant Speakers of MSI. If we connect headphones we have WAVES NX 3D technology available, making a more realistic 3D surround sound effect.

As for the webcam, I don't usually take image captures because the quality is exactly the same as in all laptops. It is a sensor that captures in HD resolution at 1280x720p in both image and video and at 30 FPS. Next to it we have an array of omni-directional microphones for stereo recording and noise suppression.

Yes, we would have liked this camera to be compatible with Microsoft's Windows Hello authentication system. In addition to general-purpose laptops, we think it would be a necessary option for all new generation laptops. We also have no integrated fingerprint reader.

Touchpad and keyboard

Now we return to the bottom of the Acer Predator Helios 300 to focus more on its keyboard and touchpad, especially liking the former.

The keyboard is the usual one of Acer for Helios, one in full configuration and therefore with numpad included. The distribution that we have in this case is not the Spanish one, although obviously it will be available for sale to the public, we should not worry about this. The row of F keys, the numpad, and the arrow keys are minimally separated from the keyboard, although it is very noticeable.

However, they are island-type keys of a significant size, specifically 15 × 15 mm with a travel of approximately 1.3 mm. What we like most about it is its chewing gum type membrane, with a very direct pulsation effect and without the tactile effect that other keyboards or padding have. This comes in handy when playing, especially since we know exactly when the key has been pressed, although it is also comfortable for typing.

With the metal base so robust that it has, it does not sink anything at all, not even forcing the keyboard, fantastic. The characters also do their good role, as they are very large, easy to locate and to avoid being confused by rushing.

It is not all, since its keys have backlit lighting, so in addition to lighting the character, it will do the same with the sides of the key. It has a total of 4 configurable zones, not being able to customize the lighting of each key separately, something that would already play with how strong the competition is in this aspect.

We can customize this lighting from the PredatorSense software in the clear lighting section. We have by default the option of placing a different color in these four areas of the keyboard, with a depth of 24 bits. And if we prefer it in the “dynamic” section, we can select from a few light effects that use the full keyboard without noticing the different regions, which is fine.

The touchpad of the Acer Predator Helios 300 is of a large size as can be seen in the image, with measurements of 108 mm wide by 78 mm high. It is wide especially in height, presenting an optimized design for games, ensuring wider movements and greater precision for those who want to use it to play.

The touchpad features a very smooth scrolling surface in all conditions. The buttons are integrated into said panel, and it is what I like least about this touchpad , since it is a rather hard click and with the need to make a long journey to the bottom. I think that two physical buttons or a little less travel would have been a better option in terms of sensations.

Acer PredatorSense software

Let's stop a little to see the PredatorSense software that implements this Acer Predator Helios 300 and the entire range of gaming equipment.

It is a program included in the team or available from the official website of the brand, which will allow us to manage different aspects of the team. It consists of a total of 7 sections, almost all of them useful in some way. For example the second we have already seen, and deals with keyboard lighting.

The first has a real-time performance monitor of the GPU, CPU and system temperature equipment. From it we can select between the lighting profiles we have, the GPU overclocking mode and the cooling profiles. The third will deal precisely with these fan profiles, and the fourth offers more detailed performance and temperature charts that are extremely useful.

If we go to the penultimate section, we can add the games that we have installed on the computer, but with the detail of adopting a certain configuration of lighting, hardware performance and ventilation. Finally, the last section links to the applications that we have installed on the system.

The truth is that it is a very complete software, easy to use with a simple visual and complete. Good work from Acer, yes sir.

Internal features and hardware

We are getting closer to the testing phase, but before we have to see the entire interior of the Acer Predator Helios 300 as well as its hardware, which for 1200-1600 euros is not wasted.

To remove the lower case, it was only necessary to remove the screws that fix it in the entire area surrounding the equipment, as well as a few located in the middle. It does not have much complication, although we must be careful with the edges, since practically the entire base and rear comes out.

Network connectivity with Ethernet and WiFi 5

Starting with the Ethernet chip, we have an entire Killer E2500 Gigabit Ethernet installed . This delivers a speed of 10/100/1000 Mbps, is the model just below the E3000 2.5 Gbps. The port is located on the left side of the laptop, very accessible and with the corresponding opening and closing system with fixing for the cable head.

And secondly we have a Killer Wireless-AC 1550i card and therefore using WiFi 5. It is the gaming version so to speak of the Intel AC-9560 NGW, and like this it is mounted on an M.2 slot in 2230 format. CNVi. This provides an obvious advantage to be able to change it and mount a higher-performance card such as the Killer AX1650 with WiFi 6, the next and new generation model.

Just to remember, the 1550i operates on 802.11ac (WiFi 5) and consequently provides a maximum speed of 1.73 Gbps over 5 GHz at 160 MHz, it is a Dual Band card also operated in 2.4 GHz, in 2 × configuration. 2 MU-MIMO on both bands. Includes Bluetooth 5.0 chip as secondary connectivity. In fact there are other new generation models with WiFi 6.

Main hardware

We continue with the main hardware of the Acer Predator Helios 300, consisting of GPU, CPU, memory and storage.

As a gaming soul we have the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q 6 GB GDDR6 graphics chip, which will soon be relegated to second place to benefit the RTX Super. In this RTX 2060 we have a 960 MHz GPU in base mode and 1360 MHz in turbo mode. It operates under a 192-bit interface (6 GDDR6 chips at 32 bits), with 1920 CUDA Cores, 160 TMUs and 48 ROPs, consuming only 80 W of power. In the rest of the models that the manufacturer has, we can find dedicated cards Nvidia GTX 1060, GTX 1660 Ti of lower performance and RTX 2070 as the maximum performance.

We now continue with the CPU, whose bet as it is not the Intel Core i7-9750H, a 9th generation CPU that comes to replace the i7-8750H and which in turn will be replaced by the 10th gen in no time. It works at a base frequency of 2.6 GHz and 4.5 GHz in turbo boost mode. This CPU has 6 cores and 12 threads of processing using Hyperthreading, under a TDP of only 45W and a L3 cache of 12 MB. By now we should all be familiar with this CPU.

These two previous elements are installed on a motherboard with Intel HM370 chipset, the one with the best features for this series of processors and equipment. And we really like using the two available SO-DIMM slots with separate 2666MHz Kingston DDR4 memory modules, each 8GB for a total of 16GB on Dual Channel. The maximum supported capacity is 64 GB. Models are available between 8 and 32 GB.

What we did not like in this specific model is the storage, not because of the SSD used but because of the little it brings. We will find a Western Digital PC SN720 SSD only of 256 GB, whose interface works under NVMe 1.3 through an M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slot . Of course much better this than the SN520 PC used in other models such as the Lenovo Legion Y540. There should be no panic, because the most basic model with RTX 2060 is the 1TB HDD + 512GB SSD, which is much better.

Lastly, note that it supports up to two PCIe SSDs in its two M.2 slots, and one 2.5 ”SATA drive. Of course there is space, which is greatly appreciated in a finite gaming team like this

Refrigeration system

The cooling system of the Acer Predator Helios 300 is one of the ones that we liked the most in the latest models tested for efficiency. And it has been able to maintain CPU and GPU at temperatures of up to 80 and 60 degrees at maximum speed without any throttling. Of course, we can say that it is quite noisy and at high RPM a slight hissing sound is heard from the circulating air.

It consists of only three black painted copper heatpipes. The thickest one goes through the GPU and CPU until it reaches the finned blocks on the back and sides. While two others are dedicated independently to CPU and GPU more or less of the same size. The secret to capturing efficiently in heat is to have fairly wide copper cold plates that fully take over the CPU, VRM, GPU, and their GDDR6 memories.

The fans are not two of the turbine type, although of different design but both reached 5700 revolutions per minute. Very effective as we say, although noisy.

Battery life

The last item that remains on the list is autonomy, where the Acer Predator Helios 300 has shown to have a good enough to be a gaming laptop. For him a lithium-polymer battery with 4 cells is used, a capacity of 3720 mAh delivering a power of 57.28 Wh. It is not the most powerful to have quite strong hardware, but it will be enough to work without being plugged in.

With a balanced Acer profile, editing articles, listening to music from the Internet with WiFi on and a brightness of 50% we have obtained about 4 hours and 15 minutes of autonomy. Not bad, if we think that the usual thing in a laptop of this type would be 2 or 3 hours.

Test of performance

We move on to the practical part where we will see the performance offered by this Acer Predator Helios 300. As always, we have carried out synthetic tests and tests in games with the configuration that we will mark in two different sections.

All the tests that we have submitted this laptop have been carried out with the equipment plugged into the current and the power profile at maximum performance.

SSD performance

We start by benchmarking the 256 GB Western Digital PC SN720 SSD , for this we have used the CristalDiskMark 7.0.0 software.

It is not an SSD that stands out for its speed by not reaching the figures of a Samsung PM981, but with almost 2500 MB / s in reading, the loading speed of games and programs will be very good. Its main weakness in this specific model are those 256 GB, although we already say that in the Acer store it starts with a 512 GB SSD for this RTX 2060 version.

Benchmarks

Let's see below the synthetic test block. For this we have used:

• Cinebench R15Cinebench R20PCMark 83Dmark Time Spy, Fire Strike, Fire Strike Ultra and Port RoyalVRMark

Gaming performance

Let's go to see the performance we have obtained with the Acer Predator Helios 300 and its Nvidia RTX 2060 card that has behaved spectacularly. For this we have used these titles with the following configuration:

• Final Fantasy XV, standard, TAA, DirectX 12 DOOM, Ultra, TAA, Open GL Deus EX Mankind Divided, Alto, Anisotropico x4, DirectX 12 Far Cry 5, Alto, TAA, DirectX 12 Metro Exodus, Alto, Anisotropico x16, DirectX 12 Shadow of the Tomb Rider, High, TAA + Anisotropic x4, DirectX 12 Control, High, with RTX, DirectX 12

As for games, it has records in almost all games superior to other notebooks with RTX 2060 and identical processor. We have already been surprised by the Lenovo Legion Y540, but this Helios 300 has surpassed in almost all games this rival and gaming models from other brands. The fact of having such good cooling and that overclock mode from PredatorSense makes the difference outperforming in a few FPS the benefits, and being on par with many notebooks with RTX 2070 with bad cooling.

Temperatures

The stress process to which the Acer Predator Helios 300 has been subjected has lasted around 60 minutes, in order to have a reliable average temperature. This process has been carried out with Prime95 on CPU and Furmark on GPU, and temperature capture with HWiNFO.

Acer Predator Helios 300	Repose	Maximum performance	Peak	Maximum RPM
CPU	49 o C	79 o C	89 o C	80 o C
GPU	46 o C	73 o C	78 o C	60 o C

And finally the temperatures shown are good in all sections, with maximums below 90 ^o C which is already a logo with this CPU and only two heatpipes. Best of all, we have not had thermal throttling at any time. Of course, this CPU works at a standard speed of 3.0 GHz and 2.9 GHz at high temperatures, being far from the maximum 4.5 GHz it supports. We can always use Intel XTU to give it a squeeze, although we don't recommend it either.

The keyboard and laptop surfaces at the top have good temperatures too, not reaching 40 ^o C and being able to work comfortably on it. Despite the conductivity of the aluminum it seems that the PCB is very well insulated inside.

Final words and conclusion about the Acer Predator Helios 300

We come to the end of this analysis of the Acer Predator Helios 300, a laptop that undoubtedly presents high-performance gaming hardware at a price lower than practically all its competition, being available from 1, 200 euros on Amazon with 1 TB SSD, RTX 2060 and i7-9750H.

Taking stock of its design, it is the one used in previous Helios models, with Acer's distinctive stamp betting on bluish grays, flat lines and a feeling of hardness thanks to using aluminum on the top and interior. We loved how stiff the screen is and how stable the keyboard base is, with a nice texture and quality feel.

The best is inside, a hardware that moves almost any game that we put on top of it and that very soon will drop in price with the arrival of the new RTX Super. There are bound to be great opportunities as teams like this, beating many of their direct rivals in pure performance and FPS. Thanks to an outstanding cooling system, without any throttling, albeit noisy.

We recommend that you take a look at our guide to the best laptops on the market

It has very good expandability, with two M.2 slots for PCIe storage and a 2.5 ”hard drive slot. Let's not take into account the analyzed model, since for sale the most basic model has 512 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD. The performance of the WD SN720 seemed to us simply correct. As well as the autonomy, located in 4 hours and peak, it is more than enough for what we see in other gaming equipment.

No less important the peripheral sections of the laptop. The one we liked the most is the keyboard, quality membrane, direct keystrokes and large keys that are clearly visible thanks to the customizable RGB backlight. The touchpad is wide, precise, but with a fairly hard, long-haul click, so it's not the best we've tested. The webcam is simply a standard without Windows Hello, and the ports are sufficient and varied, but without Gen2 USB.

Finally we find up to 15 models of the Acer Predator Helios 300 available, and the one we recommend the most is the NH.Q54EB.004, which is available for 1699 euros in the official Acer store with identical hardware and much better storage. We leave the link to their official store that now has a discount of 300 euros. In other places we will find it for 1200 - 1300 euros. It is impossible not to recommend it, for what it offers, its design and its price.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ VERY HIGH PERFORMANCE IN GAMES	- IMPROVABLE TOUCHPAD
+ DESIGN AND FINISHES IN ALUMINUM	- NOISY COOLING
+ DISPLAY OF 144 HZ PRETTY ROUND
+ I7-9750H + RTX 2060 + HYBRID STORAGE
+ GOOD TEMPERATURES
+ QUALITY / PRICE

The Professional Review team awarded you the platinum medal and recommended product:

Acer Predator Helios 300

DESIGN - 90%

CONSTRUCTION - 91%

REFRIGERATION - 92%

PERFORMANCE - 90%

DISPLAY - 89%

90%