The Acer Helios 300 is a well-equipped laptop with some great features at a competitive price. However, while its performance is top-notch, its design is somewhat underwhelming. As a result, it might be hard to recommend the Acer Helios 300 to some consumers.
Acer’s design gains are slow in coming.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a gaming laptop that offers decent performance. It’s not as fast as the GTX 1060-equipped laptops, but it does suggest a better display and a lower price tag.
The Helios’s display is impressive, with a 240Hz refresh rate capable of handling the entire Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 color gamuts. The collection also includes a black chambered design that provides an aesthetic boost. In addition, the lid of the Helios has a triangular pattern that gives the device a “tactical” look.
Helios’s touchpad is a highlight, as it is responsive and quiet. The keys on the keyboard have an excellent click. In addition, there’s a full-length number pad and a trackpad with two mouse buttons. It’s a large enough to make multi-finger gestures, but the buttons are firm and bumpy.
Performance is high without too much compromise.
Acer’s Helios 300 is a powerful gaming laptop. It has a powerful processor and Nvidia’s RTX 3070 Ti graphics card. It also offers good value. It’s not the fastest gaming laptop out there, but it’s much more affordable than the top-end models. Its performance is also excellent without too much compromise.
This laptop has an impressive display that can handle the entire sRGB and AdobeRGB color gamuts. The IPS screen is bright and has vivid colors. The show has a 240Hz refresh rate and 165Hz response time. However, the show isn’t very accurate and lacks the punch and vibrance of other shows.
While the Acer Helios 300 isn’t the fastest, it performs better than some of the best laptops on the market. As a result, it’s the perfect choice for anyone starting in the PC gaming world.
Webcam
Acer’s Predator Helios 300 has a lot of widgets to choose from. The display may be its crown jewel, but the rest of the kit is just as impressive. This beast carries a full suite of components, including an RTX 3070, a pair of 5.1 speakers capable of Dolby Atmos headphones, and a dual-layer DVD drive. It even comes with Windows 10. It weighs a hefty 5.5 pounds, but the portability of a desktop replacement means the weight is a moot point when you’re on the move. It even has one of the best graphics cards I’ve ever seen on a laptop. In short, it is an actual gaming machine. I took it for a test drive, and I’m pleased to report that it’s a great buy.
Speakers
It’s a given that the Predator Helios 300 is a striking piece of hardware, but what about the speakers? In addition to the standard audio jack, this beast has a 3.5mm headphone audio jack for that high-end ear candy. While not as impressive as an Apple or Microsoft set, the speakers on the Acer are more than capable of taking care of business.
The Acer also comes with a slew of ports, including an HDMI, Thunderbolt 3, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, and a jack-sized power jack. Aside from the jack above, the device boasts a 512GB PCIe SSD and 16GB of RAM. So while the Acer Helios isn’t a speed demon, it can handle light gaming sessions in the blink of an eye.
Battery life
If you’re looking for a gaming laptop with excellent performance, a solid graphics card, and a relatively compact form factor, the HP Helios 300 is a great option. But it’s not as powerful as the Razer Blade 15 Base Edition, and the battery life is mediocre. So if you need a portable gaming machine for school or work, it’s not the best choice.
Luckily, the HP Helios 300 can balance non-gaming tasks well. For example, the laptop can run a dozen Chrome tabs and five 1080p YouTube videos. Its 720p webcam also helps when you’re typing an essay in the library. The laptop is also capable of streaming video through the Thunderbolt 4 port.
However, the Helios 300’s battery life is a significant drawback. It drains the battery in as little as five hours when it’s not in use. During our battery test, we used the laptop to stream video and ran OpenGL tests over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness.