Best Acer Predator Helios 300 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:
Helios, Triton … Acer has gotten into the habit of giving its gaming laptops names of Greek gods. Is this divine inspiration auspicious? We will try to answer in this test of the Predator Helios 300 model.
Presentation
Where the Helios 500 and 700 models are more reminiscent of semi-nomadic playstations that we will rarely move due to their size, our Helios 300 intends to offer a slightly more versatile experience around a format 15 inch relatively compact. However, we remain on a performance-oriented machine, as evidenced by the Predator logo and the sound of the Formula 1 engine that welcomes us when the PC is turned on. Besides, our test copy does nothing less than a solid trio of components, including Core i7-9750H, RTX 2060 and DDR4 2666 MHz (16 GB) memory.
Performance and versatility, therefore, should be the two pillars around which this Predator Helios 300 will be structured. Two pillars whose solidity will depend very much on the cooling system, as we will discover.
Let’s see out Best Acer Predator Helios 300 Black Friday in list below
Best Acer Predator Helios 300 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020
1. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 17.3″ Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H. GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q, 16GB DDR4, 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD, RGB Backlit Keyboard, PH317-53-79KB
2. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 17.3″ Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H. GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q, 32GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe SSD, RGB Backlit KB, Windows 10 Pro, PH317-53-77X3
3. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop, 15.6″ FHD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, 9th Gen Intel 6-Core i7. 9750H Upto 4.5GHz, GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 32GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD + 1TB HDD, Backlit Keyboard, Windows 10
4. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop, Intel Core i7-9750H, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, 15.6″ Full HD 144Hz Display. 3ms Response Time, 16GB DDR4, 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD, RGB Backlit Keyboard, PH315-52-710B
5. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 17.3″ Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H. GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 512GB NVMe SSD, RGB Backlit Keyboard, PH317-53-7777
Performances
When it comes to laptop and performance, it’s hard to escape Intel and its Core i7-9750H. It is very logically on this component that Acer made its choice and if the latter heats up a lot, it delivers the benefits that are expected of it. The CPU reaches a cruising frequency around 2,950 MHz on average on 6 cores within the framework of an H.265 encoding. In a game like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey , the frequency stabilizes rather around 3,100 MHz, which is very correct.
Therefore, there is not much to say, except that the Acer Helios 300 takes full advantage of its processor and you will benefit from one of the highest processing capacity on the market today.
Games
As we pointed out above, Acer wanted to make its Helios 300 a reference machine in terms of video game leisure, by proposing 3 graphics circuit overclocking profiles . In normal mode, the latter displays an average frequency of 1,388 MHz, which is already high for an RTX 2060 GPU. In Fast mode, the GPU and its memory are offered a bonus of around 100 MHz. Finally, the Extreme mode puts 100 MHz back on the table for everyone, with however a very marked increase in noise pollution.
In terms of frame rate , the gains will obviously be variable, each game responding differently to frequency increases, but, for example, we went from 66 to 74 fps on our test sequence of The Witcher 3, while that of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey indicated 5 i / s of gain, from 63 to 68. With these results, the Predator Helios 300 does as well as the MSI GE65 tested last week.
In terms of experience, the Acer laptop will be as comfortable on greedy games requiring a large GPU computing power as on fast games which will make CPU and GPU work together. As proof, the frame rate values we obtained on WRC 8 (98 fps in normal mode) or Overwatch (236 fps, always in normal mode). RTX requires, the Helios 300 will also be able to process ray tracing effects . Note, however, that the RTX 2060 remains limited to take advantage of these refinements, which keep the cost of computing resources very high.
Screen
Let’s start with two important details: the first, on the Acer site, and unless we are mistaken, all Helios 300 models in RTX 2060 are delivered with a 144 Hz panel. This will not be the case with our test copy , yet well marketed, and whose AHVA matt panel will only go up to 60 Hz in refresh rate. And that’s a problem, since much of the competition has now integrated faster displays.
These two remarks aside, the Helios 300 screen remains average, on the verge of losing a star. Its calibration, without being catastrophic, does not shine by its fidelity (average delta E of 5.4), and no alternative profile is provided by the manufacturer. Contrast and brightness are also just average. But the biggest problem remains the afterglow. Measured at 28 ms, it is likely to be felt on fast games even at 60 Hz. From a general point of view, we expected a much higher set, given the specifications displayed (Full HD 60 Hz).
Audio
If the hardware part of the sound rendering does not go beyond the usual canons (a Realtek circuit). The software solution that accompanies it surprises: it is the Wave MaxxAudio system. It will allow you to define equalization parameters, or to emphasize certain sound elements, width of the stage, voice. But considering what Nahimic offers today, these options seem a bit limited. In addition, our measurements made on the headphone output indicate that the software or its drivers print a modification of the sound signal which we can only overcome in part, by choosing the speaker profile, rather than the headset or microphone profiles. – headsets, when a device is connected. Once this obstacle is overcome, we benefit from a good power output, according to current market standards.
As for the speakers, they are as often positioned on the side edges, slightly under the chassis, and closer to the user. Consequently, the quality of the broadcast sound remains dependent on the surface on which the machine is placed, and even in good conditions. The rendering continues to lack scale and focuses on the mid and high mids, with correct stereophony , nothing more.
CONCLUSION
Is not a Greek god who wants. The Predator Helios 300 may display very convincing performance. But it remains behind on too many aspects to get out of the market average. The excessive heating of the chassis, the absence of a silent operating mode, the absence of an SD card reader, a choice of panel that deserved more care … Taken one by one, these elements do not necessarily seem decisive. But put end to end, they end up weighing heavily. In truth, the Helios 300 would undoubtedly have been a good party a year or two ago. But the current level of gaming laptops at Asus. MSI or Lenovo – to name a few – now leaves it little room to express oneself.
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