On the surface, the Acer Predator Helios 300 isn't a head-turning gaming laptop. It's a xv-inch system with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and GeForce GTX 1060 graphics, which is a baseline platform for many portable gaming machines. Merely what piqued my interest was the toll: the Helios is basically the cheapest gaming laptop with these specs on the marketplace, at $1,049 on Amazon, and user reviews have been largely positive.

With this in mind, I wanted to get some hands on time with this gaming laptop to come across where Acer has cut corners and whether the laptop is actually worth your greenbacks. Later all, whenever a laptop strives to exist the most affordable in any category, sacrifices are ofttimes fabricated to get in that location.

In this case, the Predator Helios 300 doesn't compromises on specs. Some gaming laptops ditch the SSD in their budget variants, but the Helios 300 packs a 256GB SSD in its base of operations model. There's still 16GB of RAM, only like most other GTX 1060 gaming laptops. And the display; again, it's 1080p, so there is no departure on paper relative to similar products. For the price, it seems like a groovy deal.

Simply there are some aspects to this laptop that Acer hasn't prioritized. The design is i of them. The Helios 300 isn't slim, at 27mm thick, and the bezels effectually the display are as big every bit most budget gaming laptops. It's also around half dozen lbs heavy, which is on the upper end for GTX 1060 laptops of this size; the most portable ofttimes shave ii pounds off this weight. Despite the weight and size, this laptop merely packs a 48 Wh battery, which is mid-tier for this hardware.

Note: This review focuses on the 15.6-inch model of the Helios 300. A larger 17.iii-inch variant is besides available.

The structure of the Helios 300 is basic, essentially just ticking the boxes for what a mod gaming laptop must provide. There are 2 brushed metal sections – the lid, and the keyboard surround – but the rest of the laptop is fabricated from matte plastic. Piffling attention has been paid to keeping the device seamless, so the end result is a combination of several unlike materials and textures. It works, but merely because this is an entry-level product.

There's no shortage of gamer style effectually this laptop, particularly on the lid, which features Acer's aggressive Predator logo forth with some red highlights. It'due south a similar story when the laptop is open: a massive Predator logo beneath the display, red highlights around the keyboard and trackpad, plus a mostly angular design that's typically confined to gamer products. Some similar this aesthetic; I'm not a huge fan.

The vents forth the back have received their dose of gamer style as well, thank you to a massive red outline. It'south interesting to run into that one-half of these 'vents' are basically fake, leaving only one half of the total space for bodily airflow. These are the only vents around the sides, and then all exhaust goes through this one smallish port. This again is Acer opting for a functional, basic blueprint over something more sophisticated, which is fine for a cheap laptop.

The selection of I/O ports on this laptop is, unsurprisingly, basic. The left has Ethernet, HDMI, a unmarried USB 3.0-A port, and a USB iii.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, forth with an SD card reader. The right gets the ability port, a iii.5mm sound jack, and 2 USB ii.0-A ports. So yes, the Helios 300 just has a single USB iii.0-A port, equally Acer presumably believes yous will utilise the correct USB ports for an external mouse and possibly keyboard as well. Ideally all three USB ports would support at to the lowest degree 3.0 speeds.

They keyboard is fairly typical for a laptop: naught special but nothing bad either. Its travel and tactile feedback is similar to many ultraportable laptops, with a spongy though not unbearable response. Each fundamental is spaced fairly, with Acer managing to cram in full-sized pointer keys and a numpad into this device. The WASD keys are highlighted, and the keyboard has a scarlet backlight. Again, nothing special like RGB hither, just your standard gaming laptop keyboard.

Yous're going to desire to use a mouse with this laptop for gaming, but the trackpad included isn't terrible for casual utilise, which is a bit of a surprise considering it uses ELAN hardware. Now, it's non the best trackpad I've used, and tracking performance is but fair, but for web browsing and other lite tasks it's perfectly serviceable.

Up until now, everything is pretty standard for an entry-level gaming laptop; it'due south withal not clear what hardware Acer has compromised to hit a low price indicate. I say "up until at present", because I'yard near to discuss the display, which is by far the worst aspect to this laptop.

On newspaper, there's nothing inherently wrong with the panel. It'southward a 15.six-inch 1920 x 1080 IPS LCD that runs at 60 Hz. There'south no high refresh rate or G-Sync support, which isn't surprising for a upkeep laptop, and that's fine. When you lot dig in to the performance of the brandish, all the same, serious problems are uncovered.

To commencement with, the panel on my review unit is only capable of 65% sRGB coverage. This is completely unacceptable for any mod display, and quite bluntly I was shocked at this result. Subsequently checking a few other reviews, it seems this figure can vary a bit, as I've seen other tests suggesting up to 85% coverage. I may have a specially bad review sample, but in whatever case, anything less than about 95% sRGB coverage should not be tolerated in 2022 for any product category, budget or non. In fact I've seen enough of other depression-tier gaming laptops that offer much better sRGB coverage.

This terrible gamut result leads to widespread undersaturation, as the display merely cannot button colors to the required vibrance levels. Images look flat and defective dial as a event. Put this display next to anything that tin produce sRGB accurately – we're non even talking near wide-gamut panels here – and the Helios 300 brandish looks underwhelming to say the least.

With this sort of gamut, it's no surprise to see bad color accurateness. The dissimilarity ratio is okay, at 1160:1, and color temperatures are adequate for the well-nigh function. But the gamut prevents this display from ever hit even half-decent accuracy levels, and it's not something calibration tin can correct. Brightness is also weak, at maximum of just 230 nits.

Will y'all detect the poor display during gaming? It depends on the game, but as the panel cannot reproduce the brilliant, punchy colors we expect at the loftier-end on sRGB displays, particle effects so forth will exist done out and desaturated.