acer Predator Helios 18 Gaming Laptop - 18" 2.5K 240Hz 500 nits Display, Intel i9-14900HX, GeForce RTX 4080, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, Microsoft Office Lifetime, Windows 11 Pro, RGB Backlit KB, WiFi 7

This laptop is a fantastic budget gaming laptop. The SSD boots right up very quick load times, the GTX card is very capable for almost all gaming needs. I have been playing COD Warzone and it runs extremely smooth, the fans do get loud and after a while they REALLY start pushing hot air out the side to where you can feel it on your mouse hand if youre close enough, I think this is a good indicator of how well its cooling. The one issue that lots of reviewers mentioned and its very true, is that the battery life is abysmal, I can play COD for about an hour unplugged, even just sitting there on the homescreen it will only last maybe 3 hours. i get it with all these powerful features it does use a lot of power, but if you think youll have enough battery for a 4 hour flight this isnt it. BUT with how incredibly well it runs my games, i can forgive it i still give it 5 stars even with the terrible battery life because this is clearly a gaming laptop and it doesnt pretend to be anything else. The custom LED lighting for the keyboard is pretty slick, you can give it different light profiles for different games. The monitor is really impressive for a laptop, even high movement gaming looks fantastic with no perceptible lag. The wireless card is very fast i get about 85-90% wired speeds even with a few walls between the router. Overall im very impressed and I absolutely recommend this laptop for anyone looking for a great gaming rig. Also, its upgradable, it comes with a hard drive expansion kit, and everything can be taken out and upgraded for future proofing.

GAMING: Witcher 3 - I can comfortably (with turbo mode ON, otherwise GPU hit 90+ C) play on maximum/high settings, with the GPU (and CPU) being well within acceptable range. Very smooth game play (At least 60fps, although I don't know how to get an FPS counter in it [Steam FPS counter doesn't work in it]). OW/BL2/Other FPS - No turbo mode required, maximum settings, easily hits 144fps. TV/YOUTUBE/MUSIC: Screen is great, obviously. Sound is fine. WORK/SCHOOL: It is quite on idle, but a bit of noise with multiple tabs/Word docs. open - but with a professor talking or other students typing, was never a concern. But sometimes I did feel a bit obnoxious in the library. But only a bit. With earbuds in, can't hear any laptop fan noises (with turbo on, ofc, it's a different story). BUILD QUALITY AND KEYBOARD: I can hold and handle the laptop anyways I want - it's that solid. Feels premium to me. It does, as shown in Jarrod's video, get your grubby finger prints all over it, and plus the kind of gamery (still low key) logo on the front + the big vents, PLUS the bit of fan noise, it may not be for you if you're doing office work in a very quite environment, around other people. The KEYBOARD is fantastic! It is sturdy, with zero noticeable flex. I do a lot of typing, and coming from the great Mac keyboard, this keyboard is still GREAT. Dedicated turbo key is nice, when I use it (looking at you, Witcher 3). Keyboard/laptop does have some sharp edges and very infrequently do need to shift my wrists (but again, it's really not a problem). Trackpad is, like the videos show, sufficient, but not very good. BATTERY: I only game with it plugged in, and have not had any problems yet. When I take it with me to class, I get it to like 50% ish after a 2hr class, with multiple tabs (whatsapp, amazon, gmail, and of course word docs) open. To be very safe, I would say three hours of use without battery, but even that is probably on the lower end. CAMERA: It's fine, lol. Nothing special. Gets Zoom done fine. OVERALL: Great laptop for both gaming and work. Easily hits 144fps, great laptop (no flex), sturdy build, decent charge. But, like every gaming laptop, can be rather loud, has a bad trackpad, beefy charger, slightly gamery look. A lot of good competition out there now (Razorblade 15, new HP Omen 15, Lenovo Legion, etc), but the keyboard on the Helios 300 is the best, so it seems to me. Also, it has the most reviews so is the most reliable at the moment. Very satisfied with my purchase. You will be too.

The value of this laptop can't be understated. There are no real weaknesses here. The only notable problems people may have with it are the fan noise while gaming and the lack of "silent" fan operation when not gaming. You won't notice the idle whirl of fans unless you are in a completely silent room with no music or headphones in play. Besides that, the gaming performance is top-notch. Handles all games on high with zero problems at 60+fps. The notoriously poorly-optimized Cyberpunk ran at medium-high for me with 60-70fps. Solid. The trackpad is good, well-positioned. The keyboard has good travel and is fairly quiet. I bought this primarily for the keyboard and screen, which most laptops are bottom-tier these days on both fronts. The numberpad is nice, I wish there was a way to fit the 0 key two-wide, but that's not important, just typist quirks. The screen is plenty bright for any indoor situation, does fine outside under indirect sun, thanks to the lack of glossy coating. The 144hz is nice for older games or some buttery-smooth indy sidescrollers. The weight of this laptop is obvious, but not unbearable. I like the fact that this laptop doesn't feel cheap. The plastic shell on the bottom is hard and strong. If I dropped this thing like a complete fool, I think it would survive 2-3 feet without a break--maybe a chip or dent. Overall, for me, this laptop is unbeatable in this price range. With the reviews of higher-end laptops, it sounds like you'd be wasting money for 5-10fps difference if you look at. Remember, there's only so much you can do within the power limits of a laptop.

This is first time in my life I am reviewing something and also the first time in my life I order something online over a $1000 value, and also the first time I order something from Amazon and have no regret, I got my order 12 days before the promising time, so huge thanks to Amazon my machine is all good and I am happy with your service. I have nothing to say about Helios 300 because I did my 6 months research before getting this machine so all good, highly recommend to those who have a little small budget. Thank you for reading this long review :)

6 years ongoing working without any issues

Product delivered as described, good value!

Runs games like Deep Rock Galactic, Metro Exodus and GTA V on max settings with ease. Only problem I had with this laptop though is the MaxAudio Driver that comes with the laptop and a few of the audio settings. I found a fix for this, but whenever I went into YouTube and started playing a video, the audio driver would turn on my web camera which isn't really necessary and a bit weird. I fixed this by ticking the option to not allow any external apps to use my webcam. I also had to find out how to disable "enhanced audio" that came default with it because it sounds horrible. It was pretty frustrating having to look all of this up as I hadn't had any of these problems in the past with new laptops. Other than that though this laptop is great.

This laptop really give me hard time. Randomly shut down with or without Blue Screen. Hanging at gameplay like few minutes after start up and restart again. I was told that it's under international warranty but can't go to the local service center for repair. They told me to send it back to USA or Canada. My opinion, don't buy Acer predator and this will be my LAST Acer product.