Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-51 [PH315-51-74YX] (NH.Q3FEU.010)

Real Predator

Acer has created a new Predator Helios 300 gaming line specifically for those customers who lack the performance of the Nitro series and want a more exotic look.

Assembled from metal and plastic, the laptop leaves the impression of an expensive, stylish and conscientious thing. The gaming breed of the model can be traced in every detail, from the standard keyboard backlight and aggressive radiator grille to the oblique cuts of the monitor and the aggressive lid with the Predator logo. Perhaps if there was a robot in the Transformers movie series that turns into a laptop, then it would look like that.

Maximum Power

The filling of the Predator Helios 300 PH315-51 matches the appearance and includes a six-core Intel Core i7 8750H processor (frequency 4.1 GHz), a powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 video chip with 6 GB of video memory, 16 GB of RAM and a bunch of HDD and SSD drives with a common memory capacity of 1256 GB. In general, this is one of the most performant bundles of hardware in this price segment, and anything that is even a little more powerful (for example, the Core i7 8750H and GTX 1070) sends the price tag into the stratosphere.

High-quality IPS screen with warm colours

The Predator Helios 300 has a 15.6-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. Like all gaming models with a price tag around $2000, its quality is at a very high level. However the colour rendition goes a little towards green and red shades, which visually “warms” the picture.

A laptop that has no limits

The laptop has a full-size keyboard with a numeric keypad, all keys have a soft red backlight, and the main gaming WASD are highlighted more strongly. This helps them stand out and complements the overall design. The key travel is soft and short. But the location of the keys is not very convenient, they pile up in one continuous mess, and if you do not look at the keyboard, then in the heat of battle, instead of the desired arrow, you can accidentally poke into the NUM block, and instead of Backspace, press Home.

Battery life is not the strong point of gaming laptops. Helios 300 is no exception and lasts more than three hours only at the minimum screen brightness and undemanding tasks like reading text.

A slight inconvenience can be caused by the fact that out of the box the laptop comes without an operating system. Rather, it has Linux installed on it, but this platform is convenient for work, but not for games — large projects like Call Of Duty, Assassin's Creed or Battlefield are not found here. Therefore, you will have to install Windows yourself, which is a definite minus for a laptop with such a price.