Buying a gaming laptop in 2021 is more expensive than it was in 2020. Acer’s 15.6-inch Predator Helios 300—at $1,699 as seen here, has gone up $200 from last year’s model. The only difference is an upgrade to Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 Series “Ampere” graphics, but that’s an important change since it markedly improves gaming performance. Everything we liked about the previous Predator Helios 300 applies to this one, as does our recommendation to stick with the base model: Its features and price make more sense at $1,349, and its RTX 3060 will perform almost as well as our test unit’s RTX 3070. (Besides, the base model has twice the storage.) If you’d prefer something more portable with better battery life, Acer’s 14-inch Predator Triton 300 SE is a top choice, but this year’s Predator Helios 300 once again nabs an Editors’ Choice award among midrange 15.6-inch gaming rigs.
Every Bit a Gaming Laptop
There’s no mistaking the Predator Helios 300 for anything but a gaming laptop, with its all-black chassis, angled lid corners, aggro rear cooling vents, and turquoise-backlit Predator logo on the lid.
The design is more mainstream than radical, a claim that Alienware’s m15 R4 can’t make. It wasn’t always one that the Helios 300 could make, either; Acer toned down the Predator branding with this redesign, which debuted in 2020. (See the 2019 Helios 300 model for context.) The Predator lettering now only appears under the screen, for a more mature vibe and a step toward broader appeal.
At 0.9 by 14.3 by 10 inches (HWD), the Predator Helios 300 is average-sized for a 15.6-inch gaming notebook. The HP Omen 15 is trimmer (0.89 by 14.1 by 9.4 inches), as is the MSI Stealth 15M (0.6 by 14.1 by 9.7 inches). The Acer isn’t exactly light at 4.85 pounds, but it’s an acceptable weight for this screen size. (The abovementioned Alienware is 5.3 pounds.)
When it comes to build quality, the Predator Helios 300’s partial aluminum design—the lid, palm rest, and keyboard deck—struggles to impress at our test unit’s $1,699. Similarly priced rivals tend to use more metal or special finishes; the Alienware and HP are good examples, as are the all-metal Gigabyte Aero 15 and Razer Blade 15 Base Model.
By contrast, Acer’s $1,349 starter model (designated PH315-53-70QE) compares favorably with the mostly plastic machines competing at that tier, such as MSI’s GF65 Thin and Dell’s G5 15 SE. For that money, you get a six-core Intel Core i7-10750H processor, the 6GB GeForce RTX 3060, a 144Hz 1080p display, 16GB of memory, a 1TB solid-state drive, and Windows 10 Home. Today’s review unit (model PH315-53-78XB) hikes the GPU to an 8GB GeForce RTX 3070 and the screen’s refresh rate to 240Hz, but oddly halves the storage to 512GB.
Positive and negative aspects of the Predator Helios 300’s construction transcend price. As I found while reviewing the 2020 edition, its chassis corners are sharp, and there are perceptible gaps where the metal sloping around its sides meets the plastic base. On the upside, it has good strength, exhibiting minimal lid and chassis flex. I also like that the lid can be opened one-handed, and that the touchpad borders and front edge of the chassis are diamond-cut for a little glitz.
Smooth Sailing at 240Hz
The 240Hz high-refresh-rate screen of my review model has a silky-smooth picture for all types of gaming, especially esports.
Esports games, which tend to be less graphically resource-intensive, are some of the only titles in which the Helios 300 can reach triple-digit frame rates, so the base model’s 144Hz refresh rate is otherwise more the adequate. But I can only speak to the 240Hz screen’s quality, and complaints are in short supply. Its ample brightness, wide viewing angles, anti-glare surface, and rated 100% coverage of the sRGB color space create vibrant visuals.
The four-zone RGB keyboard is just as colorful. Acer’s PredatorSense app allows true RGB control (that is, the ability to specify the red, green, and blue values) for each zone. A dedicated button on the number pad launches the app.
Though it lacks the per-key backlighting customization of the more costly Omen 15 and Alienware m15, its four zones and endless colors should satisfy most buyers’ personalization desires. Conveniently, the app allows you to save profiles.
The typing experience is satisfactory if not particularly engaging. For gaming, the keys have a long enough throw to let your fingers know that they are fully pressed. A thicker border on the WASD and arrow-key clusters makes them appear brighter, highlighting this notebook’s gaming focus.
Moving down, the buttonless touchpad is appropriately sized for the 15.6-inch screen. Its smooth surface makes it easy to use. Slightly stiff physical clicking action provides insurance against accidental presses. (External-mouse users can disable the touchpad by pressing Fn+F7.)
The Predator Helios 300 lacks biometric features such as a fingerprint reader or a face-recognition webcam. The 720p webcam above the display offers average video quality for a gaming laptop, but it lacks a privacy shutter.
The Acer provides good-sounding speakers with enough volume to be heard over the cooling fan while gaming. The two fans, located at the rear corners of the chassis, keep the Predator cool enough to touch even during extended gaming sessions. The fan noise is unobtrusive in most environments, though a quiet library might be a stretch. Overall, Acer did a good job of minimizing fan whine and motor noises. The PredatorSense app provides some control over the fan behavior.
Good Connectivity, Even Without Thunderbolt 4
As the Predator Helios 300 is based on Intel’s 10th Generation “Comet Lake” processors, it doesn’t support Thunderbolt 4. (In fairness, gaming laptops based on the 11th Gen “Tiger Lake-H” CPUs have been slow to appear and significantly higher-priced.) Nonetheless, few gaming laptops offer better port selection. On the left, you’ll find a pair of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (5Gbps), a Killer E2600 2.5Gbps Ethernet jack, and an audio combo jack.
The Predator Helios 300 supports Killer DoubleShot Pro since it also has a Killer AX1650i wireless card, which supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. It prioritizes game traffic over Ethernet and uses Wi-Fi for everything else.
Moving on, the USB Type-A and Type-C ports on the right edge are of the faster version 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) variety. The USB-A port conveniently supports charging devices when the notebook is off.
It’s also nice to see HDMI 2.0b (good for 4K at 60Hz) and mini DisplayPort 1.4 video outputs. Meanwhile, the power jack smartly connects around back, keeping the power cord out of sight.
Easy for End Users to Upgrade
The Predator Helios 300’s unusual support for three internal storage drives shouldn’t be overlooked. A few minutes with a Philips screwdriver lets you remove the bottom panel to reveal two M.2 SSD slots (one occupied from the factory) and a 2.5-inch drive bay. Storage drive pricing has been largely unaffected by the chip shortage, especially hard drives; a 2TB hard drive can be had for around $70 online. It’s not uncommon to find SSD-only storage in gaming laptops, making storage expansion far more expensive. (A 2TB SSD costs at least $200.)
Also noteworthy are the Helios 300’s twin SO-DIMM slots for DDR4 memory, each occupied by an 8GB module in my review unit. The slots make it possible to upgrade the memory, something that is impossible on laptops with soldered RAM. The system accepts up to 64GB (two 32GB modules).
Amped Up with Ampere: Testing the Predator Helios 300
To recap, the $1,699 Acer Predator Helios 300 tested here includes a six-core Core i7-10750H processor, an 8GB GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB solid-state drive. It was the most affordable RTX 3070 laptop on Newegg as I typed this. (In fact, it was briefly on sale for $1,669.)
The six-core CPU, though perfectly adequate for gaming, is a weak point for this notebook since many similarly priced models provide an eight-core chip for extra multitasking power. The HP Omen 15t ($1,759 at HP.com) offers an eight-core Core i7-10870H along with a per-key RGB keyboard versus the Acer’s four-zone setup, though its screen refresh rate is a mere 144Hz rather than 240Hz.
The Gigabyte Aero 15 XC-8US1130SH is $1,699 after rebate ($1,899 list at Newegg) equipped like the HP. The Alienware m15 R4 and m15 Ryzen Edition R5 are slightly more expensive ($1,822 and $1,861 respectively at Dell.com). These models are all a step up in build quality from the Acer, too. Nonetheless, the Predator Helios 300 is still a decent value at $1,699, and it has the best end-user upgradability of any of the models I’ve mentioned.
Let’s start testing. I compared the 2021 Helios 300 to several aforementioned gaming laptops, including its 2020 predecessor. All have GeForce RTX 3060 GPUs, as does today’s Helios 300 base model, making today’s test unit the only GeForce RTX 3070 contender.
Storage, Media, and CPU Tests
Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, a general benchmark suite that simulates real-world productivity and content-creation workflows. We use it to assess overall system performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing.
The 2021 Acer scored well but was significantly behind the eight-core Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5. It also trailed the MSI Stealth 15M and Predator Triton 300 SE despite their “Tiger Lake-H” CPUs having only four processing cores. As expected, all five systems’ speedy SSDs aced PCMark 8’s storage subtest.
Next up are two CPU-crunching tests. Cinebench R15 stresses all available processor cores and threads while rendering a complex image, while in our Handbrake test, we time systems as they transcode a 12-minute clip of 4K video down to 1080p.
The 2021 Predator Helios 300 uses the same processor as the 2020 model, but somehow Acer significantly improved its performance (or rather, fixed it; the 2020 system underperformed, as I noted in its review at the time). The quad-core chips of the Triton 300 SE and Stealth 15M held them back, and none of these machines had a prayer of catching the m15 Ryzen Edition R5.
The final test in this section is photo editing. We use an early 2018 release of Adobe Photoshop Creative Cloud to apply 10 complex filters and effects to a standard JPEG image, timing each operation and adding up the total. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bringing the performance of the storage subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.
The Ryzen-powered Alienware again led the field, though it was trailed closely by the peppy MSI. The three Acers finished within a few seconds of one another, posting respectable times.
Graphics Tests
Our first two benchmarks in this section use gaming simulations to measure a PC’s 3D graphics potential. In UL’s 3DMark, we run two DirectX 11 tests, Sky Diver (lightweight, capable of running on integrated graphics) and Fire Strike (more demanding, for high-end gaming PCs). Another test, Unigine Corp.’s Superposition, uses a different rendering engine to animate a complex 3D scene.
These synthetic tests demonstrate the power of the 2021 Helios 300’s GeForce RTX 3070. It’s a huge step up from the RTX 2070 of the 2020 model, with a 36% better result in the Superposition 1080p test, and was about the same amount faster than the RTX 3060 machines.
Let’s see if those gains translate into real-world gameplay. We use the built-in 1080p benchmarks in Far Cry 5 (at its Normal and Ultra presets) and Rise of the Tomb Raider (at its Medium and Very High presets). Far Cry 5 uses DirectX 11, while we flip the Lara Croft adventure to DirectX 12.
And…what happened? The m15 Ryzen Edition R5 matched or bettered the 2021 Predator Helios 300, and neither the Triton 300 SE nor the Stealth 15M trailed as much as the synthetic benchmarks predicted they might. That said, the 2021 Helios significantly outperformed the 2020 model.
This phenomenon, where a laptop touting a higher-end GPU performs no better (or not much better) than one with a lower part number, is nothing new in our testing of GeForce RTX 30 Series notebooks. Our explainer article has the details, but it comes down to GPU wattage: The new Helios 300’s RTX 3070 is capped at 100 watts of power (according to the Nvidia Control Panel app installed on RTX 30 Series laptops). The Alienware’s performance suggests that its RTX 3060 consumes similar power, which when paired with its monster Ryzen 7 5800H processor lets it match the new Acer’s gaming performance.
Objectively, the 2021 Predator Helios 300 is an excellent 1080p gaming platform, and should be for some time. But it’s also pricey relative to the $1,349 RTX 3060 base model. If the latter performs like the RTX 3060 laptops here, the extra cost of our review unit will outweigh its real-world gaming advantage. The 240Hz screen might make the jump a worthy one for esports fans, but the base model’s 144Hz screen is otherwise adequate.
Built-In Overclocking
Augmenting the Predator Helios 300’s gaming performance is its built-in GPU overclocking courtesy of the turbo button above the keyboard. It produced surprisingly potent performance gains—I observed the 3DMark Fire Strike score increase from 19,746 to 21,248 points, a jump of nearly 8%. It probably won’t make the difference between playability and unplayability in any given game, but it could smooth out more complex scenes.
The downside to overclocking is increased fan noise; the Predator Helios 300 gets noticeably louder in turbo mode. That shouldn’t be a problem if you use headphones, however.
Battery Rundown Test
For our last benchmark, we measure a laptop’s unplugged runtime while playing a locally stored video with screen brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100%. We use Windows’ energy-saving rather than balanced or other power profile where available, turn off Wi-Fi, and even disable keyboard backlighting to squeeze as much life as possible out of the system.
It’s almost amazing that seven and a half hours of battery life is unremarkable for a 15.6-inch gaming laptop, but that’s how far the bar has been raised from the old days when gaming rigs were lucky to last for 90 minutes. Nonetheless, Acer deserves commendation for significantly boosting the 2021 model’s runtime over its predecessor’s. It’s more than practical for day trips.
Still a Worthy Midrange Contender
The word “venerable” might apply to the Acer Predator Helios 300, but this 15.6-inch rig remains a worthy mid-tier gamer. The $1,699 version we tested is priced fairly considering its GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, but the competition is stiff—for the same price or a little more, the Alienware m15, Gigabyte Aero 15 XC, and HP Omen 15 offer eight-core processors and more advanced features.
The Helios 300’s ace in the hole is its $1,349 base model, which is still more than capable of 1080p gaming thanks to its GeForce RTX 3060. Its partial metal design, good port selection, and nifty one-button overclocking help it stand out against rivals at that price level. A fine choice, the Predator Helios 300 once again takes our Editors’ Choice award among midrange 15.6-inch gamers, while Alienware, with its similarly “modern classic” m15, holds the high ground.
