ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^201995)
SOMELAPTOPSWEREnever meant to
sit on your lap,and the Acer Predator
Helios 500 is certainlyone of them. This is
the kind of gaminglaptop that doesn’t
hold anythingback in pursuitof
maximumperformance–and that
means both powerfulcomponents
and equallypowerfulcooling.
As aresult, it’s both imposinglybulky
and back-achinglyheavy,totalling3.7kg
with a1.3kg power brick to match. Being a
17.3in laptop,it’s also very wide,measuring
428x298x39mm.It’s therefore difficultto use
anywhereother than adesk, especiallysin
even with its two fans, five heat pipes and
massiveexhausts,the undersidegets rather
toasty when runninggames.
Physicalconnectivityis split betweenboth
sides and the rear.Atthe back, there’s the
chargingsocket as well as single HDMI and
DisplayPort outputs,both conveniently
full-sized.On the leftisanEthernetport, two
USB Type-C ports –both of which support
Thunderbolt3–and aUSB3 port, while the
right housestwo more USB3 ports and 3.5m
mic and headphonejacks. It’s agood
selection,especiallysince with one of the
Thunderbolt3ports you can connectup to
three monitors simultaneously.
MICEAND EASY
The membranekeyboard,however,isanodd
choice: it means the keys don’t have the same
level of feedbackof clickinessthat most
high-endlaptops deliver.Italso somehow
feels tightly packed,in spiteofthe laptop’s
gargantuansize overall, which led to
occasionaltyping mistakes.
The touchpad,too, feels alittle finicky
comparedto most other Windowslaptop.
While palm rejectionworks well enough,
the touchpadis positionedquiteawkwardly
in relationto the keyboard.Still, amouse
is practicallyan essentialforagaming
laptop such as this, so the touchpad
won’t be used often.
The 17.3in screen runs at 1,920x1,080
and 144Hz, at least on this model; as
with the Omen 15, there’s also a60Hz
4K model, but the higher refresh
rateofthis versionwill help games
look smootherwhen they’re
runningabove 60fps. It also,happily,
supportsNvidia’s G-Sync feature,so
the refresh ratecan be locked to the
frames-per-secondoutput of the GTX 1070
ACERPredator
Helios500
★★★★★
£2,197•From http://www.lambda-tek.com
VERDICT
ThebigandbrashHelios500isagaming
powerhousewithsuperlativeprocessing
speed,buttherearebetteralternatives
M g h h
m d g.
S E
h h h d l
quality and accuracy,however.First of all, it
has acomparativelylow contrastratio of
978:1, resultingin less vibrantimagesand less
visible detail in dark scenes.Amaximum
brightnessof 336.8cd/m^2 also means you’d
struggleto view the laptop in excessively
bright lighting,particularlyin direct sunlight.
Its 84% coverage of the sRGB colour gamut is
anotherunderwhelmingresult, as it its delta-E
of 3.11, denotingpoor colour accuracy.
However,its monstrousIntel Core
i9-8950HKquicklywins back favour.The
Helios 500’s overall benchmarkscore of 215
makes it the fastest laptop –ofany kind –
we’ve ever tested. Even the mighty Alienware
m5 isn’t quiteaspowerful,and, interestingly,
the Helios also destroys the 2018 MacBook
Pro’s score of 173, despiteboth laptops having
the same CPU. This suggeststhat Acer’s bulky
coolingsystem really does help performance.
Gamingperformance,too,isjust as high as
we’d want from the GTX 1070, even if it is the
lower-powerMax-Q version.Dirt Showdown
cruisedto 102fps,and even Metro: Last Light
Redux produced56fps on Very High settings
h bl dg g h
gh g d d
A h ll l g g
b h k h l g
well below the mark foralaptop of this price,
with read and writespeeds clockedat
511MB/sand 245MB/srespectively.These low
throughputrates are down to the 256GB SSD,
which is aSATA drive rather than an NVMe
SSD as you’d find in the majorityof premium
laptops. In practicalterms, these results
suggestyou won’t be able to get games up
and runningas fast as you would on the
Razer Blade 15 or the HP Omen 15.
Battery lifeisalso aconcern.In our video
playback test, the Helios 500 lasted 2h 27m
before needingto recharge.Unlike the Razer
Blade 15, which went forover seven hours in
the same battery test, you won’t want to leave
your power brick behind when you take the
Helios 500 out of the house.Intruth, you
won’t want to unplug it at all.
ALL GREEK
Indeed,when hookedup to the mains, sitting
on adesk and augmented with some good
peripherals,the Helios 500 feels like abrilliant
gaminglaptop.Its performanceis often
unparalleled,and while the displaymight not
be up to tasks such as photoand video
editing,its high refresh rateand G-Sync
capabilityare aboon to games.
It’s just that, forsuch ahigh price,
there are just afew toomany flaws to
make it atruly worthwhilebuy.And,
much like the Alienwarem15, it also has to
deal with some very strong competition.
The Razer Blade 15 is abetter choice for
anyonewho’d prefersomethingslim, light
and relativelylong-lasting,and althoughthe
Omen 15 can’t competeonCPU
power,it’s even with the Helios
500 on gamingperformance
thanks to it sharingthe same
GPU, so it’s amuch better-value option.
is
ing
use
ce
ther
Max-Q graphicsprocessorto smoothout
movementand prevent screen tearing.
SHOOTINGWIDE
There are some issues with the display’s
qualityandaccuracy,however.Firstofall,it
with SSAA enabled,going up to 146fps with
High settingsand SSAA turned off.
After such excellentresults in our gaming
benchmarks,the Helios 500’s storage tests
proved disappointing.File transfer speeds are
wellbelowthemarkforalaptopofthisprice,
GAMING
c. jardin
(C. Jardin)
#1