In terms of what you need from a laptop, video editing and video games aren’t that different: enter the Acer Predator Helios 300, which is undoubtedly a gaming laptop but will serve you well too. great as a video editing platform.
We’re looking at the 17-inch model here (a 15-inch version is also available), which means you sacrifice portability for screen size. Yes, you can carry it around if you want, but it’s a struggle – and you shouldn’t expect too much in terms of battery life.
If you want lots of power, want to play the best PC games, and currently have a significant amount in your bank account, the 17-inch Acer Predator Helios 300 is worth putting on your shortlist. .
Features
The Predator Helios 300 is available in a wide variety of configurations. We’ve already mentioned the 15-inch and 17-inch variants, but you can also choose from a few CPU, RAM, GPU, and storage options. We can only review the unit sent to us, but if you want to spend more or less, there is that flexibility.
Our test laptop came with an 11th Gen Intel i5-11400H processor, 8GB of RAM, a hefty 2TB of storage, and an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU with 4GB of dedicated memory — for reference, this is the model PH317-55, although even that has different options within it.
It’s firmly in the mid-range as far as gaming laptops go, and while you can get much better specs – in the Helios 300 range as well as everywhere else – you’ll of course have to pay for them. For many video editing and gaming needs, this is a setup that will handle anything more than adequately.
Main characteristics
You’re really buying this laptop for the 17-inch screen and GPU power – if those two are important to you, put it on your shortlist, because the Acer Predator Helios 300 comes at a reasonable price point. given whatever you get in return. . The display, with its 144Hz refresh rate and 1920 x 1080 resolution (other configurations are available), is bright, crisp, crisp and perfect for gaming.
There are also plenty of ports for connecting your second monitor, external storage and everything else: you get two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 port Type-C with Thunderbolt 4 support, an HDMI 2.0 port, and an Ethernet port for rock-solid internet connection. There’s also a 720p webcam built into the top screen bezel, but it doesn’t support facial recognition for easier Windows login (nor is there a fingerprint sensor ).
Nvidia RTX 30-series cards are the best in the business at the time of writing, which makes the Acer Predator Helios 300 worthy of your consideration – but many other gaming laptops also feature the same GPU series.
Build and manipulate
There’s no doubt that this is a big, bulky gaming laptop – you can take it out to a coffee shop, but it’s going to draw attention. The large blue illuminated Predator logo on the laptop lid is one of them, as are the rainbow lighting effects on the keyboard, all of which can be customized as needed.
What can’t be changed are the large air vents to keep the internal components cool, and the size and bulk of this laptop (it measures 398mm x 275.3mm x 26.55 mm when closed and weighs 2.90 kg). It’s worth mentioning that this laptop will get rather noisy and hot under heavy load, but no more so than other comparable gaming machines with the same configuration.
The keyboard and trackpad are a joy to use, offering a good level of responsiveness and a premium feel, and a word also on the stereo speakers: they’re by no means best-in-class, but they do get a job done. surprisingly decent when it comes to movies, music, games and everything that comes with audio.
Performance
In a word: impressive. The components integrated into the Acer Predator Helios 300 ensure that almost everything flies on this laptop, even the most demanding games of the moment. Granted, an RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 will boost frame rates even further, but the RTX 3050 Ti avoids sky-high prices while doing justice to most high-end games, especially at 1080p (an RTX 3080 configuration is actually available on the Helios 300). You will have no problem with complex image or video editing projects here.
An overall PCMark 10 score of 5,691 confirms this: 9,013 on Essentials, 8,020 on Productivity and 6,920 on Digital Content Creation. In our tests, the laptop earned a Photo Editing Score of 9,234, a Rendering and Viewing Score of 7,521, and a Video Editing Score of 4,773. On the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, the laptop laptop scores 5,283 (just below the gaming laptop average of 5,730). During our time with the laptop, we didn’t notice any signs of lag, stutter or lag.
Battery life is pretty dismal, as you’d expect from a gaming laptop like this. The battery lasted almost four hours in our video streaming test – even if that was with the screen at maximum volume and the volume down, so dimming the display and plugging in some headphones would give you a bit more time. If you’re playing or editing a video, you’ll get much less than that and might struggle to get more than an hour.
Verdict
How much you love or hate the Acer Predator Helios 300 is really going to depend on what you want from your laptop. Obviously, this laptop’s aesthetic is designed to appeal to gamers, right down to the highlighted WASD keys on the keyboard – if you’re not a gamer, you won’t want this laptop.
If you’re a gamer and want a high-spec rig that’s going to excel at other demanding tasks – like, say, video editing – then this could be a good fit. It certainly impresses in terms of performance, build quality and size, as well as typing and touchpad experience. With so many laptops of similar price and spec, we suspect it will be the looks of this model or perhaps some brand loyalty to Acer that tips the scales in favor of the Predator Helios 300.
Then, of course, there are the best Macbooks to consider too – not for gamers, but perfect for high-end creative work. That’s a lot of competition for this laptop, but we feel it manages to hold its own, as long as it doesn’t get unplugged very often and you spend a significant amount of time gaming.
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