The matte surface is easy to glide across. My left thumb tended to rest on it while I was gaming, but the pad's palm rejection ensured that that never triggered unwanted input. Moving down, the buttonless touchpad sits left in the palm rest to align with the keyboard. (The effect is easier to see from above.) I also like that the WASD and arrow key clusters have thicker borders to appear brighter, which is somewhat visible in the photo below. A subtle bump on the W key helps your fingers find it. The keyboard's feedback is on the mushy side for my preferences, but its short and quick key throws enable some fast typing. The preinstalled Predator app lets you change them and save profiles. The gaming theme continues with a colorful four-zone RGB backlit keyboard.Īll zones are the same color in our photos. There's no Nvidia G-Sync support (hit that link for a primer on the technology), but it's hard to find that without spending a few hundred more. A practical anti-glare surface, ample brightness, and good color round it out. Simply clicking and dragging or minimizing a window is a new experience. In fact, the display is so smooth that it's easy to appreciate outside of gaming. Combined with a 1,920-by-1,080-pixel resolution and an advertised 3ms response time, it's a winning combo for high-speed fragging. The IPS screen on my review model has a 240Hz refresh rate, the unstated standard for premium gaming notebooks in mid-2020. The pricier (albeit all plastic) Asus ROG Zephyrus M15 (GU502LW) is just 4.19 pounds. Higher-end gaming notebooks, such as the Predator Triton 500, usually have less depth because they have trimmer display bezels.ĭespite Acer’s specifications listing 5.51 pounds, I weighed my Predator Helios 300 at 4.8 pounds, a normal weight for this class. Size-wise, the Helios 300's 0.9 by 14.3 by 10-inch (HWD) measurements are on target for a 15-inch gaming notebook in this class. The Predator lettering under the lid is the only other branding on this laptop. Additionally, the metal that extends down the sides has squared-off edges at the bottom that I found uncomfortable when I used the Predator Helios 300 in my lap.Ī minor change for 2020 is that the lid no longer has the Predator lettering, leaving just the backlit teal logo and non-backlit stripes. Although it's very sturdy, the front and rear corners of the chassis are sharp. The metal design isn't without compromises. It does a classier job of being in this middle tier than the Lenovo Legion 5i and the Dell G5 15 SE (2020), whose all-plastic designs aren't as chic as the Predator's aluminum top and lid. The Predator Helios 300 sits between Acer's entry-level gamer, the Nitro 5 (2020), and its top-shelf Predator Triton 500 (2020). It’s our new Editor’s Choice holder for mid-range 15-inch gaming notebooks. Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 remains an outstanding choice for a more portable gamer, but the Predator Helios 300 checks just about every box and then some if you’re after a larger screen. It put both to good use in our gaming benchmarks, where it produced best-in-class gaming frame rates while almost doubling the battery life of its predecessor. Now two generations matured, this 2020 version (starts at $1,199 $1,499 as tested) is largely a hardware refresh of last year’s model with Intel’s “Comet Lake” silicon and up to a 240Hz screen.
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