Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI evaluate
You may flip the noise off within the BIOS. There, I’ve saved you a second. The Acer Predator Helios Neo AI makes a horrific sound upon startup, and you will hear it a few instances throughout setup as Home windows downloads updates and restarts. The Mute button does nothing. As an alternative, hit F2 because it boots, enter the Superior mode of the BIOS and select Essential, then toggle POST Animation and Hold forth earlier than hitting F10 to avoid wasting and exit. You will not see the animation anyway, because the display screen does not get up in time, however you may actually hear the WOOOOOOOSH.
That apart, and apologies for sounding like a grumpy outdated man who does not want that kind of nonsense when he activates a laptop computer within the morning, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI is a very nice gaming laptop computer. It’d really be higher than the Predator Helios 18 I reviewed final yr, as it is a bit extra moveable and weighs half a kilo much less whereas placing out related body charges when you allow DLSS.
Nvidia’s new multi-frame era pushes Cyberpunk 2077’s fps determine in native-res ray-tracing extremely mode nicely above 60. It has the identical 5 USB ports because the Helios 18, although none of them is USB4 or Thunderbolt, however we will let that slide as for gaming laptops the extraordinarily quick connection is much less of a precedence and 10 Gbps is sufficient to run an exterior SSD along with your Steam library overflow on it.
One of many Kind-C ports has an ambiguous little lightning bolt subsequent to it, however this appears to be as a result of you may cost via it—there’s a big energy brick that has its personal plug and might put out over 200 W too. The 16-inch Helios will get a downgrade within the Wi-Fi division, although, sporting 6E to the outdated 18-incher’s W-Fi i7.
Helio Neo 16 AI specs
CPU: Intel Core Extremely 9 275HX
NPU: Intel AI Enhance
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070Ti (12GB)
Reminiscence: 32 GB DDR5-6400
Storage: 1TB SSD, MicroSD
Display screen dimension: 16-inch
Display screen sort: IPS
Decision: 2560 x 1600
Refresh fee: 240 Hz
Ports: 1x 2.5Gb Ethernet, 1x HDMI, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Kind-A, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-A, 2x SB 3.2 Gen 2 Kind-C, 3.5mm audio
Wi-fi connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4
Dimensions: 24 x 366 x 275.5 mm | 1.05 x 14 x 10.8 inches
Weight: 2.7 kg | 5.95 lbs
Value: $1,800 | £1,999
The factor that can entice you most to the Predator Helios Neo 16 AI (truthfully, laptop computer names are beginning to get out of hand in the identical method motherboard ones have) is the value. At $1,800(£1,999) it undercuts the Razer Blade 14 Dave had such a jorts-ripping time with in addition to the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. The sharp-eyed amongst you’ll discover that these are smaller laptops, and whereas the ROG sports activities an RTX 5070Ti, the Razer makes use of a plain outdated 5070.
It is a number of gaming for the cash, subsequently, and this provides another excuse to miss the USB 3.2 ports. Eight-year-old know-how at this level. It isn’t bothering me.
Having the Core Extremely 9 and RTX 5070 Ti, nonetheless, places the Helios 16 AI on the leading edge gaming-wise, and efficiency is fairly good, beating each the Blade 14 and ROG G14 (simply) within the Time Spy Excessive artificial benchmark.
In actual video games, the place it really issues, the ROG tends to drag forward whereas the Blade and Helios jostle for place—Acer lists the Helios Neo as having 115W of complete graphics energy, the identical because the Blade and barely greater than the ROG.
The tetracosa-core processor (8P, 16E, 24 threads, 5.4 GHz max turbo) is one we have seen a great deal of instances in gaming laptops from Lenovo, MSI, HP and Asus, and Acer has jumped onto the AI bandwagon by shoving the time period into the laptop computer’s identify—this is not a Copilot+ machine, although you continue to get 13 TOPS of Intel AI Enhance (plus the GPU for a complete of over 900) if yow will discover a use for it.
Cooling is achieved via Acer’s Fifth-gen AeroBlade 3D followers, they usually appear to be doing a really cheap job, because it by no means acquired hotter than 94 °C throughout testing—staying cooler than the HP Omen Max 16 and the Lenovo Legion 7i Professional Gen10 however hotter than the Asus ROG Zephyrus G16. The vents on the again and sides can get sizzling throughout use, so you will not essentially need it in your precise lap, however the followers are surprisingly nicely behaved contemplating how a lot warmth they should be shifting.
The display screen is an IPS relatively than an OLED and it is positive; a 16:10, 1600p, 240 Hz panel that helps G-Sync and places out a large 635 nits (it may additionally show 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, if that is the kind of factor that pursuits you). There is a full-size HDMI port on the again so you may hook it as much as an exterior display screen, and one of many USB-C ports does DisplayPort too. I’m a giant fan of placing monitor and charging connections on the again fringe of the laptop computer casing like this, because it appears a lot neater than having cable spaghetti popping out the facet.
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As laptops get larger you may match higher keyboards in them, and the 16-inch Helios Neo will get an honest numpad, a shorter than common spacebar, a comically outsized Copilot key that is simply asking to be hit by mistake when you fumble the left arrow, a double-height Enter and an influence button in a smart place on the high proper. There are devoted media controls, and the standard dual-use F row that works in cooperation with the Fn key. The keys have a pleasant quantity of journey, and an RGB backlight you may management within the Predator software program, which will get its personal key.
Purchase if…
✅ You are searching for a great gaming laptop computer at an honest worth: It is that straightforward: Acer has hit the bottom working with this one, undercutting its rivals, in a method that might be very tempting to patrons.
Do not buy if…
❌ You need the largest display screen and finest specs: There is a crop of 16- and 18-inch laptops on the market with extra highly effective video playing cards. In fact, you may pay much more for one.
The trackpad is offset to the left and maybe not as giant as you’d anticipate from a 16-inch laptop computer, however does the job and has a pleasant constructive click on while you press down on it.
There are additionally some built-in audio system. They exist. As does the battery life, nearly.
Acer has acquired fairly good at making laptops by now, having been doing it since someday within the ‘90s, and you do not begin a brand new Predator up anticipating it to be something lower than fully competent.
And that is what we have right here. A laptop computer that maybe sits on the decrease finish of the massive body fee graph for a RTX 5070Ti machine in some video games, however which performs very respectably nonetheless. There’s additionally no arguing with the value of this factor—shopping for it over costlier opponents saves you adequate money for a brand new headset or gaming mouse, and that is a consideration that may go a great distance while you’re searching for a brand new moveable rig.
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