Acer’s new Predator Helios laptops can pack a vibrant 250Hz Mini LED display screen

The Predator Helios is on the prime finish of Acer’s lineup of gaming laptops, and it has some particular updates in retailer for 2023. The Helios is available in two new sizes, together with 16- and 18-inch fashions, identical to the most recent releases from Alienware and Razer. These new Helios laptops have spectacular specs that I’ll dig into beneath, however I’m most wanting ahead to attempting out one factor specifically: their top-of-the-line 250Hz Mini LED show choice.

This is huge information as a result of Mini LED-backlit shows are nonetheless uncommon, normally reserved for high-end TVs, expensive tablets just like the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and now some beastly laptops. OLED nonetheless delivers higher image high quality, however Mini LED is brighter, and it narrows the hole in high quality by squeezing extra distinction and brightness management out of LCD tech.

Either measurement of the brand new Helios might be configured with this show, which Acer claims has 1,000 native dimming zones and might provide over 1,000 nits at peak brightness. It has one hundred pc protection of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, which is nice for creators who require correct colours.

The GPU is often the spec that I’m most desirous about a gaming laptop computer, however its Nvidia RTX 40-series help takes a backseat to those screens. Acer gave each the Helios 16 and 18 extra vertical area with a 16:10 facet ratio, whether or not you go for the bottom show configuration or go all out with the Mini LED choice. The Helios 16 begins out with a QHD Plus (2,560 x 1,600) 165Hz panel, whereas the Helios 18 drops right down to an FHD Plus (1,920 x 1,200) 165Hz display screen. The beginning costs are $1,649.99 for the Helios 16 and $1,699.99 for the Helios 18. Acer hasn’t locked in the price of the priciest configuration with the 250Hz Mini LED display screen, however Acer spokesperson Erin Davern shared that comparable high-end fashions are tentatively priced at $2,799 and $2,999, respectively.

Outside of the screens, these seem to be stable contenders stuffed with 2023’s newest chip bumps, together with Intel’s thirteenth Generation Core i9 or i7 HX processors. Both fashions help as much as the RTX 4080 graphics chip with 165W of whole graphics energy. In phrases of reminiscence and storage, you possibly can stand up to 32GB of DDR5 4,800MHz RAM and 2TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs.

Whether you go for the Mini LED-backlit show or not, every Helios 16 and 18 has a Mini LED-backlit keyboard with a 1.8mm key journey and anti-ghosting n-key rollover so as to hammer away on the keys throughout intense matches with out worrying about failed keypresses. These machines have an ethernet port, Wi-Fi 6E help, and an array of ports, together with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI 2.1, three USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and a microSD card reader. Its rear fan outtakes have swappable covers, so you possibly can customise the look.

Every 12 months brings refreshed gaming laptops with inside updates, however we choose to have fun those that appear to ship some issues in another way. We gained’t know if Acer’s 250Hz Mini LED show is well worth the improve till we attempt it in particular person, however I’m simply glad that the likes of Acer are experimenting somewhat extra on methods to make its laptops stand out.