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The new Acer Predator Helios Neo gaming laptop is effective if you can look past some questionable design choices.
"Hello everyone and welcome to another Gamereactor Quick Look, it's time to look at a gaming laptop, which is always exciting because, well, it kind of is an influx of both looking at cool hardware and then us as gaming enthusiasts looking at a tool which can grant us an immersive gaming experience on the go, which is always exciting."
"So this is the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16, yes, it's not only just the Helios sub-series under the Predator gaming sub-brand anymore, but now there's another sub-sub-series called Neo, and this is the Neo 16, named after its 16-inch panel.
But if you can look past some of the Acer Predator series' frankly outdated design conventions, particularly on the aesthetic side, there is a really effective gaming laptop to be had here."
"But first and foremost, I should also mention that obviously we would need to test this properly in the field to see if it's good as a gaming laptop, and we will, don't worry about that.
So first and foremost, I think it's pretty ugly, and I think that it is so in a really tacky way where it's just unnecessary for the gear that gaming enthusiasts use to self-identify so heavily as they do."
"So first and foremost, here on the lid, we just have a bunch of these weird, I don't know what these numbers represent, but it probably just spells out, I don't know, LEED LOL or whatever.
I always find it a bit tacky and something to get bored of really quickly."
"There is also some S-V-O-R-L-H-M-V-L, I don't know.
The point is that I would want it to be a lot cleaner.
I think that some accents can be tasteful, but this is definitely going overboard in a way that I think is even like Asus' ROG Phone 9 has toned it down a little bit because people just don't really want that stuff."
"I really find there to be a lot of use for this backhanded exhaust right here.
Just basically means that a lot of the port array can be located to the back so that the cables that you plug in doesn't really get in your way when you're playing, and it also means that there is some space here to exhaust hot air without it being sort of inside the machine framework."
"I think that is very clever, so I don't really mind that, but all of these things here, it's not my jam.
If it is yours, then all power to you, but you're here to hear me talk and I don't really appreciate that stuff."
"But what I do appreciate is what is inside.
So I obviously think that this is fine.
There's nothing inherently egregious here.
Acer has always made great keyboards, even on the Predator series, and this is tackier, more tactile, and more sort of approachable than most."
"You get the full-size numpad, which I know a lot of people like.
I don't really like the offset trackpad, but it is big enough to do actual work and for it to be usable.
And while I don't really appreciate this huge chin here, which I might guess is it makes it a 16x9, not sure if it's a 16x10, but close to it anyways."
"I think all of it inside here looks absolutely mint.
It's cool enough and there's nothing totally egregious here.
Inside we find some cool stuff.
There is an Intel i9-14900HX paired with an RTX 4070 8GB GPU."
"There's 16GB of 5600MHz DDR5 RAM in here alongside a 1024MB NVMe SSD.
That's all well and good, basically, but you also get little creature comforts like Wi-Fi 6C, Bluetooth 5.
The battery is 90Wh, which it's too early to say whether 90Wh will have you working on something for long stretches away from the wall, particularly if it is that i9-4070 combo."
"It's too early to tell.
And then there is this panel.
This panel, I think, is really, really cool.
And it really represents that we've come a long way just in a few short years of where we used to be in terms of, like, the panel that we chose often had to be, like, had a built-in compromise."
"Low resolution to high frame rate, panel type to frame rate.
But this is a 16-inch, which is great, WQXGA, which basically means that it's going for that Vanta inky black that we know from some high-contrast panels out there, which is great.
It's 240Hz at 3ms response time at 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, which basically means that this should give you the smoothest gaming experience around, but also let you work on, like, serious content creation stuff."
"So I really think that that is really cool.
And given the nature, while I don't have the exact pricing model with me right here, usually the Predator Helios Neo series do pretty well with these types of things.
So you really are getting an all-rounder."
"So if you can live with the design, you're getting a good gaming laptop, at least on the face of it.
We'll have to give you a full review very soon.
Stay tuned for more."
