![]() This is a laptop that is easily powerful enough to steam through demanding daily workloads. While I wouldn’t want to lug it into an office every day - I’m fairly sure it would crack my spine after a week - the numbers the Helios posted during our lab tests are impressive. Strong video editing and quick file transfersĪnother area where the Helios 300 performs admirably.Acer Predator Helios 300 review: General performance To caveat some of these results - especially Red Dead - you can claw back a lot of performance by enabling Nvidia DLSS. The testing results above paint a more pessimistic picture than my minute-to-minute gaming experience with the Helios. When you’re dealing with resolutions above 2K on smaller screens, there’s too much detail going on to easily pick out every last highlight - that’s why a 4K display is a little wasted on all but the largest laptop displays. If it was up to me, I’d choose 1440p/120Hz every time in the gaming laptop space. Is a 4K screen on a 15.6-inch laptop somewhat overkill? Perhaps. I tested a handful of demanding, recent(ish) games on this laptop, and it more or less passed with flying colors in every single one. The Helios 300 is a stone-cold killer when it comes to gaming. 1440p / 120Hz would have struck a better balance.Acer Predator Helios 300 review: Gaming performance To finish on a more upbeat note, my inner gamer does appreciate the keyboard’s touch-sensitive mini LED lighting features. It also feels a little sluggish, so web browsing and general desktop navigation never feels quite as speedy as I’d like. The touchpad is also perfectly decent, though it’s perhaps a little small considering the sheer real estate this laptop boasts. You also can’t charge the Helios via USB-C, meaning you’re stuck with its seriously heavy power cable to juice this baby up. You only get one Thunderbolt 4/USB-C port, located on the rear of the laptop, which feels uncharitable. Port selection on the Helios 300 is hit and miss. A single Thunderbolt 4 socket feels stingy.Future-proofing HDMI 2.1 connection is welcome.It’s a shame because when the 3D does work without issue, it’s a persuasive (if slightly gimmicky) effect. Move your head just a little away from the sweet spot in the center of the screen and crosstalk and headache-inducing blurriness quickly kick in. ![]() That’s the main issue with the Helios 300’s stereoscopic tech: you have to sit at a dead-on angle to appreciate it. I briefly enjoyed wandering the cobbled, cloud-scraping streets of BioShock Infinite’s Columbia, but prevalent 3D crosstalk - distortion that makes you feel like you’re seeing double -quickly cooled me on the experience. Little Nightmares 2 is simply too dark to thrive in 3D, while 3D Ultra tanked performance in Tomb Raider. The added depth of bombing around winding tracks in stereoscopic 3D is an immersive blast, and it’s the one game I tested that I’d happily play for hours in that wacky third dimension. Of that clutch of games, it’s Slightly Mad Studios’ racer that really impresses. ![]() After choosing between the more performance-friendly 3D+ and the FPS-tanking 3D Ultra, I tested out the Helios’ 3D screen in Little Nightmares 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, BioShock Infinite and Project CARS 3. It’s just a shame it’s an all too fleeting draw.Īround a dozen games in my Steam library support Acer’s Spatial Labs True Game software (there are currently 85 compatible titles), and the app is fairly straightforward to use. While the pre-installed Spatial Labs Model Viewer provides cool distractions - you can view and manipulate 3D models of astronauts, skulls and tanks - it’s playing games in stereoscopic 3D that’s the real draw. Sadly, ‘novelty’ is the first word that comes to mind after messing about with Spatial Labs for a few hours. Nintendo may have beaten Acer to the punch by 12 years with the 3DS, but being able to play games in 3D without cumbersome glasses still feels like a thrilling novelty, even in 2023. Even more impressively, this is ‘glasses-free’ 3D. This is the first gaming laptop to support stereoscopic 3D. The most unique selling point of the Helios 300 is its Spatial Labs 3D display tech. Underlying tech issues dull the appeal of ‘glasses free’ 3D.Stereoscopic 3D can be immersive for games.Acer Predator Helios review: 3D performance
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