Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 review: Affordable, but with all the frills

Price When Reviewed

1199.99

Best Prices Today: Acer Predator Helios Neo 16

$1199.99

$1,799.99

Budget gaming rigs are getting gloriously near their premium counterparts when it comes to their {hardware} choices – identical to price range smartphones have achieved for some time now. Quite frankly I adore it – it merely means you will get a gaming rig with very first rate specs, and from a $3,000 price range, maintain near $2,000 within the financial institution.

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 is simply such a laptop computer. No, it hasn’t been chiseled from a single block of aluminum and it doesn’t sound like a precision-tuned futuristic growth field, however to me that doesn’t matter a lot. It’s nonetheless highly effective sufficient to provide first rate body charges in AAA video games, is exceptionally trendy and has I/O choices galore. Plus, you possibly can decide it up for a steal. Read on to find this gaming laptop computer’s greatest options.

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops accessible proper now.

Acer Predator Helios: Price and specs

Looking on the configurations for this laptop computer and proper now, the bottom mannequin Helios Neo 16 that includes an Intel Core i5-13500HX and GeForce RTX 4050 GPU with WUXGA (165Hz) show prices simply $1,199.99. For the top-of-the-line mannequin, nevertheless, you possibly can anticipate to pay $2,799.99 for a laptop computer that includes an Intel Core i9-13900HX with GeForce RTX 4080 GPU and better decision WQXGA (240Hz) show.

Comparing our Helios Neo 16 assessment unit to laptops in the identical price range class, and you may presently purchase the Lenovo Legion 5i with an Intel i5-13500HX and RTX 4050 GPU with the next decision WQXGA (165Hz) show for $1179.99, that’s $20 lower than probably the most reasonably priced Helios Neo 16.

Up towards MSI’s vary of price range gaming laptops Acer’s $1,199.99 base mannequin Helios Neo 16 is sort of competitively priced. For instance, the most cost effective 2023 MSI gaming laptop computer we will presently discover in inventory on-line is the MSI Stealth 14 for $1299.99 at Best Buy. This laptop computer encompasses a Core i5-13620H CPU and RTX 4060 GPU and sports activities a smaller 14-inch show. Here, I broke down my assessment unit’s specification as follows.

• CPU: Intel Core i7-13700HX
• RAM: 16GB DDR5 / 4800MHz
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
• Display: 16-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200p), 165Hz refresh price, IPS-level
• Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen 4 SSD
• Ports: 2 x Thunderbolt 4, 3 x USB-A 3.2, HDMI 2.1, Micro SD card slot, Ethernet port, 3.5 mm combo jack, Kensington lock
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
• Weight: 5.73 lbs (2.6kg)
• Dimensions: 14.18 x 11.02 x 1.11 inches
• Battery: 90Whr
• Price: Start at $1,199.99

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: Design and construct

The Neo 16 is designed to provide you all of the performance you’d anticipate in a way more costly laptop computer however with out the steep price ticket. That mentioned, the trade-off is you do get a chassis with extra plastic than you’ll discover in some laptops. It’s primarily targeting the underside, although, which is a few comfort. In truth, the bottom of the chassis and higher most a part of the lid each have a great dollop of steel, so your major contact factors are sturdy sufficient for heavy use.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The design is sort of gamer centric. The laptop computer’s matte black end has nearly a darkish blue sheen to it. The lid options an Acer Predator brand, in addition to a code-like scramble of numbers for styling. Vents and grooves sit alongside the flanks and underside, giving it a form of futuristic really feel. While there’s no RGB gentle bar to talk of, the laptop computer’s angular traces and tall show make it seem pricier than it’s; certainly, for those who’re trying to find a price range gaming rig, you’d be none the wiser that it prices roughly $1,000.

From a dimension perspective, the Neo 16 is among the bigger 16-inch gaming laptops I’ve seen this yr. It measures 14.18 x 1.11 x 11.02 inches which is longer, wider and thicker than choices just like the Asus ROG Strix G16 and Razer Blade 16. That merely means it wants extra desk area to sit down on. At 5.73 lbs it’s solely about 3.2 ounces heavier although, so received’t trigger any noticeable distinction in portability.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: Keyboard and trackpad

The Neo 16’s keyboard is an all-round winner, being giant, flashy, and boasting a really beneficiant key structure. It stretches the entire width of the bottom leaving solely a fingernail’s width on both facet. All that area has allowed Acer to squeeze in full-sized arrow keys, a numpad, media keys and even just a few helpful hotkeys – certainly one of which helps you to entry Acer’s PredatorSense utility app with a Just single press.

I used to be impressed by the colourful 4 zone RGB backlighting, which in default mode flashed intermittently like a Fourth of July fireworks show. The keys themselves felt good and springy. Acer has made sure keys clear round their periphery which accentuates the RGB. This transparency was particularly helpful for finding the WASD keys at night time, since they actually come out from the remainder.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The trackpad felt good and responsive too, though I wasn’t a fan of its positioning, which is a bit of to the left of heart. This meant my left wrist needed to get by with much less area than my proper and that my left thumb generally hit the trackpad by mistake. It wasn’t that a lot of a problem, however noticeable nonetheless.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: Ports

With 5 USB ports accessible, nearly all my regular units have been comfortably homed across the Neo 16. Two of those ports, being the very helpful Thunderbolt 4 form, made downloading information at as much as 40Gbps whereas concurrently streaming to an exterior show as straightforward as pie. Two Thunderbolt 4s is another than you’ll see in some premium rivals too – so hurrah, what a deal with!

I used to be very happy by the opposite ports on supply as properly. I had a HDMI 2.1 port as an additional show choice, a LAN port for my LAN cable and 3.5 mm combo jack for my headphones. I even had a Kensington lock, which I wasn’t anticipating in a laptop computer priced so low.

The port placement was spot on, too. In truth, the Neo 16’s designer might be a southpaw judging by the truth that the ports aren’t bunched across the left facet such as you generally see in some laptops. With the 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, energy and HDMI situated alongside the again, I by no means felt cramped for area, regardless of the laptop computer’s bigger dimension.

Acer predator Helios Neo 16: Display and audio

The Helios Neo 16’s WUXGA show is fantastically framed up by ultra-thin bezels on the edges and high and the panel itself produces properly saturated coloration pictures, however don’t anticipate the form of fluid movement you will note in panels with 240Hz refresh charges. Suffice to say, you’ll sometimes see some micro stuttering – particularly when movement pans in from the far left or proper. I solely noticed this sometimes, but it surely does make a 240Hz refresh price a really fascinating characteristic I’d positively need to have.

With solely 400 nits of peak brightness, the Helios Neo 16’s show additionally simply scrapes by with satisfactory distinction. This means you do sometimes lose a number of the element in pictures. The low peak brightness additionally means it doesn’t do properly in daylight; it’s greatest used inside on sunny days – so, sorry pool homeowners, you’re going to should take these pina coladas inside.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Acer have achieved properly to get a discreet webcam into the highest bezel’s minuscule width. It’s only a 720p digicam, although. That mentioned, it captures pictures and conveys voices moderately properly. Unfortunately, the laptop computer’s speaker audio is much less flattering. You might say it’s the food plan cola form, after I was actually hoping for the absolutely sugar-loaded selection.

By that I imply the audio was very quiet, even at full quantity. It was additionally nearly fully tuned for sounds within the mid and excessive tonal vary. What bass notes I might hear landed with underwhelming faucets slightly than deep commanding thuds, which was a bit of disappointing.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: CPU efficiency

Our Helios Neo 16 options the 16-core Core i7-13700HX processor from Intel’s Raptor Lake processor sequence. This feeds 16GB of DDR 5 RAM working at a most pace of 4800 MHz. Being a laptop computer with certainly one of Intel’s 13th-gen high-performance HX chips, I in contrast it towards Asus’s ROG Strix G16 which sports activities an Intel Core i7-1365HX and the Razer Blade 16 loaded with an Intel Core i9-13950HX.

Intel locations the Core i7-13700HX’s efficiency barely above its Core i7-12850HX processor from final yr’s Alder Lake sequence. That being the case I used to be additionally curious to see how it might go up towards the Core i7-12700H in a laptop computer just like the Alienware X15 R2 as properly.

The first benchmark I ran was Maxon’s Cinebench R20 Multi-Threaded take a look at. This benchmark flexes all of the cores of a laptop computer’s CPU to provide a sign of how properly it could possibly deal with CPU-intensive duties. In this benchmark the Helios Neo 16’s CPU completed in first place. This proves it could possibly stand some hectic all-core flexing, the likes of which you’ll get from working AAA video games or encoding giant information.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

That mentioned, in case you are working the CPU to its limits with an encoding job, the Helios Neo 16 could run out of steam a bit of faster than some rival laptops, as judging by our HandBrake take a look at outcome, represented in our subsequent graph.

The HandBrake take a look at, which entails encoding a big 30 MKV video file to MP4, provides us a sign of how properly the laptop computer’s CPU can maintain its thermals underneath management and maintain efficiency sturdy and regular to energy on via a demanding CPU process.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

As you possibly can see, it took our assessment unit a bit of longer to complete encoding the 30MKV file than nearly all of the comparability subject. I’m not notably involved by this outcome, nevertheless. Anything underneath 1,000 seconds continues to be thought of comparatively first rate right here. And, though the Neo 16 was a bit of off the tempo, it’s not by the form of margin that may develop into irritating or have you ever ready round for an uncomfortably very long time.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: Gaming efficiency

My assessment unit’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 cell GPU is taken into account roughly 18 % quicker in 1080p video games than Nvidia’s earlier era GPU, the GeForce RTX 3060 cell. That’s the final statistic; you merely can’t inform how GPUs will carry out from one laptop computer to a different with out correct benchmarking. Invariably, variations in inner componentry, cooling methods and Total Graphics Power (TGP) can all be components that may end up in completely different GPU performances. To get a agency sense, then, I ran our regular trifecta of PCWorld GPU exams.

First up was the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark which provides us a broad image of graphical efficiency. The outcome? The Helios Neo 16 was a bit of off the tempo of the Asus ROG Strix G16 which packed the identical RTX 4060 cell GPU. Still, a rating within the 10,000s speaks of a laptop computer that can comfortably run AAA video games and graphically demanding applications on it.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Moving to our gaming benchmarks now, and within the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark, the Helios Neo 16 couldn’t fairly compete with the principally premium comparisons which clocked greater body per second scores. When taken at face worth this looks like an underwhelming efficiency however taken into context of the laptop computer’s price range price ticket, this outcome continues to be fairly good.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Besides, the distinction in efficiency between our laptop computer and the three laptops instantly above it in our graph is comparatively minimal. A extra vital measure is how the Helios Neo 16 carried out up towards one other extremely succesful price range gaming laptop computer, the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition. Here, we see it had the sting on this laptop computer by a hair.

Running the Shadow of the Tomb Raider recreation benchmark elicited a considerably higher outcome for the Neo 16. In this benchmark our laptop computer positioned the place I’d have anticipated it to put among the many panoply of laptops in our assessment lineup – that’s, not far off the tempo of laptops with premium RTX 30 sequence GPUs, and above others with decrease rung RTX 30 sequence GPUs.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: Battery efficiency

To take a look at the battery efficiency, I looped a 4K film on Windows Movie and TV app with the sound turned right down to 50 % and an affordable pair of headphones plugged in. I additionally turned off the keyboard backlighting and switched the laptop computer’s wi-fi to airplane mode. The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 lasted nearly 9 hours – which is among the higher scores I’ve seen this yr. It beats out the Razer Blade 16 and Asus ROG Strix G16 for battery life however doesn’t fairly match the endurance of the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition – which is outstanding.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Mind you, nearly mine hours is what you possibly can anticipate the laptop computer’s battery to final simply enjoying a video file. For energy hungry gaming, you possibly can anticipate the Neo 16 to final a extra modest 5 hours when unplugged from an AC outlet, which continues to be comparatively good.

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16: Should you purchase it?

It goes with out saying you’re in all probability going to get much less on your cash once you purchase a laptop computer that prices roughly $1,000 slightly than a laptop computer that prices 3,000 to $4,000. But what do you compromise on for spending much less – CPU / GPU energy? Ports? A smaller show? A lower than optionally available keyboard? Thankfully, you don’t should miss out on any of those all-important components with the Helios Neo 16, which makes it a wonderful value-for-money proposition for avid gamers on a price range.