Acer Predator Helios 700 Laptop Review: Innovative gaming laptop with a lot of features

[Redaktion]

The brand-new Acer Predator Helios 700 is definitely one of the most exciting gaming notebooks of 2019. The positioning of its keyboard and touchpad can be changed thanks to a sliding mechanism, which gives the 17-inch device access to a lot of fresh air to cool its high-end hardware. Find out whether this idea actually works in our review.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Predator-Helios-700-Laptop-Review-Innovative-gaming-laptop-with-a-lot-of-features.434197.0.html

[xpclient]

It's big and heavy and expensive but 4 USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports + one Thunderbolt 3 is amazing to have!

[John Doe]

Well, at least it uses only one power adapter thanks to the notebook class CPU, but one would expect a better cooling system (or at least, a less noisy one) given the thick chassis.

Notebookcheck should add undervolting to notebook CPU's at least to check if the noise or performance can be improved (with e.g. -100mV which should be achievable on all mobile CPU's). It would be especially useful for these new thin and light laptops which don't really handle well hexa core CPU's.

[william blake]

Acer Abomination 700
hey guys. am i good at coming up with marketing names?

[Timo Faust]

@John Doe:
The Helios 700 comes undervolted by 0.11V ( you can also see this on some screenshots);

The cooling performance is extraordinarily on this machine. I have tuned the "boosted" mode (that's the correct name for the mode when you pull out the keyboard, btw. - "fast" is the one where you press the turbo button with keyboard in normal position...and a totally unnecessary mode. As it is loud and offers no real OC performance. Acer should have gone with "silent" & "normal" for keyboard in standard position);

I do agree with the fan settings. Set mine to manual on 1200 RPM CPU (I own the 9980HK version) and 1200 RPM GPU for desktop usage. Almost inaudible, CPU stays within 40 to 60 degrees C° and GPU around 40C°;
I hope they fix the inconsistant cooling profiles in later Predator Sense updates.

I manually changed the OC profile of Predator sense, now my GPU runs at +180 MHz and VRam at 2000MHz (never goes above 68C° with "boosted" mode, which does not put the fan at max RPM and keeps it around 50+ db); Easily broke 11k points in timespy this way.

If Predator Sense let me change the CPU profiles as well ( The XTU profiles can be changed, but crash the profiles) results could even be better, as the CPU runs very well at - 0.13V at all cores 4.7 GHz without throttling.

Sadly my screen has some terrible bleeding as well, could correct some of it by loosening some screws under the bezel a little. For that price I certainly expect more quality control and Acer should be ashamed of what they deliver here.

The keyboard is nice, but it swings minimally, which can lead to some reverb sounds when you hit the keys on the middle/right with medium force.

Disappointed by the subwoofer, the bass is not quite strong, at least your neigbours will not be disturbed by that.  ( They might be when you put the machine on "turbo" mode or "turbine" mode around 60db with fans blowing hard. Only use that mode for benching. )

I like the touchpad much more than the tester, for me the position and buttons feel quite right, but that is a very subjective point.

Overall I am very happy with my machine. While it is not as fancy as the M51 it outperforms it slightly (at least mine after some manual tuning) and costs about 3/4 of the price of the alienware laptop in Germany.

Do not mind the weight, got a great laptop bag and am a healthy male, so whatever ;)

If Acer adds better fan profiles or gives the user the possibility to easily create own fan curves and more control about PS tuning without the hassle to download XTU etc, then the machine would be a dream.

I am no native speaker, so please do not mind of my grammar and vocabulary is not always spot on, feel free to correct me, so I can learn :)

[John Doe]

@Timo Faust:

Thanks for the feedback. So, there seems to be some space there for not so noisy performance, but Acer doesn't seem to make the most of the cooling system since 50+ dBA is too loud IMHO given that the temps are low.

If they had some fan profiles so that the speed is adjusted with the temperature increase so you could game at 45 dBA (perhaps even with limiting the max FPS if needed so the GPU is not at 100% load), that would have been great.

I don't mind the weight as I lug around my Alienware 17 R4 sometimes. It's 4.3 kg plus the hefty PSU are not a problem with a good backpack. I considered upgrading to Area 51M, but decided that desktop CPU's are an overkill on a laptop for my needs, given the need for an extra PSU, while the performance gains in games are negligible.

My main beef with non-Alienware laptops is the miserable performance of the TB3 with external graphics.

[Tristan Woodrich]

I don't understand why the reviewer insists that a screen needs a smaller bezel. I own an older Predator 17, and I love the screens larger bezel.

While the laptop is large, the thickness provides durability you don't see in a lot of modern notebooks.If you think you need a thinner bezel, then this laptop probably wasn't built for you.

I look forward to buying one of these if it ever hits the market.

[Thomas Luggiero]

This laptop has the fastest mobile 2080 and coolest running. I can turn a Firestrike score of 27,654 with a max temp of 158F and a GPU clock of 2040 which is only on the 2nd overclock setting of "fast" in predator sense and it pulled an astounding 185watts. I also have a MSI GE75 10sgs-234 with a super 2080. It can't even come close to this. It pulled 150Watts with a score of 26,119 in firestrike.