A multitasking laptop
ESports’ popularity is driving many tech vendors to come out with gaming laptops. Nur Zarina Othman tests the Acer Predator Helios 300
YOUTH and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman has pledged to transform Malaysia into an eSports powerhouse, not only in Asean but also Asia, and that has stirred much interest among the youth to take up gaming seriously.
As a result, computer makers are coming out with gaming laptops to cater to the demand. This year alone, we have seen many launches aimed at the gaming industry. All want a share in this multibillion dollar industry.
Acer’s gaming brand, Predator, has been in the industry since 2008 and recently, it launched the Predator Helios 300 for the Malaysian market. Gaming today is more than just a hobby. Understanding the needs of gamers is vital, and Acer claims to know what they want, hence the release of Predator Helios 300.
The saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” cannot be applied to the Predator Helios 300. It was love at first sight for me when I first saw it. Despite being a gaming laptop, this beast is actually sleek. Its black metal frame with red lines caught my eyes. It has that “don’t mess with me” impression.
The Predator Helios 300 features a red backlight keyboard, giving you the freedom to play your favourite games in whatever lighting condition. The metal frame, however, doesn’t give a sturdy feel to the laptop. Although it looked like it could take a beating, holding it makes me worry that I might break it as it has a “hollow” feel. It would be great if the Helios 300 has a more solid feel.
VALUE FOR MONEY
Gaming machines are normally expensive, but the Helios 300 is worth considering. Retailing slightly above RM6,000, the 17-inch machine comes with 8th Gen Intel Core i7+ processor complete with Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB graphic card. Other brands with similar CPU power are selling at least RM2,000 more compared to the price tag on this one.
Although equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series, NVIDIA Pascal architecture and innovative new gaming technologies, testing it with a graphic-intensive game like Wolfenstein II: The
New Colossus, somehow showed that it lags even with full autoclock.
But Predator Helios 300 is powerful enough to sustain long gaming sessions, especially with its custom-engineered dual-fan cooling with the all-metal AeroBlade 3D Fan.
The laptop is perfect for professionals with passion for gaming as the machine is equipped with a high-end CPU, graphic card, memory and storage space. This makes it an ultimate working laptop, and also, powerful enough for gaming between those impressive presentations.
DRAWBACK
All gamers would agree on the importance of audio for full gaming immersion, but this laptop is lacking the crisp sound of a good gaming scene. I feel that this laptop lacks a good base sound for a game-centric machine.
However, you can use good gaming headphones to get a better sound system, especially when playing highdefinition games. You don’t want to miss that victory notification.
PERFECT FIT
Personally, as a moderate gamer, I find the Predator Helios 300 provides all the important features in a gaming laptop. It is good for multi-tasking work, decent gaming sessions but don’t ever consider it as your primary gaming machine as it doesn’t have enough juice needed for hard-core high-powered gaming sessions. .
For the price, this laptop is a total value for money especially its top of its line CPU, large 17-inch LED screen, graphic card, 8GB memory topped with 256GB SSD; 1TB HDD storage.
RATING: 3.5