NEW YORK - Now here's a gaming laptop of another color. Acer just unveiled the latest entries in its gamer-centric Predator line: the Helios 300 Special Edition and the Helios 500, which drop the garish designs of most gaming laptops for slick, eye-catching color schemes.
Unfortunately, the company has yet to announce pricing or launch dates, but here's what we know so far.
The Predator Helios 300 has gotten a new look. Realizing that gamers are getting bored with the red-and-black motif, Acer has unveiled the Special Edition Helios 300. Clad in a white-and-gold chassis, the normally bulky laptop suddenly looks sleek and sophisticated. Made with a mix of aluminum and plastic, the notebook is definitely a looker, but I am concerned that the pristine white finish will stain or fade over time transitioning to a dingy yellow shade.
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Makeover notwithstanding, this is still a gaming laptop, which means that Acer made sure to put some powerful goodies under the hood. The system's specs include up to an 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor with up to 16GB of RAM (upgradable up to 32GB) and an Nvidia GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, creating an undeniably attractive mid-range gaming laptop. Storage-wise, you can configure the PCIe SSD up to 512GB and the hard drive up to 2TB. S
ince it's a mid-tier system, the system is only available with a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS panel. But with a 144Hz refresh rate, that's still pretty good.
But Acer has more up its sleeves for serious gamers, including the new Helios 500 laptop. True, it doesn't have the stunning looks of the 300 Special Edition, but the notebook's blue-and-black frame is a welcome reprieve from the dated red-and-black.
Looks aside, the notebook is outfitted with an overclockable 8th Gen Core i9-8750HK processor with up 16GB of RAM that's upgradable to a whopping 64GB. You can get a maximum 1TB NVMe PCIe storage in RAID configuration with a up to a 2TB HDD. The gaming rig also has a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM. The 17.3-inch display comes in two flavors: 1080p and 4K. Both panels have Nvidia G-Sync technology for butter-smooth images when gaming.
To ensure that both gaming rigs stay cool, even during the most intense gaming sessions, Acer has equipped both rigs with their proprietary 59-blade AeroBlade 3D fans.
We look forward to testing both of Acer's gorgeous new gaming machines when they launch later this year.
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