Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 Review

Acer has established a reputation for consistently offering gaming laptops catering to diverse budgets in the market. The prominent contenders from Acer in this category are the Predator Helios and Triton series, accompanied by the more cost-effective Nitro series, targeting gamers.

In recent years, the definition of "affordable" has undergone substantial changes. The specifications required to achieve satisfactory frame rates in gaming have witnessed significant advancements. As a result, gaming laptop manufacturers have been compelled to enhance their offerings, whether it's through improved specifications or innovative designs, to effectively manage the higher temperatures generated when running demanding games.

Acer Middle East has given us the opportunity to get our hands on its latest gaming laptop from the Helios series “Predator Helios 16 Neo” and we’ve been testing it over the course of the last two weeks to see how it fares against some of the most demanding games nowadays.

So let’s dive into our review for today, but first, let’s take a look at the design of the laptop.

Design

Acer has given a focus on giving its Predator series laptops an edgy look that’s fitting for the gaming category laptops, this laptop comes with a black design with blue undertones that makes it stand out without being too flashy or cliché. There are some sort of cryptic coordinates printed on the back of the laptop that Acer says lead to a reward if you manage to solve what the code means.

The materials used on the outer body are mostly matte plastic which is prone to smudges that aren’t easy to clean, The plastic materials aren’t the most durable, as well as the laptop, feels flimsy and not the most durable laptop you can find, using this kind of materials has been crucial to Acer to keep the laptops price affordable with a starting price of AED 6,699.

There’s a full keyboard containing a numpad which can be very useful for work to crunch some numbers quickly. The keyboard is fully backlit with 4 lighting zones that are controllable through the predator sense app. The WASD keys are translucent to add to the gaming looks of the laptop

The keyboard felt nice to type on with solid keys and decent travel time for each button, gaming has been a pleasant experience as well even though it doesn’t come near the experience of a tactile mechanical keyboard.

The touchpad is nice and big and shifted a bit toward the left-hand side of the laptop

Acer has gone all out with ports here with a wide selection of ports that were triple USB-A ports, Dual Type-C ports, an HDMI Prot, A Mico SD port, as well as an ethernet port and a headphones jack. There’s a really good assortment of ports here and Acer has positioned them well for gamers to make sure you’d have good distraction-free gaming sessions.

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 weighs approximately 2.6KG, which falls within the range of other 16-inch gaming laptops. However, when factoring in the power brick and cables, the total weight increases to 1.2 KG, slightly more than desired.

The Helios Neo 16 features a relatively large power brick. Overall, the build quality of the laptop is generally satisfactory. However, there are some concerns regarding the lid, which exhibits a slight creakiness and feels somewhat weak, particularly when subjected to twisting forces.

Screen

The screen here is a 16-inch IPS WQXGA display, in other jargon-free wording, the resolution here is 2560 * 1600 giving it a more modern 3:2 elongated aspect ratio.

The screen’s colors are vibrant with good contrast and brightness. The lack of local dimming technology here means that you’ll face some color banding in gradients and not the best black levels compared to laptops with mini-led that contain local dimming technology.

The screen’s refresh rate is 165Hz which means that the motion in esports and shooter games are more smooth and felt more fluid while gaming

Performance and cooling

The unit we tested for the Helios Neo 16 is the one that comes with an i7 13700HX processor, RTX 4060, 16GBs of RAM, and 512 NVME SSD. you can go as low as RTX 4050 with Intel Core i5 13500HX or go up a notch with Acer releasing a version that’ll contain an RTX 4070 GPU, Acer has given the users a good choice of specs to fit different budgets.

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 exhibits strong gaming performance across a range of demanding titles. In Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy, it achieves an average framerate of 159 FPS. Similarly, in Marvel's Spiderman remastered and Horizon Zero Dawn, the laptop maintains an average framerate of 86 FPS, ensuring enjoyable gameplay. Even when tackling graphically intensive games like Metro Redux set to Very High settings with advanced Physx, the Helios Neo 16 maintains a respectable average framerate of 61 FPS.

One notable aspect of the Helios Neo 16 is its efficient temperature management. During heavy gaming sessions in Turbo mode, the laptop maintains a comfortable temperature of 75 degrees Celsius. This indicates that the laptop is capable of handling demanding gameplay without significant overheating concerns. With its impressive performance and reliable thermal control, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 stands as a compelling option for gamers in search of a capable gaming laptop.

Even though the temperatures are kept at bay using the advanced cooling system from Acer, the noise levels from the laptop when using the turbo mode are really high making it unbearable to game while using that mode on the laptop's internal speakers, using headphones are always recommended if you’ll be using this mode, otherwise, you can use the performance mode which can also keep the temperatures at a low level, in that case, you’ll find that the laptop will produce some warm air but Acer has designed the cooling really well in this laptop to direct the hot air out the back and away from your hands.

Battery

In terms of battery performance, the laptop's 90Wh battery lasted 7 hours and 20 minute in PCMark 10 Modern Office test. While this duration may be relatively low for a 13th-Gen laptop, it remains usable. To maximize battery life, it is necessary to adjust performance and lighting settings, as well as leverage power efficiency options.

Verdict

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 offers an appealing option for gamers on a budget. Despite some minor concerns about the build quality and noise levels, it delivers solid gaming performance, a visually pleasing display, and effective temperature management, making it a suitable choice for those seeking a balance between performance and affordability.