Three things that the Helios 500 is missing are a memory card slot, any sort of biometric log-in and a touch screen. Naturally, there’s also a Bluetooth 5.1 radio. The pre-installed Killer Control Centre app gives you the type of granular control of your network kit that regular Windows users can only dream about. I recorded network speeds averaging 1.5Gbit/sec which is more than fast enough for any gaming requirement. Wireless communications are handled by an AX1650i Wi-Fi 6 module which like the Gigabit Ethernet switch is made by the Intel-owned gaming network specialist Killer. It may sound like a frivolous extra but trust me, you will come to value it. To keep your desk tidy, Acer has bundled a rubber stand for the two PSU’s.
The two DC-in jacks are sensibly placed dead centre at the rear, and with both plugged in the Helios 500 has access to 600W of power. The cherry on the cake is that both the Type-C ports support Thunderbolt 4. You get two USB Type-C and three USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, HDMI 2.1 and Mini DisplayPort 1.4 video feeds, a Gigabit RJ45 socket and separate 3.5mm mic and headphone jacks. The black livery is refreshingly understated, with only the big blue LED power button above the keyboard and the similarly backlit Predator logo on the lid giving the game away.Ĭonnectivity is generous. Turn off the spectacular Close Encounters light show – there are RGB LED strips on all four edges as well as surrounding the trackpad and each key can be assigned its own RGB colour – and it looks a lot less like a stereotypical gaming notebook than any of Acer’s cheaper Nitro machines. The design is more restrained than I expected, akin to Lenovo’s new Legion machines. It’s a wholly solid affair and even the lid is impressively rigid for something that has to house a 17.3in display but is only 5mm thick. With the exception of the lid, which is aluminium, the Helios is made entirely from plastic, but it still feels seriously tough. If you plan on carrying it about, you’ll need a backpack big enough to house both it and the two large 750g PSU bricks. At 3.9kg I’d describe it as portable rather than mobile, and the 400 x 319 x 35mm dimensions place it firmly in large laptop territory. The Helios 500 is the USS Iowa of laptops massive, solid and very heavy. READ NEXT: The very best gaming laptops around Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021) review: Design and build quality For all-around capability, nothing else comes close.
The Mini LED display is a joy to behold and the battery life is epic for a machine this powerful. We called it “simply phenomenal” when we reviewed it and not without justification.
If you fancy something a little less Windows, then Apple’s new MacBook Pro 16 is worth considering. The model we tested came with 1TB of storage and 16GB of system RAM but you can easily whip the bottom off and upgrade both to match the Helios. For just under £2,000 you get an excellent display and sound system and a RTX 3080 GPU. The 17.3in machine with a Core i9 CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD will set you back £3,149 (currently on offer from Dell down from £3,749).Ī little bulkier than the x15 but still a minnow compared to the Helios 500 is Lenovo’s Legion 7. The previous holder of the Most Powerful Laptop trophy here at Expert Reviews Alienware’s x15 R1 is almost as powerful as the Helios 500 but is half the weight, half the height and £1,500 cheaper, though that’s for the Core i7, 15.6in version we tested. At £3,500 it’s not much cheaper than the new Helios but at 2.7kg it’s a good bit lighter. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733 is another massive 17.3in gaming beast and comes with a superb mechanical keyboard, a Full HD display with a maximum 360Hz refresh rate and an overclocked AMD Ryzen 9 processor. Best budget gaming laptop 2022: The cheapest gaming notebooks from £700
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