Want to get your hands on a brand-new laptop with top-notch features and specifications?
You should consider the Acer Predator Helios 500 17 AMD Gaming Laptop. The laptop has an AMD Ryzen 7 2700U processor with a 3.2 GHz clock speed, allowing you to multitask easily and enjoy faster performance.
I know many PC gamers still favour the desktop but there are times when you simply need something a little more portable for gaming. The Acer Predator 500 is a good portable gaming setup that doesn’t sacrifice performance for the ability to play games and be portable.
So, you can say goodbye to your desktop.
Helios is ushering in the future of gaming with its Processor1, GeForce RTXTM 30801, and one of the most cutting-edge displays to ever grace the base of a laptop chassis—a 4K Mini LED panel1 with 120Hz refresh.
I’ll go over my views and impressions of this beast incarnate in the following review to help you get ready for your impending purchase and decide whether it’s worth your money or not.
The Good and The Bad
| The Good | The Bad |
|---|---|
| Solid construction and respectable appearance. | Bulky and heavy chassis. |
| Strong performance in daily use, heavy loads, and games, even without the MUX | Uncomfortably positioned status LED and always-lit power button. |
| Excellent inputs and beneficial MagForce WASD keys. | Lack of GSync or MUX, and noisy operation especially with Turbo have an impact on the gaming performance. |
| Top tier GPU supports 165W TGP. | 74 Wh battery and short runtimes. |
| Monstrous cooling | |
| Different screen settings and fantastic small LED 4K option. | |
| All profiles have quiet profiles and good thermals. | |
| Simple to upgrade and open. |
Acer Predator Helios 500 17 AMD: Features
Full-size 17-inch laptop Acer Predator Helios 500 17 AMD has one of the greatest screens now in the market, a mini-LED 4K 120Hz panel, a matching cooling module, and the highest-end hardware currently offered.
The Helios 500 is also more affordable than its direct rivals, such as the Lenovo Legion 7i or MSI GE76 Raider.
The 17-inch Helios 500 model has really amazing speakers that emit a swooping shriek each time you turn it on at the start of the music, in addition to having RGB lighting that spans from the keyboard all the way to the touchpad.
This powerful gaming laptop will satisfy the needs of any gamer. Most of the qualities and features that a gamer may want in a laptop are there in it.
Let’s take a closer look at its attributes.
Design and Build Quality
It goes without saying that this machine is constructed like a tank and has a tank-like appearance. Its profile measures 35.3 mm and it weighs around 4 kg.
Even if the chassis has, in all fairness, shrunk a little bit from its predecessor, as evidenced by the display’s lower bezels, this is still one of the biggest, thickest, and heaviest 17-inch performance laptops of this generation.
All of the interior surfaces, including the deck, edges, and underside, are made of plastic. The armrest and the area around the keyboard have a matte finish, which is very effective at deflecting fingerprints and scratches. But the lid, on the other hand, is made of metal and is easier to smear and even scratch.
Display and Screen
The Full HD 360Hz IPS panel on the Acer Predator Helios 500 has a 17.3′′ (43.94 cm) diagonal and a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution.
We are looking at a screen ratio of 16:9, a pixel density of -127 PPI, and a pitch of 0.2 0.2 mm. While the screen is viewed from a distance equal to or more than 69 cm (27 inches), it transforms into a Retina display (from this distance, the eye no longer distinguishes individual pixels, which is typical when using a laptop).
Acer provides three alternative screen options: FHD 360Hz, QHD 165Hz, and a UHD 120Hz mini-led panel reserved for the top variants.
It’s worth noting that this panel only drops to about 175 nits on the lowest brightness level before becoming noticeably dull. For the retail models, I would anticipate that Acer may upgrade this feature.
Audio Quality
The Acer Predator Helios 500 (PH517-52speakers) sounds fantastic. A subwoofer is attached to the underside of the laptop to augment the speakers, which project sound through cuts in the bottom edge.
Thanks to signal protection and multi-band compression, you can maximise the audio experience by having the sounds you hear come through clearly in all the various highs and lows.
Nevertheless, there are a few minor variations throughout the entire frequency range.
There is nothing wrong with the headphone output, and if you intend to use this laptop in its most powerful configuration, you should probably connect headphones to it.
However, the sound is very brittle and lacks bass. A good sound system and a good pair of headphones are likely to be already in the possession of anyone who can buy the Helios 500 AMD.
Performance
You will not be let down by the performance of this monster machine.
The AMD Ryzen 7-2700 desktop-level processor features eight cores and 16 threads, and its basic clock speed is 3.7GHz, with a maximum turbo boost speed of 4.3GHz.
It will surely give its Intel competitors a close run because it is totally powered by top-tier AMD components. AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics processing unit and 8GB of HBM2 memory are compatible with Windows 10 Home.
With its excellent gaming and productivity capabilities, the Intel Core i7-8700K CPU featured in high-end gaming rigs like the Dell Alienware Aurora and others can’t compete with this setup.
Keyboard and Trackpad
The upper deck of the keyboard has a row of dedicated hotkeys that you can program to perform any task of your choosing, including auto-overclocking.
The blue paint around the margins of the keyboard’s WASD and directional-arrow keys helps to identify them from one another for easy use.
The power button, six hotkeys, and the entire keyboard and touchpad feature a blue haze illumination by default, but there is also key backlighting that enables you to alter the lighting tones through the machine’s included PredatorSense program.
Thanks to the mechanical MagTek Switches, you can progressively increase pressure on the WASD key for precise control over your character’s or car’s speed from the starting pressure (0.8 mm) to the maximum speed at 100% (3 / 3.1 mm) actuation.
As a result, you can utilise the WASD keys on a gamepad as an analog joystick.
The keyboard feels precise as I expected it to and is not at all disappointing. The Acer membrane keyboard still offers pleasing key presses, even if the Predator Helios 500 still employs mechanical switches.
The trackpad, which measures 105 x 65 mm and is coated in plastic rather than glass, is not the largest one available, but it is incredibly responsive, and the independent click bars below it are also excellent.
So, the keyboard and the trackpad of the system are good enough for any use.
Battery Life
This Acer Helios 500 series laptop has a 74Wh battery inside, which is less than what other modern 17-inch full-size laptops offer because the 2.5′′ storage drive takes up some of the internal capacity.
The Acer Predator Helios 500 17 AMD falls short of expectations due to its low battery life. It often clocks in at 2 hours 46 minutes, which is significantly less than the Alienware 17 R5’s relatively lackluster 3 hours 58 minutes.
5TH GEN AEROBLADE™ 3D FAN TECHNOLOGY
By utilising Vortex Flow Optimization, the PowerGem, precisely located intakes, exhausts, and heat pipes, and 5th Gen AeroBladeTM 3D Fan Technology, a laptop’s airflow can be among the most powerful ever.
Acer gave the fans a serrated edge to let more air travel through, drawing inspiration from silent, strong flight mechanics studied in animals. The 89 bionic blades are entirely metal, only 0.08mm thick, and have a stabilising dual indent groove.
The laptop can quickly dissipate heat from the processor at a faster rate than other options because of its special PowerGem method.
Ports
The Helios 500 offers the kind of substantial port flexibility found in larger computers. On the right side of the gadget are two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a Kensington lock slot, and separate jacks for headphones and a microphone.
On the left side of the device are an Ethernet jack, two USB Type-C 3.1/Thunderbolt 3 connections, and a single USB 3.0 Type-A port.
The absence of an SD card port, which is preferred by media professionals who routinely use pricey camcorders and DSLR cameras and need to transfer additional files to the laptop, is the device’s unfortunate drawback.
Acer Predator Helios 500 17 AMD Specifications
| Brand | Acer |
| Type | Gaming |
| Model | PH517-61-R0GX |
| Screen Size | 17.3 inches |
| Flash Memory Size | 256 |
| CPU Model | 4.3 GHz 8032 |
| Ram Memory Installed Size | 16 GB |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Card Description | Dedicated |
| Graphics Coprocessor and Chipset | AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 8 GB HBM2 |
| CPU Speed | 4.3 GHz |
| Item Weight | 9.37 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 11.73 x 16.85 x 1.52 inches |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Memory Speed | 2666 MHz |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 5 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 1.5 hours |
| Hard Drive Interface | Solid State |
| Optical Drive Type | No Optical Drive |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion battery |
Final Verdict: Is This Worth Your Money?
The Predator Helios 500 is a powerful gaming and performance laptop. The key advantages of this Helios 500 over competing models are its sturdy construction, miniLED 4K screen choice, capable IO, and big thermal design.
However, some of you might be turned off by its size, weight, absence of a MUX switch, and lower battery. If you can get past the size, weight, and double-barrelled power supply, this gaming laptop is unlike any other.
Overall, compared to most other full-size performance possibilities of this generation, this behemoth is more affordable than others, therefore I would anticipate that this factor would play a significant role in your choice.
