this is Acer Helios 300 for 2019
and it's a fantastic gaming laptop
now if you've seen my channel before
you may have noticed that I'm
sometimes critical of Acer’s products
they make some good stuff
but they also make some kind of
mediocre stuff
for the greater part of my
channel kind of Acer coverage
I would say that I'm leaning more
towards the not recommending a lot of
Acer products but this one is
a banger and it's fantastic
so what makes this thing special
it’s not just as price point
it's a 1200-dollar machine
but it's also what you're getting
for that money it's so much better
than I thought it would be
because so many companies
cut corners when they're in
this price range
so this device has an aluminum
top surface and an aluminum
keyboard deck the bottom panel
as well as the back panel is plastic
but this thing's just built really
well for this kind of price point
now they can figure this device
with a good combination of CPU and GPU
so oftentimes when you have a
1200-dollar gaming laptop
one of the things that they'll do
to keep costs down is to package
it with a weaker CPU
even Acer has done it in the past
but with this thing you're getting
a six core ninth gen i7
it's a very powerful CPU
I did notice however that it is
also under voltage
I noticed this like previously
in a different laptop the Razer blade
but it's just strange like this
was never done before in the past
and someone decided to you know
give people the green light
now a lot of manufacturers are
putting out devices that are
under voted right of the factory
it's a good thing and it's one of
the reasons why the temperatures
on this device are lower
but it's just a little strange to me
and the GPU and here is also
pretty kick-ass
it's the GTX 1660ti and basically
any kind of game that you throw on
this is going to run quite well
if you're playing competitive shooters
and you drop the graphic settings on it
you'll be able to hit the
maximum frame rate on the screen
so the screen is 144 hertz
they claim it's a 3ms response
time which is probably an
optimistic measurement
uh but it's a very fast screen
if you're used to 60 hertz screens
this 144 hertz panel is a nice treat
it's reasonably bright
but screens are areas where
companies often skimp on as well
when they're trying to keep costs down
but it's like the thing that
you're looking at right
it's the thing that you're
playing your games on
I feel like if you're not
getting a good screen regardless
of the price of the laptop
you're not getting a proper device
for 1200 bucks a good screen
like this is really nice
let's talk about
thermal performance
this machine has fantastic thermals
in part due to the under-volt thing
that I mentioned earlier
but it also has a great thermal system
it's got two fans and the thermals
are good enough that it can
maintain boost clock if you're
running it on turbo mode
now keep in mind that the fans
are quite loud in turbo mode
but you get excellent performance
I do wish that there was just
better control in that software
like you get some degree of fan control
but I feel like there should be
more profile so you could
adjust your fans little bit
more precisely the ports
on this device
so there's 2 USB-As, 1 USB-C
the USB-C does not support
thunderbolt three but I feel like
in 2019 I've kind of fallen
out of love with what thunderbolt three
kind of offered originally I really
liked the idea of thunderbolt three
with the ability connect to external GPU
and stuff but we've seen how
that stuff plays out
I feel like it's just super expensive
and not cost efficient to get
an external GPU you also get an
ear and a jack as well as your
AC adapter hole on the left side
I don't like the positioning of this
it's not so much like a restricted
airflow when you have the
AC adapter connected
it's more that the cable gets
super-hot and that can't be great
for things. Ah the speakers
are located on the bottom
they sound okay I don't
particularly love them
but inside you also have access to
your RAM slots, you're SSD slots
as well as your 2.5-inch HDD
if you want to use that
and you also have access to
your wifi card as well as a
very small battery
this is a little bit bigger battery
than last year's version
but it's still a very
short battery life
I'm getting around four hours
a battery life still
the AC adapter as not huge
so if you do need to bring
this around it's a relatively
compact power supply but yeah
it's… the battery life that
you will require the AC adapter
if you travel with it
okay oh the inside I haven't talked
about the keyboard and track by yet
it's a good keyboard
I like the way types
I think a lot of people enjoy
the feel of this keyboard
it feels it's not that it's cramped
it's like there's no border
on the left and right of it
because they have a number pad
so it feels a little bit strange
when you're using the WASD keys
like you can feel the left edge
of the keyboard right there
but it's something you get used to
pretty quickly and the keyboard
and the hole is solid the
back lighting on this thing
so the unit i have is an
Amazon configuration
it does not have RGB lighting
it only has this whitish blue light
which actually like
there are more expensive configurations
out there with RGB lighting but
this is just a simple white light
the track pad it's a plastic surface
and you do have to press the
buttons a little bit harder than
I'd like to activate the mechanism
but yet a solid track pad
using windows precision drivers
nothing really to complain about it
okay this device I'm going to
give this thing the title of an MVP
it's like the most valuable player
when it comes to gaming laptops right now
because not only is it
given consumers a great device
for the money for 1200 dollars
you're getting a lot more with
this system than a lot of
competing systems
but the presence of this thing
the existence of a 1200-dollar
device that is this good put
a lot of pressure on
other companies out there
I'm not gonna name names
but there are companies out there
that probably looked at this thing
and just they hate it
they're like we can't compete this
with our current devices
so it makes other companies look bad
if they're selling a similar
kind of product for a lot more money
Acer did a great job on this thing
I mean its heavily improved year
on year and I think they just
knocked this one out of the park
I like it. now i’m gonna
mention one problem with
this device or one potential
problem with the device that
I think people should be aware of
when I looked at the price
of this device online on Amazon
I stumbled upon the older
Helios 300 from 2018 and
that was a device that
are reviewed quite positively
when I looked at the ratings
it's got a 4-star rating
people seem to like it as well
but when you click on the spread
you'll notice a handful of
1-star reviews and i clicked on
those and I saw a bunch of
people talking about thermal issues
from the 2018 model
and I remember in my old a review
that it had good thermal performance
not perfect but it was pretty solid
and I remember a lot of other
publications and other YouTubers
came to a similar conclusion
that the 2018 Helios 300
had good thermals
but then why did so many of
these 1-star reviews specifically
mentioned poor thermal performance
as the reason for their
dissatisfaction with the product
and I think it was because of an
inconsistency in their manufacturing
I think a lot of the older
Helios 300s just didn't have
proper thermals but I think with
the 2019 model because of the
under volt and it's an improved
system overall I think there's
gonna be way less issues with
2019 model but if you do pick
one up and like I still
highly recommend this device
but if you pick one up
I would recommend just testing
the crap out of it at the moment
you get it just to make sure
you don't have a lemon
because you don't want to be
one of these guys dropping
1-star reviews when you can
resolve it or avoid it by
running some benchmarks the day
that you actually get the laptop
ok Acer Helios 300 great device
I feel like they knocked this
one of the parks there's very
little I have to complain about it
in fact I think because of
the existence of this product
a lot of competitors now have to
kind of change their configurations
or reprice their products at this
1200-dollar price point
because it's that good
yeah okay if you're looking for
this thing looking for a 1200-dollar
gaming laptop this should be on
the short list
ok~~~
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