Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 Gaming Laptop | Intel Core i7-13650HX | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 | 16" WUXGA 1920 x 1200 165Hz G-SYNC Display | 16GB DDR5 | 512GB Gen 4 SSD | Killer Wi-Fi 6E | PHN16-71-76H5

I bought this laptop back in October of 2024 - waited awhile to see how it would go before I left a review.I'm an Apple guy so I was a little nervous going back to Windows. This laptop is very nice. Windows 11 is very nice also. Windows supplies its office suite as a test drive with limited time before they want you sign up for longer periods of time. I'll probably just buy the 1 time deal for 150.00 and then I'll have what I need. I really don't need the 365 suite.The screen is very bright and does not disappoint. It's very crisp with excellent detail and colors and is 18". I have not noticed any backlight bleed whatsoever. I only had 16" on my MacBook Pro. The screen size was a major reason why I wanted this laptop.The keyboard is backlit and you can change the color to whatever color you want the back light to be. It mainly sits on my desk. I moved it upstairs the other day for a bit on the battery. Battery life is not Apple battery life. It drains fairly quickly compared to my older MacBook Pro, but I'm not travelling with it much and it sits primarily on my desk. The power supply is rather large for it.Some people were complaining about the fans being too loud. Well, its a gaming laptop and some fan noise is expected. If I were a gamer the fans would be louder I'm sure, but I'm only using it for daily activities and I can here the fans but I'm not bothered by them as they are fairly quiet. The fans are adjustable via the Predator software they provide with the laptop.McAffee suite comes with it as a trial. The laptop is quick, grant you I'm not pushing to hard, but I have noticed no waiting when it comes to using it, so the processor speed and memory are fine for me. I do watch movies on it and the 18" screen is exceptional.All in all I'm very pleased with it. My only complaint is that at first the trackpad was a bit touchy. There is however an adjustment for this in Windows 11 to adjust the sensitivity. I noticed it's on sale for Black Friday that is a better deal than what I paid for it by probably 100 bucks or so back in October. If you want a big laptop, just buy it - you won't be disappointed.

This has been my daily driver computer for almost a year now and I've been very impressed. It's handled every game I've thrown at it and more.GPU: I'm going to do this first since this is arguably the most important part. I have the RTX 3060 version. The important thing to note is that this is the MOBILE 3060, which is slightly less powerful than the desktop 3060. It's nearly equivalent in power to a desktop 1070 Ti. I have been playing some pretty intensive games on it over the last year including, most recently, Baldur's Gate 3 on max graphics. I keep the screen refresh rate at 60Hz instead of the 144Hz that you can use because it saves battery while also allowing your GPU to rest a bit while gaming. I've also capped the FPS at 60 directly through the Nvidia app. Same reason there, I don't need 144Hz. In BG3, It keeps a consistent 50-60fps while using only about 50% of the GPU. I also consistently play games from Xbox Gamepass on here on max graphics with very little stutter or issues. All in all, I'm very impressed by what a mobile 3060 can do.Screen: The screen is a very bright, crisp IPS screen that's capable of up to 144Hz. The viewing angle is good and even from the side you can still make out details (albeit a bit dimmer). It gets very bright at max level, almost headache causing, so I personally keep the brightness at about 20%.Battery: Depending on what you're doing, the battery is...fine. If I'm running a game (not recommended on battery), I can get about an hour out of it. But if I'm just using it day-to-day with my settings (60Hz refresh rate, 20% brightness), I can get 3-4 hours of solid use.CPU: I've never had any issues with it multi-tasking or running any app or game. Even when using CPU intensive programs like Handbrake, it will max the CPU but still give you decent performance to continue using it for web browsing and videos.Cooling: The fans themselves are somewhat loud if you get in to heavy duty gaming and I do recommend getting a stand to prop it up to allow for airflow, which drastically helps. There is a physical turbo button which makes the fans go to 100% and are pretty effective at lowering temps but are also loud, so best to only use that with headphones. Under load in BG3, it will run about 60C, which is fairly low. In a more intense game, I have seen it get to 70-75C which is warmer, but still in acceptable range.Overall, I'd recommend giving this a buy if you want a solid gaming laptop but also a daily driver.

Design is nice, build quality isn't bad but not great. Chasis is mix of plastic and metal. Specs are really nice and so far has played everything I've thrown at it well. Performs well and has a ton of power. Does get a bit loud under load, so buy some headphones and a cooler pad. Screen is amazing at 3k and has really good colors and brightness. WiFi and bluetooth chipset isn't bad either.A really good package for the price.My laptop is the predator Helios neo 14 with 185h and 4070.