acerPredator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 15.6" Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB NVMe SSD, Backlit Keyboard, PH315-52-78VL

Granted I've only had this laptop in my possession for a couple of days, but so far I like it a lot. Gaming on a 15.6" screen will take some getting used to. (My previous gaming laptops were ASUS ROG models with 17 inch screens, and my desktop has a 27" monitor.) but the picture quality is the best I've seen. The Predator has some great components with the 9th gen i7 processor, the Nvidia 1660 Ti GPU, 16 GB of RAM and an NVMe SSD. The SSD is 256 GB so I added a Seagate Firecuda 2TB hybrid drive for an additional expense of $80. In addition, the Killer networking hardware/software seems to work very well.That's the good. The bad is that it comes with Windows 10 (but what's a practical alternative?), and Microsoft is very aggressive in pushing its services. It can be difficult if not impossible to remove them. I make my own choices for browser, search engine, email clients, etc, but when I removed Edge I got notifications every time I started up on my startup screen pushing Edge and not once but twice. ( I think and hope I finally removed it. I'm not a fan of advertising, and I don't trust Microsoft.) And I'm not willing to trust "the cloud", so Dropbox and cloud storage were refused.I've downloaded several games onto the hybrid drive but only played Destiny 2 for about an hour and a half and a little of Age of Wonders III. As I said the graphical quality is the best I've seen, but Destiny 2 did freeze after I'd been playing for an hour or so which I assume was due to the GPU overheating (and I do use a notebook cooler), but I'm also assuming there are things I can do to prevent this in the future. For one thing, the game was optimized by the Nvidia GeForce Experience software and I'll have to look at their selections. I should also adjust the fan speeds, but I haven't looked into this yet either. So, if I should have to amend this review (and recommendation) in the future I will do so, but so far I'm very impressed with what Acer has provided and at what cost.I gave battery life and camera quality three stars because the laptop will always be plugged in, and I'll rarely if ever use the camera (though from what I've seen in YouTube reviews the image quality is certainly IMO acceptable for ordinary uses).Update: On the day after I wrote this review, I played some Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Dragon Age: Inquisition, WOW, Alpha Centauri and more Destiny 2. GeForce Experience optimized the games at ultra quality. I tinkered with the fan settings setting them slightly higher than standard (about 4000-4200 rpms and will fine adjust this more). The games looked great and played well without any problem. The fans did make some noise, but it's a whoosh and not a whine, and for me not terribly intrusive. As I said, I'll adjust the fan speed some more and may be able to reduce it even further. The speakers by the way are great with excellent sound quality and volume for a laptop. The fan noise never interfered with the sound at my settings. Again, well done, Acer.Two months later, and I'm still very impressed with this computer. I installed the new Crytek Neon Noir Ray Tracing Benchmark for ray-tracing effects without an RTX gpu, ran it fullscreen at 1920x1080 and ultra and got a score of 5529 with very fluid playback and frame rates that varied from about 45 to the upper 70s. The benchmark would seem to be quite the workout for a system and the Acer got a commendable result IMO.

I purchased this in the Fall 2019 (so 6 months of use at this review time) for about $1200 after doing a lot a online reviews of it and comparable laptop setups. My main focus was having a good gaming setup without having to purchase or modify the system - I also wanted at 15" screen with at least 1080p and high frame refresh rate. I was not worried about battery power since this would be plugged in most of the time.This Predator Helios 300 is "Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop PC, 15.6" Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display, Intel i7-9750H, GTX 1660 Ti 6GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, Backlit Keyboard, PH315-52-78VL"256GB is not enough for what I need but it is very easy and cheap to upgrade so not a big issue you to me VS buying a system that is identical but had the larger SSD. One main concern I had was screen quality since other reviews were upset at the backlight bleed through and I thought that might be a deal breaker. I am very happy to report that the blacklight bleed through for me is absolutely unnoticeable during normal use and playing games. The only time I see the bleed through is during the start screen. The screen is crisp and the colors are good. I am sure there are better screens out there but this one I would say is over all Good - maybe even Excellent. The refresh rate of 144hz also makes for very smooth game play - I really notice it smoothness on Fortnight on max graphic settings and it runs Classic Wow on max graphic setting very well.Another Pro that will a small amount of software tweaking I am able to get the trackpad to work just like my macbook pro - this is really mircosoft windows adjustments but as far as sensitivity it is almost as good as the mac book - its like an 8 out of 10 (macbook pro is a 10 out of 10) - most non-macbook trackpads are horrible that I tested so I was pleasantly surprised.Cons - these are minor:(1) The number pad on the right is off a little because they put the special "Predator" graphics key where normally the "NumLk" goes - and i adjacently hit it all the time. I think they could have put that key or switch somewhere else.(2) I wish they had the F keys setup like the macbook pro where I could adjust volume without having to toggle the "Fn" key. Right now this requires two hand to change the volume from the key board because the volume keys are the "up" and "down" arrows.(3) the way the "delete" key is setup along with the placing of the backspace key - they are both not normal to a standard key board so I end up accidentally hitting them or not hitting them when typing if I am not thinking about it.(4) the track pad is not centered on the laptop. It is further to the left and since I am right handed it make me have to place my right hand further to the right than what is comfortable.(5) The power cord and the way it attaches the computer. I am soiled with the old macbook pro magsafe connection and I wish this did something similar. Multiple times I have pulled this computer off the table because either me or my kids tripped on the cable. Also the cable has a large plastic piece just a few inches from the connector and it seems to get in the way of effectively running the cable around for me.(6) the usd ports are all on the side and close to the front - so this makes it difficult for me to hook in my USB mouse and key pad and have them right next to the computer since hey overlap and hit the key pad. I wish there was two port on the back of the PC or at least on the side but far back.Overall, I am very please with the setup and my gripes are very minor. If this computer makes it 5-6 years without any issue it will be a really good deal.