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00:00This is Acer's Helios 300 for 2019, and it's a fantastic gaming laptop.
00:07Now if you've seen my channel before, you may have noticed that I'm sometimes critical of Acer's products.
00:12They make some good stuff, but they also make some kind of mediocre stuff.
00:15For the greater part of my channel's kind of Acer coverage, I would say that I'm leaning more towards the
00:22not recommending a lot of Acer's products, but this one is a banger and
00:27it's fantastic. Okay, so what makes this thing special is not just this price point.
00:32It's a $1,200 machine, but it's also what you're getting for that money.
00:36It's so much better than I thought it would be because so many companies cut corners when they're in this price range.
00:41So this device has a aluminum top surface and an aluminum keyboard deck.
00:46The bottom panel as well as the back panel is plastic, but this thing's just built really well for this kind of price point.
00:53Now they've configured this device with a good combination of CPU and GPU.
00:57So oftentimes when you have a $1,200 gaming laptop, one of the things that they'll do to keep costs down
01:03is to package it with a weaker CPU. Even Acer has done it in the past,
01:06but with this thing you're getting a 6-core 9th gen i7. It's a very powerful CPU.
01:10I did notice, however, that it is also undervolted.
01:13I noticed this like previously in a different laptop, the Razer Blade, but it's just strange.
01:18Like, this was never done before in the past and someone decided to, you know, give people the green light,
01:22and now a lot of manufacturers are putting out devices that are undervolted right out of the factory.
01:27It's a good thing, and it's one of the reasons why the temperatures on this device are lower,
01:31but it's just a little strange to me. And the GPU in here is also pretty kick-ass.
01:35It's the GTX 1660 Ti, and basically any kind of game that you throw on this is going to run quite well.
01:40If you're playing competitive shooters and you drop the graphics settings on it,
01:43you'll be able to hit the maximum number of frames per second.
01:46If you drop the graphics settings on it, you'll be able to hit the maximum frame rate on this screen.
01:49So, the screen is 144Hz. They claim it's a 3ms response time, which is probably an optimistic measurement,
01:56but it's a very fast screen. If you're used to 60Hz screens, this 144Hz panel is a nice treat.
02:02It's reasonably bright, but screens are areas where companies often skimp on as well when they're trying to keep costs down,
02:08but it's like the thing that you're looking at, right? It's the thing that you're playing your games on.
02:12I feel like if you're not getting a good screen, regardless of the price of the laptop, you're not getting a proper device.
02:18For $1200, a good screen like this is really nice.
02:21Let's talk about thermal performance. This machine has fantastic thermals,
02:26in part due to the undervolting that I mentioned earlier, but it also has a great thermal system.
02:31It's got two fans, and the thermals are good enough that it can maintain boost clock if you're running it on turbo mode.
02:36Now, keep in mind that the fans are quite loud in turbo mode, but you get excellent performance.
02:41I do wish that there was just better control in that software.
02:44Like, you get some degree of fan control, but I feel like there should be more profile,
02:48so you could adjust your fans a little bit more precisely.
02:51The ports on this device. So, there's two USB-As, one USB-C.
02:55The USB-C does not support Thunderbolt 3, but I feel like in 2019, I've kind of fallen out of love with what Thunderbolt 3 kind of offered.
03:03Originally, I really liked the idea of Thunderbolt 3 with the ability to connect to external GPUs and stuff,
03:08but we've seen how that stuff plays out.
03:10I feel like it's just super expensive and not cost-efficient to get an external GPU.
03:15You also got an Ethernet jack, as well as your AC adapter hole on the left side.
03:20I don't like the positioning of this.
03:22It's not so much like a restricted airflow when you have the AC adapter connected.
03:27It's more that the cable gets super hot, and that can't be great for things.
03:31The speakers are located on the bottom. They sound okay.
03:34I don't particularly love them, but inside, you also have access to your RAM slots, your SSD slots,
03:39as well as your 2.5-inch SATA drive if you want to use that,
03:42and you also have access to your Wi-Fi card, as well as a very small battery.
03:46This is a little bit bigger battery than last year's version, but it's still a very short battery life.
03:51I'm getting around four hours of battery life still.
03:53The AC adapter is not huge, so if you do need to bring this around, it's a relatively compact power supply,
03:58but, yeah, it's a battery life that you will require the AC adapter if you travel with it.
04:05Okay. Oh, the inside. I haven't talked about the keyboard and trackpad yet.
04:09It's a good keyboard. I like the way it types.
04:11I think a lot of people enjoy the feel of this keyboard.
04:14It feels... it's not that it's cramped.
04:16It's like there's no border on the left and right of it because they have a number pad,
04:19so it feels a little bit strange when you're using the WASD keys.
04:22Like, you can feel the left edge of the keyboard right there,
04:26but it's something you get used to pretty quickly, and the keyboard on the whole is solid.
04:30The backlighting on this thing. So, the unit I have is an Amazon configuration.
04:34It does not have RGB lighting. It only has this whitish-blue light, which I actually like.
04:39There are more expensive configurations out there with RGB lighting, but this is just a simple white light.
04:45The trackpad. It's a plastic surface, and you do have to press the buttons a little bit harder than I'd like
04:50to activate the mechanism, but, yeah, it's a solid trackpad using Windows Precision drivers.
04:55There's nothing really to complain about it.
04:57Okay. This device. I'm going to give this thing the title of an MVP.
05:04It's like the most valuable player when it comes to gaming laptops right now,
05:07because not only is it giving consumers a great device for the money.
05:11For $1,200, you're getting a lot more with this system than a lot of competing systems,
05:15but the presence of this thing, the existence of a $1,200 device that is this good
05:21puts a lot of pressure on other companies out there.
05:24I'm not going to name names, but there are companies out there that probably looked at this thing
05:28and just, they hate it. They're like, we can't compete with this thing with our current devices,
05:33so it makes other companies look bad if they're selling a similar kind of product for a lot more money.
05:38Acer did a great job on this thing. I mean, it's heavily improved year-on-year,
05:43and I think they just knocked this one out of the park. I like it.
05:46Now, I'm going to mention one problem with this device, or one potential problem with this device
05:53that I think people should be aware of. When I looked at the price of this device online, on Amazon,
05:58I stumbled upon the older Helios 300 from 2018, and that was a device that I reviewed quite positively.
06:05When I looked at the ratings, it's got a 4-star rating. People seem to like it as well.
06:09But when you click on the spread, you'll notice a handful of 1-star reviews,
06:14and I clicked on those, and I saw a bunch of people talking about thermal issues from the 2018 model.
06:19And I remember in my older review that it had good thermal performance.
06:23Not perfect, but it was pretty solid.
06:25And I remember a lot of other publications and other YouTubers came to a similar conclusion,
06:29that the 2018 Helios 300 had good thermals.
06:32But then why did so many of these 1-star reviews specifically mention poor thermal performance
06:37as the reason for their dissatisfaction with the product?
06:40And I think it was because of an inconsistency in their manufacturing.
06:43I think a lot of the older Helios 300s just didn't have proper thermals.
06:48But I think with the 2019 model, because of the undervolt and just it's an improved system overall,
06:53I think there's going to be way less issues with the 2019 model.
06:56But if you do pick one up, and like I still highly recommend this device,
06:59but if you pick one up, I would recommend just testing the crap out of it the moment you get it,
07:03just to make sure you don't have a lemon,
07:05because you don't want to be one of those guys dropping 1-star reviews
07:08when you can resolve it or avoid it by running some benchmarks the day that you actually get the laptop.
07:13Okay, Acer's Helios 300, great device.
07:16I feel like they knocked this one out of the park.
07:18There is very little I have to complain about it.
07:20In fact, I think because of the existence of this product,
07:24a lot of competitors now have to kind of change their configurations
07:28or reprice their products at this $1,200 price point because it's that good.
07:33Yep, okay.
07:34If you're looking for this thing, you're looking for a $1,200 gaming laptop,
07:37this should be on the short list.
07:39Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video.
07:41Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
07:43See you guys next time.
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