Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 evaluate

Acer has been making laptops for an age, and the pedigree reveals on this inexpensive 14-inch machine. For a worth of simply $1,249.99, the Acer Predator Helios Neo not solely provides you a well-built system with an honest display, but it surely additionally incorporates one in every of Intel’s newest Core Extremely 7 CPUs.

From the value and specs checklist to the construct high quality, I’ve checked out this machine from each angle, and it’s a robust contender. It’s not flawless, don’t get me improper. There are a number of infuriating reduce corners, that are considerably anticipated at this worth, however I’m nonetheless impressed by what Acer has managed to attain with the Neo 14. It may not be the perfect gaming laptop computer on the market up to now, but it surely’s well-rounded nonetheless.

So who’s this for then? Properly, the core spec alone provides us an excessive amount of perception on that entrance. Acer’s picked up one in every of Intel’s Core Extremely 7 155H chips. These newest Meteor Lake laptop computer chips have a few of the greatest AI tech Intel has obtainable, paired alongside a high-performing and environment friendly processor structure.

Acer’s Predator line has at all times been a well-equipped and trendy product stack, and the Helios Neo 14 isn’t any totally different. It’s smooth but potent. Gaming but skilled. What I’m searching for right here, although, is a laptop computer that blurs the strains between gaming and professionalism. It must be versatile, strong sufficient for gaming, but succesful sufficient to render, work in Photoshop, or edit video on the fly.

Specs

Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 specs:

The spec of the Predator Helios Neo 14 is strong for the $1,249.99 asking worth. The Core Extremely 7 155H is a very good inclusion, utilizing Intel’s newest Meteor Lake structure, and supplying you with six high-powered P-Cores, eight power-efficient E-Cores, and two additional low-power E-Cores – that’s 16 cores in complete, and the six P-Cores are the necessary ones for gaming.

These cores can increase as much as a clock pace of 4.8GHz, so it’s not precisely a slouch within the processing world, not less than if it’s suitably cooled. The one distinction between this CPU and the Extremely 9 line is a few extra professional-oriented safety features, which truthfully don’t actually serve a lot function right here.

An extra plus is the Nvidia GPU. The Neo could be specced as much as an RTX 4070, however my evaluate pattern has a 120W 8GB RTX 4060 as a substitute. It’s truthfully an okay GPU for the value. The inner spec is equivalent to the RTX 4060 desktop variant, though the TDP is much decrease. Nonetheless, it’s greater than able to dealing with gaming at 1080p with respectable settings, with the added bonus of Nvidia’s Body Technology tech and Nvidia DLSS 3 actually spicing up your body price.

You additionally get a decent-sized SSD, with 1TB supplying you with sufficient cupboard space to put in a number of of the newest video games, and it’s a PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive as properly, so it’s fairly fast.

Then there’s the reminiscence, the Achilles heel of this Helios. You solely get 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM which runs at a pace of 6,400MHz, and nearly provides you adequate reminiscence for gaming. However the largest fake pas? It’s soldered, so what you get is what you get, there’s no likelihood of upgrading sooner or later – and that dents this machine’s lifespan.

Options

The Predator Helios Neo 14’s actual speaking level although is its show, which is a little bit of an oddity. With a 3,072 x 1,920 decision, on a 14.5-inch display, you get a pixel density of round 249.84 PPI. For comparability, a regular 32-inch 4K monitor offers you 139.87 PPI.

This display isn’t solely critically sharp, but it surely refreshes at 165Hz as properly, and is paired with implausible IPS tech. Colour accuracy is admittedly excellent with this display, and whereas it doesn’t fairly pop like an OLED or mini-LED display, it nonetheless appears to be like punchy – Spiderman Throughout the Spiderverse seemed nice after I watched it on this machine.

Ghosting was just about non-existent (there was a contact of it on lighter blue exams, however you actually do need to be searching for it), and general it’s a pleasure to make use of. It’s not anyplace close to the caliber of the OLED screens we’re beginning to see on a lot of mid-range gaming laptops now (the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 has one as normal), but it surely’s nice for an IPS show.

It has Nvidia G-Sync in-built as properly, which synchronizes the display’s refresh price with the GPU’s body price output, lowering tearing and stuttering. Whereas the decision is just a little odd for such a small display, it’s a high show that’s actually well-calibrated. Regardless of being an IPS display, the picture by no means appears to be like washed out – if something it’s just a little too brilliant at high settings – it did give me a contact of eye-strain at full brightness within the late evenings.

Aside from the display itself, there’s not an enormous quantity else to put in writing house about. Wi-Fi is dealt with by Killer, and also you do get Wi-Fi 6E as normal. There’s no wired Ethernet port, although, so when you fancy a wired hook-up, you’re going to have to succeed in for the dongles. There’s a webcam, but it surely’s positively common, and there’s no fingerprint reader both. Likewise, the audio system are okay, however they’re not excellent. You’ll wish to use a headset if attainable.

One final be aware and it’s on that guarantee. Acer is overlaying all components and labor on that entrance – you simply have to ship it or carry it into one in every of Acer’s restore outlets and the corporate will get the remaining sorted for you. If you happen to do ship it to Acer, the corporate will ship it again freed from cost, however carry-in requires assortment. That’s not too shabby, though it’s a disgrace there’s solely a single 12 months of protection.

Design

On the floor, the Neo 14 is a fairly well-rounded laptop computer, but it surely’s very depending on the value. For $1,249, its soft-satin black plastic chassis is greater than sufficient, there’s some light RGB lighting on the again close to the Predator emblem, and also you additionally get a reasonably common RGB keyboard plus trackpad, however that’s about it.

It’s not glamorous, daring, or in your face, and in a variety of ways in which works to its benefit. Its skinny bezels and smooth design allude to the ability within it. Generally this machine prices round $1,499, although, and at this worth there are higher offers elsewhere.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, for instance, provides you a 14-inch OLED display and is recurrently obtainable for $1,599. At this worth, the Acer’s black plastic chassis isn’t fairly sufficient in comparison with the Asus’ CNC-machined aluminum alloy chassis both. Sure, the Acer has sharp edges, tight strains, and skinny bezels, however that’s not sufficient while you’re a worth that top.

Prices apart, the Acer’s ports are managed comparatively properly. It’s a disgrace it lacks an Ethernet port, however the truth the connections are all positioned on both the appropriate or left facet has allowed Acer to give attention to constructing out the cooling air flow on the rear of the unit, and that basically does translate properly to efficiency.

Not solely are there vents on the rear, however additionally they run alongside the rear half of every facet, which provides the Helios loads of respiratory room. It does function a full-fat DC connector as properly, which is technically reversible, but it surely’s additionally fairly blocky and really straightforward to knock, or unintentionally catch on the facet of a desk.

Because of all that epic cooling, the Acer Helios Neo 14 is impressively quiet, even underneath load. The fan curves are dialed in properly, and though it’s nonetheless preferable to make use of a headset when you’re buried deep in some late-night gaming periods to drown out the fan noise, it’s a easy expertise underneath gentle load.

One of many largest downsides by far is the reminiscence state of affairs. On the one hand, using LPDDR5X is a brilliant transfer. It’s environment friendly, fast, and has loads of capability. However, it requires soldering to the motherboard itself, which successfully eliminates any risk of upgrading it later down the road.

Now that’s superb for the overwhelming majority of individuals, but it surely’s an enormous blow when you’re a tinkerer seeking to stretch out the lifetime of this machine, notably while you solely get 16GB as normal on this configuration. That’s sufficient for gaming, however we advocate 32GB for future-proofing and for a easy expertise when you prefer to have a lot of purposes and browser tabs open on the similar time.

Benchmarks

As for efficiency, the Acer Helios Neo 14’s cooling system is doing the gaming gods’ work right here. That is really the highest-performing Core Extremely chip I’ve seen thus far in a gaming laptop computer with this manner issue, even beating out two 16-inch gaming laptops within the course of – the Alienware M16 R2 and MSI Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V.

That alone is spectacular, notably provided that this laptop computer has a much smaller footprint than each these 16-inch juggernauts. In Cinebench 2024, it scored 988 factors within the multi-core check, close to sufficient on par with the Alienware’s 981. It even (simply) pipped it on single-core efficiency as properly, managing a svelte 105 factors to 104.

Apparently, nevertheless, this doesn’t at all times translate to top-tier gaming efficiency. With its RTX 4060 GPU, the Acer delivered some some comfy body charges at 1080p. For instance, it averaged 58fps in Complete Struggle: Warhammer 3 at Extremely settings, and it even averaged 63fps in Cyberpunk 2077 on the Extremely ray tracing preset, because of some assist from DLSS 3 upscaling and body era.

Nevertheless, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 is a quicker machine right here, regardless of additionally having an RTX 4060 and 16GB of 6,400MHz DDR5 reminiscence. For instance, the Lenovo averaged 75fps in Cyberpunk 2077 on the similar settings, and 72fps in Complete Struggle: Warhammer 3.  The one main distinction between these two machines is the processors, with the Slim 5 operating an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS. The Acer remains to be succesful at 1080p, in fact, however the Lenovo is faster.

Each of these laptops additionally massively wrestle at their native resolutions, and the state of affairs is much extra pronounced for the Predator Helios Neo, provided that its decision is so excessive. In actual fact, video games are virtually unplayable on excessive presets at this decision. Cyberpunk for example, with DLSS 3 upscaling and AI body gen on, solely averaged 12fps. Complete Struggle did a bit higher, crusing in at 29fps, however that’s nonetheless removed from playable, and it did have some severe dips alongside the best way to that time.

In case you are seeking to sport on this method, realistically you’re restricted to 1080p, and we advocate dialing a few of the extra fashionable options again a contact, or leaning into DLSS by adjusting the preset to be extra performance-oriented than high quality.

It’s a disgrace, as a result of that display is simply superior. Nonetheless, even when it was geared up with an RTX 4070, plus 32GB of DDR5 reminiscence, this laptop computer would nonetheless wrestle at its native decision, in an analogous method to the Alienware M16 R2, and that machine solely has a 2,560 x 1,600 decision.

Battery

One saving grace for the Helios Neo 14 comes within the type of its battery life, and it actually punches above its weight in that regard. Someway, Acer has managed to cram in a 76WHr battery into this laptop computer, and it completely dominates throughout each of our PCMark 10 benchmarks. At 50% brightness, it lasted for a easy 100 minutes in our gaming check, going from 100% to three% within the gaming check, and it lasted a large 401 minutes in Fashionable Workplace.

For comparability, it outperformed virtually each different laptop computer I’ve examined right here at within the workplace check, and the gaming check is equally was solely crushed by MSI’s Stealth 16 AI Studio A1V. These are nice outcomes if you wish to use this laptop computer on the transfer.

I used the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 for round one week as my day by day driver, profiting from it for a bit of sunshine gaming in Dave the Diver, and Gwent (don’t decide me), together with a contact of Netflix, YouTube, and Spotify, it might virtually at all times final an entire day within the workplace.

Value

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 worth normally gives good worth for the spec on provide. On the time of writing, it goes for $1,249.99 on Amazon, and it ticks all of the packing containers on the subject of necessities. You possibly can typically get RTX 4060 gaming laptops for much less cash, however not with a Core Extremely 7 CPU and such a terrific display.

On the draw back, it’s just a little bit costlier outdoors the US, with the UK equal of this spec at present costing £1,299 on Amazon, and solely coming with a 512GB SSD and a Core Extremely 5 125H CPU, relatively than a 1TB SSD and Core Extremely 7 CPU. Even so, this isn’t a horrible worth for the construct high quality, design, and display high quality on provide.

Nevertheless, generally this laptop computer’s worth creeps as much as the £1,500 degree, and at that time we advocate both going with a quicker machine with out soldered RAM, such because the Alienware M16 R2, or an OLED laptop computer such because the Lenovo Legion Slim 5.

Verdict

So then, is the Helios Neo 14 any good? Assuming you possibly can decide it up for $1,249, then sure, it’s a great purchase. The construct high quality is respectable, the function set is ok, the display is nice, and the CPU is quick for the cash. The pairing of an RTX 4060 with such a excessive display decision is just a little outlandish, but it surely does claw again some vital factors on the subject of battery life and common 1080p gaming clout.

Is it excellent? No, its plastic chassis wants work, and the soldered reminiscence critically dents the longevity of this machine. It additionally very a lot will depend on pricing as as to whether you’re going to get a great deal or not. If you happen to’re searching for a funds gaming laptop computer that in any other case covers the necessities, although, the Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 is an honest inexpensive machine at $1,249.99.