Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 review

Acer has been making laptops for an age, and the pedigree exhibits on this inexpensive 14-inch machine. For a value of simply $1,249.99, the Acer Predator Helios Neo not solely offers you a well-built system with a good display, but it surely additionally accommodates one among Intel’s newest Core Extremely 7 CPUs.

From the worth and specs checklist to the construct high quality, I’ve checked out this machine from each angle, and it’s a powerful contender. It’s not flawless, don’t get me incorrect. There are a number of infuriating minimize corners, that are considerably anticipated at this value, however I’m nonetheless impressed by what Acer has managed to realize with the Neo 14. It may not be the very best 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 offers us quite a lot of perception on that entrance. Acer’s picked up one among Intel’s Core Extremely 7 155H chips. These newest Meteor Lake laptop computer chips have a few of the finest AI tech Intel has accessible, paired alongside a high-performing and environment friendly processor structure.

Acer’s Predator line has all the time been a well-equipped and trendy product stack, and the Helios Neo 14 is not 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 traces between gaming and professionalism. It must be versatile, stable 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 stable for the $1,249.99 asking value. 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 vital ones for gaming.

These cores can enhance as much as a clock pace of 4.8GHz, so it’s not precisely a slouch within the processing world, at the very least 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 an alternative. It’s truthfully an okay GPU for the worth. The interior spec is an identical 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 first rate 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 most recent video games, and it’s a PCIe 4.0 NVMe drive as nicely, so it’s moderately 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 offers you sufficient reminiscence for gaming. However the greatest 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, an ordinary 32-inch 4K monitor offers you 139.87 PPI.

This display shouldn’t be solely significantly sharp, but it surely refreshes at 165Hz as nicely, and is paired with unbelievable 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 punchy – Spiderman Throughout the Spiderverse seemed nice once 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 numerous mid-range gaming laptops now (the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 has one as commonplace), but it surely’s nice for an IPS show.

It has Nvidia G-Sync inbuilt as nicely, 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 washed out – if something it’s just a little too vivid at high settings – it did give me a contact of eye-strain at full brightness within the late evenings.

Apart from the display itself, there’s not an enormous quantity else to jot down house about. Wi-Fi is dealt with by Killer, and also you do get Wi-Fi 6E as commonplace. There’s no wired Ethernet port, although, so if you happen to fancy a wired hook-up, you’re going to have to achieve 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 need to use a headset if potential.

One final be aware and it’s on that guarantee. Acer is protecting all elements and labor on that entrance – you simply must ship it or carry it into one among Acer’s restore outlets and the corporate will get the remainder 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 yr of protection.

Design

On the floor, the Neo 14 is a reasonably well-rounded laptop computer, but it surely’s very depending on the worth. For $1,249, its soft-satin black plastic chassis is greater than ample, 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 loads of ways in which works to its benefit. Its skinny bezels and smooth design allude to the facility inside it. Generally this machine prices round $1,499, although, and at this value there are higher offers elsewhere.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, for instance, offers you a 14-inch OLED display and is frequently accessible for $1,599. At this value, 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 traces, and skinny bezels, however that’s not sufficient if you’re a value that top.

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

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

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

One of many greatest 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. Then again, it requires soldering to the motherboard itself, which successfully eliminates any risk of upgrading it later down the road.

Now that’s tremendous for the overwhelming majority of individuals, but it surely’s a giant blow if you happen to’re a tinkerer trying to stretch out the lifetime of this machine, significantly if you solely get 16GB as commonplace on this configuration. That’s sufficient for gaming, however we advocate 32GB for future-proofing and for a easy expertise if you happen to prefer to have a number 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 way 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, significantly on condition 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 nicely, managing a svelte 105 factors to 104.

Apparently, nonetheless, this doesn’t all the time 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 Whole Battle: 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 technology.

Nevertheless, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 is a sooner 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 Whole Battle: 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 continues to be succesful at 1080p, after all, however the Lenovo is faster.

Each of these laptops additionally massively battle at their native resolutions, and the state of affairs is much extra pronounced for the Predator Helios Neo, on condition that its decision is so excessive. Actually, video games are virtually unplayable on excessive presets at this decision. Cyberpunk as an illustration, with DLSS 3 upscaling and AI body gen on, solely averaged 12fps. Whole Battle 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 trying to recreation on this method, realistically you’re restricted to 1080p, and we advocate dialing a few of the extra trendy 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 outfitted with an RTX 4070, plus 32GB of DDR5 reminiscence, this laptop computer would nonetheless battle 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. One way or the other, 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 overwhelmed 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 each 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 may nearly all the time final a complete day within the workplace.

Value

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 14 value often presents good worth for the spec on supply. On the time of writing, it goes for $1,249.99 on Amazon, and it ticks all of the packing containers in the case of necessities. You may typically get RTX 4060 gaming laptops for much less cash, however not with a Core Extremely 7 CPU and such an incredible display.

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

Nevertheless, generally this laptop computer’s value creeps as much as the £1,500 stage, and at that time we advocate both going with a sooner 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’ll be able to choose it up for $1,249, then sure, it’s purchase. The construct high quality is first rate, the function set is okay, 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 in the case of battery life and basic 1080p gaming clout.

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