Acer Predator i7 9750H Response PH315 52 710B

My Old Man Samson Wick experience Great for gaming, overall a lot of laptop for the price.

Overview:
This machine does a pretty good job living up to its advertised capabilities. This review is based on my impressions after a couple of days with the unit - I may update it later if anything relevant occurs long-term.

Testing Methodology:
I don't have a lot of sophistocated instruments for measuring the actual brightness, color gamut etc... In general I stuck to sofware based tests and my somewhat subjective eyeballs.

Construction:
The top (back of the screen) is metal, as is keyboard and palm-rest area, the screen bezel and bottom are plastic. This was a pretty good design decision as it keeps the bottom from turning into a hotplate in your lap. The hinge feels solid and moves very smoothly.

Screen:
The screen is rated about 300 nits. Just based on comparisions with others with similar ratings this screen seems like it might actually be a little brighter than it's rated. It's perfectly visible outside in daylight as long as there isn't direct sunlight on the screen. The 144hz refresh rate is a really nice feature and allows for some rock-solid motion. The contrast and color gamut are very effective and pleasing to the eye. I don't have a tool for measuring the colors so this could just be clever engineering, but nothing here feels like a compromise. The screen does suffer from uneven backlight blooming so on a completely dark image, there are bright splotches around the margin, but this is pretty typical for an IPS LCD.

GPU:
The GPU seems to be able to take just about everything I've thrown at it on the most insane settings and I haven't noticed any performance problems. The Witcher 3 and Darksiders Warmastered Edition look amazing in motion, with the latter running at a V-sync'd 144hz with no problems at all. It pulled a very respectable score of 14,000+ on the Final Fantasy XIV Stormbringer Benchmark with everything turned up to maximum and every optimization turned off. The laptop comes pre-configured with an overclock setting called "Turbo" mode which is activated by a button to the upper-left of the keyboard. You can, of course, create your own overclocking profiles.

In order to more efficiently use power, conserve battery, and cut down on fan noise, as with most contemporary gaming laptops, the Predator Helios 300 uses Intel Optimus. In a nutshell, Intel Optimus switches dynammically between the considerably less powerful and less power-hungry integrated Intel GPU and the GTX-1660ti. The system will attempt to guess which GPU should be used for a given process, but you can deliberately control this in a couple of different ways. From the Nvidia Control Panel, you can set the GPU to use for a given application so that whenever that program (i.e. your games) are launched it automatically does so under the Nvidia card. Alternatively you can tell the system to favor the Nvidia card for everything (not a great idea unless you want to listen to the fan all the time and watch your battery level drop before your eyes). And Lastly, there's a context menu item called "run with graphics processor" that lets you select which to use by right-clicking on an application before you launch it. So Optimus is pretty useful for balancing performance, but it somes with a couple of unfortunate tradeoffs. There is no "Display" option in the Nvidia control panel because Optimus dynamically manages those settings, and G-Sync and Fast Sync options are not possible though technically the GPU is capable of using them.

Keyboard:
The keyboard is, for the most part, great. The keys are spaced reasonably, slightly convex, quiet and just have a nice feel. I'm used to pressing harder so my fingers have a tendency to bounce and I wind up typing double letters occasionally, but it's nothing I can't adjust to. (I tried using the Windows "Filter Keys" setting to help with this but it's more of an accessiblity option and is too restrictive) The width of the keyboard allows for the incorporation of a 10-key keypad on the right, however the keys are much narrower than the rest of the keyboard, and the 0 key has been shifted to the center column to accomodate the arrow keys, so it's a bit of compromise. It's only really annoying when trying to type in a large string of numbers such as when entering a license key.

Trackpad:
The trackpad is generously large and very sensitive. There are no mouse buttons, but the bottom of the pad is clickable with the right and left corners representing the right and left mouse buttons.

Sound:
The laptop comes with a pair of down-firing stereo speakers that are okay for what they are. They're tinny and can't really get loud enough to overpower the fan noise when playing games. Noise cancelling or noise isolating headphones are pretty much mandatory for gaming or anything that drives the GPU. That said, the virtual surround effect is surprisingly convincing.

Backlighting:
They changed last-year's red backlight to blue, which I think is somewhat more pleasing to the eye, but it's kind of a deal breaker in the use-it-in-bed scenario because the blue light spectrum interferes with your ability to achieve REM sleep. It's a thing, look it up.

Battery:
It runs on a 3720mAh battery which is about 25% more capacity than last year's model. Trying to give a "it lasts this many hours" number is kind of pointless in my opinion because it's affected by background processes, screen brightness, what you're doing with it, the age of the battery, etc. Let's be honest though, no one is buying this laptop for its battery life. Nvidia has several settings which seek to improve battery life while gaming, but they all involve framerate throttling. If you want to game while not connected to mains power, then you're probably playing games that would work just fine on a laptop with a fraction of the power of this thing.

Webcam/Mic
The webcam maxes out at 720p30. That resolution also holds for still images so it seems like that's the geometry of the sensor itself. It works okay in relatively low light - with the brightness gain cranked all the way up, the glow of the screen is enough to allow it to capture a usable amount of detail in a dark room. In a normally lit room the image is a bit darker than what you would see with your eyes, and as with most webcams, colors are little washed out. And like most pinhole cameras, the brighter the lighting the clearer the picture and the more faithful the colors. This would be perfectly serviceable in a well-lit office, or outdoors. The stereo microphone picks up voices clean and clear.

Network:
The "Killer" WiFi chip in this machine is amazingly fast. My Internet service tops off at around 25MB/s, and this Wi-Fi card easily hit 23MB/s (that's bytes, not bits) when downloading games from GOG Galaxy. I was pleased to see that the laptop also maintains an RJ-45 for wired ethernet connnectivity - it uses a clever hinged port to maximize space while there's nothing plugged in.

Hardware Accessibility/Upgrade difficulty:
Unlike last year's model, there are no quick access ports - if you want to get at the Wi-Fi, M.2, Memory or SSD area, you have to remove the entire bottom of the shell. Fortunately everything important is within reach after you take out the 10 philips screws and pull the bottom cover off.

Cooling:
This is by far the best vented laptop I've ever seen. The heatsink fins and fans are clearly visible through the myriad slits on the bottom, sides and back. The fans are as noisy as any laptop I've ever used, but not worse, though when you hit that Turbo button to kick in the overclocking profile and those fans crank up, it sounds like a jet preparing to take off, so if you're doing any moderate to heavy gaming, noise isolating or noise cancelling headphones are not optional.

Storage:
A 256GB PCIe M.2 drive is installed. It tops off around 1.5Gbps which is a pretty respectable speed and pretty performmant. It's not a lot of space though so it's fortunate that there's another M.2 slot to install another card later on. There's also a bay for a 2.5" drive, but the bracket and SATA connector kit comes with a warning that Acer no longer considers this a user serviceable operation and implies that your warranty may be voided by attempting to install it yourself.

Instructions/Documentation:
The documentation for the hardware was honestly a little disappointing. It gives you a tour of the ports and the keyboard, but doesn't include anything about how to install M.2 devices, upgrade memory or install a 2.5" drive - these aren't exactly rocket surgery, but it still feels like an oversite that Acer doesn't want to show you what goes where. The SATA adapter for the 2.5" drive requires connnection to a proprietary ribbon socket which they altogether fail to tell you how to locate on the motherboard.

Other Stuff:
I had to chuckle when I saw the "Turbo" button. I'm old enough to remember when that was a thing on the Intel 386 CPUs, and unironically it does pretty much the same sort of thing here.

The BIOS is about the most bare-bones affair I've seen recently, with no options for controlling and/or disabling the integrated GPU.

The system came with Norton Ultimate installed. Thankfully that's about the only piece of garbageware installed by Acer. Microsoft's default "Windows Defender" is far superior to Norton and unlike Norton it won't waste a ton of CPU cycles for no good reason. Windows Defender is already part of Windows 10 - just uninstall Norton and reboot to activate it. It's better protection and doesn't expire and beg for more money in a year.

I've attached an image of the installed applications to this review so you can see what it comes with.

Summary:

Pros:
- Looks and feels sleek and solid
- That 144hz screen is fantastic
- 300 nits is not MacBook bright, but it's usable in daylight
- Comes with fast PCIe M.2 Storage
- Wi-Fi is incredibly fast
- Powerful GPU
- Very effective cooling - I never saw it break 46C

Cons:
- Blue backlighting is bad for bedtime use
- Fans get loud when the system is under a load
- No option to disable Optimus and enable GSync (so no GSync)
- Norton Ultimate - seriously?

Updates:
(As I encounter new things that I think are relevant, I'll update the review here)
- The USB-C socket is not wired to the video card so it's not possible to output video. The laptop provides HDMI and a mini-DPort so it's not lacking in output options, but still.

My Old Neighbor tb said Can't beat the price to performance yet..

Laptop performs great. You'll be able to run pretty much any AAA title at Max - Ultra at reasonable frame rates. Cooling much better then the 2018 model and I didn't notice any thermal throttling. You are unable to upgrade the Nvidia driver manually. You must use GeForce experience. 144hrz display is good not great but for the price it's unbeatable. Average backlight bleed which is typicall for IPS. Little to no screen tearing without vsync. No GSYNC which is fine. Speakers better then expected for type of laptop. Fan is loud but not piercing under load. Keyboard is soft but deliberate, great for typing. Very intrusive junkware had to be removed so notifications weren't popping up every 20 minutes, annoying but typical. Laptop is thinner then the more expensive ASUS & MSI competition. The half metal case is confidence inspiring. The bottom is very easy to remove with a few screws and gives you quick access to all replaceable parts Normally I would not buy an Acer but their Predator line shows quality they have not shown in the past. I'm disappointed it's not RGB like it was advertised on Acers website (cross-referenced specific model #) but for the performance it's not too upsetting. Would recommend as long as the quality lasts as long as it looks good.

Edit

Make sure your dedicated GPU is enabled and set as default. Optimus is frustrating. But that is Nvidia and Intel's fault. Not Acer's

Battery life comments. If you were expecting good battery life out of a laptop you should not be looking at Gaming laptops. There is alot of powerful hardware in this laptop and it gives up battery life for portability. Although I would have given up the 2.5 bay for a bigger battery. Give and take.

If you think it's overheating while gaming the components will run fairly hot by default. Even up to 97c . You should really set a fan profile before assuming it's overheating. If it's really was overheating it would shut off automatically. Otherwise it idles at about ,45-55c in a 22c (72f) room. Also set your per game profile. It should not throttle under 80c +- you don't need to use turbo mode. The fan at 40-75 percent works fine in most cases. And is not too loud under 4400 rpm

If you think the storage is too small. They placed this laptop in probably the biggest part of the market. You are getting a Hex core processor and a mid-high range GPU and a 144hrz pannel. Until recently you could not get a laptop with this type of hardware for under ,15-1600$. It has 2 m.2 slots and a 2.5 inch bay with provided install hardware. They saved you money so you can get a plethora of storage options on your own. This is by far one of the simplest laptops to upgrade with 1 pannel. They also sell upgraded ones so you can skip the upgrade

If you find that your unit is hitting 90c and above during game sessions and you feel comfortable using throttle stop. most of the temperature is because it turbos to 3.9ghz roughly. dropping the offset for each core will significantly drop your temps. You may lose 1 - 2 frames if you get too aggressive but you can dial it in to your liking. I can game a 70c with turbo at 3.1ghz

There will be a small percentage of you with faulty units. Maybe consider an RMA before you trash talk the machine.

My Old Fellow Troybuilt said This is a nice laptop, and gamer, (1 week review).

I almost cancelled my ordered when realizing the only reviews were all from Vine reviewers! I am glad I didn't. I have only owned 1 other laptop which lasted almost a decade. That and my PC's is what I have to compare it too. When I buy computer stuff I try to get the best for the money that will not be out of date for many years. In my mind I try to buy things that will be good for 8-10 years.
After looking at many laptops from top brands, and reading reviews and articles from the PC world, I realized I wanted a monitor at or above 120HZ. This one is 144HZ amazing! My old laptop became no fun when the cpu was way passed it's prime, so I wanted no less than a I7 8th gen, this one is the 9th gen! When it came to the video I wanted a 1060 or faster. This has the 1660ti, yesterdays beast card. The last on my concerns were heating up while under load. I am still concerned with heating up under load, but at this point it seems to handle everything I have put at it so far. The Predator Key pulls up the CPU, GPU,and Laptop temps, which has not gone much higher than mid 70's. The 2 games my kids and I have played on it might not be the most demanding either at this point.
I like the way the key board feels also, and I use a wireless mouse. I can not say enough about the monitor, it is just great! I have only had the laptop for a week at this point and will update my review if something great or terrible comes to light. Best of Luck!
Troy

*6 week update*
I am very happy with this laptop. It is a daily used PC, and it is fantastic. I'm unable to find any negatives at this time, unless your looking at the 2060+ video cards that have come out this year. so far the 1660ti has been great. I will update again with anything new. At this time this was a great and enjoyable purchase.

My Old Fellow Chris M. Talk CAUTION: Do Your Homework BEFORE Buying, especially "high value" items!.

UPDATE: July 16, 2019. Confirmed... Amazon DOES have a secret, unpublished "high value" exchange policy. It varies between $500 or $1,000 depending on your "status." Of course, they don't publish this, nor does Amazon provide you with any information to let you know what is your status. So, not only will Amazon not replace/exchange this item, they still can't provide a refund until they've had it in their shipping center for 2 weeks. I'll update this in 2 weeks to see if a refund is provided.
UPDATE: July 12, 2019. Seems as if Amazon cannot process exchanges. Instead, they have a secret, unpublished policy that for "high value items," which are items greater than $500... they DO NOT provide exchanges. Instead, you have to return the item, wait for a refund, and then they have the gaul to ask that you buy it again! So, next time, I'll purchase my "high value items" at a brick and mortar store where I know I can get an exchange if needed.

On specs, this is an amazing laptop. Had it for 3 days, and it performed very well. However, and this is a BIG however, turns out that the Acer predator helios 300 series has a history of BSOD/black screens. Sure enough, the laptop froze up and despite spending nearly 2 hours with Acer tech support, there was nothing they could do. Oddly enough, after removing 1 RAM module, the laptop fired back up. But, I didn't buy a laptop with only half the RAM. Clearly, Acer needs to address this issue, as if you do your homework (I wish I had), you'll see lots of issues with black screens/unresponsive computers. Would I buy this again? No way. By comparison, I have an Asus that I've had ZERO issues with. In the future, I'm buying Asus, HP, Dell or anyone else but Acer.

My Fellow daxsgarage experience Best "gaming laptop" at this price point, full stop..

This is hands down the best laptop, or even desktop, I have ever owned.
That's coming from long time AMD guy. It
pains me to say this, but AMD just doesn't exist in the mobile market at
this time. If you need real power in a laptop, Intel and Nvidia are the
only game in town now. I've started traveling more lately so I
needed a laptop that could essentially replace my desktop(s) and this Acer
has far surpassed my expectations in that regard. See attached image.

The construction is solid, and it looks great, in my opinion...sleek
enough to pass as professional with just a hint of "gaming laptop" appeal.
The fans can get loud when you're hammering on it, that's true. There is no
free lunch, a laptop must have compromises when they are stuffed with
this kind of hardware. That said, unless you run it in Turbo (read
overclocked) mode all the time I find the fan noise more than reasonable. I
have not found a game, or CPU workload, that required me to use Turbo in
order to have a good experience. It's just stupid fast. In my opinion, you
can't find a better laptop for the money, period.

As you can tell, I love it. Now, I'll answer some of the questions I had
before buying it since there seems to be some confusion. The following
information is from my own experience, if Acer changes things up in the
future I can't help you.

The is no RGB on this (the 1660ti) version. The keyboard is blue backlit
only. For me, this is a pro as I’m tired of red, and I think RGB is a silly
overplayed gimmick. If you go to Acer directly, there are different
versions with different features.

The RAM (16gb total) is 2x8gb sticks of Kingston 2666mhz...it is in dual
channel. It scores well in the benchmarks that I have ran and from my own
experience 16gb is more than enough for 95% of people out there. It's
enough for 100% of the gamers.

The included 256gb M.2 style SSD is also from Kingston and seems to
perform quite well. There is an additional empty M.2 slot in there. I didn't use it, so
I have no idea what will or won’t work in that slot. I decided to use the open 2.5
inch HDD/SSD space for my storage needs. (Please, for all that is sacred,
don't you dare put a regular 2.5 HDD in there and hamstring this fine
machine). I opted to stay with the Kingston memory theme and stuck a 1tb
Kingston 2.5 SSD in there. So, as of this writing I have 186gb free on my
C: Drive (it's got all the normal stuff loaded up), and I'm loading my
giant Steam library and other big programs onto the 1tb D: Drive. This, in
my opinion, is the way to go.

The CPU is an Intel last gen refresh (you know 14+++++ lol). That said,
it's a good one. 6 cores, 12 threads at 45 watts it tough to
beat...actually, I don't think anyone is beating it right now. AMDs mobile
Ryzens are topping out at 4 core, 8 threads as of the time of this writing.
I'm sure higher core count CPUs make their way into the laptop market in
the next few years, but for now...this is the best game in town. Also, it's
2019, you don't want a quad core, no matter who makes it. Trust me.

The 1660ti is a beastly little thing. Nvidia's naming scheme is clearly
insane, but this guy is sweet. It's based on the new Turing
architecture and performs quite well. It will smoke a GTX1060 and spit at
the heels of a decent desktop Vega 56...and all the while using way less
power. For desktops it's a hard card to love, but in a laptop it's
brilliant.

The battery is fine for what it is. People wanting 10-hour battery life
and 144 frames per second in their games, pull yourself together people.
Sacrifices must be made for mobility. When on battery the laptop
automatically switches over to the Intel IGP and doing regular (non-taxing)
stuff will get you 4-5 hours. You can force the 1660ti to play ball
while running on the battery through the Nvidia control panel...but I hope
you don't plan on a long gaming session...maybe 1.5 hours. Pro tip: You
want to game? Find a wall outlet.

The "Killer" WIFI and internet stuff...actually works. I was getting
stupid fast wireless downloads at distances away from my router that
shocked me. I'm not even going to run an ethernet cable unless I'm playing
a FPS. Blazing fast connection and rock solid so far.

Sadly, you will have to remove Norton (duh) and Windows 10 comes with the
usual fluff that nobody wants...it is what it is. Took me about 30
minutes to remove all the silly stuff and download all the stuff I actually
needed. Keep the Predator App, I think they will be
useful (Update: It is, see below update). When I was setting up this machine, I did log it into my Microsoft
account, and it appears I have Office installed. Not sure if that's because
I have Office on another machine registered to my account...or if this
comes with Office. Your mileage may vary.

The "Turbo" button...here's the deal. It only works when plugged in and
above 40% battery. It basically raises the voltage limits of the machine,
while turning on the fans full blast. This results in the CPU auto boosting
on more cores and higher than usual. Oh, and it also overclocks the 1660ti!
Yes, yes you read that right...basically it's an "overclock button".
Normally I would laugh at such silliness, but I have to say...it works. It
sounds like a small jet, but it goes like one too. I use it for
benchmarking and playing around...but you could game with it in Turbo,
provided you have headphones. All that said, I'm getting like 62 fps in
AC Odysseus on Very High WITHOUT "Turbo". If you're familiar
with this painfully un-optimized AAA title you will understand how
impressive that is, lol. Love that game though...don't judge me.

Hope this helps someone make a big decision.

Edit: Update 7/18/19
I read a review where someone was having issues with an echo on the audio. I didn't have this problem as I have an external sound processor that I use. At any rate, I plugged in my headphones directly (1/8th jack) and sure enough...there was an echo. After a bit of investigation, it's from the "Waves MaxxAudio" App. This app can be tuned/disabled through the Predator App under the App center portion. Turn that guy off, and your echo goes away. That particular App might be useful in a gaming situation, but if your just watching videos or listening to music it falls a little short. I never thought I would say this, but let Windows control your sound and you will be fine, lol.

Edit 9-25-19. Man I love this thing. I travel (airplanes) with it weekly and thus far it has been flawless. Every evening when I get done with work I'm reminded how nice the keyboard on this thing is compared to my company issue Lenovo work laptop. No regrets, I'd still buy it at the current price...very few laptops can compete at this price range.

Edit 11-26-19. Still the best at this price point. 1660ti is just the best for laptops balancing performance and battery.

My Old Fellow NJBoden tell us An improvement over the last Helios 300 in every way..

After owning the last Helios 300 (GTX 1060) and selling it last year I was ready to be done with the Predator laptops. The old red laptop was just too big and bulky, and between the thermal issues and instability with the OS I was just done with it altogether. Then they released this Helios and I'm truly blown away.

LOOKS- For starters it is a thinner, sleeker, lighter, and much more visually appealing laptop compared to the big red "gamer" aesthetic they were going for with the old model. While performance matters more than looks to me and while it was a tremendous value for the price, it certainly drew a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. This one is a thinner, more modern looking computer with cleaner lines and a smaller profile while still keeping the same screen size. The blue theme to this is more appealing VS the red and I use it for gaming as well as at work. My colleagues presume it is a professional laptop but little do they know it is also a gaming powerhouse.

PERFORMANCE- The 1660ti is only 7% weaker than my GTX 1070 that is in my PC tower. It will play pretty much anything at 1080p ultra settings with fantastic frame rates. Combined with the 144hz screen it is only trumped by my 4K monitor on my actual battlestation at home. You can look up benchmarks if you're interested, but bottom line here is you'll have no problem with 1080p gaming. If you want to do 4k you can output to an external monitor. But that isn't the point of using a laptop.

KEYBOARD- It's also an improvement over the previous Helios 300. It's no mechanical keyboard but it is definitely responsive and comfortable to type on. The inclusion of a numpad is also a plus

SCREEN- Crystal clear with a high refresh rate. By far the best I've seen on any laptop. Mine didn't have any screen bleed but I can't speak for everyone. Good size and the colors are nice and clear.

BATTERY- It's simply OK. You're gonna have better GPU performance with this plugged in but I can see general tasks being done on this for maybe a few hours before it needs to be plugged in.

STORAGE- The 256GB drive is an M.2 drive and is crazy fast, but it doesn't hold a lot. You can add another M.2 drive and there is a bay to add another Hard drive or SSD. You'll have to actually wire the drive into your motherboard (the old Helios had the port pre-installed) and this is a service that could actually void your warranty. It isn't the hardest thing to do, but I would definitely recommend taking it to an Acer care center if you can't figure it out.

FINAL THOUGHTS- The new Predator Helios 300 is worth every penny. With improved stability, thermals, looks and performance it is a no brainer. This thing is gonna be the replacement for my PC tower if and or when it finally kicks the bucket. If you held off on buying the last Predator due to all the issues you heard about I would say you made the right call. This is the solution to those problems you were waiting for and then some.
If you're on the fence I can wholeheartedly say (with my name on the line) that this laptop is absolutely worth it. Yeah it's expensive and I wasn't too thrilled about shelling out for another Predator after all the problems with the first one, but I am glad I got this and I know you'll be too.

My friend Abysal experience Great gaming laptop, excellent value for the money!.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52 laptop with the Intel i7-9750h & nVidia 1660 Ti is a great performer. I've been using it as my daily work laptop with some occasional gaming for about a month. It replaced my Dell e6430.

- It runs the latest games at above 60 fps with settings on high (generally speaking), usually much higher. PUBG runs at 95 - 105fps (non turbo), to 110 - 125fps (turbo) - 1080p, high settings.
- The screen is excellent, 144hz IPS, and also works really well for Lightroom photo work. There is slight flex on open and close, I wish it was more ridged. It uses a metal lid and features the predator logo that is lit light blue at all times and cannot be turned off.
- The keyboard feels decent for a chiclet keyboard, the keys have a positive activation feeling, are quiet, but feel slightly soft on bottom out. The back light can be turned off, but the 30 sec auto off setting cannot be adjusted. This version does not have and RGB back lighting, it's a light blue back light only. The keyboard deck, palm rest, and sides of the laptop are all one metal piece, there is no flex on the keyboard, which is excellent.
- The touch pad feels really smooth, but the right/left click button areas require more pressure to activate.
- Wireless card is a Killer Wireless 802.11ac i1550 (Intel 9560NGW) - Links at 866Mbps - I've not had any drop-outs or disconnects. Mainly used with Cisco APs and Asus RT3200-AC at home.
- Ethernet jack is very difficult to disengage the CAT5 cable from, it seems to snag on the RJ45 connector. Luckily I don't need to use wired ethernet too often.
- The web cam and mic combo are pretty standard and of average picture and sound quality. They work fine for the occasional Skype call.
- The the model I got came with a 256GB M.2. 2880 SATA SSD B+M key (Kingston RBUSNS8154P3256GJ1)
- Also came with 16GB RAM - 2 x 8GB Kingston ACR26D4S9S8ME-8 PC-21300 DDR4 / DDR4-2666 (1333Mhz) - 19-19-19-43 timings.
- It's very easy to remove the bottom panel to gain access to an additional M.2 slot and SATA 2.5" storage bay, both RAM slots, and WiFi mini PCIe card.
- The built in speakers produce pretty nice sound, they don't get as loud as I'd like them to be, but are perfectly adequate.
- The fans are generally quite, when the system is used for web or light work, the CPU fan is slightly audible. During gaming they ramp up and get louder, and with turbo enabled, they get really loud, like a mini jet, and would be a definite annoyance for those around you. Head phones are recommend. I use turbo mode in PUBG, and it boosts frames anywhere from 10 to 15 extra fps.
- The WASD area and palm rest don't get hot during gaming, just a little warm. The area above the keyboard and the num pad areas are where it gets hot.
- On battery, I run the laptop in battery saver mode, and get about 4 hours, that's enough for a movie during a flight or several meetings of note taking / email / web.
- While gaming I've noticed the battery will tick down while still on AC. I don't know yet if this is an issue. Searching around the web I've found reports that MSI and ASUS laptops do this too and it is by design; supposedly. During the course of a 3 hour gaming session in PUBG and turbo on, my battery drained to 75%. The drain is slower without turbo. I assume after the battery gets low enough, the CPU and GPU will throttle. I plan to reach out to ACER support for the official explanation.
- I've picked up a spare AC adapter - included in photo, search Amazon for: 19.5V 9.23A AC Adapter Charger Power Supply for Acer Predator Helios 300 G3-571-77QK, G3-571 G3-572 PH317-51, Acer Aspire V17 Nitro VN7-793G, V15 Nitro VN7-593G Tip 5.5mm, Not Big Tip 7.4mm with Pin
- It also fits nicely into Swiss Backpack - J14B-1H-A - 18.5 *12.5*7 (inches)

So far I'm very happy with the laptop, it has excellent performance, very nice expandability, is comfortable to use and looks really good.

My Old Neighbor Evaldas say Better then expected.

So I'll start with the fact that this laptop came with undervolted cpu which I found kinda strange. Played PUBG on ultra settings, max cpu temps were ~80°C and gpu max temps were 70°C (max fans on both).

My Buddy Brian S. say BIOS settings are LOCKED! Can't change boot order, upgrade storage, or disable UEFI for Linux.

I bought this to replace a 7 year old Linux gaming computer (dual-boot, multi-drive) with a corroded power supply, expecting to install a couple extra hard drives, while still playing a few games on the original Windows drive it shipped with. After a little research, it looked like I wouldn't have a lot of trouble installing drivers for the hardware that comes with this model, and the price was reasonably low compared with System76, so I went ahead and ordered it.

BIOS and hardware upgrades: Once the 2nd drive I ordered arrived (separate packages, couple days later), I proceeded to install the 1 TB drive along with the 500 GB drive from my old system, using the upgrade kit which came with this computer. Taking apart the computer was fairly straightforward, but because Linux requires you to disable Secure Boot, I proceeded into the BIOS to enable booting from USB and turn off Secure Boot and UEFI. The BIOS password was NOT set, and I was allowed to add one of my own, but all the settings related to security and boot order were still greyed out. Despite installing 2 additional drives, and being allowed to set a password for one of them, I was not allowed to boot from anything except the 500 GB drive this computer shipped with or any kind of external media.

I called the support number in the pamphlet that came with the computer, and asked about this, but was told that Acer locks the BIOS on all computers shipped through Amazon in order to "protect" customers from changing things that might break the computer if they don't know what they're doing. He explained that all computer vendors do this to one extent to another, such as Apple with iPhones, and refused to provide me any means to unlock it no matter how technical I am. He continued that if I want to upgrade anything, I should call Acer's main customer service line and order it from them, instead of trying to modify it myself. At this point, I demanded a refund because the item was materially different from what was advertised, and effectively unusable for my purposes as a result, but he refused because the package was already opened. I pointed out the product description did not list the BIOS being locked, and based on forum postings about this model on Acer's website, locking the BIOS did not appear to be a standard configuration for this model, but he stated that's what Acer wanted for Amazon-shipped computers, and that they're under no obligation to disclose this information prior to purchase, so I replied I will simply complain to Amazon and seek a refund through them. I did try contacting Acer's customer support number listed on Amazon, and on their own website; after a few days of trying, I did eventually reach someone (average wait time of 60 minutes), who ultimately confirmed Acer intends to limit customers' ability to change boot sequence for their "protection".

Keyboard: This was a real nuisance. The 1 key, Q key, Z key, and I think a couple others make a distinct "clicking" noise when I press them, sometimes don't press in properly, and feel like they will pop out or otherwise break within about a month or so of use. It also has some weird light-up pattern that runs from left to right and flickers a bit as soon as it lights up. Almost looks like something is wrong, and might burn out in a few months.

Battery life: While waiting for the 2nd hard drive to arrive, I played Elder Scrolls Online over Wifi a little bit. Computer was fast enough to handle it, but the battery died within about an hour, despite being brand new. Given how batteries decline over time, I worry about how it will perform after a few years.

Screen quality: Says it's 1920x1080, but looks a little pixelated, which is kind of weird. I don't know how to describe it, but the pixels look a little larger than I'd expect, and the computer defaulted to a lower resolution out of the box for some reason. Nothing too special or standout-ish, I've seen better, but also not terrible.

My Fellow Chris Russ say Great value gaming laptop.

I have been looking for a laptop that can handle some gaming needs for a while. The laptop was in my amazon list for a long time and I finally pulled the trigger at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Pros:
Gaming- This is what this computer is made for. It seemingly can handle most gaming tasks at recommended settings
Screen- The screen is really nice but I do wish it was a little brighter. However, the screen quality seems top notch in my limited testing of the unit.
Keyboard- The keyboard seems really nice. Button feel nice and typing on the laptop is nice and easy.
Form Factor- Surprisingly, the computer is relatively slim and lightweight considering the amount of power the unit has.

Cons
Battery Life- The battery drains quick. This should be expected considering the computer is relatively high-powered and designed for gaming.
Design- I hate the design of the computer. It really screams "GAMING" with the design. I wish it was more subtle because I am a working professional and I don't like the design.
Sound- HOLY MOLY this unit gets really loud and hot! Just playing WoW for about 10 minutes and it starts to cook and the fans get loud. If turbo is enabled then it is insanely loud.
Heat- When I purchased this machine I fully anticipated it to get hot but the heat near your fingers is really warm. Right above the function buttons near the turbo button gets extremely hot.
Speakers- Sub par and hugely disappointing. Do not get this computer if you need quality built in speakers.

Overall, I do like this machine and it does exactly what I needed it to do. The screen is amazing and the performance is really strong and I feel like it will handle most games you throw at it with ease. I got this machine to supplement my gaming tower and to have ease of access when I want to play games anywhere in the house. If the cons don't bother you then this machine is great and an awesome value.