Acer Predator Helios 16S AI Review: Great Performance, Annoying Crashes Leave a comment
The keyboard options four-zone shade backlighting, tunable by way of Acer’s intensive PredatorSense system, which controls every part from battery charging particulars as to if you need to customise the emblem displayed because the laptop computer boots. It’s out there through a devoted key above the slim numeric keypad. The opposite bespoke key on the machine is the Mode key, discovered above the highest left of the keyboard. This shifts amongst 4 completely different efficiency/fan operation modes when plugged in; two of those modes can be found when working on battery energy.
Due to the numeric keypad, the keyboard and touchpad are shifted fairly far to the left. This may be a case the place you’ll be able to adapt to the format over time, however I discovered it powerful to work comfortably when pushed this far to at least one aspect, particularly when utilizing the arrow keys, which spill over into each the keyboard and keypad areas.
Ports are distinctive and could be discovered on either side and the rear of the gadget. These embody two USB-C ports (one with Thunderbolt 4 help), three USB-A ports, a full-size HDMI port, a full-size Ethernet jack, and a microSD card slot. You’ll want to make use of the separate energy jack and 230-watt A/C adapter to energy the gadget. (The adapter itself is heavy however not notably massive, weighing 1.1 kilos.)
The display is likely one of the brightest I’ve seen in years, and whereas the audio system aren’t notably nuanced, they’re not less than lots loud. Sadly, they have to be, as a result of when the fan kicks in, which is usually, this can be very noisy.
Laptop Crash
{Photograph}: Chris Null
Put collectively the entire bundle, and also you’ve bought efficiency to spare on just about something you’ll be able to throw at this method. The Helios set information practically throughout the board on my battery of benchmarks, together with (by far) one of the best GPU-related scores I’ve seen so far, handily beating the MacBook Professional M4 Professional by 50 p.c on the Geekbench 6 GPU take a look at whereas practically doubling graphics efficiency over techniques outfitted with the final technology of GeForce laptop computer GPUs.
