Acer Predator Helios 500 (GTX 1070, i7-8750H) Laptop Review

[Redaktion]

Gaming upgrade. Our exclusive review of Acer's massive fella. Equipped with a 45 W CPU and a GTX 1070 the brand-new case contains a true gaming powerhouse. The Helios 500 is the successor to the Helios 300, and while still quite hefty and bulky the new kid on the block is not as sharp-edged anymore.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Predator-Helios-500-GTX-1070-i7-8750H-Laptop-Review.308084.0.html

[Michael White]

CPU clock speeds remained at their previous level of 2,7 GHz.

1 question: Why?
The turbo for all 6 cores should be 3.9 Ghz. Why did the laptop disable turbo and only run at base clock when Prime95 was launched? This is kinda cheating since because of this the 75C max for CPU is false since the CPU was not running at full speed.
Is the Acer BIOS so full of bugs that the CPU turbo is turning on/off all around or this is a "feature" from Acer ?

[Meteorhead]

Excellent article. Acer managed fine with this notebook as far as I can tell by the test. Kudos for not forgetting the 'End' button from the keyboard as is the case on the GL702 models of ASUS RoG. Instead we got a dedicated gaming center launcher button. Hooray! (If anyone knows how to create a keyboard layout that remaps useless special buttons, pls let me know.)

Could we perhaps get a follow-up with the Ryzen 2700 / RX Vega 56 variant to see how it compares to the "same old, same old" Intel+Nv pair?

[Alberth]

Excellent review! I had already translated this article when it was posted in German. On the laptop, simply one of the best in the market, mainly because we must remember that Acer still has the Full AMD version, Ryzen 2700 CPU and Vega 56 GPU.

I have a question and would like to know if the article staff could answer me: Are the two M.2 slots present in this model have PCI Express or SATA protocol? Thank you and great article!

[BW]

Superb review. Truly. I was considering this device (which i tested in person today) but ad doubts, and now will not purchase given this review. Well done.

That's not to suggest this is a 'bad gaming laptop' --- this is freaking sique gaming laptop. THE BIGGEST ISSUE WITH GAMING LAPTOPS IS COOLING : THE BEST ASSET OF THE i7-8750 H HELIOS 500 IS THE COOLING ! It dissipates heat superbly from both the back AND the sides ! It's a fantastic gaming laptop.

But as I write this review, it Aug 2018. The 1180 or whatever new GeForce Graphics card is next to be released is currently .....being released. So unless you're looking at purchasing the Helios 500 with an i9 CPU, WAIT, because the Pascal 10-series GPU-laptops will very, very very soon drop in price :P
And at which point
I would recommend purchasing an Acer Predator Helios 500 i9 GeForce GTX 1070 at a reduced-to-clear price !
Because

in all honestly, a hexa-core i9 GTX-1070 with EXCELLENT COOLING is still a terrific gaming choice

just remember, the backlighting on the keyboard: A) sucks. & B) is zonal....and still in this capacity ...sucks

Sincerely
BW

[Melkor]

Hello, you said:

"Unfortunately, M.2 support is limited to SATA and does not include the faster NVMe protocol."

So this mean, if we install Samsung 970 EVO in the laptop, we can't get it's 3500 MB/s read and 2500 MB/s write. I am right?

[diegovargas34]

Hello. I've got one question regarding the Acer Predator Helios 500: what type of Thunderbolt 3 connections does it have: are they dual-lane or four-lane ports? Thank you so much.

[vino]

what about its screen response time,will it compete asus gl504 gs,screen response

[animation303]

This laptop does have NVME support for the M.2 slots, the Intel version supports NVME on both slots and raid, and the AMD version only supports SATA on the first slot and NVME on the second

Source:
The Acer website (I cant post links, search 'Predator Helios 500 nvme support'

[Mathieu]

Hello, I remain skeptical, using displaycal and the probe x-rite i1 pro I obtained after calibration a contrast of 1048: 1 (1130: 1 before calibration) and a cover of 89% srgb ... your contrast seems really weird, but I have the same screen reference B173han03.1 

[Rajeev]

Hello Team,

First I like to thank you 🙏 you guys the best when it comes to review !

I need to check one thing on your review on Acer Predator Helios 500 Intel I7 gtx1070 ! It says that there are 2 thunderbolt and one is the actual thunderbolt port and other is normal usc type c 3.1 gen 2 how ever Acer printed thunder port lightening on both ! I want to check which port is thunderbolt port 3 and it gives 40gbps will support egpu ? Thanks 🙏