Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-55s-98TX
Specifications
Price comparison
Average of 8 scores (from 11 reviews)
Reviews for the Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-55s-98TX
Source: Tom's Guide
The Acer Predator Helios 300 Spatial Labs is a gaming powerhouse. If you want to experience demanding modern games at 4K / 60 fps with minimal compromise to settings, this is the laptop for you. As an all-rounder, though, it’s hard to fully get behind the Helios. Though it posts strong numbers during our productivity tests, design flaws hamper this laptop’s ability to cement itself as a great all-rounder. Weight, noise and heat issues mean this Acer essentially eliminates itself from easy day-to-day usage before you factor in a single performance metric. This is one of the least subtle laptops I’ve ever seen, and I both admire and resent that about the Helios. If you’re serious about PC gaming — and have money to burn — the allure of this machine’s specs is strong. At the same time, I can’t help but feel your money would be better spent elsewhere.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 06/21/2023
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: PC Mag
The Acer Predator Helios 300 Spatial Labs Edition has an entertaining party trick in its glasses-free 3D display, but it falls behind competitors that kick it to the curb at every corner. Worse still, the 3D entails a lot of sacrifices, particularly from the screen, including brightness and refresh rate, and still feels like hardly anything more than a novelty. For more than $3,000, you can do a lot better. For less than $3,000, you can still do better, and that’s what makes it hard to confidently recommend this machine. Start with a performance grinder like the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 8, and save a bundle. too.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 05/23/2023
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: PC World
While the guts of the Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition are pretty solid, the entire system is let down by its screen. The tech works, but if you’re into gaming on the go, this expensive package is a disappointment. I’d say even with the upcoming 13th gen Intel/Nvidia 40-series refresh of this product, having a limited 60Hz panel makes it a tough recommendation. When similar gaming laptops are reaching 240Hz and beyond, 60Hz even at 4K seems pretty wimpy. More than that, the inconsistent 3D implementation dulls the sharpness of the slow panel. For its $3,500 price, you really need to want the glasses-free 3D screen, and will need to be into any genre but fast-twitch shooters or e-sports titles that benefit from the responsiveness of a high-refresh screen. That’s a lot of caveats. I’ll admit that when the 3D effect works, it can be utterly enchanting. And there may be interesting applications of this technology—if they can get the refresh rate up in future SpatialLabs screens, then the premium might be worth it for gamers.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 05/09/2023
Rating: Total score: 50%
Source: Slashgear
So should you give this laptop any consideration next time you're hunting for a gaming computer? The answer is yes only if you have bottomless pockets and an itch to try out novelties. Truthfully, if I owned this laptop, I would use the 3D function maybe 10% of the time. At that rate, there are laptops that deliver just as much, or almost as much, power as the Helios but for half the cost. Consider, for example, the Acer Nitro 5. This laptop offers a 17-inch, 144 Hz display and, while it uses the (marginally) less powerful RTX 3060 graphics chip, it also costs less than $800. To get closer to a higher-end laptop, there's the $2,500 Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model, with an RTX 3070 GPU card that closely competes with the GPU in the Predator. You also get a luxe 240Hz QHD picture, for $1,000 less than this Helios. You'll find the Acer Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition available at B&H Photo for around $3,500. While I enjoyed playing on this laptop with the 3D function switched off, this simply wouldn't be a feature I'm willing to pay for. Especially if you frequent the indie side of games, where there will almost certainly be no 3D compatibility development, you'll mostly find the glasses-free 3D to be a flashy novelty. And even in an era where we're pursuing the latest and greatest in immersive gaming experiences, glasses-free 3D is a tough sell when there's so much for VR on the market.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 04/19/2023
Rating: Total score: 60%
Source: Expert Reviews
The SpatialLabs 3D technology showcased by the Acer Predator Helios 300 is undoubtedly very impressive and it’s clearly heading in the right direction. The effect is incredibly immersive given the right game, and even with the inherent drawbacks such as having to keep your head still, it’s great fun to game with. Right now, though, I’m not convinced there are enough compelling 3D Ultra-compatible games to justify the cost. Perhaps if the Helios 300 didn’t cost so much more than an equivalent non-SpatialLabs gaming machine I could make a solid case for considering it. However, when all is said and done, I still can’t quite shake the feeling that this is a technology demonstrator and that it would be wiser to wait for the next-generation model with an RTX40-series GPU and maybe even a higher native refresh rate.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 04/12/2023
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Engadget
If, for some reason, glasses-free 3D is still compelling to you, there are few other options. Acer also sells a standalone 15.6-inch SpatialLabs screen for $1,100 – but I don't need to tell you that's a bad idea. The company's ConceptD 7 laptop also had that screen, but it’s no longer available. There's also ASUS's upcoming spin on glasses-free 3D with its ProArt StudioBook 16, which looked compelling during our CES preview. Barring a miraculous advancement in holographics sometime soon, I'm ready to give up on the entire notion of glasses-free 3D. It just doesn’t make sense to spend $3,500 on the Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition. While there's a chance the technology could eventually help a certain subsection of professionals, those folks would likely be served better with VR headsets, and potentially AR devices like the Magic Leap 2 in the future. Either option would deliver a better dose of 3D without the headaches of glasses-free tech.
Single Review, online available, Medium, Date: 03/27/2023
Rating: Total score: 59%
Foreign Reviews
Source: Gamestar
DE→ENSingle Review, online available, Long, Date: 03/30/2023
Rating: Total score: 90%
Source: Geeknetic
ES→ENSingle Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 03/04/2023
Rating: Total score: 80%
Source: Noticias 3D
ES→ENPositive: Nice 3D display; decent hardware; rich set of ports. Negative: Relatively heavy and bulky.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 12/21/2022
Source: Quotidiano Hardware Upgrade
IT→ENPositive: Excellent 3D display; big screen; powerful hardware; high gaming performance. Negative: Relatively high price.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 05/08/2023
Source: Cowcotland
FR→ENPositive: Excellent gaming performance; nice display; G-sync. Negative: Overheats while using; noisy under loads; short battery life.
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 08/10/2023
Comment
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU: High-End laptop graphics card based on the Ampere GA104 chip. At the time of the launch in early 2021, the 3080 is the fastest laptop graphics card on the market.
These graphics cards are able to play the latest and most demanding games in high resolutions and full detail settings with enabled Anti-Aliasing.
» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.
i9-12900H: Alder Lake based mobile CPU with 6 performance cores and 8 efficient cores. The performance cores offer hyper threading, leading to 20 threads that can be processed. The CPU clocks from 1.8 to 5 GHz and supports vPro.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.
15.60":
15-inch display variants are the standard and are used for more than half of all laptops.
The reason for the popularity of mid-sized displays is that this size is reasonably easy on the eyes, often allows high resolutions and thus offers rich details on the screen, yet does not consume too much power and the devices can still be reasonably compact - simply the standard compromise.
» To find out how fine a display is, see our DPI List.2.6 kg:
With this weight, a laptop is rather heavier than average. Devices in this range shine more with screen size and performance than with mobility.
Acer: In 1976, the company was founded in Taiwan under the name Multitech and was renamed Acer or Acer Group in 1987. The product range includes, for example, laptops, tablets, smartphones, desktops, monitors, TVs and computer peripherals. Since 2007, the group has merged with Gateway Inc. and Packard Bell, which also market their own laptop product lines.
Acer computers are designed for a variety of purposes, including ultrabooks for mobile use, gaming laptops for gamers, affordable options for everyday tasks, and 2-in-1 convertible laptops for versatility. Acer's product portfolio also includes tablets that offer portable computing and multimedia capabilities.
66.13%: This rating is poor. More than three quarters of the models are rated better. That is rather not a purchase recommendation. Even if verbal ratings in this area do not sound that bad ("sufficient" or "satisfactory"), they are usually euphemisms that disguise a classification as a below-average laptop.
» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.
