Acer Predator: New 18-inch gaming laptop now official with up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080

Acer has upgraded the Predator Helios Neo 18 AI, over a year after launching its PHN18-72 variant. While Nvidia has not announced new laptop GPUs since, the PHN18-I71 features a noticeable GPU upgrade over its predecessor. Likewise, the new Predator Helios Neo 18 AI adopts faster processors too.

Specifically, the PHN18-I71 variant will ship with the Core Ultra 7 270HX Plus or the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus. For context, Acer equipped last year's PHN18-72 with either the Core Ultra 7 255HX or the Core Ultra 9 275HX. Also, one could only configure the PHN18-72 with up to the GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (curr. $2,444 on Amazon).

By contrast, the new PHN18-I71 combines these Arrow Lake-HX Plus processors with up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080. Acer has not confirmed this GPU's maximum power yet. However, the existing Predator Helios Neo 18 delivered up to 140 W with Dynamic Boost.

Seemingly, the Mini LED option from last year's model has made way. This year, Acer is only offering a 240 Hz IPS panel with a 2.5K resolution, 500 nits peak brightness, 3 ms response times and 100% DCI-P3 colour space coverage. Conversely, the Helios Neo 18's battery capacity has moved from 90 Wh to 92 Wh, which coincides with the laptop gaining 200 g to 3.4 kg. The PHN18-I71 will be available across Africa, Europe and the Middle East from June, before reaching Australia and North America in July.