Acer releases new 18-inch gaming laptop with 240 Hz display and RTX 5080 GPU
Acer has just started selling a new version of the Predator Helios Neo 16S in Europe. Boasting over twice as much battery life as our recent review unit, the latest release is one of the 16-inch gaming laptops featuring Intel's Panther Lake platform. At the same time, Acer has finally released the more powerful version of the Predator Helios Neo 18, too.
To recap, the company updated the Helios Neo 18 in March with Intel's Arrow Lake HX Plus processors. Not to be confused with the Helios 18 we reviewed in July 2025, the Helios Neo 18 was previously available with up to Intel's Core Ultra 9 275HX processor (curr. $2,799 on Amazon). While Acer claimed that PHN18-I71 variants would be available in June, models featuring the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus and the GeForce RTX 5060 reached Europe in May.
Now, Acer has complemented these with a GeForce RTX 5080-based alternative. According to our benchmarks, the Core Ultra 9 290HX Plus should provide the Predator Helios Neo 18 with about 7% more CPU performance than the Core Ultra 9 275HX. As far as we can tell, the GeForce RTX 5080 laptop GPU continues to top out at 115 W, or 140 W when Dynamic Boost is active.
Also, Acer has included a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel IPS panel, eschewing the Mini LED option in its 2025 edition. For reference, this new panel combines a 240 Hz refresh rate with 3 ms response times, 100% DCI-P3 colour space coverage and 500 nits peak brightness. Acer charges £3,499 for its new 18-inch gaming laptop with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, making it £200 more expensive than an equivalent 2025 SKU.
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