Polish online retailer www.x-kom.pl has leaked some core details on Acer's unannounced Predator refresh. Called the Predator Helios 500, the 17.3-inch notebook is expected to carry the familiar bulky Predator design including the the highlighted WASD and Arrow keys, colored accents, and pronounced rear ventilation grilles. The most notable change, however, is its Intel 8th gen hexa-core Core i7 and Core i9 options via the Core i7-8750H and Core i9-8950HK. The source is claiming base and Turbo Boost clock rates of 2.2 GHz and 4.1 GHz, respectively, for the i7 SKU and 2.9 GHz and 4.8 GHz, respectively, for the Core i9 SKU.
Other than the above changes, its other core specifications are relatively run-of-the-mill as far as enthusiast gaming notebooks are concerned. We can expect a 17.3-inch matte IPS display with G-Sync, 1080p resolution, GTX 1070 GPU, 16 to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, 256 GB M.2 SSD, 3x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB Type-C, and the prerequisite HDMI, DisplayPort, and RJ-45. The panel in particular will supposedly have a native 144 Hz refresh rate which would be a first for a gaming laptop of this size.
The retailer has already pulled the listing as of this writing, but we can expect a formal reveal in the coming weeks. The Predator Helios 500 looks poised to replace the Predator Helios 300 with its sharper design philosophy borrowed from the even costlier Predator 700 Triton.