Acer Predator Helios 500 PH517-61 [PH517-61-R7AM] (NH.Q3GER.004)

Big like a Jeep

In 2019, the Acer Predator Helios 500 looks like a dying breed of big and heavy gaming laptops that can show their teeth and fully compete with stationary gaming computers. It looks like a Land Cruiser that is trying to squeeze into a bike path — 428x29838.7 mm and weighs 4 kg. You won’t carry this one in a backpack, but as Acer designers say, in this case, no one thought about portability. The main thing here is inner strength.

8-core Ryzen 7 processor

The laptop is equipped with an 8-core Ryzen 7 processor with a maximum frequency of 4.1 GHz, multi-threading and 16 MB of cache, plus 16 GB of RAM and a bunch of drives (1000 GB HDD + 512 GB SSD). A rather unusual solution is the installation of a Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card, which is a direct competitor to last year's GeForce GTX 1070 Ti and produces the same FPS in most games. At the same time, it is cheaper, but weaker in overclocking and hotter. However, overclocking a graphics card in a laptop is a dubious undertaking, and a well-thought-out cooling system successfully handles with excess heat. Holes for heat dissipation are literally everywhere.

Colorful 144Hz gaming display

The screen of the Predator Helios 500 matches the filling: a 17-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution and a refresh rate of 144 Hz, which makes the picture extra smooth. The matrix shows a soft and not oversaturated picture with accurate colours and excellent viewing angles. It is pleasant to play and watch movies on this.

Classic game design

Well, the design of the model is completely old-school and literally screams about the gaming breed of the laptop: the frames are thick, the lines are chopped, the air ducts are huge, the ventilation slots are scattered throughout the keyboard, and the WASD keys are highlighted with brighter backlighting. However it is not a solid red here, but a full-fledged RGB, which can be customized. Although, in all the photos on the network, the backlight of the model is always blue. Well, a nice reference is the power button in the form of a Predator cannon sight. Plus, the hull itself is assembled like a tank, and you can hit it like that.

High-quality sound and comfortable keyboard

I was also pleased that the laptop has a comfortable keyboard with a touchpad, and a thick case allows you to place a couple of good speakers. The sound here is not perfect, but much better than in many gaming models. Well, we can only criticize the very limited battery life of the model, if you play without charging from the network, then the laptop will live less than an hour. Yes, for gaming laptops, battery life is always to hell, but still the Intel + NVIDIA bundle looks more tenacious.