Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019) – worth every cent

Acer Helios 300 has always been one of the favorites in a lot of people’s bucket lists when choosing a well-priced gaming laptop. However, it was flawed by different issues with one of the most visible ones being actually the way it looks. Not that it looks bad, but it just looks like an aggressive gaming laptop.

Well, this is the first area that Acer has targeted for this year’s iteration of the model – the PH315-52. It now looks like a crossbreed between the other Helios laptops and the Triton series. This results in a stunningly looking laptop that is a lot sleeker than its predecessor and at the same time packs more power by embodying the latest and greatest from Intel and NVIDIA. It also features a 144 Hz display and a feature that is now synonymous to the Helios name. Stay with us to see why.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-predator-helios-300-15-2019-ph315-52/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) - Specs

  • BOE NV156FHM-N4K (BOE082A)
  • Color accuracy  4.7  1.4
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD + up to 2000GB HDD
  • M.2 Slot
  • 2x M.2 PCIe x4 NVMe slots with RAID 0 support 
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 3720 mAh, 4-cell, 48Wh, 4-cell, 58.7Wh, 4-cell, 59Wh, 4-cell, 3815 mAh, 4-cell, 48Wh, 4-Cell, 48Wh 4-Cell
  • Dimensions
  • 361 x 254 x 22.9 mm (14.21" x 10.00" x 0.90")
  • Weight
  • 2.30 kg (5.1 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 2.0
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Displayport mini
  • Ethernet LAN
  • Gigabit LAN (Killer E2500)
  • Wi-Fi
  • Gigabit Wi-Fi 5 (2×2 MU-MIMO)
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm audio jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • Digital-array microphones
  • Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot

All Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the heavily branded box of this device, you are going to find a 180W charging brick and some paper manuals.


Design and construction

As we mentioned, this laptop is a huge step up from its predecessor. It utilizes more aluminum (it is now on the base AND on the lid). Additionally, the lid is now flush and has two suttle stripes surrounding the Predator logo which, guess what – glows in blue. Measurement-wise, the laptop is 23.9 mm thick and weighs 2.19 kg. While it is not in the MSI GS65 Stealth category in terms of weight, it is still an easily portable laptop.

Its lid opens via a single hand and has a bezel-less design. We are happy to see the camera on its right place – on top of the display, rather on the bottom as some interesting solutions seen from Lenovo and ASUS.

Next, let’s take a look at the base of the device. Traditionally, it is home to the input devices. Its keyboard has an optional RGB backlight, while its keys have a long travel and semi-clicky feedback. Additionally, we are satisfied with the size of the keys, and especially with the arrow keys, which are not the usual half-sized ones we are often seeing on smaller gaming laptops.

There is also a dedicated PredatorSense button and one that will totally transform your laptop. With the press of that said key, your laptop turns into a… vacuum cleaner. Well, it is actually the Turbo button, that thrusts your fans at 100% unless you click it again. Whether this has any effect on the performance of the laptop you can check our temperature segment.

Further below, the touchpad seems super accurate and responsive, and pairs well with the 144Hz display. Despite the overall good build quality of the chassis, there is one thing that we just couldn’t pass. It is the edge on the base of the device. While it makes it easier to grip the lid to open it, it is uncomfortable when you are typing or playing on the notebook, as the edge cuts into your wrists. As there are no actual cuts we had, it is pretty nasty in the long run… perhaps you would like to sand it down with something.

Jokes aside, on the bottom plate there are a lot of ventilation grills, as the fans need a lot of air that is later exhausted from the back and from the sides.

Ports

On the left side, there is the charging plug, an RJ-45 port, followed by two USB Type-A 3.0 ports and an Audio Combo jack. On the other side, there are the HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, as well as another USB Type-A 3.0 and a USB Type-C connector (no Thunderbolt, sadly).


Display quality

Acer Predator Helios 15 (2019) has 144 Hz Full HD panel – BOE NV156FHM-N4K (BOE082A). Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Its viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 288 nits in the middle of the screen and 280 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 7%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 7500K – colder the optimal for the sRGB standard of 6500K. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 7350K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is good – 1170:1 (1020:1 after profiling)

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people in HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Acer Predator Helios 15 (2019)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 94% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 9 ms.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Thankfully, Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019)’s display doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness. The lack of flickering makes the laptop comfortable for long periods of use.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Conclusion

Predator Helios 300 15 (2019)’s display has a 144Hz panel with comfortable viewing angles, fast response times, wide color coverage and non-flickering backlight. Additionally, its color accuracy is sufficient for web designers, when our Gaming and Web browsing profile is installed.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019) configurations with 15.6″ FHD IPS BOE NV156FHM-N4K (BOE082A).

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019) has decent speakers with the good overall quality. Its low, mid and high frequencies are clear of deviations.


Drivers

All the drivers you need for the Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019) are available here: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7983?b=1

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with.

We achieved a satisfactory battery life for this laptop – close to 7 hours of web browsing and 5 hours and 42 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

In terms of the processor, there is not much to chose from – the quad-core Intel Core i5-9300H or the hexa-core Intel Core i7-9750H – both very good options for gaming.

Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

So, basically, Acer has given you the choice of getting a ray-tracing-enabled graphics card or sticking with the GTX-es. Currently, the lowest tier is the GTX 1660 Ti, then it comes the RTX 2060, and the top-end device comes with the RTX 2070 Max-Q.

Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-52) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

GTA-V-benchmarks

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti115 fps67 fps45 fps

Far Cry 5Full HD, Normal (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti94 fps87 fps83 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti120 fps65 fps43 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti74 fps66 fps43 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti80 fps76 fps49 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Core i7-9750H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019)2.98 GHz (B+7%)@ 63°C3.03 GHz (B+18%)@ 68°C2.98 GHz (B+10%)@ 72°C
Lenovo Legion Y5402.78 GHz (B+7%)@ 74°C3.08 GHz (B+18%)@ 90°C2.87 GHz (B+10%)@ 79°C
ASUS ROG G7313.38 GHz (B+30%)@ 87°C3.43 GHz (B+32%)@ 94°C2.63 GHz @ 73°C
ASUS ROG G5313.41 GHz (B+31%)@ 95°C3.23 GHz (B+24%)@ 95°C2.72 GHz (B+5%)@ 79°C
HP Omen 17 20193.44 GHz (B+32%)@ 86°C2.74 GHz (B+5%)@ 71°C2.67 GHz (B+3%)@ 71°C

It is obvious that the Helios 300 15 (2019) as a typical gaming device is going to prioritize the GPU over the processor in thermal management. However, the case with this laptop is that Core i7-9750H barely tickled the cooling solution. Comparing it to the Legion Y540, the Helios 300 15 (2019) is constantly posting lower temperatures and higher frequencies. At the same time, the machine wasn’t really loud at all.

Real gameplay

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 TiGPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (Turbo Mode)
Acer Predator Helios 300 15 (2019)1610 MHz @ 72°C1568 MHz @ 81°C1712 MHz @ 69°C
Lenovo Legion Y5401761 MHz @ 76°C1752 MHz @ 82°C
Acer Nitro 5 (AN515-54)1660 MHz @ 78°C1635 MHz @ 84°C

Despite the lower frequencies on the Helios 300 15 (2019), it has a major advantage up its sleeve against the Legion Y540. It hides underneath the “Turbo” button. As soon as you press it, it engages the fans at their 100% potency and this way it cools down the graphics card extremely fast. Two minutes after we started the Turbo (after the 30 minutes have passed, the temperature has dropped by 13C, while the frequency made a jump by 150 MHz. Interestingly, the frequencies were still lower than does on the Legion Y540.

Verdict

Today we had a look at probably the best allrounder in the mid-tier gaming laptops. It has a great form factor – something that is neither too thin for you to be extremely careful with it, nor it is too bulky that will impede the portability of the laptop. In addition to the great form factor, the laptop embodies an aluminum-plastic combo that makes it even more appealing.

This is complemented by the backlit keyboard, which has a decent key travel and somewhat clicky feedback. It features large arrow keys, a dedicated PredatorSense button and, more importantly, the Turbo button. With its help, the Helios 300 15 (2019) can maintain temperatures that are more than 10C lower than usual.

Not only it lowers the temperatures but it also boosts the frequency of the graphics card which subsequently boosts the framerate in games. Speaking of which, we were able to get framerates that are comparable to the Lenovo Legion Y540. The latter is priced similarly to the Helios 300 15 (2019), however, the Acer laptop has a very impressive (for a gaming device) battery life – 7 hours of web browsing and more than 5 hours and a half of video playback.

We were also impressed with the display quality (BOE NV156FHM-N4K) of this laptop. It is sufficiently bright, has a good contrast ratio and moreover, it doesn’t use PWM to adjust its brightness levels. Additionally, it has a super-fast reaction time (something normal for a 144Hz panel) and when you pair it with our Gaming and Web design profile its colors become accurate enough to classify for web designer’s work.

Of course, as there are some clear advantages (as the dual M.2 SSD with RAID0 support), there are some shortcomings like the lack of an SD card reader and Thunderbolt support. However, we think that these shortcomings are totally ignorable (if you are not in the photo and videographers world, though).

Pros

  • Adequate price
  • Good keyboard with decent travel, big arrows, and optional RGB backlight
  • Turbo key with incredible cooling and vacuum cleaning capabilities
  • Good build quality
  • 144Hz with fast reaction times and accurate colors (when paired with our Gaming and Web design profile) (BOE NV156FHM-N4K)
  • Doesn’t use PWM to adjust screen brightness (BOE NV156FHM-N4K)
  • Good enough battery life
  • Two M.2 NVMe slots with RAID 0 support


Cons

  • No Thunderbolt support
  • Lacks SD card slot

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-predator-helios-300-15-2019-ph315-52/

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THU MUA MACBOOK
4 years ago

Acer is increasingly successful with Gaming !!!!!!

Laptop cũ Tphcm
4 years ago

Acer The Best Laptop Gaming in the Worlds !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vianca
Vianca
4 years ago

Does the surrounding blue lining on the touchpad light up?

M POWER
M POWER
4 years ago
Reply to  Vianca

NO

Thien Nguyen
Thien Nguyen
4 years ago

I bought the incorrect laptop profile. Can I swap the nitro 5 profile to this one instead?

Rj bolt
Rj bolt
4 years ago

It is already been thunder bolted