Acer Predator Helios 16 (PH16-71) review – liquid metal meets a huge power draw


If you remember the gaming laptops of the past – they were bulky, heavy, and super aggressive. However, modern technology has grown in such a way that manufacturers now have more headroom to play with the design. It can still remain aggressive, but it can be slimmer, or feature even more impressive hardware.

But what completely turned the laptop world on its head is something as trivial as narrowing down the bezels of the displays. This provided two options – make body panels that are smaller or introduce a larger display inside the same panels. For the first couple of years, we saw manufacturers take the first route.

However, NVIDIA decided to give laptop users even more power, now surpassing the 175W mark on some devices. This is where 16 and 18-inch notebooks come to fruition. Today, we are going to take a look at the Acer Predator Helios 16 (PH16-71).

But it is not just the screen size change that matters here. Acer now offers the laptop with a Mini LED optional display that has a 2560×1600 resolution, full DCI-P3 color coverage, as well as a 250Hz refresh rate. Unfortunately, we were not able to find one ourselves, but the option we got is similarly impressive.

In addition to the fantastic displays, the Predator Helios 16 features pretty capable hardware. The company has combined 55W processors from Intel with either the RTX 4060, RTX 4070, or RTX 4080 – depending on your preferences and budget.

But let’s not waste any more time with sweet talk. This laptop feels like it’s worth it, and we hope that we can prove that (to you and to ourselves) by the end of this review.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/acer-predator-helios-16-ph16-71/

Contents


Specs, Drivers, What’s in the box

Acer Predator Helios 16 (PH16-71) - Specs

  • BOE NE160QDM-NZ2
  • Color accuracy  2.8  1.7
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 8000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Pro, Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Pro
  • Battery
  • 90Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 357.78 x 278.74 x 24.90 - 26.90 mm (14.09" x 10.97" x 0.98")
  • Weight
  • 2.60 kg (5.7 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.1
  • Card reader
  • microSD (microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC)
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • FHD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Microphones with Acer Purified Voice
  • Speakers
  • Speaker, DTS X: Ultra
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Lock

All Acer Predator Helios 16 (PH16-71) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

Drivers

All drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://www.acer.com/us-en/support?search=Predator%20PH16-71&filter=global_download&suggest=helios%2016;2

What’s in the box?

As usual, this notebook comes in a black box. Inside, you will find a couple of paper manuals, a beastly 330W charger, as well as a few exhaust vent caps.



Subscribe
Notify of
guest
1 Comment
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Tony
Tony
10 months ago

Thanks, Alex. Very helpful. Question on the HDMI port: do you know whether it’s truly FRL? I’ve seen a lot that are actually TMDS or otherwise less than true FRL specs. I can’t find anything in the Acer’s documentation.