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日本Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71) review – the RTX 4080 is absolutely mad
Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound
Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71) is equipped with an IPS panel, model number BOE NE180QDM-NZ2 (BOE0B79). It comes with a 240Hz refresh rate. Its diagonal is 18.0″ (45.7 cm), and the resolution – 2560 x 1600p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:10, the pixel density – 168 ppi, and their pitch – 0.15 x 0.15 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 52 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).
Viewing angles are good. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.
Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.
The maximum measured brightness is 538 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 503 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 9%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6530K (average) – almost matching the 6500K optimum for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits).
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 (a maximum tolerance of 2.0). We measured a good contrast ratio – 1270:1.
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 on 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 18 (PH18-71)’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, and 99% of DCI-P3, ensuring a super vibrant and attractive picture.
We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc.
Below you can compare the scores of the Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71) with the default settings (DCI-P3) and with our “Gaming and Web design profile”.
Also, you can see the sRGB accuracy results.
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 = 10 ms.
After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.
Health Impact: 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 display 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.
Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71)’s display doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment.
Health Impact: 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.
Health Impact: Gloss-level measurement
Glossy-coated displays are sometimes inconvenient in high ambient light conditions. We show the level of reflection on the screen for the respective laptop when the display is turned off and the measurement angle is 60° (in this case, the result is 49.4 GU).
Sound
Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-71)’s speakers produce a sound of very good quality and high maximum volume. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.
Where’s temperatures/clocks/power in stress test for CPU and GPU?
They said they’ll update it. They can’t at the moment as it’s an engineering sample
I was so suprised that i found a review for Acer Helios 18 but disappointed after that there is no MiniLED version 🙁
well, it’s March when is it coming out? April worldwide?
It’s in the stock in Germany now. 3200 Euro for 4080 and normal IPS display.
Why are you posting benchmarks of the 2023 helios against the 2022 of everyone else. Based on everyone of those benchmarks the acer loses to every other 2023 offering with the same equipment…
Warum die Tests in HD? Das ist Total unrealistisch, zumal das Notebook einen QHD Bildschirm hat 🤷♂️
Does it have 175W TGP? On the acer page and everywhere else I read that it only got 165W!? It would be much more interesting to compare this with other RTX 40XX cards and also other 4080s with the full 175W TGP..
And yes I also agree to others that it does not make any sense to have benchmarks in FHD while the laptop itself come in 1600p…
Would be nice if this could be updated otherwise this test is quite useless..
Hey, laptopgamer 🙂 Check this out:
https://laptopmedia.com/news/acer-claims-its-new-predator-has-a-165w-rtx-4080-its-actually-even-faster/
The tests are in FHD for comparison purposes, we didn’t have the chance to test with more resolutions
how far will the lid go back…. is it maxed in that photo?
How long is the battery life on this laptop?