Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-72) review – Desktop Performance in a Mini LED Laptop

Design and construction

When the lid is closed and all the RGBs are turned off, the Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-72) doesn’t look like a typical gaming laptop. The lid and the top of the base are made of aluminum while the panel bezels and the bottom are plastic. The laptop isn’t light and thin which is normal given the form factor and the hardware under the hood. The weight is 3.25 kilos and the profile thickness – 26.9 – 28.9 mm. It’s not your typical daily driver that fits with ease in most backpacks. This is a true desktop replacement that perhaps will “sit” on a desk most of the time.

The heavy lid can be opened with a single hand and the unit feels a bit flexible when we try to twist it but nothing too serious. Still, the base is sturdy.

The bezel beneath the display is a bit thicker than the other three which are thin. The top one houses a 1080p 60FPS Web camera with Temporal Noise Reduction. The unit also features tech such as far-field pickup and dynamic noise reduction through neural network.

Below the panel, you can see a long ventilation grill and the “Mode” key on the left. This one can be used for cycling between the power modes or you can turn on or off the “Turbo” mode (which will also ramp up the fans to their maximum RPM speed).

The keyboard has big keycaps with a pleasantly long travel and super clicky feedback. Since the base is big, there is enough space for a proper NumberPad (with a dedicated PredatorSense key) and big Arrow keys. The touchpad is huge and it has a Corning Gorilla Glass surface. It’s smooth,  you can glide your fingers with ease, and the accuracy is great. The only downside here is that the “clicks” are a bit noisy than usual.

The 4-zone RGB backlight of the keyboard can be controlled via the PredatorSense app. You can select different effects for the board zones or choose different colors for each of the WASD keys. By the way, these four keys with mechanical switches are swappable and their feedback during gaming feels great (we played a bit of Dead Island 2 and Call Of Duty: Warzone). Even the logo on the right palm rest area is customizable.

But that’s not all. You may tune the color lighting of the Predator logo on the lid and the so-called “Infinity Mirror” which is the illuminated rear cover on top of the back exhausts.

On the bottom plate, we can spot six ventilation grills that are different in size. The big rubber feet provide a very good grip. The hot air has been pushed through for vents – two on the sides and two on the back. The ones on the rear have the typical Acer “Thermal Deco” plastic covers that can be removed.

Ports

On the left, there is a 2.5Gbps LAN, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, a MicroSD card reader, and an Audio combo jack. The rear houses a power plug, an HDMI 2.1 connector, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort and charging capabilities (100W). On the right, you can rely on a Kensington lock slot and two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 2) ports (the latter supports the power-off charging function).

Author: Nikolay Palaozov

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.

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Joe

2 years ago

Is this any better than the 4080 i13? Is the cooling system better? Can you undervolt this version?

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zojad

1 year ago

Could you tell more about RAM thermal pad?
Can thermal pads be reinstalled after being removed from RAM? Or can they not be glued back on effectively?
I would like to buy such thermal pads, but they are hard to come by

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serggres

8 months ago

What if the lid was left closed, but the laptop didn’t go into sleep mode and got very hot while lying on the bed for 30 minutes? Could this have caused any mechanical damage to the hardware? If so, how can I check this and how can I understand whether there was any damage to the laptop?

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