Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-72) review – Desktop Performance in a Mini LED Laptop
Display quality, Health impact (PWM), Sound
Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-72) is equipped with a Mini LED, LTPS (Low Temperature PolySilicon LCD), WQXGA (Wide Quad Extended Graphics Array panel, model number AUO B180QAN01.2 (AUO45A8). It comes with a 250Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support. Its diagonal is 18″ (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 480 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 472 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of just 3% (HDR Off). The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 7030K. When HDR is enabled, the maximum brightness is over 1000 cd/m2 and depends on the picture content.
The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels. 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). The contrast ratio is very high, similar to OLED displays. The measured ANSI contrast is 16000:1.
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 (PH18-72)’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 100% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, and 100% 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 (PH18-72) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right) compared to the DCI-P3 color space.
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.
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 (PH18-72)’s backlight has significant pulsations. Their frequency is high, but the filling coefficient is very low. The last segment of the chart below is from another display, which has a similar maximum brightness but does not use PWM. This display might not be very comfortable for the more sensitive users.
The next graph shows the results with HDR mode enabled, based on a measurement of a white window opened in a browser for at least 5 seconds.
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 65.6 GU).
Sound
Acer Predator Helios 18 (PH18-72)’s DTS X: Ultra Audio speakers produce a sound of very good quality. Its low, mid, and high tones are clear of deviations.
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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Is this any better than the 4080 i13? Is the cooling system better? Can you undervolt this version?
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
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?