When looking for the best gaming laptops on the market, I’m always interested in affordable options.While models with price tags of $2,000 (or more!) often pack a ton of power, gamers on a smaller budget are now flooded with lower-priced, great value options.
With that in mind, the Acer Predator Helio Neo 16 is a new contender in this segment, offering an Intel Core i7-13700HX processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 16-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) display This isn’t a budget system, but with a starting price of $1,199 and $1,549 as tested, it’s not unreasonable.
Acer has packed this hardware into a chassis that, while designed for 1440p gaming, won’t look out of place in an office environment thanks to its restrained design.
Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (512GB 16GB RAM) for $849.99 at Best Buy
Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 designThe Predator Helios Neo 16 is an all-new model from Acer with the clear goal of providing gamers with a modest price point. That said, I found the overall design to be very conservative, without much that stands out. The only Flash elements in the design are the WASD, arrows, and Predator Sense keys, which feature translucent black keycaps and clear black keycaps.
The black plastic chassis also creates a slight flickering effect when light hits it at certain angles. It’s subtle enough to add visual interest to the laptop without being in your face.
There are some thick bezels around the 16-inch display. The top bezel is roughly twice as wide as the sides, while the bottom bezel is quite large. Acer tried to break up the massive visuals with a chrome Predator logo, but with little success .
On the right side of the case, you’ll find two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type A) ports and a Kensington lock. Switching to the left side, Acer includes a USB 3.1 Gen 2 (Type-A) port, an Ethernet jack, a MicroSD card reader slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The rear panel has an HDMI 2.1 port, two Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) ports, and a proprietary jack for a 330-watt power adapter.
The Predator Helios Neo 16 measures 14.18 x 11.02 x 1.05 inches and weighs 5.73 pounds. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i and Gigabyte Aorus 15X are similar in size and weight, while the Razer Blade 14 has a smaller, naturally sleeker display, measuring 12.23 x 8.97 x 0.70 inches and weighing 4.05 pounds.
Gaming on the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16The Predator Helios Neo 16 comes with an Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and 16GB DDR5-4800 memory (2 x 8GB). Core i7-13700HX has 8 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, with a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 5 GHz.
To begin gaming testing with the Predator Helios Neo 16, I installed Cyberpunk 2077. On high settings with ray tracing enabled, DLSS balancing, and DLSS frame generation enabled at 1600p, I averaged 68 fps. Drop down to 1200p and that number rises to 90 fps.
Turning to our usual suite of gaming benchmarks, I compared the Predator Helios Neo 16 against the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (i7-13700HX, RTX 4060, 1600p), the Gigabyte Aorus 15X (i9-13900HX, RTX 4070, 1440p), and the Razer Blade 14 (Ryzen 9 7940HS, RTX 4070, 1600p). Note that RTX 4070-based systems will have an advantage in gaming benchmarks, and the RTX 4060 in the Legion Pro 5i has a higher slightly boost clock than the one in the Predator Helio Neo 16.
Next, I lined up Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings), with the Predator Helios Neo 16 tying for third place with the Blade 14 at 1080p at 90fps. However, its performance at 1600p put it in last place at 49 fps, compared to the Blade 14’s 52 fps. The Legion Pro 5i took gold with 97 fps at 1080p and 53 fps at 1440p.
To refine our benchmark, we ran MetroExodus benchmark (RTX settings) run at 1600p resolution over 15 loops. The benchmark ran at an average of 53.08 fps (consistently between 52.76 and 53.19 fps). During operation, the Core i7-13700HX averaged 2.19GHz for the performance cores and 1.82GHz for the efficiency cores, with a temperature of 65.7 degrees Celsius (150.3 degrees Fahrenheit). The GeForce RTX 4060 GPU ran at an average frequency of 2.29 GHz and measured a temperature of 73.2 C (163.8 F).
Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 productivity performanceThe Predator Helio Neo 16 comes with an Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU, 16GB DDR5-4800 RAM (2 x 8GB), and a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD.
Our Predator Helios Neo 16 review unit scored single-core and multi-core performance scores of 1,880 and 14,625 in Geekbench 5 respectively. Unsurprisingly, these numbers are close very to the Legion Pro 5i, which uses the same processor. Aorus 15X, with its stronger Core i9-13900HX, won the top honor with a single-core score of 2,007 points and a multi-core score of 18,129 points.
Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 In our 25GB file transfer test, the Predator Helios Neo 16 lagged far behind the competition. The laptop clocked in at 1,047.37 MBps, while the third-place Blade 14 clocked in at 1,230.04 MBps. However, the Legion Pro 5i took first place with 1,792.63 MBps.
Finally, in the Handbrake transcoding test, the Predator Helios Neo 16 tied for second with a time of 3:55, compared to the first-place Legion Pro 5i’s time of 3:39. Display on Acer Predator Helios Neo 16The PredatDisplay on the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 or Helios Neo 16 features a 16-inch IPS panel with a QHD+ (2560 x 1600) resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate. The panel is powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU.
16-inch is becoming a popular size for gaming laptops. 15.6 inches used to be the standard size, but we’re seeing more and more laptops with 16-inch panels, especially with QHD+ resolution. As far as the display is concerned, the IPS panel in the Predator Helios Neo 16 is powerful. Anti-glare coatings reduce reflections in almost every possible situation except direct sunlight.
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