The New ASA Helios 300 Gaming Laptop: A Review of Its Performance and Features

It's awesome to see companies like ASA pushing the boundaries of laptop design and performance. Having this as a default is great, especially for those who would have never otherwise attempted these methods to boost performance. Now, for the benchmarking tools I've tested Heaven Valley and Superposition from Unigine as well as Fire Strike Times by Portroyal and VR Mark from 3D Mark. Just pause the video if you want a detailed look at these results.

We've got the option of making some changes to improve performance, so let's see how these performance boosts actually translate into games. I've tested with stock out-of-the-box settings, still under-vaulted with turbo mode enabled and with turbo mode plus my extra on the vault. Far Cry 5 was tested using the built-in benchmark at 1080p. There's a lot going on here, so let me explain.

The purple bars represent stock settings, still with the under-vault just default fan speed and no GPU overclocking. The green bars are with turbo mode enabled, so higher fan speed, CPU power limit raised, and with GPU overclocking. The red bars are the same but with the under-vault pushed further to -0.1 volts. We can see that this might be too far, as in this game we're getting low 1% low performance at most selling levels.

However, the boosted CPU TDP limit from turbo mode is what seems to be giving us the increased performance here in this game. The GPU overclock would help a bit too, but as a CPU-heavy title, it would make less of a contribution. Basically, as long as you just hit the turbo button, you should be getting great performance without doing much else.

I've used Crystal Disk Mark to test the storage, and the 256 GB NVMe M2 SSD was performing quite well. My review unit also had a one terabyte 5400 rpm hard drive, though it was performing quite well, however, storage options may vary by region, so results would be different with different drives.

For updated pricing, check the links in the description as prices will change over time. At the time of recording in the US, the ASA Helios 300 is going for $1200 USD, which honestly is looking like amazing value when compared to the competition. Not only have we seen this machine outperforming higher spec models, but the price is quite a bit lower too.

Last year, the Helios 300 with GTX 1060 was one of the best-value machines for that level of performance, and it looks like they're holding on to that title in 2019. So, to conclude, the new ASA Helios 300 gaming laptop is a very impressive machine at this price point. It exceeded my expectations in pretty much every aspect.

The CPU under-volt out-of-the-box allows it to outperform the competition in many workloads, which is great for the majority of people who buy a laptop and either don't know how or aren't willing to tweak it. Game performance with turbo mode was excellent thanks to the boosted fan speed, raised CPU power limit, and GPU overclocked.

Gaming laptops around this price range usually cheap out on the screen but even color gamut and brightness were good here with minimal backlight bleed. While mine did have a 60 Hz screen, 144 Hz seems to be more commonly available from the listings I've seen.

Just double-check the specs when buying, as my review unit came with single-channel memory which would significantly reduce performance. The ones I've seen for sale in the US seem to be dual channels so not sure if this was just my review unit. The left air vents get partially covered by the power cable if you leave it running behind the back of the machine though, I didn't find this to practically make any difference.

Sometimes there was a delay when pressing the turbo button above the keyboard before the changes would actually activate but that could likely be fixed with future software updates. The power button is at the top-right corner of the keyboard so you could potentially miss-click it but these things honestly aren't deal-breakers for me.

Overall, the build quality of the machine was good and it's an upgrade over the older model in basically every aspect outside of these minor issues. This is a very impressive machine for the money, and based on my testing here, I can easily recommend this laptop. I'm interested to hear what you think about the new ASA Helios 300 gaming laptop there; let me know down in the comments.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe new Aesop rented a Helios 300 is one of the best gaming laptops I've tested for a while so let's find out why in this detailed review and help you decide if it's a laptop you should consider buying starting with the specs mine has the Intel i7 97 50 H CPU 81 NVIDIA GTX 16 60 TI graphics and 16 gig of memory running in dual channel mine has a 256 gig nvme MDOT two SSD and one terabyte hard drive for storage and a 15.6 inch 1080p 60 Hertz screen don't worry it's available with 144 Hertz - this is just what I've got for network connectivity it's got Gigabit Ethernet 802 11 AC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 there are a few different configurations available though such as with our TX 2060 or 2070 max-q and there's a 17 inch model to check the links in the description for prices the lid of the laptop is a matte black aluminium with blue accents and printer logo in the center the interior is also all matte black metal with more blue accenting while the bottom is plastic most of the edges were smooth the front metal edge and corners could be a little sharp on certain angles but were perfectly fine during normal use the new design looks significantly better compared to last year's model in my opinion let me know if you'd be interested in a comparison between them the weight is listed at 2.5 kilos on the aisa website and mine was 2.4 kilos with the 2.5 inch drive a populated with the 180 watt power brick and cables for charging the total rises to just under 3 kilos the dimensions of the laptop are 36 centimeters in width 25.4 centimeters in depth and just under two point three centimeters in height about average for a 15 inch machine this smaller build gives us seven point nine millimeter thin side bezels with a 79% screen to body ratio making it much less chunky looking and smaller in every dimension compared to last year's model the 15.6 inch 1080p 60 hertz IPS levels screen has a matte finish and good viewing angles no J sync available here there again don't panic it's available with a three millisecond 144 Hertz option as well this just happened to be what I was sent I've measured the color gamut using the spider 5 pro and my results returned 90 6% of sRGB 67% of ntsc and 73% of Adobe RGB at 100% brightness in the center and measured 312 nits with a 890 to 1 contrast ratio sir overall above-average results for a gaming laptop at this price point but expect different results with the 144 Hertz panel Steven from owner disowned got 94% srgb on the 144 Hertz won so still seems to be quite good backlight bleed wasn't too bad some slight imperfections around most sides but they were extremely subtle and I never actually noticed these while viewing darker content there was some screenflex but it wasn't that bad due to the lid being metal and the hinges being in it towards the far corners made it feel quite sturdy absolutely no problems at all opening it up with one finger it felt quite well-balanced and no problems using it on my lap the top bezel isn't too thin so plenty of room to fit the camera the 720p camera is about average it looks ok that's still a bit blurry and the microphone sounds about average too here's what typing sounds like and here's what it sounds like when you hit the Terman button and boost the fan speed alright let's talk about the keyboard in my previous videos featuring this laptop many pointed out that the 1660 TI model doesn't come with RGB lighting so I'm not sure what to tell you because mine has it I asked ASA for clarification on this and was told that all new helios 300 laptops have four-zone RGB lighting however I'm assuming this may be for the Australian region only as others from the US have clearly shown their blue only and need to get a higher tier r-tx model to get the RGB lighting so basically I'm still not sure but it seems to vary by region so just double check the listing when you're buying and ask the seller to confirm when in doubt anyway lighting aside the WASD and arrow keys have blue accenting and all the lighting comes through all the keys and even secondary functions I liked typing with the keyboard and didn't have any problems using it it worked well for me here's what it sounds like to give you an idea of what to expect on the right above the numpad there's a dedicated button for opening the printers and software while the power button is found in the top right corner personally I much prefer having the power button separated from the keyboard to avoid accidental presses though I'd never pressed this one by mistake above the keyboard on the left we've also got the turbo button pressing this will boost the fan speed raise the CPU power limit and overclock the graphics for increased performance unfortunately this button does need the prejudice and software installed to work and sometimes while pressing it I did find there could be anywhere from a 1 to 5 second delay before turbo mode would enable these settings could also be enabled manually through the prejudiced and soft weather which lets us control things like overclocking fan speed keyboard lighting and more there was some keyboard flex while pushing down hard but during normal use the metal body was sturdy and this was never an issue the touch pad has precision drivers was smooth to the touch and worked well it clicks down anywhere through the area at the top was pretty much impossible to press down and it supports all the usual gestures fingerprints and dirt show up quite easily on the black finish but as it's a smooth surface they're easy to clean on the left from the back there's a Kensington lock air exhaust vent power input status LEDs Gigabit Ethernet 2 USB 3 type-a ports and 3.5 millimeter audio combo jack on the right from the front there's a USB 3 type C port no Thunderbolt support there a third USB 3 type-a port mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 outputs followed by another air exhaust on the back there are two air exhausts near the corners with a blue finish and like other Acer laptops a warning about it being a hot surface though I didn't find mine to get too hot there there's nothing on the front it's just plastic and as part of the bottom panel on the matte black aluminium lid is the predator logo in the center it lights up blue from the screens backlight so the color can not be changed and the two lines on the sides don't let up at all underneath there are some air intake vents towards the back and the rubber feed did a good job of preventing movement while in use the two speakers are found under here towards the front left and right corners they sound about average all right but not amazing fine for a laptop with minimal bass and they seem to get loud enough at max volume with music playing though the latency one result didn't look good speaking of sounds by default it plays this one on boot you can turn it off through the predator sense software or in the bio slur as for the BIOS just quickly here's a run-through of all the settings available it seemed fairly basic with not too many Advanced Options the bottom panel can be removed by taking out ten screws with a Phillips head screwdriver inside from left to right we've got the Wi-Fi card single 2.5 inch drive bay 2 m dot two slots two memory slots and battery my review unit actually came to me in single channel for all testing in this video I upgraded to dual channel with a team group memory kit I tested in this configuration both for best performance and also because it's salt with dual channel to my review unit also came with the hard drive pre-installed otherwise it also comes with a kit for you to put the drive into and requires you to attach a ribbon cable to the motherboard powering the laptop is a fifty eight one hour battery I've tested it with the screen brightness at 50% background ups disabled and all RGB lighting off while just watching YouTube videos it lasted for 5 hours and 52 minutes a great result for this test and it was using the Intel graphics within video optimists while playing The Witcher 3 with medium settings and invidious battery boost set to 30fps the battery lasted for one hour in 23 minutes in total and was stable at 30 fps until there was 4 percent charge remaining where low into 8 FBS and was no longer usable so overall an above-average battery life compared to other gaming laptops I've tested when you unplug the laptop from the power you won't be able to use turbo mode all the overclocking features the 180 watt power brick that acer included with the Helios 300 appears to be adequate for these specs I wasn't seeing any battery drain during any of my testing with the heav'n benchmark and a 264 CPU stress test running it was only using about 9 percent more power with turbo mode enabled let's move on to the thermal testing air comes through the vents on the bottom and is exhausted out the two vents on the back and there are two more exhausts on either side up the back for a total of four exhausts I noticed that the power cable has a thick head and when running it out towards the back it does partially block some of the exhaust on the left though I didn't find this to practically make a difference in terms of heat pipes there's just one shared between the processor and graphics so it doesn't look like much in the way of calling compared to what we usually see though there are four heat sinks in total two for each fan the fan on the left has metal blades while the one on the right is plastic by default ASA has actually under bolted the laptop by - 0.125 volts which is great to see so we are expecting above-average results compared to the competition at stock I've tested with both the default settings and with the turbo profile the turbo profile will max out the fans increase the power limit of the CPU and overclock the graphics the CPU was under bolted out of the box regardless of what mode you use so it's always enabled thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius so expect different results in different environments I've tested idle down the bottom and it was on the cooler side the rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads and meant to represent worst-case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time the gaming results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing watchdogs - while stress test results on the lower half are from running - a 264 CPU stress test with only stress CPU checked and the heav'n benchmark at the same time to fully load the system let's start with the stress test results at stock so still with the default under bolt the CPU is reaching 90 degrees in this test with this setting under this workload power limit throttling was the main barrier however it was occasionally peeking into brief thermal throttling territory it just wasn't constantly happening at least in my 21 degree room once we enabled the turbo profile which can be done by simply pressing the turbo button above the keyboard the temperatures of both the CPU and GPU drop as this sets the fan speed to maximum as mentioned the turbo profile boosts the CPU TDP thereby reducing power limit rattling but despite this when not seeing more heat but we'll see in the next graph how clock speeds were affected I've also gone one step further and pushed the under bolt as far as I could to minus 0.1 7 volts and this saw the temperatures dropped by a further three to four degrees giving us around the same results as using a cooling pad with the turbo profile and stock under vault when we combine the cooling pad with the best possible under mold though we're seeing some very nice temperatures in this workload the gaming results saw a similar pattern to what was just explained for the same reasons and even with the turbo profile enabled the results are pretty good compared to other machines I've recently tested under these same tests but again we can make further improvements by under vaulting further or using a cooling pad these are the average clock speeds for the same tests - shown we're seeing a decent improvement to the CPU and GPU clock speeds just by enabling turbo mode this is because it's overclocking the graphics and raising the power limit of the CPU allowing for increased performance as we saw in the last graph despite these boosts the faster fans were able to keep temperatures from increasing in pretty much all cases with turbo mode we're able to hit the full 4 gigahertz or Core turbo boost speed of the i7 9750 H CPU in this workload it is worth remembering that I am only testing a 264 with the CPU only option checked but at the same time to be fair I have always used this setting and these are still great results compared to other laptops I've recently tested the asou SCAR 3 comes to mind which struggled to hit 3 gigahertz at stock in the same workload these are the average CPU TDP values during these same tests we can see the increase that happens when enabling turbo mode as this boosts pl1 from 45 watts to 56 watts even under these combined CPU and GPU loads it's still able to get up there without getting too hot as we've seen if you're interested in seeing how it performed when we remove the default under x asa check my detailed thermal testing video linked in the top right here are some Cinebench cpu benchmarks showing the single and multi-core performance again the stock result is with their under bolt in place but once we enable turbo mode were able to get a nice improvement with a little extra with my additional under vaulting these are the results from the oldest Cinebench r15 as a less intensive test i saw no difference between turbo and my custom undervolt as for the external temperatures will actually be putting your hands at idle it was just below the usual 30 degree average while gaming with the fan at Auto speed the WASD Keys were a little warm while the middle was warm to the touch similar results with the stress tests going getting to about 50 up the back though you won't be touching there so no problem with the stress tests going and turbo mode enabled the temperatures drop back a few degrees due to the faster fan speed despite the improved performance this mode provides us as for the fan noise produced by the laptop alaya listen to some of these tests I died all the fans were just audible though as we saw the temperatures were still cool while gaming with the fans on auto speed it was a little below average when compared to most other gaming laptops I've tested same results with the stress tests but when we enable turbo mode which applies our GPU overclock and raises the CPU power limit it gets quite loud however you can control the fan speed through the predator sense software to find a happy middle ground however all I was very impressed with the thermal performance from the Helios 300 granted most of this is down to the out-of-the-box stock on the vault this is still great to see and I hope more companies start doing it in the future at all stock settings it was running a bit warm but even worst case thermal throttling was minimal and only during brief spikes and we were still seeing high clock speeds though this will vary based on room temp it was possible to improve this by boosting the fan speed with additional under bolting or using a cooling pad considering the performance we're seeing in games compared to other higher end machines I'm pretty happy with these results next let's take a look at some gaming benchmarks I've tested with the turbo profile in use for Best Performance and as a reminder this does overclock the graphics and boost the CPU power element battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode as it's easier to consistently reproduce the test run maxed out at Ultra settings still got us ad FPS averages and was easily playable no problem but we'll see later how these results compared to other laptops apex legends was tested with either all settings of maximum or all settings at the lowest possible values as it doesn't have predefined setting presets it still played well at Ultra settings however we could boost average FPS by a massive 61 percent with minimum settings shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built-in benchmark the results from this test were looking good at high settings but out lower settings these are some of the highest numbers I've ever seen from this test just like apex and most upcoming games we're getting excellent performance at low settings due to the stocks CPU on the vault far cry new dawn was tested with the built-in benchmark this game seems to be fairly CPU heavy so it's no surprise that we're getting excellent results from this test again due to that stock CPU Wonderbolt allowing for above-average levels of performance for tonight was tested with the replay feature again Louis settings the average FPS is super high thanks to that improved CP performance and even at epic settings above 100 FPS was still possible no problem overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range once more super high frame rates at lower settings too bad we don't have a 240 Hertz screen here as even high settings as hitting that threshold csgo was tested using the UN achill FPS benchmark and as a game that is pretty CPU bound the average FPS results here is some of the best I've seen in a while with over 300 fps averages possible at minimum settings and still above 240 at maximum again where's that 240 Hertz screen out Rainbow six siege was tested with the built-in benchmark and is a game I found a benefit from invidious nuturing architecture even with maximum ultra settings we're getting 100 for the 1% lawyer so still perfectly smooth in this test with up to 200 FPS averages possible at low settings pub G was tested using the replay feature and at highest settings the average FPS is a little lower than many other more powerful laptops with high tier graphics as expected but at very low settings the framerate is very good again due to that boosted CP performance Assassin's Creed Odyssey was tested with the built-in benchmark and from my experience seems to be a fairly CPU heavy game so it's lucky we're getting great CPU performance here this is impressive the asou scar 3 with our TX 2070 that costs over 1,000 u.s. dollars more is actually behind in this test at every setting level except ultra weather 2070 is able to save it by 3 FPS dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on and is yet another game that I found to prefer higher CPU power so the results are once more very impressive for this game I feel like I'm repeating myself but watchdogs 2 is another game that works well with higher CPU power 90 FPS at lower settings is a very good result in this game from a laptop and while the framerate at Ultra is lower as we start getting more GPU bound in my opinion this one runs fine at 30fps so still no problems at all there The Witcher 3 was playing great with her works disabled and I found this to be somewhat more GPU demanding at higher settings so no insanely high frame rates at Ultra it's still performing very well without any issues with much higher possible at lower settings should you need it if you're after more gaming benchmarks check the card in the top right corner where I've tested 20 games in total let's also take a look at how this config of the new Acer Helios 300 compares with other laptops to see how it stacks up use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times with different drivers in battlefield 5 I've got the Helios 300 towards the bottom in red with another 16 60 TI laptop I recently tested though this one is giving us much better performance due to the i7 CPU not only that but these out-of-the-box results are giving the best 1% lower out of all of these machines even smashing the 2080 mxq machines due to the default CPU one volt even the average frame rates are a fair bit ahead of the 2060 and closer to the 2070 max key results due to the overclocking here are the results from far cry 5 with ultra settings in the built-in benchmark I found this to be a pretty CPU heavy test so as same crazy results here the Helios 300 is just 1 to 2 FPS behind the 2070 machines and the 20 a team execute in the gs-7 5 and actually baiting the razor blade with 20 80 max gear as for 1% lower the Helios 300 is again ahead of every other machine on this graph thanks to that stock CPU on the vault seriously impressive stuff these are the results from shadow of the term raider with the built-in benchmark at highest settings this test tends to be more GPU heavy so the results are toned down a bit compared to the last game that said we're still just ahead of the 2016 oisin x' though not quite at the 2070 max Q level this time still though a nice result considering this as maximum settings that GPU overclocked is likely helping out here the Helios 300 is providing extremely impressive results considering the specs and is punching well above its weight it's worth remembering that turbo mode is overclocking the GPU and the CPU is under bolted out of the box which is why we're seeing such high levels of performance when it comes to the lowest settings and 1% lower results is this unfair I don't think sir I do my game testing with all of these laptops in the best available mode they ship with Acer adjust the only ones under bolting out of the box and applying over clocks this high considering that I had no stability issues I think this is awesome to see and I hope we see more companies doing this in the future it is worth remembering that we can of course overclock and undervolt the other machines too but I still think having this as a default is great to see especially for those that would have never otherwise even attempted these methods to boost performance now for the benchmarking tools I've tested Heaven Valley and superposition from Unigine as well as fire strike times by portroyal and VR mark from 3d mark just pause the video if you want a detailed look at these results as we saw earlier we've got the option of making some changes to improve performance so let's see how these performance boosts actually translate into games I've tested with stock out-of-the-box settings so still under vaulted with turbo mode enabled and with turbo mode plus my extra on the vault Far Cry 5 was tested using the built in benchmark at 1080p there's a lot going on here so let me explain the purple bars represent stock settings so still with the under vault just default fan speed and no GPU overclocking the green bars are with turbo mode enabled so higher fan speed CPU power limit raised and with GPU overclocking the red bars are the same but with the under vault pushed further to minus 0.1 7 volts and we can see that this might be too far as in this game we're getting low 1% low performance at most selling levels in any case the boosted CPU TDP limit from turbo mode is what seems to be giving us the increased performance here in this game the GPU overclock would help a bit too but as a CPU heavy title it would be making less of a contribution basically as long as you just hit the turbo button you should be getting great performance without doing much else I've used crystal disk mark to test the storage and the 256 gig nvme m2 SSD was performing quite well my review unit also had a one terabyte 5400 rpm hard drive though it was performing quite well however storage options may vary by region so results would be different with different drives for updated pricing check the links in the description as prices will change over time at the time of recording in the US the ASA Helios 300 is going for 1200 u.s. dollars which honestly is looking like amazing value when compared with the competition not only have we seen this machine outperforming higher spec models the price is quite a bit lower too last year the Helios 300 with gtx 1060 was one of the best value machines for that level of performance and it looks like they're holding on to that title in 2019 so to conclude the new ASA Helios 300 gaming laptop is a very impressive machine at this price point it exceeded my expectations in pretty much every aspect the CPU under bolt out of the box allows it to outperform the competition in many workloads which is great for the majority of people who buy a laptop and either don't know how or aren't willing to tweak it game performance with turbo mode was excellent thanks to the boosted fan speed raised CPU power limit and GPU overclocked gaming laptops around this price range usually cheap out on the screen but even color gamut and brightness were good here with minimal backlight bleed while mine did have a 60 Hertz screen 144 Hertz seems to be more commonly available from the listings I've seen a lion so just double check the specs when buying the battery life was above average for a gaming laptop the keyboard and touchpad worked well and in my opinion overall it just looks better when compared to the older 2018 model with slimmer bezels and ditching the red color scheme for blue the only negatives I have is that this particular review unit came with single channel memory which would significantly reduce performance the ones I've seen for sale in the u.s. seem to be dual channels so not sure if this was just my review unit the left air vents get partially covered by the power cable if you leave it running behind the back of the machine though I didn't find this to practically make any difference sometimes there was a delay when pressing the turbo button above the keyboard before the changes would actually activate but that could likely be fixed with future software updates the power button is at the top right corner of the keyboard so you could potentially miss click it but these things honestly aren't deal-breakers for me overall the build quality of the machine was good and it's an upgrade over the older model in basically every aspect outside of these minor issues this is a very impressive machine for the money and based on my testing here I can easily recommend this laptop I'm interested to hear what you think about the new ASA Helios 300 gaming laptop there let me know down in the comments and if you're new to the channel get subscribed for future laptop reviews and tech videos like this onethe new Aesop rented a Helios 300 is one of the best gaming laptops I've tested for a while so let's find out why in this detailed review and help you decide if it's a laptop you should consider buying starting with the specs mine has the Intel i7 97 50 H CPU 81 NVIDIA GTX 16 60 TI graphics and 16 gig of memory running in dual channel mine has a 256 gig nvme MDOT two SSD and one terabyte hard drive for storage and a 15.6 inch 1080p 60 Hertz screen don't worry it's available with 144 Hertz - this is just what I've got for network connectivity it's got Gigabit Ethernet 802 11 AC Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 there are a few different configurations available though such as with our TX 2060 or 2070 max-q and there's a 17 inch model to check the links in the description for prices the lid of the laptop is a matte black aluminium with blue accents and printer logo in the center the interior is also all matte black metal with more blue accenting while the bottom is plastic most of the edges were smooth the front metal edge and corners could be a little sharp on certain angles but were perfectly fine during normal use the new design looks significantly better compared to last year's model in my opinion let me know if you'd be interested in a comparison between them the weight is listed at 2.5 kilos on the aisa website and mine was 2.4 kilos with the 2.5 inch drive a populated with the 180 watt power brick and cables for charging the total rises to just under 3 kilos the dimensions of the laptop are 36 centimeters in width 25.4 centimeters in depth and just under two point three centimeters in height about average for a 15 inch machine this smaller build gives us seven point nine millimeter thin side bezels with a 79% screen to body ratio making it much less chunky looking and smaller in every dimension compared to last year's model the 15.6 inch 1080p 60 hertz IPS levels screen has a matte finish and good viewing angles no J sync available here there again don't panic it's available with a three millisecond 144 Hertz option as well this just happened to be what I was sent I've measured the color gamut using the spider 5 pro and my results returned 90 6% of sRGB 67% of ntsc and 73% of Adobe RGB at 100% brightness in the center and measured 312 nits with a 890 to 1 contrast ratio sir overall above-average results for a gaming laptop at this price point but expect different results with the 144 Hertz panel Steven from owner disowned got 94% srgb on the 144 Hertz won so still seems to be quite good backlight bleed wasn't too bad some slight imperfections around most sides but they were extremely subtle and I never actually noticed these while viewing darker content there was some screenflex but it wasn't that bad due to the lid being metal and the hinges being in it towards the far corners made it feel quite sturdy absolutely no problems at all opening it up with one finger it felt quite well-balanced and no problems using it on my lap the top bezel isn't too thin so plenty of room to fit the camera the 720p camera is about average it looks ok that's still a bit blurry and the microphone sounds about average too here's what typing sounds like and here's what it sounds like when you hit the Terman button and boost the fan speed alright let's talk about the keyboard in my previous videos featuring this laptop many pointed out that the 1660 TI model doesn't come with RGB lighting so I'm not sure what to tell you because mine has it I asked ASA for clarification on this and was told that all new helios 300 laptops have four-zone RGB lighting however I'm assuming this may be for the Australian region only as others from the US have clearly shown their blue only and need to get a higher tier r-tx model to get the RGB lighting so basically I'm still not sure but it seems to vary by region so just double check the listing when you're buying and ask the seller to confirm when in doubt anyway lighting aside the WASD and arrow keys have blue accenting and all the lighting comes through all the keys and even secondary functions I liked typing with the keyboard and didn't have any problems using it it worked well for me here's what it sounds like to give you an idea of what to expect on the right above the numpad there's a dedicated button for opening the printers and software while the power button is found in the top right corner personally I much prefer having the power button separated from the keyboard to avoid accidental presses though I'd never pressed this one by mistake above the keyboard on the left we've also got the turbo button pressing this will boost the fan speed raise the CPU power limit and overclock the graphics for increased performance unfortunately this button does need the prejudice and software installed to work and sometimes while pressing it I did find there could be anywhere from a 1 to 5 second delay before turbo mode would enable these settings could also be enabled manually through the prejudiced and soft weather which lets us control things like overclocking fan speed keyboard lighting and more there was some keyboard flex while pushing down hard but during normal use the metal body was sturdy and this was never an issue the touch pad has precision drivers was smooth to the touch and worked well it clicks down anywhere through the area at the top was pretty much impossible to press down and it supports all the usual gestures fingerprints and dirt show up quite easily on the black finish but as it's a smooth surface they're easy to clean on the left from the back there's a Kensington lock air exhaust vent power input status LEDs Gigabit Ethernet 2 USB 3 type-a ports and 3.5 millimeter audio combo jack on the right from the front there's a USB 3 type C port no Thunderbolt support there a third USB 3 type-a port mini DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 outputs followed by another air exhaust on the back there are two air exhausts near the corners with a blue finish and like other Acer laptops a warning about it being a hot surface though I didn't find mine to get too hot there there's nothing on the front it's just plastic and as part of the bottom panel on the matte black aluminium lid is the predator logo in the center it lights up blue from the screens backlight so the color can not be changed and the two lines on the sides don't let up at all underneath there are some air intake vents towards the back and the rubber feed did a good job of preventing movement while in use the two speakers are found under here towards the front left and right corners they sound about average all right but not amazing fine for a laptop with minimal bass and they seem to get loud enough at max volume with music playing though the latency one result didn't look good speaking of sounds by default it plays this one on boot you can turn it off through the predator sense software or in the bio slur as for the BIOS just quickly here's a run-through of all the settings available it seemed fairly basic with not too many Advanced Options the bottom panel can be removed by taking out ten screws with a Phillips head screwdriver inside from left to right we've got the Wi-Fi card single 2.5 inch drive bay 2 m dot two slots two memory slots and battery my review unit actually came to me in single channel for all testing in this video I upgraded to dual channel with a team group memory kit I tested in this configuration both for best performance and also because it's salt with dual channel to my review unit also came with the hard drive pre-installed otherwise it also comes with a kit for you to put the drive into and requires you to attach a ribbon cable to the motherboard powering the laptop is a fifty eight one hour battery I've tested it with the screen brightness at 50% background ups disabled and all RGB lighting off while just watching YouTube videos it lasted for 5 hours and 52 minutes a great result for this test and it was using the Intel graphics within video optimists while playing The Witcher 3 with medium settings and invidious battery boost set to 30fps the battery lasted for one hour in 23 minutes in total and was stable at 30 fps until there was 4 percent charge remaining where low into 8 FBS and was no longer usable so overall an above-average battery life compared to other gaming laptops I've tested when you unplug the laptop from the power you won't be able to use turbo mode all the overclocking features the 180 watt power brick that acer included with the Helios 300 appears to be adequate for these specs I wasn't seeing any battery drain during any of my testing with the heav'n benchmark and a 264 CPU stress test running it was only using about 9 percent more power with turbo mode enabled let's move on to the thermal testing air comes through the vents on the bottom and is exhausted out the two vents on the back and there are two more exhausts on either side up the back for a total of four exhausts I noticed that the power cable has a thick head and when running it out towards the back it does partially block some of the exhaust on the left though I didn't find this to practically make a difference in terms of heat pipes there's just one shared between the processor and graphics so it doesn't look like much in the way of calling compared to what we usually see though there are four heat sinks in total two for each fan the fan on the left has metal blades while the one on the right is plastic by default ASA has actually under bolted the laptop by - 0.125 volts which is great to see so we are expecting above-average results compared to the competition at stock I've tested with both the default settings and with the turbo profile the turbo profile will max out the fans increase the power limit of the CPU and overclock the graphics the CPU was under bolted out of the box regardless of what mode you use so it's always enabled thermal testing was completed in an ambient room temperature of 21 degrees Celsius so expect different results in different environments I've tested idle down the bottom and it was on the cooler side the rest of the results are from combined CPU and GPU workloads and meant to represent worst-case scenarios as I ran them for extended periods of time the gaming results towards the upper half of the graph were tested by playing watchdogs - while stress test results on the lower half are from running - a 264 CPU stress test with only stress CPU checked and the heav'n benchmark at the same time to fully load the system let's start with the stress test results at stock so still with the default under bolt the CPU is reaching 90 degrees in this test with this setting under this workload power limit throttling was the main barrier however it was occasionally peeking into brief thermal throttling territory it just wasn't constantly happening at least in my 21 degree room once we enabled the turbo profile which can be done by simply pressing the turbo button above the keyboard the temperatures of both the CPU and GPU drop as this sets the fan speed to maximum as mentioned the turbo profile boosts the CPU TDP thereby reducing power limit rattling but despite this when not seeing more heat but we'll see in the next graph how clock speeds were affected I've also gone one step further and pushed the under bolt as far as I could to minus 0.1 7 volts and this saw the temperatures dropped by a further three to four degrees giving us around the same results as using a cooling pad with the turbo profile and stock under vault when we combine the cooling pad with the best possible under mold though we're seeing some very nice temperatures in this workload the gaming results saw a similar pattern to what was just explained for the same reasons and even with the turbo profile enabled the results are pretty good compared to other machines I've recently tested under these same tests but again we can make further improvements by under vaulting further or using a cooling pad these are the average clock speeds for the same tests - shown we're seeing a decent improvement to the CPU and GPU clock speeds just by enabling turbo mode this is because it's overclocking the graphics and raising the power limit of the CPU allowing for increased performance as we saw in the last graph despite these boosts the faster fans were able to keep temperatures from increasing in pretty much all cases with turbo mode we're able to hit the full 4 gigahertz or Core turbo boost speed of the i7 9750 H CPU in this workload it is worth remembering that I am only testing a 264 with the CPU only option checked but at the same time to be fair I have always used this setting and these are still great results compared to other laptops I've recently tested the asou SCAR 3 comes to mind which struggled to hit 3 gigahertz at stock in the same workload these are the average CPU TDP values during these same tests we can see the increase that happens when enabling turbo mode as this boosts pl1 from 45 watts to 56 watts even under these combined CPU and GPU loads it's still able to get up there without getting too hot as we've seen if you're interested in seeing how it performed when we remove the default under x asa check my detailed thermal testing video linked in the top right here are some Cinebench cpu benchmarks showing the single and multi-core performance again the stock result is with their under bolt in place but once we enable turbo mode were able to get a nice improvement with a little extra with my additional under vaulting these are the results from the oldest Cinebench r15 as a less intensive test i saw no difference between turbo and my custom undervolt as for the external temperatures will actually be putting your hands at idle it was just below the usual 30 degree average while gaming with the fan at Auto speed the WASD Keys were a little warm while the middle was warm to the touch similar results with the stress tests going getting to about 50 up the back though you won't be touching there so no problem with the stress tests going and turbo mode enabled the temperatures drop back a few degrees due to the faster fan speed despite the improved performance this mode provides us as for the fan noise produced by the laptop alaya listen to some of these tests I died all the fans were just audible though as we saw the temperatures were still cool while gaming with the fans on auto speed it was a little below average when compared to most other gaming laptops I've tested same results with the stress tests but when we enable turbo mode which applies our GPU overclock and raises the CPU power limit it gets quite loud however you can control the fan speed through the predator sense software to find a happy middle ground however all I was very impressed with the thermal performance from the Helios 300 granted most of this is down to the out-of-the-box stock on the vault this is still great to see and I hope more companies start doing it in the future at all stock settings it was running a bit warm but even worst case thermal throttling was minimal and only during brief spikes and we were still seeing high clock speeds though this will vary based on room temp it was possible to improve this by boosting the fan speed with additional under bolting or using a cooling pad considering the performance we're seeing in games compared to other higher end machines I'm pretty happy with these results next let's take a look at some gaming benchmarks I've tested with the turbo profile in use for Best Performance and as a reminder this does overclock the graphics and boost the CPU power element battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode and not in multiplayer mode as it's easier to consistently reproduce the test run maxed out at Ultra settings still got us ad FPS averages and was easily playable no problem but we'll see later how these results compared to other laptops apex legends was tested with either all settings of maximum or all settings at the lowest possible values as it doesn't have predefined setting presets it still played well at Ultra settings however we could boost average FPS by a massive 61 percent with minimum settings shadow of the Tomb Raider was tested with the built-in benchmark the results from this test were looking good at high settings but out lower settings these are some of the highest numbers I've ever seen from this test just like apex and most upcoming games we're getting excellent performance at low settings due to the stocks CPU on the vault far cry new dawn was tested with the built-in benchmark this game seems to be fairly CPU heavy so it's no surprise that we're getting excellent results from this test again due to that stock CPU Wonderbolt allowing for above-average levels of performance for tonight was tested with the replay feature again Louis settings the average FPS is super high thanks to that improved CP performance and even at epic settings above 100 FPS was still possible no problem overwatch is another well optimized game and was tested in the practice range once more super high frame rates at lower settings too bad we don't have a 240 Hertz screen here as even high settings as hitting that threshold csgo was tested using the UN achill FPS benchmark and as a game that is pretty CPU bound the average FPS results here is some of the best I've seen in a while with over 300 fps averages possible at minimum settings and still above 240 at maximum again where's that 240 Hertz screen out Rainbow six siege was tested with the built-in benchmark and is a game I found a benefit from invidious nuturing architecture even with maximum ultra settings we're getting 100 for the 1% lawyer so still perfectly smooth in this test with up to 200 FPS averages possible at low settings pub G was tested using the replay feature and at highest settings the average FPS is a little lower than many other more powerful laptops with high tier graphics as expected but at very low settings the framerate is very good again due to that boosted CP performance Assassin's Creed Odyssey was tested with the built-in benchmark and from my experience seems to be a fairly CPU heavy game so it's lucky we're getting great CPU performance here this is impressive the asou scar 3 with our TX 2070 that costs over 1,000 u.s. dollars more is actually behind in this test at every setting level except ultra weather 2070 is able to save it by 3 FPS dota 2 was tested playing in the middle lane with an average amount of action going on and is yet another game that I found to prefer higher CPU power so the results are once more very impressive for this game I feel like I'm repeating myself but watchdogs 2 is another game that works well with higher CPU power 90 FPS at lower settings is a very good result in this game from a laptop and while the framerate at Ultra is lower as we start getting more GPU bound in my opinion this one runs fine at 30fps so still no problems at all there The Witcher 3 was playing great with her works disabled and I found this to be somewhat more GPU demanding at higher settings so no insanely high frame rates at Ultra it's still performing very well without any issues with much higher possible at lower settings should you need it if you're after more gaming benchmarks check the card in the top right corner where I've tested 20 games in total let's also take a look at how this config of the new Acer Helios 300 compares with other laptops to see how it stacks up use these results as a rough guide only as they were tested at different times with different drivers in battlefield 5 I've got the Helios 300 towards the bottom in red with another 16 60 TI laptop I recently tested though this one is giving us much better performance due to the i7 CPU not only that but these out-of-the-box results are giving the best 1% lower out of all of these machines even smashing the 2080 mxq machines due to the default CPU one volt even the average frame rates are a fair bit ahead of the 2060 and closer to the 2070 max key results due to the overclocking here are the results from far cry 5 with ultra settings in the built-in benchmark I found this to be a pretty CPU heavy test so as same crazy results here the Helios 300 is just 1 to 2 FPS behind the 2070 machines and the 20 a team execute in the gs-7 5 and actually baiting the razor blade with 20 80 max gear as for 1% lower the Helios 300 is again ahead of every other machine on this graph thanks to that stock CPU on the vault seriously impressive stuff these are the results from shadow of the term raider with the built-in benchmark at highest settings this test tends to be more GPU heavy so the results are toned down a bit compared to the last game that said we're still just ahead of the 2016 oisin x' though not quite at the 2070 max Q level this time still though a nice result considering this as maximum settings that GPU overclocked is likely helping out here the Helios 300 is providing extremely impressive results considering the specs and is punching well above its weight it's worth remembering that turbo mode is overclocking the GPU and the CPU is under bolted out of the box which is why we're seeing such high levels of performance when it comes to the lowest settings and 1% lower results is this unfair I don't think sir I do my game testing with all of these laptops in the best available mode they ship with Acer adjust the only ones under bolting out of the box and applying over clocks this high considering that I had no stability issues I think this is awesome to see and I hope we see more companies doing this in the future it is worth remembering that we can of course overclock and undervolt the other machines too but I still think having this as a default is great to see especially for those that would have never otherwise even attempted these methods to boost performance now for the benchmarking tools I've tested Heaven Valley and superposition from Unigine as well as fire strike times by portroyal and VR mark from 3d mark just pause the video if you want a detailed look at these results as we saw earlier we've got the option of making some changes to improve performance so let's see how these performance boosts actually translate into games I've tested with stock out-of-the-box settings so still under vaulted with turbo mode enabled and with turbo mode plus my extra on the vault Far Cry 5 was tested using the built in benchmark at 1080p there's a lot going on here so let me explain the purple bars represent stock settings so still with the under vault just default fan speed and no GPU overclocking the green bars are with turbo mode enabled so higher fan speed CPU power limit raised and with GPU overclocking the red bars are the same but with the under vault pushed further to minus 0.1 7 volts and we can see that this might be too far as in this game we're getting low 1% low performance at most selling levels in any case the boosted CPU TDP limit from turbo mode is what seems to be giving us the increased performance here in this game the GPU overclock would help a bit too but as a CPU heavy title it would be making less of a contribution basically as long as you just hit the turbo button you should be getting great performance without doing much else I've used crystal disk mark to test the storage and the 256 gig nvme m2 SSD was performing quite well my review unit also had a one terabyte 5400 rpm hard drive though it was performing quite well however storage options may vary by region so results would be different with different drives for updated pricing check the links in the description as prices will change over time at the time of recording in the US the ASA Helios 300 is going for 1200 u.s. dollars which honestly is looking like amazing value when compared with the competition not only have we seen this machine outperforming higher spec models the price is quite a bit lower too last year the Helios 300 with gtx 1060 was one of the best value machines for that level of performance and it looks like they're holding on to that title in 2019 so to conclude the new ASA Helios 300 gaming laptop is a very impressive machine at this price point it exceeded my expectations in pretty much every aspect the CPU under bolt out of the box allows it to outperform the competition in many workloads which is great for the majority of people who buy a laptop and either don't know how or aren't willing to tweak it game performance with turbo mode was excellent thanks to the boosted fan speed raised CPU power limit and GPU overclocked gaming laptops around this price range usually cheap out on the screen but even color gamut and brightness were good here with minimal backlight bleed while mine did have a 60 Hertz screen 144 Hertz seems to be more commonly available from the listings I've seen a lion so just double check the specs when buying the battery life was above average for a gaming laptop the keyboard and touchpad worked well and in my opinion overall it just looks better when compared to the older 2018 model with slimmer bezels and ditching the red color scheme for blue the only negatives I have is that this particular review unit came with single channel memory which would significantly reduce performance the ones I've seen for sale in the u.s. seem to be dual channels so not sure if this was just my review unit the left air vents get partially covered by the power cable if you leave it running behind the back of the machine though I didn't find this to practically make any difference sometimes there was a delay when pressing the turbo button above the keyboard before the changes would actually activate but that could likely be fixed with future software updates the power button is at the top right corner of the keyboard so you could potentially miss click it but these things honestly aren't deal-breakers for me overall the build quality of the machine was good and it's an upgrade over the older model in basically every aspect outside of these minor issues this is a very impressive machine for the money and based on my testing here I can easily recommend this laptop I'm interested to hear what you think about the new ASA Helios 300 gaming laptop there let me know down in the comments and if you're new to the channel get subscribed for future laptop reviews and tech videos like this one\n"