Acer have unveiled a brand new monster 17.3in gaming laptop that has an extendable keyboard to assist maintain it cool. Dubbed the Predator Helios 700, Acer’s new flagship laptop computer guarantees “desktop gaming performance on the go” due to its full-fat Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 graphics chip and certainly one of Intel’s brand-new ninth Gen Core i9 cellular processors. Just be sure you don’t whip it out on the practice, otherwise you may by accident puncture a lung.
It’s a mad idea – though not fairly as bonkers because the Asus ROG Mothership I noticed at CES, which has a totally removable keyboard – however the thought is to permit extra air to achieve the laptop computer’s processor and GPU to assist forestall it from throttling and overheating.
It’s truly not too dissimilar from the design of the Asus ROG Zephyrus S I reviewed yesterday, which shunts the keyboard all the way down to the underside of the laptop computer to make extra room for its followers. Only right here, the entire of Acer’s so-called HyperDrift keyboard (as a result of all the things sounds higher with the phrase ‘Hyper’ in entrance of it) slides all the way down to reveal the followers beneath it.
This offers extra scope for overclocking, which you are able to do with a single click on due to its devoted Turbo button, and getting the utmost quantity of efficiency from it. In this place, the contact pad additionally drops down at an angle to hopefully give your palms someplace snug to relaxation – though I’ll have to attend till I’ve tried it out in particular person earlier than I can say how snug it’s in observe.
Open up the Helios 700 and it seems to be like an atypical gaming laptop computer, however slide it down… and ta da!
Now, the eagle-eyed readers amongst you will have observed that the Helios 700’s WASD keys look barely raised in comparison with the remainder of the keyboard. That’s as a result of they’re MagForce keys, which use linear switches for that brief, sharp mechanical-like feeling of a full-blown gaming keyboard. The neat factor about these, nonetheless, is that additionally they work a bit like an analogue stick on a controller. Press it half manner down, for example, and also you’ll stroll at half velocity, a bit like pushing an analogue stick only a teensy bit ahead as a substitute of all the way in which to the sting.
Personally, I’m not satisfied this can be significantly sensible in on a regular basis use – in any case, pushing a flat key down is kind of totally different from pushing a vertical stick in any given route – nevertheless it’s however an attention-grabbing addition that I’m eager to see in observe as quickly as evaluate samples change into accessible. The remainder of the keys, in the meantime, are simply common dome-style laptop computer keys. And after all, it wouldn’t be a gaming laptop computer with per-key RGB lighting rounding all of it off.
Acer high man Jason Chen didn’t go into a lot element about the remainder of the Helios 700’s specs – the ninth Gen Core i9 Intel processor remains to be beneath wraps in the intervening time and is because of be launched in a few weeks time – however he did reveal that this can even be overclockable and assist Intel’s tremendous quick Optane Memory to assist lower down on loading instances.
The solely massive disappointment concerning the Helios 700 is its 1920×1080 decision show. Sure, it has a 144Hz refresh charge and Nvidia G-Sync assist – which the RTX 2080 is nearly definitely going to have the ability to make full use of – however given the remainder of its high-end specs, it will have been good to see a 4K choice as properly.
Still, a 4K display screen would solely make this factor much more costly than it already is, with costs resulting from begin from a whopping $2700 within the US when it launches later this month, and 2700€ (UK pricing is but to be confirmed) when it arrives in Europe this July.
