Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S Gaming Laptop | Intel i7-11800H | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 GPU | 15.6 FHD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display | 16GB DDR4 | 512GB SSD | Killer WiFi 6 | RGB Keyboard

Received this laptop as a birthday gift from my wife. Wanted to get something that would allow me to play the latest games without lag and replace my old laptop that had a failing keyboard. I use my computers for hours on end and have put this through its paces. For the price (especially considering the cost of things going up) this has been great.

The good: excellent gaming laptop. Handles anything ive thrown at it.

Just as described. This was easy to set up & use. It is fast and graphics are good too.

I didnt like how it heated up with games that have been out for almost 6 years.

Battery doesn’t charge when I’m using the laptop so it’s essentially useless considering it has about an hour worth of battery before dying. Look at reviews on other sites, the battery is a huge issue with this model/brand. I could have bought a regular laptop for 600 and not have ran into these issues.

For the price point this is a very good gaming laptop. There are definitely higher end laptops out there, but at a much higher price tag. For an introduction to the gaming laptop world or if you dont plan on playing newer games on max settings, this is definitely a good bet.

Okay, so I was hesitant on this laptop because some of the reviews mentioned bad temperatures. I was concerned with getting a laptop with bad thermal paste (which does happen). However, the laptop came super well! Lots of reviewers fail to mention the healthy temperature levels. Idle should be 30-45c. And under full load it should never go past 85c. EVER!!! If it goes past, its likely it could either be, 1: Bad Thermal Paste/application, 2: Bad Fans, 3:Lack of contact with HeatSinks. 4: Bad Ventilation. If buying new, and the temps arent matching, exchange it, as shipping can sometimes damage components. Laptops generally require maintenance. If heavy using, 1-2 Years. Make sure those temps never go past 85c. Over time you will have to replace the thermal paste or fans may give out. Arctic Mx4 is the best paste. Those are very very easy fixes. Just keep that in mind when buying ANY gaming laptop! If you are scared to tamper with it, buy some insurance and send it to acer. (Continuing with the review......) With poor ventilation I was reaching 85c. I bought a laptop cooler, the IETS with rubber rings. Im getting incredible temperatures! Never going past 78c! This laptop is very heavy on proper Ventilation. If you look at the design there are a ton of vents from the bottom that push out through the top of the keyboard. S1I think a laptop cooler is necessary if youre gonna be gaming. This thing is incredible. Im running games on High/Max settings (Elden Ring, warzone, apex) and getting awesome frames. I upgraded the ram to 32GB and this thing is a work horse. Dual rank 3200 32gb ram will increase your frames by about 15, and more opened tabs!! ;) I also installed a 2tb samsung ssd. (Which I highly recommend you do) It is much easier to install an nvme than the SATA one. So I would recommend getting a m.2 nvme. Opening the back piece for upgrades can be a challenge. There Is a trick to it, and its likely you will break something if you dont get it right. So dont force it! So be very careful and gentle when doing it. Use a pick to slowly Pry it open. Pull from the vents back side. The battery can get kinda hot too. So make sure its in a good spot. You can also set the battery charge level to 80% for longer battery lifespan. Thats pretty much it! Its an amazing laptop for the price and power! Bang for your buck! Happy gaming!

Overall the laptop is a decent buy for the price. I threw in a 2TB SSD and it is good to go. So far it is running games and apps with no problems. The main issues I have with it is that it feels super cheap to me. It the corners are sharp and almost scratch you if you rub your hands over them. The screen also has some bleeding on in a few spots on the top boarder. These are not deal breaking issues but I am concerned that taking it to work everyday it might become an issue since it feels like it could break at any time.

Possibly a defective unit but the laptop stopped working after two days. Apparently running google chrome and trying to open the start menu is too much for an advanced gaming laptop: it froze and I had to hard restart it. After which it didn’t actually pull up again, just cycled at the login.

This is a great midpoint laptop all around. Excellent microphone and sound is a plus