The Predator Helios 18 AI is Acer’s flagship gaming laptop this year, with the company’s best and brightest all packed inside. We have Intel’s most powerful laptop CPU and NVIDIA’s most powerful GPU, a 4K mini LED display, and the ability to upgrade like a PC.
According to Acer’s homepage, Acer sells the Predator Helios 18 AI series for $2,999 with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, but you can easily upgrade the RAM and SSD later.
Acer Predator Helios 18 AI Hands-on: First Experience
Setup and Room to Grow
On the Predator Helios 18 AI, Acer allows users to upgrade to 192GB DDR5 RAM and 6TB PCIe Gen 5 SSD. Of course, it still supports Gen 4 well. The 1TB SSD inside this laptop is already PCIe Gen 5 protocol, so its theoretical read and write speed is very high.
Upgrading is not too tricky for desktop replacements because the ample space allows for abundant upgrades. For a regular user, 192GB of RAM is useless, but if you are a content creator who needs a laptop with desktop-like performance but is also highly portable, or you are an AI expert who needs to test models for your work, 192GB of RAM is enough to satisfy you.
RAM and SSD are as important as CPU or GPU because low speed will cause bottlenecks. It is commendable that both of these components on Acer Predator Helios 18 AI are high-speed components.
Regarding CPU, the Intel Core i9 9 275HX is almost the most powerful on Intel’s current laptops. It has 24 cores and 24 threads, a TDP of 80W, and can go up to 175W. Intel still does not have a more powerful laptop CPU, so the CPU is not a problem. The same goes for the GPU. The RTX 5090 24GB is currently the best version for playing games, doing creative work, or performing AI tasks.
When operating together in turbo mode, the CPU and GPU can “eat” up to 270W of power, and the charger with this laptop has a total capacity of 400W.
Cooling System
Cooling will be a problem for any laptop with that configuration inside. This is not a big problem for Acer because their experience and reality show that Acer laptops, whether Nitro or high-end Predator, always have an effective cooling system.
My previous experience with Acer laptops and the cooling system they announced will be enough to meet the power of the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090. Acer upgraded the AeroBlade cooling fan from the 5th generation to the 6th generation, and they said that this is currently the world’s thinnest metal cooling fan for laptops.
I have mentioned the cooling technologies on Acer several times, including optimized Vortex Flow, ultra-thin fan blades with specially designed fan blades, plus liquid metal thermal paste that will help keep the CPU and GPU cooler while still operating well for a long time.
4K Display with Dual-Mode
Acer equips the Predator Helios 18 AI with an 18-inch 4K resolution screen with a mini LED panel. This screen is special because Acer has two display modes.
The first is 4K 120Hz resolution, and the second is FHD 240Hz. These two resolutions will serve many different purposes, specifically for two gaming schools: AAA and Esports.
Esports players need speed, so they use FHD 240Hz for gaming. When they need beauty to watch or edit movies, they need 4K 120Hz for the best display optimization.
In addition, the Predator Helios 18 AI screen will have a full brightness of 1000 nits, 100% DCI-P3.
Look and Feel
The Predator Helios 18 AI’s highlight is a rugged design with RGB LEDs everywhere and a mechanical keyboard.
Some keys on the keyboard, such as WASD or navigation, will be mechanical, and we can easily replace the keycap. In addition, RGB LEDs are covered everywhere on the machine to make it more prominent.
Of course, the laptop will be heavy, difficult to move, and often associated with the name desktop replacement, rarely carried around. However, it still has the compelling performance that PC users demand.
Overall, the Predator Helios 18 AI design language of 2025 and previous years has not changed much because it already had a beautiful, square, strong, and individual design.
RGB LEDs on the logo, the palm rest, the bottom edge of the machine, and the hinge area will make this laptop stand out from the crowd.
The A side has a metal finish, and the rest is covered with a soft-touch material prone to fingerprints.
The connection port is also an upgraded detail in the 2025 version. It has a Thunderbolt 5 standard USB-C port, providing double the data transfer speed compared to the previous Thunderbolt 4. We also have HDMI 2.1 and USB-A to connect peripheral devices.
Other Features
We will also have Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and a 99.9Whr battery on the Predator Helios 18 AI. These are standard equipment for a flagship laptop for over $2,000 like this device.
Acer also equipped this laptop with AI features so users can use it more conveniently, such as PurifiedVoice 2.0 for noise reduction and PurifiedView 2.0 to enhance the webcam quality with AI.
With Acer, when users buy a device, we also have the famous 3S1 warranty policy, 1 for one exchange after 3 days if the repair of your laptop is not completed.
