Acer knows how to make gaming laptops for a bargain price — the company’s Nitro series is consistently the best-selling gaming laptop on Amazon. Today you can get one with a little more oomph for about the same price. Best Buy has the Predator Helios Neo 16-incher for just $799.99, a savings of $400 off the retail price. Oh, and you get a free laptop sleeve, too.
The Predator Helios Neo is an old-school design, big and chunky to accommodate its 16-inch display. That screen is probably its standout feature. With a high-quality IPS panel and a speedy 165Hz refresh rate, you can really get the best out of this laptop’s hardware. The Core i5-13500HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card are decidedly mid-range, but they should be able to play the latest games.
16GB of DDR5 RAM and 512GB of storage aren’t the best in the world either, but fortunately both of these components can be upgraded fairly easily. That’s the advantage of having a big, chunky body. The Predator Helios Neo has both of its SO-DIMM slots available to the user, and one is occupied, so add in a 16GB stick and you can double the RAM easily. While you have that case cracked you can upgrade the storage with a full-sized, Gen4 M.2 SSD.
If you want a deep dive on this hardware, be sure to check out our recent review of the Predator Helios Neo 16. Our review unit was a much higher-spec model with a 14th-gen Intel processor and an RTX 4070 GPU, but it’ll still let you know what you’re getting as far as the form factor, fit, and finish are concerned.
Other versions of the laptop are also available, including this i9/RTX 4080/1TB build for $1850, a slightly deeper $450 discount (and a great price for a 4080 gaming laptop). Best Buy seems to be the only seller with this deep of a discount on the Predator Helios Neo 16. There’s no telling how long the discount will last, but at my address free shopping can get it to me as soon as tomorrow. Not bad!
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.