Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2019
(UPDATE 1/19/2020) - Received my laptop back on the 16th. All is well. They reinstalled the OS and updated the BIOS, and she's back to her former glory again. Still giving me great temps and handling everything I throw at her. Okay, back to my schoolwork!
(UPDATE 1/3/2020) - Laptop's been working fine. I made the mistake of purchasing an extra SSD from Crucial instead of the Samsung, and it literally died in two weeks. On that drive was the driver to my Huio H610 Pro graphic tablet. No biggie, I can get it online.
Today I went to install the driver and it would not install. I cleared the entries in Device Manager, and in doing so, I accidentally erased the driver for the touchpad, so while I could move the cursor around, I couldn't click anything or use gestures. I chatted with Acer Support, and they sent me the file to install. I installed it, then rebooted like they said..nothing happened. Tried it again, same thing.
Called Acer and they suggested a Factory Reset (as they has suggested for the issue back on 12/14/19). If finished, but then it basically won't boot past the Predator sound effect and logo. Then it tries to do an automatic repair, fails, and the whole process starts all over again.
Chatted with Acer again and now they're sending me a return label to get it RMA'd. I'll be without a laptop for probably the better part of this month which sucks because I start school on the 13th. Luckily I have my desktop, but suffice it to say...I'm not a happy dude. Hopefully Acer makes it right. If not, I still got the 4 year extended warranty. We'll see what happens.
(UPDATE 12/14/2019) - Still really enjoying this laptop. It surprises me how it handles just about anything I throw at it. I won't lie, it DID have an issue about a month after I purchased it. Upon startup, it was stuck on a Windows "spinning wheel" loading screen, but to make matters worse, the screen was flashing every second, and no amount of restarts would fix this. I was livid, but after talking with Acer support, a factory reset was in order, and that resolve it. I had to make sure I installed the pending Windows updates in order for the Predator Sense to load back up, and since then, it's once again been a fantastic laptop. Still the best bang for your buck. I suggest downloading Throttlestop to push the undervolt back a bit (I pushed it to -17.6), and a benchmarking program like 3D Mark or Unigine. Lastly, a cooling pad is highly recommended. This along with the undervolt and changing the fan speed keeps my laptop very cool when running various programs. Can't stress this enough..GET A COOLING PAD.
(UPDATE 11/4/2019) - So apparently, the BIOS is rather locked down and limited. This poses a problem, because you can not change the boot priority. I took the M.2 out of my old Acer E 15 and planned on formatting it to use in the Predator. Upon installation and boot up, it actually booted into Windows from the E 15 M.2 drive...NOT the drive that the Predator originally shipped with. I switched sides, moving the Predator M.2 to the right side M.2 drive and the E 15 M.2 to the left, where the Predator's M.2 was previously located. Received a BSOD. Once I removed the 2nd M.2 and put the Predator's M.2 back where it was...it was all good. So it appears that you can not actually USE that 2nd M.2 drive despite it being empty and ready. I hooked up a regular 2.5" SSD in the empty 3.5" bay and it worked fine, but not being able to install a 2nd M.2 SSD is points OFF for this laptop. It's not a huge deal, and I will probably just install a 1TB SSD in the 3.5" bay, but why make it look like you can install a 2nd M.2 if you really can't?? Also, WHY is the BIOS locked down??
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(ORIGINAL REVIEW)
I purchased this laptop as a replacement for my Acer E 15. A serious upgrade indeed, and it was worth every penny (after the 4 year warranty and taxes, it was slightly north of $1300).
BUILD QUALITY - Extremely solid. Aluminum lid, plastic bezel that's thin around screen, but still very sturdy, aluminum keyboard frame, and then a plastic bottom. Weighs in at around 5lbs. Despite being a gaming laptop, the aesthetics are much more reserved than its 2018 predecessor. A simple mat dark grey body with blue accents, light blue backlit keyboard (no RGB on this version), and a blue Predator logo on the lid that lights up.
SCREEN - 1920x1080 screen, at 144hz. If you have never seen games played at 144Hz, it is truly a thing of beauty. Everything is just so buttery and smooth, it changes the entire dynamic of the games. Now they could've combined this refresh rate with a higher resolution screen (such as 1440p), but there's no point when the screen you're looking at is on a 15" laptop. 1080p is more than sufficient, and it really shines here.
WEBCAM - 720p...not great..not terrible...better than nothing, but if you truly need something, use an external Logitech webcam.
KEYBOARD - Standard chiclet style keys. They feel good, especially if you like to type and you're used to smaller keys. The num pad on the right forces things to be a bit condensed, but I'd rather have it than not. The light blue backlight is nice; far easier on the eyes than red or green. Again, no RGB on this model, but honestly..I don't miss it. The keyboard has very little give when pressed down on, thanks to that aluminum body. Keys have a pretty good travel distance. I bottom out my keys, and I still enjoy typing on this.
TRACKPAD - Not sure what others are talking about; this trackpad isn't bad at all. It's not super sensitive like the on my E 15, and it's pretty smooth. It's not made of glass, but honestly it's fine.
SPECS - Here's the rundown:
- i7 9750H Intel chip (2.6Ghz, Turbo takes it up to 4.5Ghz). It's a workhorse.
- GTX 1660TI. Yeah, the other model has a 2060 in it, but this card's performance isn't very far behind the 2060 at all, and it is far less power hungry, which equates to better temps and thus a prolonged life for the laptop overall. Fair trade, if you ask me.
- 16GB of DDR4 RAM. This laptop supports up to 64GB, so if you plan on doing some 3D work or editing 4K video, you can upgrade the RAM yourself easily.
- 256GB M.2 SSD for your OS. There's an empty slot for another M.2 and even an empty 3.5" bay for a 2.5" SSD, and they include a bracket for installing it. My Acer E 15 didn't come with one of those, so it's a nice touch here.
- Also important to point out...the laptop comes undervolted out of the box at -.125, which definitely helps prevent heat throttling.
PORTS - (Left side) Kensington lock notch, fan exhaust, power adapter port, Ethernet port, and two USB 3.1 ports. (Right side) Fan exhaust, HDMI port, Mini Display port, another USB 3.1 port and a USB 3.1 type C port.
BATTERY - 3720 mAh battery. Normal web surfing will get you about 3-4 hours, but gaming is gonna be MUCH less...MAYBE an hour, especially if you're playing at max settings. The power brick is a slim, so get used to carrying it around if you're on the go.
SPEAKERS - Positioned on the bottom. Nothing special. I'd suggest headphones....and speaking of which...
TURBO - Ups the ante on your device for more performance. When pressed, the CPU and GPU both get a swift overclock, and the fans SCREAM to handle the extra heat. No really..they're seriously LOUD..probably the loudest fans I've ever heard on a laptop. This is good because it keeps the laptop cool, but I'd invest in some good noise-cancelling headphones.
GAMES - It'll handle the latest modern titles without breaking a sweat on the highest graphical settings. That's all you need to know. I used Unigine to run a benchmark on it, and after pushing the unvolt to -.17, using the Turbo setting, and a cooling pad, the temps were below 60 degrees. This will change depending on the title you play, how long you play, and whether you have a cooling pad or not.
OVERALL - You will NOT find another gaming laptop at this price that performs this well and doesn't suffer heat throttling. Acer has set the bar pretty high, and for only about $1200. I'll continue testing and update this review with any new findings, but for now..I'd say buy with confidence for sure.
