Acer’s Predator Helios 18P is a gaming laptop with AI ambitions

You didn’t think Acer’s Predator sub-brand was all about gaming, did you? Get with the times, grandad! While the new Predator Helios 18P might look like a typical gaming laptop, under the surface it’s rocking enterprise-grade hardware in a bid to win over AI developers and programmers.

The 3.5kg behemoth puts desktop-grade performance in a (sort of) portable form factor, including Core Ultra 9 processors with Intel’s vPro hardware-level security, and error-correcting EEC memory – as much as 192GB of the stuff. Add in up to 6TB of PCIe Gen5 SSD storage and it can basically run large language models (LLMs) on-device, rather than rely on servers in the cloud.

An Nvidia RTX 5090 Laptop GPU with 24GB of dedicated video memory does more than its fair share of the heavy lifting, with a humungous 1824 TOPS of AI-crunching ability. And when you’re not busy crafting the next Skynet, it’ll blaze through pretty much any game you through its way at maximum settings, thanks to DLSS upscaling and frame generation.

Everything is kept cool by two of Acer’s 6th Gen AeroBlade metal fans, which have blades a mere 0.05mm thick, multiple heat pipes, and liquid metal thermal grease to effectively transfer heat out via the laptop’s chunky rear ‘chin’.

Shifting a lot of the cooling kit to this rear portion does help keep the Predator Helios 18P rather svelte elsewhere, and I like the illuminated HELIOS branding. It’s eye-catching without being as shouty as multi-colour RGB lighting. Although there’s plenty of that too, with per-key illumination on the expansive keyboard. Acer had plenty of room to fit a number pad without having to sacrifice key size or squeeze everything tightly together, and I had no complaints during a brief typing test.

The 18in display is equally OTT, with a 4K resolution, mini-LED panel that can beam out a retina-scorching 1000 nits when displaying HDR content. It’s as bright as that sounds in person, looking wickedly intense in Acer’s dimly lit demo area. I didn’t get a chance to see if the firm has addressed the white halo effect some mini-LED screens show when displaying brightly-lit objects against an otherwise dark background.

It’s paired with a six-speaker array equipped with DTS:X audio. You’ll find a decent selection of ports around the sides too, including two Thunderbolt 5 Type-Cs, three USB Type-As, an HDMI 2.1 display out and a full-size SD card reader. Having a handful at the back of the system means it can effectively hide cables when sat at a desk – where I imagine it’ll spend most of its life, given the substantial heft.

The Predator Helios 18P AI is hitting North America and Europe later this year. Prices are set to start at £4300/$3999/€4499 – but you can bet it’ll cost a heck of a lot more if you want one with all the AI-friendly bells and whistles.

Would-be Helios 18P owners wanting an equally over-engineered screen to plug their new pride and joy into will want to check out the Predator X27U F8.

Acer’s 26.5in OLED delivers an already impressive 540Hz refresh rate at its native 2560×1440 resolution, but its party trick is being able to drop down to 720p for an unheard of 720Hz refresh. That’s fast enough to please even the most discerning of esports professionals. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro can also step in to prevent stuttering and screen tearing.

It’s been given the DisplayHDR 500 True Black thumbs up by VESA and covers 99% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, so should look suitably epic whether playing games or watching movies. Acer’s familiar tri-leg stand has all the tilt, swivel, pivot and height adjustment you could need, too.

The Type-C port at the rear can deliver 90W of power, or enough for most (non-gaming) laptops to plug in with a single cable. There’s also HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1, a pair of USB 3.2 ports and an audio out.

The Predator X27U F8 is heading to North America in early 2026, and Europe will follow later in the year. Prices are set to start at $1300/€1199.