We took a look at last year’s Predator Helios 18 AI back in March, and after announcing an updated model at Computex back in May, ACER have now put the Predator Helios 18 AI (PH18-73-91TN) on-sale here in Australia. 

Priced from $5,198, the latest gen Predator Helios 18 AI comes with a gorgeous 18” 4K Mini-LED display, as well as a full-size keyboard with numeric keypad and multi-gesture touchpad. 

The laptop can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 2 processor with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Graphics, 96GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of storage – precisely the spec sent over by ACER to review, and is priced at an eye watering $10,999.

It’s a gaming laptop with all the bells and whistles. I’ve been playing on it for the last few weeks and here’s how it went. 

Design

Not a lot has changed since we last looked at the Predator Helios 18 AI. The laptop includes the same 18” 4K resolution Mini-LED display as well as full-sized keyboard with 2.0mm travel which is a little deeper than I prefer for typing, but works well for gaming. 

ACER has again included Predator MagKey which features swappable keys with mechanical switches that ACER says can replicate the tactile feel and sound of a traditional mechanical keyboard. A set of WASD and Arrow keys and a KeyCap puller tool in the box, as well as a thermal upgrade kit if you want to update at a later stage.

The keyboard itself has a 0.7mm activation point allowing for almost instant response, and feels extremely nice to type on. It’s a little off-centre which is normal for keyboards with a numeric keypad, and once you’re used to that it works well.

ACER have added in a few customisations on their keyboard. There’s still a Mode key on the top left which lets you cycle through performance scenarios, easily letting you switch from a light eco style performance mode for web searching, all the way to Turbo for high-end gaming. There’s also the Predator Sense shortcut key above the numeric keypad to quickly access the utility. 

There’s a large Touchpad below which supports multi-gesture including two-finger scroll; pinch to zoom, as well as gestures to open applications. 

As well as the per-key RGB lighting in the backlit keyboard, the gaming laptop also retains the same customisable RGB lighting areas as the previous generation. 

It starts with the L-Shape panel which wraps around the left side and front of the lower deck, as well as the admittedly neat looking ‘MilkyWay’ lighting across the top of the rear port deck. The keyboard also gets per-key customisation, and the Predator logo on the lid lights up in response to action. 

And all controlled through the Predator Sense software included with the laptop. 

For connectivity, there’s Wi-Fi 7 on-board, with an Intel Killer Ethernet E5000B port – a 5Gb ethernet port, impressive if you have the network to support it – and Bluetooth 5.4 for connecting any peripherals. 

For physical connectivity, the LAN port is located alongside a USB Type-A port, SD card reader and 3.5mm audio jack on the left, while on the right you get dual USB Type A ports and your kensington lock port. 

It’s a gaming laptop, so there’s also a rear panel for connectivity, including the charger port, HDMI 2.1 port and dual Thunderbolt 5 ports (USB-C). 

Display and Audio

The 18” 4K resolution Mini-LED display is gorgeous, again coming in a slightly taller 16:10 aspect ratio, while on the audio front we get a six-speaker audio setup with Predator Vox tuning. 

There’s a little bezel around the display, with a FullHD resolution IR camera above. It supports Windows Hello for contact-less login, though there’s no switch to disable it when not in use. 

The dual-mode display supports high-refresh rate gaming, with 4K at 120Hz for sharp images or FHD at 240Hz for  really high-end smooth gaming. 

The Mini-LED panel has great colour representation, with coverage of up to 100% DCI-P3 Wide Color Gamut and it comes with a ‘Calman Verified’ badge which ACER uses for verifying their panels can display exact color and grayscale levels.  

There’s a six-speaker audio system on-board and it is excellent. 

It has a nice amount of volume that can really project, with a nice balance of high and mid-range sound.  It can also do a decent amount of bass, with a dedicated 2-way speaker setup that separates bass and treble frequencies, which ACER says works better ‘for cleaner projection and richer, full-spectrum sound’ – in real world terms, it’s awesome. 




Performance

ACER have a few options for their latest gen Predator Helios 18 AI. The laptop can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 Series 2 processor with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Graphics, 96GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB of storage – which is what ACER sent over for review.

The laptop absolutely screams in terms of performance. It’s fast to load pretty much everything, and throwing high-end games like Crimson Desert, Cyberpunk 2077 or Jedi: Survivor didn’t even make it blink. You get solid performance out of all games, old or new, hitting some impressive FPS, even with all the settings pushed to High or Ultra. 

Benchmarks also ran wellacross 3DMark

Cooling

Of course all this performance requires cooling, and the custom-engineered cooling system inside the ACER Predator Helios 18 AI is top of the line.

The laptop uses the same cooling system as the previous model, which features two of the world’s thinnest 6th Gen Predator AeroBlade 3D Fans which include 100 fan blades just 0.05mm thin. This latest generation has up to 20% increase in airflow over previous iterations, as well as a vector heat pipe to move heat away from components quickly. 

The cooling works well, though it can get a little loud, registering at just over 70dB in the extreme.

Battery and Charging

There’s the same 99 Wh battery inside the Predator Helios 18 AI, the same as most laptops – with CASA requiring approval for devices with over 100Wh of capacity. Included is a 400W power supply, it’s a fairly chunky thing to carry around, so you can recharge with a USB-C adapter, but it won’t deliver quite the power draw you’ll need to get the most out of the laptop.

In terms of battery life, you don’t buy a gaming laptop for its longevity on battery, but it can work! I was able to get an hour of decent quality gaming out of the Predator Helios 18 AI, with around two and a half hours of general youtube and office work.

In terms of charging, the {redator Helios 18 AI can get you right up to about 40$ charge in 30 minutes, or to 100% full in just under two hours – with that last 10% really taking its time.

Software

Windows and More

ACER has included a licensed copy of Windows 11 Home version 25H2 on the Predator Helios 18 AI which includes support through to October 2027. You’ll also receive newer feature updates before end of life, with OS Service updates as well. 

The pre-installed apps are few and far between, consisting mostly of utilities to configure the hardware in your new laptop – as well as a tonne of Microsoft tools, including Office and Xbox. 

The third-party utilities include the NVIDIA app for downloading new drivers and configuring the RTX GPU, Intel and DTS: X for configuring network and audio.

The real standout for me is of course the Predator Sense software. It’s the real heart of the software on the laptop, letting you switch between modes, configure settings, lighting and more.

Lastly, Acer has included their AI Agent software giving you some options for Generative AI. It’s not ready to go by default, requiring you to actually install each piece you want. 

Final Thoughts

This year’s ACER Predator Helios 18 AI holds up as another excellent gaming machine. 

The addition of a newer CPU is the major update to the machine, though a refined audio system seems to provide more volume than the previous gen. The large, high resolution MiniLED display and RGB lighting throughout make for a great looking machine, and the benchmarks and real-world testing show the ACER Predator Helios 18 AI is a gaming monster. 

At $10,999 RRP, you WILL pay for that performance. Thanks to increases in RAM, SSDs, GPU – anything with silicon, those prices aren’t likely to come down any time soon, so if you’re serious about gaming, this is the level you need to be at.

You can check it out now on the ACER website – or head straight to Harvey Norman to place your order.