IFA season is finally here, and typically that means a whole load of new laptops break cover, and IFA 2025 is no different. With Acer announcing an entire range of new AI-focused products in Berlin, I was able to try out its all new hybrid gaming laptop. I even managed to catch a sneak peak of some of the benchmarks.
The Acer Predator Helios 18P AI is an incoming top-of-the-line gaming laptop – or as Acer prefers to brand it, a “hybrid laptop”.
It features some pretty beefy specifications to challenge the best gaming laptops out there, and it’s physically beefy to match, coming in at a mega 3.5kg (7.7 lbs).
You get an Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 285HX with Intel vPro, which provides you with top tier performance for both gaming and productivity. Paired with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 GPU, it’s an absolute powerhouse.
Better yet, you can get up to 192GB of RAM in the Predator Helios 18P AI – yes you read that right, ONE HUNDRED AND NINTY TWO GIGS.
I don’t know what reason a person would ever need this much RAM, but the option is still there.
It’s worth noting the memory is EEC, which actively detects and corrects common types of data corruption – making it ideal for professions where data integrity is fundamental, reducing the risk of system crashing or silent data corruption.
The dumbbell of laptops
When first lifting the laptop, my hands started straining because I just wasn’t expecting it to be as heavy as it was. I couldn’t imagine lugging this laptop to the office every day, let alone having to throw the charger in my bag too.
Alongside the weight, the Predator Helios 18P AI is also very large. Coming in at 40.1 x 30.8 x 3.0 cm (W x D x H) this laptop is absolutely huge and actually larger than the majority of standard laptop bags.
Something worth noting is that the chassis is a fingerprint magnet, wherever you touch from the lid to the palm rest became covered in fingerprints.
In terms of other design factors, the keyboard features the typical aggressive gamer font as well as RGB elements which also contribute to the gamer aesthetic.
When typing on the keyboard, it didn’t feel all too satisfying with squidgy keys. I can’t imagine it would be the best for gaming either.
The 18-inch 4K screen is beautiful. However, there’s a small downside as it’s not OLED – which I’m still holding out for becoming industry standard soon enough. Instead the screen is mini-LEDs which are still lovely to look at, but don’t blow me away.
Despite only having a short hands-on session, I wanted to put the laptop through its paces so I tried out some AI generation using Microsoft Copilot. The generation still took a long while despite these specifications, which was slightly disappointing.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to actually try out any gaming during my hands-on time, which was a let down. However, just from general usage like web browsing and simple AI prompts, the laptop did get quite loud.
While no games were installed on the laptop, Geekbench 6 was and a benchmark had recently been ran… so I decided to take a peek. Here are the results:
Acer Predator PH18-73 Geekbench 6 results:
- Single-Core Score: 2706
- Multi-Core Score: 17131
These results are on the high end of standard for laptops with these specifications.
Early verdict
Overall, Acer’s new hybrid laptop – if you can even call it that – provides you with some amazing specifications but at the cost of your back, because it will be hurting lugging this device around.
It certainly is hybrid in terms of performance and specifications, though I wouldn’t refer to it as commuter-friendly.
If you’re looking for a laptop which allows you to game and have high productivity performance, particularly for AI tasks, the Predator Helios 18P AI might be for you – but keep in mind it’ll physically weigh you down.
