Here’s the one thing you need to know if you’re considering the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 or any Acer Predator laptop. On startup, press F2 as soon as the logo appears on the screen. This opens the BIOS. Navigate to ‘POST Animation and Sound’, and select ‘Disabled’. Press F10, then save and exit. The Helios Neo 16 makes the most appalling ‘woooooosh’ noise after you press the power button, like someone heard the Apple chime and wanted to imitate it without understanding what made it great. Turning it off makes using the laptop a whole lot nicer.
With that out of the way, the Helios Neo 16 is a gaming laptop with Intel’s latest 14th-gen Raptor Lake Refresh processor architecture inside, which is distinct from the Meteor Lake chips that make up the Core Ultra range. The difference is minimal, as the changes are mostly in the way the chips are built, but you do miss out on a newer, more energy-efficient manufacturing process, and Intel’s new neural processing units. Happily, the Helios Neo has a chunky GPU that can accelerate your graphics apps’ generative features instead, though the battery life does take a hit. And more happily, Amazon Prime Day has brought us some tasty deals on different specs of this capable gaming laptop.
