![]() ![]() It is, however, something very likely to occur on a big laptop like this one. Intel has railed against use of Cinebench on, say, a 13-inch, 2.5-pound laptop, because few would ever do 3D modelling on a small laptop. To find out, we first ran Maxon’s Cinebench R15 on the Predator Helios 700. There has to be a payoff for all the Predator Helios 700 brings to the table. If you switch keys, you’ll need to tell the laptop which ones you have in place. If you don’t, they won’t register, and you’ll think you broke them by accident. If you install the linear keys, you’ll have to fire up the pre-installed Predator app to let the computer know you have the linear switches installed. The blue key is the standard key, and the white key above is the linear key. The Predator Helios 700 includes four linear key switches that allow you to tune actuation and the curve. This does let you easily home on the WASD keys since they’re protruding a bit, but if you need the feeling of flush keys, this is going to bug you. One note of caution: If you switch the keys without using the Predator application to tell the laptop you’ve switched keys, they won’t work until you do. We should also mention that the keys, which sit on small springs, actually jut above the other keys by about 1mm. The included tool allows you to swap out the WASD keys on the Predator Helios 700. ![]() The swap takes just a minute, and you can switch back if you choose. For what it’s worth: Not all of the games we tried recognized them as linear switches.Īcer includes a small hardcase to store the MagForce keys and a tool to swap them. ![]() In practice, we did feel slightly more control, but we think it’ll take more fiddling with them to yield better results. In theory it should allow for the ability to feather a key in a game when flying or driving, instead of the typical binary on or off movement. Linear switches aren’t new on the PC, but this is certainly the first we’ve seen them on a gaming laptop. The MagForce linear switches let you pick between linear, racing, or fps settings, and have up to 256 levels of pressure. Besides the slide-out HyperDrift keyboard feature, the Predator Helios 700 lets you swap out the WASD keys for linear switches so you can tune the actuation point and pressure curves. All of the LED effects are, of course, RGB too. Sliding out the keyboard triggers an auto-overclock, and a sound effect likely borrowed from Transformers. In fact, overclocking performance-which goes from normal when the keyboard is closed to “Boost” when open, has yet one more setting that is available only when the keyboard is slid open: “Extreme.” So yes, you’ll be tempted to dismiss this as a gimmick, but if it works, you really can’t call it that, can you? IDG We’ll get into just how much more of a performance boost you get later on, but it does indeed enhance performance most of the time.Īcer also claims moving the keyboard allows it to vent the hot components more directly. Yes, cynical hater of overwrought gaming laptop features with names pulled from rejected Netflix sci-fi movies, it actually works. If you want a little more comfort and a little more horsepower, you can slide the entire keyboard forward. If you’re a real hater of gimmicks, brace yourself: The sliding action is accompanied by sound effects seemingly lifted from the Transformers, and a message that tells you auto-overclocking has been engaged. Yes, the HyperDrift keyboard slides forward, turning the keyboard deck into a fairly comfortable palm rest. The Predator Helios 700 looks like any other standard issue 10.5-pound gaming laptop styled on a block of wood when the keyboard is closed. Unfortunately, despite its 1950s comic-book-detective chin and its top-shelf parts, the only thing you’ll probably focus on is “the gimmick” of its sliding HyperDrift keyboard. The Predator Helios 70 is fairly upgrade-friendly with two open memory slots, two M.2 slots, and a 2.5-inch drive bay hidden under the battery. Acer also thoughtfully includes the cable, screws, and frame to install a drive. If you really did need more RAM (we assume Acer does the same for its 16GB configurations), you could increase it without having to throw out two modules, as you’d need to on a laptop with only two slots.Īlthough we didn’t strip out the battery in the picture below, there is actually a 2.5-inch drive bay shoehorned underneath it. We assume the other two are out of reach on the other side of the motherboard. If you’re wondering why the RAM slots are empty, it’s because there’s a total of four slots on the machine. ![]()
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