Dell's G5 15 went for $1,429 equipped like my Predator when I typed this, but with just a 144Hz screen Lenovo's Legion 5i was $1,599 with only a 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 and a 144Hz screen and the Asus ROG Zephyrus M15 (GU502LW) was $1,579 with twice the solid-state storage (1TB) but just single-zone keyboard backlighting and no webcam. The competition in this market segment is fierce. Otherwise, the two share Intel’s mainstay six-core, 12-thread Core i7-10750H processor, 16GB of memory, and a 512GB solid-state drive with Windows 10 Home. Compared to the $1,199 base model on Amazon (PH315-53-72XD), this one ups the GPU from a 6GB GeForce RTX 2060 to a Max-Q edition of the 8GB GeForce RTX 2070, and bumps the screen refresh rate from 144Hz to 240Hz. The Predator Helios 300 in this review (model PH315-53-71QX) is the most expensive U.S. (It would be refreshing to see a high-quality 1080p model one of these days.) Midrange Components, Top-Shelf Performance Its 720p webcam, though properly located above the display, has no better or worse image quality than the cams we see on most laptop PCs in this price range. The Predator Helios 300 doesn't have built-in biometric features such as a fingerprint reader, something that's not uncommon among gaming notebooks. The preinstalled Killer Control Center app lets you monitor and control the network performance of other apps. Inside, a Killer AX1650i card provides Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. The included adapter's right-angle connector doesn't stick out far from the back, either. It does a classier job of being in this middle tier than the Lenovo Legion 5i and the Dell G5 15 SE (2020), whose all-plastic designs aren't as chic as the Predator's aluminum top and lid. The Predator Helios 300 sits between Acer's entry-level gamer, the Nitro 5 (2020), and its top-shelf Predator Triton 500 (2020). It’s our new Editor’s Choice holder for mid-range 15-inch gaming notebooks. Asus’ ROG Zephyrus G14 remains an outstanding choice for a more portable gamer, but the Predator Helios 300 checks just about every box and then some if you’re after a larger screen. It put both to good use in our gaming benchmarks, where it produced best-in-class gaming frame rates while almost doubling the battery life of its predecessor. Now two generations matured, this 2020 version (starts at $1,199 $1,499 as tested) is largely a hardware refresh of last year’s model with Intel’s “Comet Lake” silicon and up to a 240Hz screen.
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