Acer Predator Helios 700 Gaming Laptop Touts 9th Gen Core i9, RTX 2070 And Trick Sliding Keyboard

by Brandon Hill — Thursday, April 11, 2019, 01:37 PM EDT

Acer is ready to take PC gaming to the next level with a brand-new entry into its high-end Helios family of laptops. The company today introduced the Helios 700, which is sure to turn heads due to its trick keyboard.

Rather than stay stationary like just about every other laptop on the market, the Helios 700’s HyperDrift keyboard actually slides out towards you. This allows the Precision Touchpad and palm rest to sit at a more ergonomic angle. Acer says that by moving the keyboard closer towards you, the user is able to keep a comfortable distance away from the 17-inch display. The sliding keyboard also has an added benefit of improving airflow for a cooling system that already incorporates five copper heat popes and a vapor chamber by exposing the fans.

Speaking of the keyboard, it features per-key RGB lighting, anti-ghosting technology and MagForce Keys (for WASD). MagForce allows for more precise movement in games thanks to linear switches.

Getting to meaty specs of the machine, Acer oufits the Predator Helios 700 with a 17-inch Full HD 144Hz display that is backed by NVIDIA G-SYNC technology. Acer spares no expense on the power front, giving customers a choice of up to 9^thgeneration Intel Core i9 processors (with full support for overclocking) with up to 64GB of RAM (4x DIMM slots). With regards to storage, you can configure up to a 1TB SSD alongside a 2TB HDD.

As for the graphics subsystem you can choose from either a GeForce RTX 2060 or a GeForce RTX 2070. Other niceties include Killer DoubleShot Pro Wi-Fi 6 connectivity along with five onboard speakers and a subwoofer.

Although the Predator Helios 700 is technically a laptop, we don’t think that you’ll be lugging this thing around that often – it weighs nearly 10 pounds and is over an inch and half thick. In other words, this is unabashedly a desktop replacement.

Acer says that the Predator Helios 700 will ship in the United States on later this month priced from $2,699.

Tags: Intel, Acer, Core i9, geforce rtx 2070, predator helios 700

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

Opinions and content posted by HotHardware contributors are their own.