Helios500
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Hands on with Acer's premium Chromebooks and Helios 500
If you've been turned off by the limited horsepower in Chromebooks so far, Acer's new Spin 13 might be for you. It sports either an Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPU, something we've only seen in Google's pricey Pixelbook. In a brief hands-on session at Acer's launch event today, the Chromebook Spin 13 definitely felt a cut above the Chrome OS competition. Its metallic case is sturdy and smooth, and since it's a "Spin" model from Acer, you can also twist the screen all the way around to use it as a tablet. It's not exactly exciting, but it shows there's more for the Chromebook market beyond sluggish education-focused machines.
Acer's Predator Helios 500 gaming laptop is a Core i9 powerhouse
It wouldn't be an Acer launch event without high-powered gaming PCs in the mix, and this year is no exception. The company is kicking things off with the Predator Helios 500, a 17.3-inch brute of a laptop with up to an overclockable Core i9 chip (with or without speedy Optane memory), overclockable GeForce GTX 1070 graphics and either a 1080p 144Hz screen or a 4K panel. You can load up to 64GB of RAM and either 1TB of SSD storage or a 2TB spinning drive. As always, this kind of portable speed won't come cheap: the Helios 500 shows up in June starting at $1,999.
