Acer’s new Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop has a glasses-free 3D display

Acer first announced SpatialLabs around this time last year, its division focused on building 3D technology that doesn’t require you to wear any special glasses. It’s so far been introduced into their more creator-focused products, but Acer seems confident enough in its tech to bring it to the mainstream with the new Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition gaming laptop.

The star of the show here is of course the 15.6-inch, 4K display that, according to Acer, has a ‘liquid crystal lenticular lens’ optically bonded to the top of it, allowing Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition to switch between 2D and 3D modes. How it produces the 3D image is certainly a cool piece of tech. SpatialLabs essentially provides you with a glasses-free, stereoscopic 3D display by using a pair of stereo cameras above the display to track your eyes and head movement. The display then adjusts itself to project slightly different images into your eyes via that ‘lenticular lens’. Machine learning models meanwhile also work hard to help convert the 2D image into 3D in real time.

The Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition will have a number of SpatialLabs programs pre-installed with the laptop. This includes the SpatialLabs TrueGame app that lets you access games that support its stereoscopic 3D technology. According to Acer, SpatialLabs TrueGame will use the already-existing 3D information in games to convert it into stereoscopic 3D, with each video game title having its own pre-configured profile for easy setup. Acer says that there’s already over 50 popular games supporting its SpatialLabs 3D technology with more to come.

Of course, all this needs some serious hardware to power it. The Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition will come with up to a 12th Gen Intel Core i9 processor with up to 32GB of DDR5-4800 RAM and PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSDs. It will also have up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTC 3080 to power the 4K stereoscopic 3D display. Cooling all of that meanwhile is Acer’s 5th generation AeroBlade dual fan layout with liquid metal thermal grease. As for I/O you can expect an Ethernet port, a HDMI 2.1 port, a Mini DisplayPort 1.4 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port and a 3.5mm audio jack. Other features of note include DTS:X Ultra audio, WiFi 6E support as well as a Mini LED RGB keyboard.

Acer Malaysia has so far not provided any pricing and availability details for the Predator Helios 300 SpatialLabs Edition just yet, but we can expect them to arrive in Malaysia in the second half of the year. Don’t expect it to be cheap though with the base model alone in the US priced at USD3,399.99 (~RM14,925.96).