Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is hands down the best laptop, or even desktop, I have ever owned. That's coming from long time AMD guy. It pains me to say this, but AMD just doesn't exist in the mobile market at this time. If you need real power in a laptop, Intel and Nvidia are the only game in town now. I've started traveling more lately so I needed a laptop that could essentially replace my desktop(s) and this Acer has far surpassed my expectations in that regard. See attached image. The construction is solid, and it looks great, in my opinion...sleek enough to pass as professional with just a hint of "gaming laptop" appeal. The fans can get loud when you're hammering on it, that's true. There is no free lunch, a laptop must have compromises when they are stuffed with this kind of hardware. That said, unless you run it in Turbo (read overclocked) mode all the time I find the fan noise more than reasonable. I have not found a game, or CPU workload, that required me to use Turbo in order to have a good experience. It's just stupid fast. In my opinion, you can't find a better laptop for the money, period. As you can tell, I love it. Now, I'll answer some of the questions I had before buying it since there seems to be some confusion. The following information is from my own experience, if Acer changes things up in the future I can't help you. The is no RGB on this (the 1660ti) version. The keyboard is blue backlit only. For me, this is a pro as I’m tired of red, and I think RGB is a silly overplayed gimmick. If you go to Acer directly, there are different versions with different features. The RAM (16gb total) is 2x8gb sticks of Kingston 2666mhz...it is in dual channel. It scores well in the benchmarks that I have ran and from my own experience 16gb is more than enough for 95% of people out there. It's enough for 100% of the gamers. The included 256gb M.2 style SSD is also from Kingston and seems to perform quite well. There is an additional empty M.2 slot in there. I didn't use it, so I have no idea what will or won’t work in that slot. I decided to use the open 2.5 inch HDD/SSD space for my storage needs. (Please, for all that is sacred, don't you dare put a regular 2.5 HDD in there and hamstring this fine machine). I opted to stay with the Kingston memory theme and stuck a 1tb Kingston 2.5 SSD in there. So, as of this writing I have 186gb free on my C: Drive (it's got all the normal stuff loaded up), and I'm loading my giant Steam library and other big programs onto the 1tb D: Drive. This, in my opinion, is the way to go. The CPU is an Intel last gen refresh (you know 14+++++ lol). That said, it's a good one. 6 cores, 12 threads at 45 watts it tough to beat...actually, I don't think anyone is beating it right now. AMDs mobile Ryzens are topping out at 4 core, 8 threads as of the time of this writing. I'm sure higher core count CPUs make their way into the laptop market in the next few years, but for now...this is the best game in town. Also, it's 2019, you don't want a quad core, no matter who makes it. Trust me. The 1660ti is a beastly little thing. Nvidia's naming scheme is clearly insane, but this guy is sweet. It's based on the new Turing architecture and performs quite well. It will smoke a GTX1060 and spit at the heels of a decent desktop Vega 56...and all the while using way less power. For desktops it's a hard card to love, but in a laptop it's brilliant. The battery is fine for what it is. People wanting 10-hour battery life and 144 frames per second in their games, pull yourself together people. Sacrifices must be made for mobility. When on battery the laptop automatically switches over to the Intel IGP and doing regular (non-taxing) stuff will get you 4-5 hours. You can force the 1660ti to play ball while running on the battery through the Nvidia control panel...but I hope you don't plan on a long gaming session...maybe 1.5 hours. Pro tip: You want to game? Find a wall outlet. The "Killer" WIFI and internet stuff...actually works. I was getting stupid fast wireless downloads at distances away from my router that shocked me. I'm not even going to run an ethernet cable unless I'm playing a FPS. Blazing fast connection and rock solid so far. Sadly, you will have to remove Norton (duh) and Windows 10 comes with the usual fluff that nobody wants...it is what it is. Took me about 30 minutes to remove all the silly stuff and download all the stuff I actually needed. Keep the Predator App, I think they will be useful (Update: It is, see below update). When I was setting up this machine, I did log it into my Microsoft account, and it appears I have Office installed. Not sure if that's because I have Office on another machine registered to my account...or if this comes with Office. Your mileage may vary. The "Turbo" button...here's the deal. It only works when plugged in and above 40% battery. It basically raises the voltage limits of the machine, while turning on the fans full blast. This results in the CPU auto boosting on more cores and higher than usual. Oh, and it also overclocks the 1660ti! Yes, yes you read that right...basically it's an "overclock button". Normally I would laugh at such silliness, but I have to say...it works. It sounds like a small jet, but it goes like one too. I use it for benchmarking and playing around...but you could game with it in Turbo, provided you have headphones. All that said, I'm getting like 62 fps in AC Odysseus on Very High WITHOUT "Turbo". If you're familiar with this painfully un-optimized AAA title you will understand how impressive that is, lol. Love that game though...don't judge me. Hope this helps someone make a big decision. Edit: Update 7/18/19 I read a review where someone was having issues with an echo on the audio. I didn't have this problem as I have an external sound processor that I use. At any rate, I plugged in my headphones directly (1/8th jack) and sure enough...there was an echo. After a bit of investigation, it's from the "Waves MaxxAudio" App. This app can be tuned/disabled through the Predator App under the App center portion. Turn that guy off, and your echo goes away. That particular App might be useful in a gaming situation, but if your just watching videos or listening to music it falls a little short. I never thought I would say this, but let Windows control your sound and you will be fine, lol. Edit 9-25-19. Man I love this thing. I travel (airplanes) with it weekly and thus far it has been flawless. Every evening when I get done with work I'm reminded how nice the keyboard on this thing is compared to my company issue Lenovo work laptop. No regrets, I'd still buy it at the current price...very few laptops can compete at this price range. Edit 11-26-19. Still the best at this price point. 1660ti is just the best for laptops balancing performance and battery. Edit: 11-23-20. So, shopping season is near and I figured I would update this for people shopping around. I purchased this in July 2019, for less than it is selling for today. Really unsure how that works as there is a new 2020 model that is marginally faster (this is the 2019 version with the 9750h). At any rate, I'm still in love with this thing, I was actually shopping for another one to buy my daughter. Since purchase, I have started running a 1440p monitor off the display port and it does just fine. I'm not getting 100fps at that resolution, but 60fps in most titles with the settings cranked is just fine for me. Also, freesync/gsync, whatever were are calling it these days is brilliant...but only works off display port, not HDMI. In summary, I would buy again at the price I paid for it the first time around ($1199.99).