Acer’s Expensive New Predator Helios 300 Laptop Supports Glasses-Free 3D Content

3D gaming could be making a comeback, as Acer's new Predator Helios 300 will ship with a display that supports glasses-free stereoscopic 3D content. The 15.6-inch gaming laptop will support "over 50 popular games at launch" and expects to grow that library in time.

As for how the technology works, the SpatialLabs system places two images on the screen and uses eye-tracking sensors built into the top bezel of the laptop to refract one image towards your left eye and one towards your right. Your brain will then combine both images into a single one, that you'll perceive as being in 3D.

So far only Forza Horizon 5 has been confirmed to make use of the SpatialLabs TrueGame software for achieving a 3D look, but there's more than enough grunt under the hood of the device to play games in regular 2D.

The display itself is where all the 3D magic happens, as the 4K panel has what Acer calls a "liquid crystal lenticular lens" optically bonded on top of it so that three-dimensional imagery can be projected.

Internally, the laptop will ship with Intel's 12th Gen Core i9 processors, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 32GB of DDR5 RAM clocked at 4,800MHz, and a PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. For inputs, it comes equipped with an HDMI 2.1 port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

Pricing starts at $3,400, and the Helios 300 is expected to start shipping out in Q4 this year.