If you want the most capable 16-inch laptop available right now without compromise, the Acer Predator Helios 16 AI (PH16-73) is $3000 (was $3500) at B&H Photo. This is an absolute beast of a machine for video editing, 3D workflows, gaming, and just about any demanding workload you can throw at it. And it's the cheapest RTX 5090 laptop I've come across.
The RTX 5090 laptop GPU is the headline here, and it earns it. Based on Nvidia’s Blackwell architecture with 10,496 CUDA cores and 24GB of GDDR7 memory, it’s the most powerful consumer laptop GPU ever made.
The Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX is an Arrow Lake chip with 24 cores — 8 performance cores running up to 5.4GHz and 16 efficiency cores — and it’s a serious processor by any measure. Overall, the Acer Predator Helios 16 AI is as close as laptops get to a no-compromise flagship right now.
Today's top RTX 5090 laptop deal
The 240Hz OLED display at 2560×1600 with 100% DCI-P3 coverage is outstanding for both visual work and high-refresh gaming. The combination of OLED’s infinite contrast and perfect blacks with a 240Hz panel and G-SYNC adaptive sync gives you a display that serves creative professionals well.
The connectivity package is where the Helios 16 AI pulls significantly ahead of most competitors. Thunderbolt 5 at 120Gbps is a generational leap over Thunderbolt 4 — it can drive an 8K display, transfer a 4TB SSD backup in under 10 minutes, or connect multiple high-bandwidth peripherals simultaneously. The 5GbE wired Ethernet port is fast enough to eliminate network bottlenecks entirely for anyone on a 2.5G or 5G home or office network. Wi-Fi 7 handles wireless connectivity with the same class-leading bandwidth.
Acer’s 6th Gen AeroBlade 3D fans and liquid metal thermal compound keep the system stable under sustained load.
Now, when I call this a beast, I mean it. It weighs around 2.6kg and the 330W power brick is substantial. This is a desktop replacement that travels, not an ultra-portable laptop. If you can live with those realities — and many professionals absolutely can — the Helios 16 AI delivers desktop-grade performance in a form factor that fits in a backpack.