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Predator Triton 500 SE initial review: For serious gamers who prefer subtler style

(Pocket-lint) – The ‘Style Edition’ edition of Acer’s Predator Triton series returns in a 16-inch format, bringing gaming/creator levels of performance into an altogether more discreet, less flashy clamshell than the ‘gaming norm’.

The Predator Triton 500 SE arrives hot on the heels of the smaller-scale Triton 300 SE becoming available to buy. So if the smaller model doesn’t quite pack enough of a punch then is the larger device worth waiting for – and worth saving up for?

Design & Display

16-inch Mini LED panel
- 2560 x 1600 resolution (WQXGA)
- 1600 nits brightness maximum
- 240Hz refresh rate
- 16:10 aspect ratio
Built-in fingerprint sensor
Thickness: 19.9mm
DTS:X Ultra audio

The 500 SE is, as its 16-inch diagonal panel would dictate, a larger machine than the original 14-inch 300 SE. Not only that, the 500 SE is a rather more developed device, its screen embodying the latest Mini LED technology for a much brighter experience.

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Mini LED – a technology used by some high-end TVs – houses multiple LEDs behind the surface for a more intense brightness, because there are literally more of the illuminators than earlier technologies could cram into place.

In the case of the Predator Triton 500 SE that means a maximum of 1600 nits – which is as bright as you’ll see the most flagship of mobile phone achieve. It’s better than most high-end OLED tellies, too, so this panel has got the guns to really deliver a strong image to the eyes.

Not only that, it’s a WQXGA resolution, bringing greater sharpness potential to your games, movies and content. All across a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is versatile for all kinds of content and not ‘tall’ like some older laptops.

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The screen, then, is the Triton 500 SE’s main event, no doubt. But the sell of this laptop is in its design – the idea being that its silvery colour is subtle enough to not scream ‘gaming laptop!‘. The lid has a simple raised Predator symbol logo to the top corner, but no in-your-face text or other logo prints anywhere else to be seen.

However, just as we said of the smaller-scale Style Edition original, the Triton 500 SE’s panel just feels a bit, well, flimsy. There’s too much flex to it; the lid looks and feels too plasticky – when it really shouldn’t at this end of the market.

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It’s all pretty discreet, although switch on the RGB lighting under the keyboard and there’s no hiding it. And you only need to look at the large vents to the rear to know that it’s ready to pass a lot of air through for the sake of cooling. Still, at 19.9mm thick, it’s really not that massive for such a device.

Hardware & Performance

Ports: 2x USB-A, 2x USB-C (Thunderbolt 4), 1x HDMI, 1x Ethernet, 1x 3.5mm headphones, 1x SD card reader
11th Gen Intel Core i7 / Core i9 processor options
Nvidia RTX 3070 / 3080 GPU options
Up to 4GB PCIe storage / 64GB RAM
5th Gen AeroBlade fan cooling tech
Turbo button for overclocking
Killer Wi-Fi 6 (AX1650i)
Predator Sense

In terms of power available the Triton 500 SE delivers a lot more than the 300 SE can muster. The 16-inch model packs in 11th Gen Intel Core i7 and Nvidia RTX 3070 for its circa two-grand asking price (£1,999 in the UK). That’s nearer three-grand (£2,999 in the UK) if you opt for the Core i9 and RTX 3080. No small chunk of change, more just a big chunk of awesome power.

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All of that obviously requires more cooling than your average, hence those big vents to the back and side of the device. But we’ve found the fans do kick in with little fuss, meaning there’s quite a bit of potential noise. There are additional fan controls within Predator Sense software – which has its own dedicated activation button – to take extra command, including maxxing them during gaming sessions.

Even the dedicated Turbo button to the top left area above the keyboard, can push overclocking – and that’ll send those fans into a frenzy. The cooling setup is called AeroBlade 3D – now in its fifth generation – a system that uses the fans to pull air in over the most heat capacitive components (CPU, GPU, RAM) and hold air in chambers to aid with this cooling process.

We’ve not had the time to test this laptop under full pressure, merely see it at a pre-launch Acer event to gauge some of how well it will handle serious tasks. Being a gaming laptop with Intel architecture we wouldn’t assume the battery will last especially long – and you’re going to need it plugged into the wall to get maximum potential anyway – but Acer does claim it can manage up to 12 hours in altogether more work-like conditions.

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Interestingly there’s some pretty serious ports built into the design, from the dedicated Ethernet port for best connectivity, to the full-size SD card reader – which is a really rare sight these days on laptops. As for speeds, the USB-C ports are Thunderbolt 4, so there’s certainly no slack there – a bit like the Predator Triton 500 SE’s overall ethos really.

First Impressions

If Acer’s original 14-inch ‘Style Edition’ Predator Triton didn’t quite deliver on scale or power, then the Predator Triton 500 SE is here to up the ante. It’s got a bigger, brighter and meaner screen, plus power options that are far more considerable – but then so is the price tag, so you’ll need to get saving.

The design – pretty much pitched as ‘gaming laptop for the business person’ – is more discreet than your gaming laptop average, but there’s still all the RGB lighting, cooling vents, ports and Turbo overclocking that you could want.

It’s good to see something a bit different to diversify the gaming laptop and creators market. Although, as we said of the original SE model, the 500 SE ought to up its game when it comes to screen sturdiness – especially at this price point.

Writing by Mike Lowe.

Acer Laptops Get RTX 3000, Tiger Lake H-Series

(Image credit: Acer)

Acer’s bringing Intel’s new high-powered 11th Gen Tiger Lake chips to its gaming laptops, alongside new mobile RTX 3000 GPU options and a new design for one laptop in particular. New, more budget-friendly RTX 3000 gaming desktops are also joining those mobile options, giving gamers who haven’t been able to try Ampere yet another avenue to buy an RTX 3000 series GPU.

Specs

	Predator Triton 500 SE	Predator Helios 500	Predator Orion 3000	Acer Nitro 50
CPU	Up to 11th Gen Intel Core i9 H-series	Up to 11th Gen Intel Core i9 HK-series	11th Gen Intel Core i7	Up to AMD Ryzen 9 5900 or 11th Gen Intel Core i7
GPU	Up to RTX 3080	Up to RTX 3080	RTX 3070	RTX 3060 Ti
Memory	Up to 64GB DDR4-3200	Up to 64GB DDR4-3200	Up to 64GB DDR4-3200	Up to 64GB DDR4-3200
Storage	Up to 4TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD	2x Up to 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs with 1x Up to 2TB SATA HDD	Up to 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe and 3TB HDD	Up to 1TB PCIe NVMe and 3TB HDD
Display	16 inches, 16:10: FHD @ 165 Hz, Mini LED or 165 Hz LCD or 240 Hz IPS	17.3 inches: 4K @ 120 Hz, Mini LED with HDR or FHD @ 360 Hz	N/A	N/A
Starting Price	$1,749	$2,499	$1,199	$949
NA Release Date	June	August	July	July

Acer Predator Triton 500 SE

Aesthetically, the star of the show here is the new Acer Predator Triton 500 SE. This model brings the general look and feel of the silvery Predator Triton 300 SE to a larger laptop. Based on photos Acer shared, the chassis seems to be somewhat darker without being fully black. We praised the Triton 300 SE for its power-to-size ratio, but the new Predator Triton 500 SE is likely to focus more on power.

(Image credit: Acer)

Speaking of power, the Predator Triton 500 SE packs up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 H-series processor (so no overclocking), plus up to an RTX 3080 mobile GPU and up to 64GB of 3,200 MHz DDR4 RAM. Storage is all PCIe NVMe and can go up to 4TB, while the 16 inch display embraces the new 16:10 trend with an FHD screen that can reach up to 240 Hz. That high refresh rate is only available on the IPS model, not the 165 Hz LCD and Mini LED models. Acer also hasn’t commented on what type of LCD its LCD screen uses.

Acer Predator Helios 500 Refresh

(Image credit: Acer)

If you want something a little larger and with a very premium display (especially for a laptop), you may want to opt for the refreshed Predator Helios 500. We got to spend some time with a configuration of the Acer Predator Helios 500, and what stood out most for us was its Mini LED display option. You can read about our experience in our Acer Predator Helios 500 hands-on article.

But long story short, this model maintains the same look as the current Predator Helios 500, but upgrades the internals to bring them up to line with Intel and Nvidia’s latest offerings: up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i9 HK series (overclocking is a go!) CPU with up to an RTX 3080 mobile GPU.

Besides Mini LED, you can also get the laptop with a FHD panel with your typical LED backlight and a 360 Hz refresh rate, the fastest refresh rate displays carry these days.

New Acer Predator Gaming Desktops

(Image credit: Acer)

Acer’s new attempts at the best gaming PCs in desktop form are a bit more constrained. The Predator Orion 3000 is limited to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 with an RTX 3070 but does let you customize your storage and memory capacities. The former maxes out at up to 1TB of PCIe NVMe storage with up to 3TB of HDD storage supplementing it, while the latter can go up to 64GB of DDR4-3200 RAM.

(Image credit: Acer)

The Acer Nitro 50 series carries the sole AMD gaming machine (the N50-120) Acer announced today, as well as an Intel model (the N50-620).

The AMD model has up to AMD Ryzen 9 5900, while the Intel model has up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU. Either way, you’ll get an RTX 3060 Ti for your GPU. Storage and memory options are the same as what’s available on the Predator Orion 3000.

Prices and Release Dates

The Predator Triton 500 SE will be the first of these laptops to hit U.S. store shelves. It launches today at Best Buy (and in June everywhere else) for a starting price of $1,749. The desktops will both follow in July, with the Predator Orion 3000 starting at $1,199 and the Intel Nitro 50 model starting at $949.

Finally, the Predator Helios 500 will launch in August for a starting price of $2,499.

We don’t yet have a release date or starting price for the Nitro 50 AMD model.

Acer’s Swift X Crams Ryzen 5000 and RTX 3050 Ti Into Thin Chassis for Creators

(Image credit: Acer)

Acer announced the Swift X, its first laptop in the Swift line to use discrete graphics, during a virtual event today. The laptop will use AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti when it launches in June starting for $899.99.

The laptop, which Acer says is meant for creators, editors and streamers, has a 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 IPS display and what the company says is an 85.7% screen-to-body ratio. It comes with up to 16GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.

CPU	Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5800U
GPU	Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
Display	14-inch, 1920 x 1080, IPS
RAM	Up to 16GB
Storage	Up to 2TB SSD
Battery	59 WHr
Starting Price	$899.99

The laptop weighs 3.06 pounds and is housed in a 0.7-inch metal chassis. Acer is showing off a handful of colors, including blue, pink and a sort of off-yellow, but that’s just on the lid. The rest of each laptop is the same silver color.

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(Image credit: Acer)

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(Image credit: Acer)

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Other features include USB Type-C for data and charging, Wi-Fi 6 and a fingerprint reader. The company also claims its BlueLightShield (yes, one word) tech will prevent eye strain.

To cool the thin laptop, Acer claims that air inlets in the keyboard will let it expel 8-10% more heat than other laptops (hopefully without overheating your fingers).Other cooling efficiencies include more and thinner heatpipes.

This seems like a slight pivot for the Swift line, which Acer previously used to prioritize thinness and lightness above all else. In the past it’s gone as far as

removing any click mechanism from the touchpad

and adjusting the keyboard layout to remove the function row to keep things light and compact.

Beyond a U.S. release, we’ll see the Swift X launch later in the summer in Europe, the Middle East and Africa starting at €899 and In China in the third quarter of this year beginning at ¥6,499.

Acer’s other announcements at its event include refreshes of its Concept D line of creator workstations, new Predator gaming laptops, monitors and peripherals as well as an update to new CPUs and GPUs in its existing gaming desktops.

Hands On: Acer’s RGB-Everything Predator Helios 500 Is a Disco Gaming Animal

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

It’s been a couple of years now since Acer overhauled its big-screen Helios 500 desktop replacement rig. But the laptop is back in a 17-inch shell that’s a bit of a departure from

the 2018 model

. As expected, it brings current top-end 11th Gen Intel/Nvidia components, plus perhaps more RGB than I’ve ever seen on a portable PC. Aside from the per-key RGB keyboard, there are light bars that run along all four edges of the laptop (yes, even the back). And the light show can be set to dynamically react to sound playing from the system’s speakers, or even what’s on the screen.

Acer sent us a pre-production sample in the days before its announcement to get some hands-on time with the new gaming flagship. Sadly, one of the most intriguing options of the new laptop wasn’t included in the sample they shipped. There will be an optional Mini LED 4K panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate and full-array local dimming, which Acer says is “comparable to VESA Display HDR 1000.” If you’re a top-end competitive gamer, the crazy-fast 360 Hz 1080p screen that came with our unit is undoubtedly the better option. But my slow reflexes and HDR-happy eyeballs would love to see what a bright, pixel-dense display with 512 backlight zones looks like on a laptop.

Design of the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

First off, Acer would probably like me to reiterate that what it sent us was a pre-production unit, and some things will change. For instance, the Predator logo on the lid will be RGB-lit, rather than the basic blue seen here. And while the light bar at the back will remain, there are lights in the rear exhaust that will go away (which is good because they’re very bright). Also, as this was a pre-production unit, we were not allowed to test performance or battery life. The laptop is expected to arrive in August, with a starting price of $2,499.

Also note that, as this is a configuration with both a Core i9-11980HK and an Nvidia RTX 3080, the laptop does ship with two large power bricks. You’ll want to keep both plugged in for long gaming sessions, but with the system asleep or while doing basic productivity, one brick was more than enough to keep the laptop charged.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

If you’re expecting something approaching a thin-and-light gaming experience, you should look elsewhere (and expect less performance). At 8.59 pounds and approximately 12.6 x 15.75 x 1.75 inches, the Helios 500 is unapologetically a high-end desktop replacement.

And the black metal shell with silver and blue accents back up the ‘gaming’ looks–accented nicely by the blue-metal heatsinks that can be seen from the rear sides and back of the laptop.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

As noted earlier, the stand-out visual element here is the sheer abundance of RGB, in the form of diffused light bars that run along most of the front, about two-thirds of both sides, and nearly the entire back edge. The Helios 500 is a light show in a box, if ever there was one.

And if you’re into light shows, the laptop makes good use of all the RGB here. Aside from being able to choose from the usual number of presets or individually select the color of each key, the company’s PredatorSense software’s Pulsar Lighting tab has an Interactive section, which lets you set the keyboard and bars to react to audio being piped through the laptop. You can choose between four presets for this, and there’s also a Screen Sync feature that tends to mimic what’s on the lower portion of the screen.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Screen Sync option is a bit crude. For instance, when I went to YouTube and an ad for YouTube Premium popped up in the bottom-left corner, the keys below it turned red and a purplish-white, mirroring the ad. But when watching trailers (and ads) for action movies, the flashing keys echoing gunshots did add something to the effect–I’m just not sure it’s something I like.

Having the lights and keyboard echoing what’s on the screen is distracting when you’re trying to watch a TV show or movie, but it could add to the level of immersion when gaming in the dark. And for music, the light show that the Helios 500 kicks out is almost like a party in and of itself. That said, I was not impressed with the sound output of the laptop, at least for music.

Acer bills the Helios 500 as having “True 5.1 channel surround sound” with a subwoofer, and licensed DTS X software is included for audio tweaking. But out of the box, highs and mids sounded harsh, while lows were minimized and there was little in the way of bass, especially for a laptop that literally says Subwoofer on the bottom. To be fair, this audio may be pre-tweaked for gaming, bringing key strategic elements up in the mix, but it certainly doesn’t make music sound good.

It’s possible that audio will improve with final units, but a few minutes playing with the various DTS presets, first choosing the music preset and then fiddling with the manual EQ, didn’t yield the kind of pleasing sound output I’d like from a laptop this big and expensive.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Unlike the version of the Helios 500 we looked at back in 2018, there are no ports on the back, save for the power connections. The left edge has a pair of tightly packed Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, as well as a USB 3 Type-A, a full-size HDMI port, and an anachronistic Mini Displayport.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The right edge houses separate headphone and mic jacks, two more USB 3 Type-A ports, and a Killer Ethernet E3100G jack. Wi-Fi 6 is also included. Note that Acer has yet to provide us with full specs, so we are unsure of the exact port speeds/specs.

Display on the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

We weren’t able to test the 1080p 360 Hz display (or any other aspect) of our pre-production sample. But elite gamers will no-doubt appreciate the speed. And in casual use and gaming, we didn’t find it to be particularly dull or dim. Acer says it will also offer a 2560 x 1440 display option with a 165 Hz refresh rate.

But the most interesting screen option will be the 3840 x 2160 (4K) IPS screen that supports 120 Hz refresh and has a Mini LED matrix, giving it 512 backlight zones, plus what should be high-brightness HDR support. In short, that should be one dynamic display, with bright lights and dark blacks, which should be great for both AAA gaming and movies. But we’ll have to await a final review unit to say for sure. And we’re very curious to hear how much that panel adds to the laptop’s cost.

Keyboard and Touchpad of the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The input devices on the Acer Predator Helios 500 are nothing if not colorful and roomy. With nearly 16 inches of width to play with, the keys are reasonably large, with lots of separation between them. And aside from the per-key backlighting, there’s also an RGB ring that runs around the touchpad, which is about 4.8 inches on the diagonal.

There’s also plenty of travel, in both the keys and touchpad buttons, likely thanks in part to the fact that Acer clearly wasn’t aiming for slimness here. And the WASD keys, apart from being visually offset in translucent blue, also have a stiffer feel than the surrounding keys, helping your fingers find them in the event that you were grabbing a snack and suddenly find yourself in the heat of battle.

All that said, personally I’ve never been a huge fan of these kind of flat keycaps on a gaming keyboard, and the white edges of the keys, while they help the RGB lighting shine through, look a bit garish in the daylight, against the darkness of the rest of the laptop’s design. I really hope more laptop makers shift back to offering mechanical switch options,

like Alienware has recently

Gaming on the Acer Predator Helios 500 (2021)

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

With the limited time I had with the new Acer Predator Helios 500, I didn’t have the luxury of long nights lost in raids and quests. But I did take the laptop through a few rounds of Doom Eternal and the decidedly less-demanding strategy title, Becastled. At the high frame rates that come with an RTX 3080 and an Intel Core i9 on a 1080p display, the 360 Hz screen was buttery smooth, and I found the roomy keyboard a bit more enjoyable for executing the games sometimes complicated jumps that I did for typing.

And while the cartoonish graphics of Becastled weren’t quite as colorful on the Helios’ display as they are on the Sony HDR TV that I use as my primary monitor, things didn’t exactly look dull eiter. Again, I’d love to see what these games (and frankly everything else) would look like on the 4K, 120 Hz HDR display option with localized dimming. And I’m curious to hear how much that screen will add to the price of the laptop.

As far as cooling goes, the Acer Predator Helios 500 was far from silent under load, but we wouldn’t expect that given its pairing of top-end components. But it also didn’t get overtly loud either. And the fans didn’t often fluctuate up and down, which can be more noticeable than a higher-decibel, but more constant whir. We’d need more time with the laptop (and the ability to test temps) to pass final judgement on the cooling system here, but nothing stood out as problematic or bad on that front, not that the laptop was quieter than we’d expect, either.

Final Thoughts

Given that every gaming laptop maker is using the same current core high-end components (though there is more more variety these days, with AMD’s CPUs more in the mix), and those parts have the same thermal requirements, there are only so many ways for a high-end gaming laptop to stand out.

Acer makes an attempt here by tossing in extra RGBs so that the Predator Helios 500 is as much a light show as it is a gaming powerhouse. It also doesn’t look or feel cheap or flimsy, as we’ve seem from some gaming portables in the past, when the aim was to keep costs as low as possible, or keep the chassis as slim as can be.

But really this Predator’s most striking trick might just be its Mini LED 4K display with full-array local dimming and 120 Hz refresh. Sadly, we’ll have to wait for a final version to get our eyes on that impressive-sounding display. The 360 Hz 1080p panel in our sample is certainly impressive in its own right, but its wow factor isn’t apparent unless you spend your time with highly competitive esports titles.

Acer’s Predator Triton 500 SE has a new 16:10 Mini LED display

There’s a new Acer Predator in town: the 16-inch Predator Triton 500 SE. It has a new subtle design with a touch of RGB as well as the latest chips from Intel and Nvidia. It also has a feature that I am much too excited about: a 16:10 display.

Put this next to the previous Triton 500, and this device looks much more like something you might bring to a meeting or a lecture. It’s not quite as flashy. The last model’s glowing Triton logo has been removed from the center of the lid and squeezed into the top-right corner. The previous Triton also had “Predator” printed along the large bottom bezel, which has been replaced by a smaller and subtler Triton logo as well. The corners are sharper, the keyboard is a bit blacker — it’s a more modern, professional look.

No more logo in the center.

The biggest thing you’ll probably notice, though, is that the laptop is taller. The new 16-inch 16:10 display affords extra vertical space compared to the 15.6-inch 16:9 display on the previous Triton. I got to spend a bit of time with a pre-production unit of the Triton 500 SE, and I’m going to have trouble going back to a 13-inch 16:9. This is one of the roomiest displays I’ve ever used. I had no trouble stacking 2-3 tabs and apps alongside each other and jumping in between them. I never had to zoom out of anything.

There are three panel options: a 165Hz LCD panel, a 165Hz Mini LED panel, or a 240Hz IPS PolarBlack panel (which Acer says will cover 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut). All the screens have 2560 x 1600 resolution. Mini LED, which also powers the screen of Apple’s latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro, is unusual to see on laptops. It’s designed to emulate the look of an OLED screen on an LCD panel, and it can produce excellent contrast.

The Triton has new chips as well; it’s configurable with up to an 11th-Gen Intel Core i9 processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. (Acer hasn’t shared the clock speeds and graphics power you can expect from these chips yet, so I look forward to digging those up during the review process.) It also provides more ambitious specs for power users than previous Tritons, supporting up to a whopping 64GB of memory and 4TB of storage. (Last year’s Triton 500 maxed out at 32GB and 2TB, respectively.)

It’s a roomy screen.

The Triton 500 SE has pretty much every port you might need, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, one on each side, in addition to two USB 3.2 Gen 2, one HDMI 2.1, one 3.5mm audio jack, one SD card reader, an ethernet port, and a DC-in for power. One of the USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports supports power-off USB charging as well.

There’s a fingerprint in the top-left corner of the touchpad. The webcam in the top bezel actually didn’t look too terrible in my testing and produced a viewable picture in low-light conditions. It doesn’t support Windows Hello, though.

Finally, Acer is also very excited about the new cooling system, which features what it refers to as its “5th-Gen Aeroblade 3D fan” in a triple-fan system with five heat pipes. Acer says this will provide up to 10 percent better airflow than the previous Triton 500. We’ll have more specific metrics once we’ve been able to write a full review of this device; my first impression is that the fans were often audible on this pre-production unit, but I never felt an uncomfortable amount of heat and never saw the CPU get anywhere close to a worrying temperature.

Power port, Ethernet, USB-A, USB-C, audio jack on the left.
I really like the keyboard, it’s nice and clicky.
You can make various fun effects with the per-key RGB keys.
HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, SD slot, and a lock slot on the right.
Altogether, a fun machine to use — but we’ll have to wait for the full review before making a recommendation.

The Predator Triton 500 SE will be available in North America in June, starting at $1,749.99. The base configuration that Best Buy will be selling for that price includes a Core i7-11800H, a GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and the 165Hz LCD display.

Acer also announced an updated version of its bulkier, pricier, and high-performance Predator Helios 500, which also has new 11th-Gen processors and Nvidia 3000-series GPUs. This laptop can come with a 4K Mini LED 120Hz display or an FHD 360Hz display. The Helios can be configured with up to 64GB of RAM as well. That model is coming to North America in August starting at $2,499.99.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

Acer’s new SpatialLabs tech brings 3D content to laptop screens

Acer has announced SpatialLabs, a new 3D technology that will debut on the company’s ConceptD laptops. I got a chance to try it. It’s not something we’ll realistically see on a consumer device anytime soon — but it’s pretty dang cool nonetheless.

SpatialLabs is, according to Acer, “a suite of experiences empowered by cutting-edge optical solutions.” Plainly, it’s a set of tools that makes 3D work look very realistic and cool without requiring special glasses to see it. It delivers content in Stereoscopic 3D, which presents a pair of nearly-but-not-quite-identical 2D images (one to each eye) that combine in your brain to look like one 3D picture. (It’s essentially imitating what your eyes already do.)

SpatialLabs uses a combination of three things to do this. There’s a stereo camera, consisting of two image sensors, in the laptop’s top bezel, which tracks the position of your eyes and head. There’s an optical lens bonded to the top of the display; the images for each eye are projected through this lens, then refracted to your eyes. And there’s real-time rendering technology inside, which allows you to rotate and move 3D models in certain applications.

That means there are some limitations to how SpatialLabs can be used. For one, only one person can use it at a time; Acer emphasized that I couldn’t have anyone behind me during my demo. You also can’t have a mask on during use and can’t have strong light behind you. And needless to say, you need a powerful system to run this stuff well: Acer sent me a ConceptD 7 Pro with an eight-core Core i7-10875H, an Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000, and 32GB of RAM to test the tech. One of these would cost $2,899.99 without the SpatialLabs features, and Acer didn’t specify how much the extra stuff would add to the cost. Regardless, I’m sure it’ll be well outside of my price range, but I can dream.

Acer showed me SpatialLabs at work in both proprietary and third-party software. In SpatialLabs Model Viewer, which professionals would use to showcase 3D models, I was able to play around with some animated 3D objects. The light and shadows change as the objects move, and you can adjust the light’s intensity and the direction it’s coming from. The very neat thing, though, is that you can move the objects along the Z-axis (that is, pull them toward you and push them away from you), and it looks surprisingly realistic.

The experience that really blew me away, though, was SpatialLabs Player, where you can play videos in stereoscopic 3D. You can swap between 3D mode and 2D mode (where you’ll see two images side by side). What I saw wasn’t seamless — there was visible ghosting, especially right after I moved my head — but things really looked like they were popping out of the screen at me. I ducked as a flurry of baseballs was thrown my way. I reached out and tried to touch a flying alien because it looked very real, and I am 12 years old.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen glasses-free 3D on a portable device, of course. All kinds of devices have tried it in the past, from smartphones to Nintendo’s 3DS. But this was the first iteration I’ve ever seen where turning my head an inch to the left didn’t ruin the entire thing. It was quite impressive.

You can also edit content in 2D on an external display while viewing it in real-time stereoscopic 3D on the ConceptD, using Maya through PiStage (which allows you to quickly present projects with Unreal Engine) or Blender through SpatialLabs Go. You can also use the latter to view YouTube content that was created for VR or 3D TV.

This could be you, for just $3,000.

Image: Acer

Finally, SpatialLabs supports Unreal Engine through Acer’s XR Runtime. You could use these to create and present 3D “experiences” (such as virtual showrooms). Acer is running a beta program for Unreal Engine developers and will loan admitted participants a free ConceptD SpatialLabs notebook for three months.

I saw a demo of a game, with all kinds of battle debris flying out of the screen at me, and one of a virtual furniture showroom, which I could wander around in. The ConceptD had trouble with both of these on the first run; the game was stuttery, and the showroom froze and wouldn’t close. Acer says that’s not uncommon due to how demanding the programs are, and restarting the system would do the trick. It did, and they worked fine the second time. But Acer does still have a kink or two to work out, it seems.

These were all quite fun for me to experience as a layperson. But the main benefit of this technology, of course, would be for users who actually work with 3D. So I asked The Verge’s senior motion designer, Grayson Blackmon, whether something like this would actually be useful for his workflow.

Blackmon was largely dubious. While he finds the idea of editing models in 3D intriguing, he’s not sure what the practical benefit would be for creators like him. “A lot of times, we’re creating for people who don’t have these technologies who are viewing a 2D image,” he told me. Blackmon also can’t see himself doing these kinds of tasks on a laptop. “If I’m getting into serious work, I’m usually sitting at a desktop,” he says. He’d be more interested if SpatialLabs were built into a bigger monitor.

But designers like Blackmon are also used to new technologies not holding up to their promises. His team usually holds off on updating to new versions of Adobe, for example, because they bring new bugs, and novel fancy-looking features tend not to be as helpful as they appear. For that reason, Blackmon doesn’t see himself being an early adopter of this kind of tech. “I might do it for my own personal enjoyment, but I’m not going to rely on it for production,” he says.

So that’s where we are. There are a number of caveats to SpatialLabs. It may be a while before we see professionals adopting it in full force and even longer before consumers can realistically try it out. (Acer is shooting to have SpatialLabs on the market sometime later this year.)

But hey, Acer does have a working product. And it’s very cool to witness. If nothing else, like so many other laptop technologies out there, it’s a possible glimpse of the future.

Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2021) review: victory lap

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Acer has made three significant upgrades to the best-in-class Chromebook Spin 713. The first is that the device now has Intel’s newest 11th Gen processors. The second is that the USB-C ports both support Thunderbolt 4. And the third is that it now has an optional fingerprint reader.

These aren’t the most revolutionary spec bumps in the world. The rest of the Spin 713 remains the same: it has a fantastic 3:2 touch display, a good backlit keyboard, a smooth touchpad, and good value for its premium components. But the changes add up. And they serve to push the Spin 713 even further ahead of its competition than it was before. It’s very much still the Chromebook to buy.

The Spin 713’s standout feature is its 2256 x 1504 panel. It’s one of the best Chromebook screens I’ve ever used. Colors really pop, details are crisp, and it gets plenty bright. Though the screen is glossy, I rarely saw glare, and what I did see didn’t hinder my work.

But my favorite aspect of this display (and of this Chromebook as a whole) is the 3:2 aspect ratio. You get noticeably more vertical space than you would from a standard 16:9 display of a similar size. Less scrolling, less zooming out, more room for all your tabs and apps. I’m a fan of 3:2, and I’ve been happy to see more laptop models taking it up over the past year.

Screeeeeeeeen.

Another strength (which Acer has strengthened with this model) is the port selection. This is the first Chromebook to support Thunderbolt 4 — many premium Chromebooks don’t even support older Thunderbolt standards. There are not one, but two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left side of the Spin. This makes the Spin 713 one of the most affordable machines in the world to include Thunderbolt 4.

The USB-C ports also support USB 3.2 Gen 1, DisplayPort, and 5V charging. Elsewhere, you get an HDMI port and a microSD reader, in addition to a headphone jack and a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1. The Spin also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0.

Flip it around in tent or tablet mode.

The fingerprint reader also helps put the Spin 713 above premium competitors; the lack of biometric authentication was one of our very few knocks against the last model. The sensor lives on the deck, beneath the arrow keys. It’s the same color as the Spin’s finish and is nicely camouflaged.

The Spin’s keyboard and touchpad are also quite good. The keyboard is comfortable and backlit, though I wish the keys didn’t feel quite so plasticky. The touchpad is smooth, accurate, and quite large.

Like its predecessor, this Spin 713 has two main drawbacks. The first is that its audio is thin, and I heard a bit of distortion at maximum volume. The second is that the Spin’s aesthetic is utilitarian. The finish is somewhat drab, and the screen bezels are chunky. I wouldn’t call it ugly, but it’s something that would fit in on a school laptop cart.

That said, the Spin is also fairly sturdy, with an aluminum chassis, and feels better made than many plasticky devices you’ll find at this price point. The 360 hinge is easy to flip around, and I only saw a tiny bit of screen wobble while I was typing.

Performance is the other area where the new Spin 713 is supposed to have gotten major upgrade. My review model is $699.99 for a Core i5, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. This is the primary configuration that Acer will be selling to start, but more will be coming in August with pricing to be announced.

The Spin is the first Chromebook to be certified through Intel’s Evo program, which is meant to recognize the best portable Intel laptops on the market. The Spin did everything I needed it to, including editing big batches of photos and running multiple demanding apps at a time on top of Zoom calls and Spotify streams, quite fast and without any performance issues.

That was also true of last year’s Spin 713. What’s new this year is that I’m hearing the fans. Last year’s model was very quiet, but the fans were almost constantly spinning in this model. The noise wasn’t always annoying, but it was often audible. This makes me anxious about the Spin 713’s ability to cool a Core i7, so even if Acer sells a Core i7 model later this year, I’d recommend that most people stick with a Core i5 model unless you know you need an i7. (The Core i5’s performance here is going to be enough for 90 percent of people.)

I didn’t feel much heat in the keyboard, so the fans were doing their job.

What’s also gotten a bit worse is battery life: I averaged seven hours and 29 minutes of consistent work with the screen at 50 percent brightness, running some trials with a bunch of Android apps and some trials just in Chrome. That’s about an hour worse than what I averaged on the previous model, though both results are respectable for this price. The battery took 55 minutes to juice from zero to 60 percent with light Chrome use, which is a bit slower than last year’s model (but close).

The Spin 713 runs Chrome OS, as all Chromebooks do. It supports all Android apps via Google Play. Everything ran smoothly on this system, in both clamshell and tablet modes. Many Chrome OS apps have improved since I used them on last year’s 713. Slack, for example, was crashing all over the place last year, and is technically usable now. That said, I still generally find that most of my preferred services (Messenger, Slack, Reddit, Instagram, the like) are equivalent or better experiences in browser form. I do like being able to offload distractions like Spotify and Twitter into their own apps so I don’t have them mixed in with my Chrome tabs, but that’s about as far as my typical use of Android apps on a Chromebook goes.

As was the case with its predecessor, the Spin 713 isn’t a perfect Chromebook. It’s also not cheap as far as Chromebooks go. But it offered unbeatable value last year, and its value has gotten even better.

To illustrate just how much this device is offering for its $699 price, look to the premium Google Pixelbook Go. To buy a Pixelbook Go with an 8th Gen Core i5 (which is now an old chip), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage (half of what you get in this Spin configuration), you’d be paying $849. The Pixelbook does have some advantages over the Spin, of course: you’re getting better build quality, a lighter chassis, and slightly better audio. But the Pixelbook has no biometric authentication, it has very few ports and doesn’t support Thunderbolt 4, it’s 16:9, and it’s not a convertible. It’s miles behind in almost every other way.

In other words, if you don’t mind a laptop-cart look, the Chromebook Spin 713 is an incredible value. The more power-hungry processor has changed the calculus slightly, but so have the new features. And ultimately, the Spin still comes out on top.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

HTC Vive Pro 2 review: The ultimate virtual reality experience

(Pocket-lint) – The HTC Vive Pro 2 has arrived – and you could easily be forgiven for thinking it’s virtually the same VR headset that the company released back in 2018. That’s because outwardly it hasn’t changed much from the original, aside from some colour changes on the front faceplate.

However, under the hood things have been beefed up quite significantly. So much so that HTC is now claiming to have the best-in-class display and ‘true’ 120-degree field of view too.

It seems that HTC has abandoned its efforts with the HTC Vive Cosmos – which we found underwhelming – and has chosen to build on the foundations of the frankly awesome HTC Vive Pro instead. A sensible move in our mind.

But is an upgraded Pro enough to handle the now strong competition from HP and Oculus? We’ve been experiencing what the Vive Pro 2 has to offer to virtual reality fans looking for the best of the best.

Best-in-class display?

Fast switch LCD IPS panel, 2448 x 2448 pixels per eye (4896 x 2448 total)
120Hz refresh rate, ‘true’ 120-degree field of view
Dual-stack lens setup with RGB Subpixel design
57 to 72mm IPD (interpupillary) adjustment

The most significant upgrade to the Vive Pro 2 over the previous generation comes in the form of the visuals on offer. This headset has a display featuring the “highest resolution to date” – with 2448 x 2448 pixels per eye, totalling 4896 x 2448 visible pixels.

That’s a significant jump over the previous Vive Pro – which had a 2880 x 1600 pixel display. It’s also superior to the Vive Cosmos (2880 x 1700 pixels), HP Reverb G2 (2160 x 2160), and of course the Oculus Quest 2 (1,832 x 1,920). And it really shows too.

That high pixel count means you get a stunning VR experience. During our gaming sessions, we were struck by how impressive the graphics are on this headset. The screen door effect is essentially a thing of the past, too, and you’ll just find yourself getting lost in the experience.

HTC also has used a dual-stack lens design this time around, with two lenses redirecting the image for a wider field of view. This is said to have a bigger sweet-spot and a more realistic view of the world around you. This is also how the company claims to have a ‘true’ 120-degree field of view.

Pocket-lint

There are some niggles though. For some reason, HTC has decided to change the shape of the lenses. Now the top and bottom of the lenses have a flat, straight edge to them, whereas before they were rounded. This means that prescription lens adapters for previous headsets don’t fit the Vive Pro 2. It also means that the view is different. We quickly noticed we could see the edges of the lenses more easily when playing and we sadly found this quite distracting.

Another small gripe is the rubber nose shields at the bottom of the headset. We found these kept flapping up and into the view of the screen while we were gaming, again interfering with our view.

Aside from these minor problems though, there’s no denying the Vive Pro 2 looks great. We revisited classics and our favourite VR games to give it thorough testing. That included Creed Rise to Glory, Space Pirate Trainer, Half-Life: Alyx, Superhot VR, Skyrim VR, LA Noire and Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. We soon found that not only do these games look and sound great on the Vive Pro 2, but they also handle well too.

Of course, you need a pretty significant gaming machine in order to run it at this resolution and at the 120Hz available refresh rate, but if you can manage it from that perspective then things will truly look magnificent.

What spec PC do I need to run a HTC Vive Pro 2?

If your PC can’t quite handle such a high-end display then there’s no need to panic. HTC has worked with Nvidia and AMD on something called Display Stream Compression. This is a system that enables the Vive Pro 2 to run at a lesser resolution on less powerful gaming systems, meaning you can still get a great experience. The company says if your PC can run the original Vive Pro, then it can cope with the Vive Pro 2 as well. In other words, it’s backwards-compatible and will work with DisplayPort 1.2.

The minimum required specs to run the Vive Pro 2 headset are:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 (equivalent or better) / Memory: 8GB RAM (or more)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX1060 or AMD Radeon RX480 (equivalent or better)
OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1 or Windows 10
Video out: DisplayPort 1.2 (or newer)
USB ports: 1x USB 3.0 (or newer)

The recommended specifications for the Vive Pro 2’s full 5K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate are:

Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 or AMD FX 8350 (equivalent or better) / Memory: 8GB RAM (or more)
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 (equivalent or better)
Video out: DisplayPort 1.4 (or newer)
USB ports: 1x USB 3.0 (or newer)
OS: Microsoft Windows 10

It’s worth noting that you do need a DisplayPort connection on your gaming machine or laptop in order to run this headset. You can use a DisplayPort Mini adapter or DisplayPort-to-USB-C adapter if required, but if you only have HDMI then you might come unstuck.

Pocket-lint

Like previous Vive headsets, the Vive Pro 2 connects first to the Vive Link box then to your machine via DisplayPort and USB connection. That box also needs power, so be prepared with lots of empty plug sockets.

New visuals but an old-school setup

G-sensor, gyroscope, proximity, IPD sensor, SteamVR Tracking V2.0
Eye relief with lens distance adjustment
Adjustable Hi-Res certified headphones
Integrated dual microphones

So the HTC Vive Pro 2 has had some serious improvements in terms of graphical performance. It’s essentially the best headset on the market in that department, but in other ways, the Vive Pro 2 is still stuck in the past.

With the Vive Cosmos, HTC tried to take on the Oculus Rift S by adding inside-out tracking cameras to allow users to ditch the classic base stations and opt for an easier setup. Alas, the Vive Cosmos had lacklustre tracking because of it (unlike the Rift S) and so HTC has gone back to what it knows best – SteamVR tracking base stations.

This feels old school at this point – with the need to have tracking stations setup in your play space, preferably in opposite corners of your room, plugged into the mains power and monitoring your movement. These tracking stations ensure accurate tracking and very few problems in that department, but they’re a faff as they have to be mounted up high. Which means either wall-mounting, finding a spare tripod, or precariously balancing on a shelf or something else.

We’re so used to inside-out tracking now that going back to base stations is an unnecessary annoyance in our mind. However, if you’ve been using an original Vive, Vive Cosmos Elite or Vive Pro for all this time then you probably won’t care. There’s also a lot to be said for accurate tracking, but we’d still prefer the freedom offered by inside-out tracking.

Pocket-lint

However, the Vive Pro 2’s tracking logic means you can use Vive Tracker 3.0 to track extra things, including your entire body. You can also add on a facial tracker to capture your facial expressions in VR and upgrade to go wireless too (though that’ll mean a hit in resolution and performance).

Still, despite our complaints, there’s a lot of other things the Vive Pro 2 does well.

It’s comfortable for a start. Well, as comfortable as having a large chunk of plastic strapped to your head can be anyway.

HTC has worked to balance the headset to maintain comfort. The overall design is the same as the Vive Pro, but that’s no bad thing as it means you have that easy adjustment wheel at the back, a solid headband design, comfortable padding, and a relatively simple on-off setup too.

Pocket-lint

The padding is certainly one of the main features we enjoyed about the design of this one. It’s soft and plush, meaning you don’t have any unnecessary pressure on your face, nose or eyes when playing. It also blocks out a lot of surrounding light and lets you focus on the VR experience instead.

Vive headsets have also come a long way since we first played on the original Vive. The Vive Pro 2 gives you access to a lot more settings right in the headset itself. That includes access to hardware as well.

Those two cameras on its front, for example, can be activated as passthrough cameras. With a couple of clicks on the settings menu you can turn on a camera view that pops out from your controller and lets you see your real world. This means you don’t need to take the headset off to re-orientate yourself or talk to loved ones who have wandered into the room.

A triple-click of the menu button on a controller also activates another passthrough system which enables you to see the room around you with a green haze. These two systems are great for not falling over objects in the real-world and make VR life easier in general.

There’s also the option to click on the menu to see your desktop so you can interact with other apps directly on your PC. Whether that’s checking for emails, recording with OBS Studio, or doing something else.

This is a great improvement as it means you rarely have to take the headset off in order to mess around with your PC to do something simple like launching a new game or agree to a firewall change.

Another feature that hasn’t changed is audio. The Vive Pro 2 has built-in adjustable Hi-Res certified headphones which can be repositioned until they’re in a comfortable spot. They’re nicely padded and deliver a great sound when gaming. You can adjust the volume easily with buttons on the earcup and mute the microphones from there too.

Pocket-lint

We have a love-hate relationship with these headphones though. Yes, they offer great sound, are easy to position, and block out a surprising amount of surrounding noise. But we just get a bit hot while using them. We prefer the freedom offered by the back-facing speakers on the Quest 2 or the off-ear speakers on the Reverb G2. Generally speaking, we get hot while gaming in VR anyway, but the Vive Pro 2 is particularly steamy thanks to both the headphones and the copious amounts of comfortable padding.

Convenient control

At this point it’s worth us talking about the Vive Pro 2’s two options of purchase:

Just the headset (for upgraders who already own the HTC Vive or Vive Pro) – available to pre-order at a discounted price of £659 / $749 / €739.
The full kit (which includes the headset, base station 2.0, and Vive Wand controllers v2) – available from 4 June for £1299 / $1399 / €1399.

If you’re buying the full package then you’ll get the classic Vive controllers. These now sport a nifty blue colour scheme that matches the Pro 2 headset, but otherwise they control the same as ever. That’s no bad thing though, as we’ve always liked these controllers. They’re solid, durable, easily recognised by most VR games, and have never let us down.

Pocket-lint

They have built-in batteries and charge via Micro-USB. One downside, however, is that the controllers only last for a few hours – roughly 5 hours based on our testing – before they need charging again. So you need to make sure you’re charging them between sessions to avoid disappointment. HTC has made a point of saying that the Vive Pro 2 will work with Valve’s Knuckle controllers as an alternative though.

Verdict

There’s no denying that HTC has once again returned to form with the Vive Pro 2. It delivers a high-end VR experience and offers the very best experience thanks to impressive visuals, satisfying audio, and superb comfort. It’s an utter joy to game on.

But it does come at a cost – literally. Its asking price is over three times the Oculus Rift S’s launch price, and about double that of an HP Reverb G2. We also can’t help but begrudge the hassle of the base stations and the setup required.

But if you want best-of-best then you’ve got to pay for it. The HTC Vive Pro 2 is undeniably the current leader in the virtual reality headset space. So if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket or you’re a Vive fan and want the upgraded experience then there’s nothing else that can compete.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Oculus Quest 2

A much more affordable alternative. Yes, it’s not the best-in-class but this standalone headset still has a lot to offer. Even more so now Oculus is working on adding wireless PCVR support and much more besides.

Read our review

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Pocket-lint

Oculus Rift S

It might be a bit older now, but it’s still a great headset if you can find it at a bargain price. It has all the joy of inside-out tracking, plus all the comfort and convenience to use. Yes, the visuals aren’t as impressive as HP’s headset, but it’s still a worthy contender.

Read our review

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Pocket-lint

HP Reverb G2

This headset offers some serious specs for less money than HTC’s asking price. Its tracking certainly isn’t as good, but there’s no hassle of base stations to setup and it’s also surprisingly comfortable and fun to game on.

Read our review

Writing by Adrian Willings. Editing by Mike Lowe.

Indy 500 live stream: how to watch the 2021 IndyCar race, start time, line-up

(Image credit: Wikipedia / The359 – Own work)

The 105th Indy 500 date is set and the race underway this Sunday, live from the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The biggest oval race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series will see 135,000 fans (in face masks, of course) cheer on defending Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato and pole-sitter Scott Dixon as they compete for the Borg-Warner Trophy and a bottle of ice-cold milk.

Ready to lay down some rubber at the Brickyard? Carb day (final practice) starts at 4pm BST on Friday, followed by the epic, 200-lap Indy 500 race on Sunday for an Indy 500 start time of 5.45pm BST (12.45pm ET). Make sure you know how to watch an Indy 500 live stream wherever you are in the world.

Indy 500 live stream

Start time: 5.45pm BST / 12.45am ET / 2.45am AEST

Track: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indiana

US streams: NBC Sports | FuboTV (free trial)

Watch anywhere: Try ExpressVPN risk-free today

UK stream: Sky Sports F1 | Now

AUS stream: KayoSports

Buy tickets: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

This year’s 500-mile extravaganza will take about 3 hours to complete, depending on pitstops, crashes and safety cars. The 33-car field will be led away by six-time IndyCar champ – the greatest driver of his generation – Scott Dixon. The Iceman secured pole last weekend by just 0.03 seconds in a thrilling Fast Nine.

“It was pretty hairy, glad it’s over. It was definitely pretty tense,” Dixon told Fox News. “I could see the mechanics working on the car as we rolled through, adjusting the wings. I asked them not to tell me. It’s definitely a roller coaster of emotions for everybody and I’m actually really relieved that that’s all over.”

Colton Herta captured second place. The 21-year-old Andretti Autosport driver put in a monster lap to bump 20-year-old Dutchman Rinus VeeKay into third place. The aptly-named Will Power smacked the wall on the final lap but will still make the race. Simona de Silvestro will get her first start since 2015 (last year’s race lacked a female driver for the first time in 20 years).

Anything can happen in IndyCar, but with Dixon set for his sixth front row start in his 19th Indy 500, the No. 9 Dallara-Honda is now odds-on favourite to the take the honours once more.

The 2021 Indy 500 presented by Gainbridge starts at 5.45pm UK time on Sunday. You can even stream the action on your TV and a host of devices including Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Xbox, PlayStation, iOS and Android devices.

Make sure you know how to watch an Indy 500 live stream from anywhere in the world.

Feast your eyes on the best TVs you can buy

Indy 500 live stream for only €9.99

(Image credit: Wikipedia / TPSDave – indianapolis-motor-speedway-1848561 archive copy)

Those in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Cyprus and Israel can watch an Indy 500 live stream using DAZN, the subscription-based sports streaming service. The price varies from region to region and there’s also a free trial which means you could watch the Indy 500 for free!

Those in the Czech Republic will be able to sign up for €9.99 per month to watch the Indy 500 live stream. There’s no lock-in contract, so you can cancel anytime.

Going to be outside the CR this weekend? Simply use a VPN to access your chosen Indy 500 live stream without being blocked. Try ExpressVPN risk-free with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Free trial available

Indy 500 live stream on DAZN for €9.99

DAZN has the rights to the Indy 500, UFC, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, US Sports, Fightsports, and much more live and on demand in selected countries. Try for 1 month. Cancel at anytime.

The DAZN app is available on Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Sticks, as well as selected smart TVs including Android TV, LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Philips.

If you have a games console, look for the DAZN app on Xbox One, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. You can also download the DAZN app for Android and iOS mobile devices.

Watch an Indy 500 live stream using a VPN

Even if you have subscribed to the relevant Indy 500 rights holders, you won’t be able to access them when outside your own country. The service will know your location based on your IP address, and will automatically block your access.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) helps you get around this obstacle. A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, such that the servers and services you’re accessing aren’t aware of what you’re doing. All the information passing back and forth is entirely encrypted.

There are many VPN providers out there, with some more reliable and safe than others. As a rule, we’d suggest a paid-for service such as ExpressVPN which offers a 100 per cent risk-free money back guarantee. If you’re not happy with the service any time within the first 30-days, then you can cancel with no penalties at all.

Try ExpressVPN risk-free for 30 days

ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money back guarantee with its VPN service. You can use it to watch on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. There’s 24/7 customer support and three months free when you sign-up. Try it – you’ll be surprised how simple it is.

How to watch the Indy 500 in the USA

(Image credit: Wikipedia / Greg Hildebrand from Plymouth, IN – 2011 Indy 500874)

The Indy 500 race will air on NBC. Pre-race coverage starts at 9am ET on NBCSN, moving to NBC at 11am and finishing at 4pm. It also will be available to stream via the NBC Sports App and NBCSports.com.

Not got cable? US fans also have to option to watch the Indy 500 via FuboTV, a streaming service that carries NBC and offers a free 7-day trial.

FuboTV supports Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Android phones/tablets. You can also use FuboTV to watch the Indy 500 on your TV using Google Chromecast or Apple Airplay.

After the FuboTV trial ends, you’ll be bumped onto the $65 a month plan, which includes access to a host of premium TV channels. There’s no lock-in contract, so you can cancel at any time – and before the free trial ends, if you so wish.

Can I watch the Indy 500 in 4K?

FuboTV is a great way to watch the the occasional sporting event in 4K Ultra HD, but, sadly, not the 2021 Indy 500.

How to watch the Indy 500 in the UK

(Image credit: Sky)

Sky has the rights to show the Indy 500 in the UK. You can watch live on Sky Sports F1, or via the SkyGo app. The build-up starts at 3.45pm with the race set to get underway at 5.45pm.

Not a Sky subscriber? Anyone can enjoy the Indy 500 using Sky’s pay-per-view platform, Now. Now is available on all good smart TVs and set-top-boxes. A one-day pass costs from £9.99 gets you live coverage of F1, football, golf and more.

Now Sports Pass Watch the Indy 500 from just £9.99

A day pass for sports on Now can cost as little as £9.99, with a monthly pass coming in at £33.99 for those wanting to see the Indy 500 plus a few F1 grand prix, as well as football, golf and tennis.

How to watch the Indy 500 in Australia

(Image credit: Kayo)

Fox Sports has the rights to screen the 2021 IndyCar Series down under. Aussies seeking an Indy 500 live stream should click onto Kayo Sports.

The streaming platform’s premium package costs AU$35 per month but you can grab a free 14-day trial here.

Indy 500 schedule

5am ET – Garage opens

6am ET – Gates open

6.30am ET – Tech inspection

8.15am ET – Cars pushed to pit lane

10.30am ET – Cars on the starting grid

11:47am ET – Driver introductions

12.38pm ET– Command to start engines

12.45pm ET – Green flag for the 105th Indy 500

Why does the Indy 500 winner drink milk?

The tradition dates to 1936, when Louis Meyer won his third Indy 500. It’s said that Meyer used to drink buttermilk to refresh himself on hot days, and when a photographer snapper a picture of him guzzling from a glass bottle in victory lane, the picture appeared in several newspapers.

It wasn’t long before a canny marketing executive representing the Milk Federation realised that ‘winners drink milk’ was a great way to sell the American public yet more milk. Ever since then, aside from a short hiatus between 1946-55, the winner of the Indy 500 has been presented with a bottle of ice-cold milk (actually it was a whole churn last year).

There was uproar in 1993 when contrary Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi mugged off the milk in favour of a bottle of orange juice. Some sections of the audience booed but Fittipaldi had the last laugh when he was revealed as the owner of a 500,000-acre orange grove in Brazil. Fittipaldi was later forced to issue an apology.

Indy 500 starting line-up

ROW 1

1. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 231.685 mph

2. (26) Colton Herta, Dallara-Honda, 231.655

3. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Dallara-Chevy, 231.511

ROW 2

4. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Chevy, 231.504

5. (48) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 231.032)

6. (10) Alex Palou, Dallara-Honda, 230.616

ROW 3

7. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 230.499

8. (06) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 230.355

9. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Dallara-Honda, 230.318

ROW 4

10. (27) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 231.046

11. (18) Ed Jones, Honda, 231.044

12. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 230.864

ROW 5

13. (51) Pietro Fittipaldi, Honda, 230.846

14. (7) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 230.744

15. (30) Takuma Sato, Honda, 230.708

ROW 6

16. (29) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 230.563

17. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 230.557

18. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 230.521

ROW 7

19. (47) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 230.427

20. (60) Jack Harvey, Honda, 230.191

21. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 230.071

ROW 8

22. (1) JR Hildebrand, Chevrolet, 229.980

23. (45) Santino Ferrucci, Honda, 229.949

24. (86) Juan Pablo Montoya, Chevrolet, 229.891

ROW 9

25. (98) Marco Andretti, Honda, 229.872

26. (22) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 229.778

27. (14) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 229.744

ROW 10

28. (25) Stefan Wilson, Honda, 229.714

29. (59) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 229.417

30. (4) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 228.323

ROW 11

31. (24) Sage Karam, Chevrolet, 229.156

32. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 228.876

33. (16) Simona De Silvestro, Chevrolet, 228.353