Optimus 13.3" Review

I've had my baby for a few weeks now, so I guess it's time to make a review on it. (pics included!)

Here's the spec:


I'll be honest, I regret not getting a 7200RPM drive, just for the slight increase in load times but that's something I can live with for now.

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I ordered on the 9th and kept checking my order status every hour for a good while until it got to the point where I had to contact PCS and check if all the parts were available so I could fast track the build. Totally worth it.
Build Date 14-07-2014
Test Date 15-07-2014
QC Date 16-07-2014

Arrived on the 17th. I'm glad PCS use DPD, I've never had an issue with them and the 1 hour timeslot is great for those of us who can't wait for their new toy.

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After spending a few hours setting everything up, I already loved the laptop, it feels well put together and very sturdy.

The screen is amazing, colours are vivid and make games look great, no annoying reflections either with it being matte. I initially expected 1080P on such a small screen to be odd, but I've grown used to it and now I feel odd looking at lower resolution laptops.

The keyboard layout is great, with ample spacing between keys, and even has a full size enter key, which is nice to have back - especially for writing code.
It does have a small rise from the chassis below the space bar, however it is very minor and doesn't bother me.
The trackpad is smaller than what I'm used to and does sometimes have moments when a thumb accidentally touches while holding down the left click but I planned on using a mouse for most of my time anyway so this is irrelevant to me. It does react well to touch and has a few nifty features for scrolling but will have some moments.

Performance is why I got my beauty, I'm currently moving around a lot and don't get to spend much time at my desktop so I wanted something small that I could carry with me but that could also fuel my gaming habits.
I've thrown a fair few games at the laptop and I'm yet to be disappointed.
Path of Exile runs flawlessly on the highest settings, keeping well above 60FPS.
DayZ was a pain, starting up at 640x480 and being unable to press menu buttons made everything difficult, but some config tweaks later and it was working, around 45FPS average, dropping a little in more built up areas and cities but definitely playable.
Dota 2 on highest runs perfectly.

I do play with a cooling pad, temperatures range from 70-80C under heavy load, which is high but for such a small laptop seems reasonable.
What I have noticed is that when not under load the laptop is extremely quiet, I had to check the fan was functioning at first. Though when it does start to speed up it becomes more noticeable.

Battery life is also very good, I'm running Windows 8.1, screen at half brightness and a bluetooth mouse connected and I can get a good 3-4 hours from a single charge doing web browsing and some programming.

Overall I'm extremely pleased with my purchase and PCS. I'll definitely be back in the future.

PICS:

Hey, I have a question for you. mine came with an issue where the audio is dodgy and refuses to come out of the headphone jack. have you experienced the same?

my configs are very similar to yours. same CPU, same HDD but I added the SSD as the main drive, using the same drive that you have for media storage. double the ram however. I also found that it works really well and I have never had it stutter other then when I modded minecraft for some stupid render distance and shaders. that, however, would have probably lagged nasa's computers, as I added one too many 0 to the render distance. mine is being sent back soon to have the audio issue looked at, sadly =/