Arrived around a week ago. Here's an overview of laptop (cooling mat underneath I bought seperately):
Overview of My Config
Form Factor: 17.3"
CPU: i7 6700K
GPU: GTX 1070 (mobile)
RAM: 16GB 2133MHz HyperX (most people's choice it seems)
Screen: 1080p
1st Storage Drive: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO
2nd Storage Drive: 500GB Generic HDD
Build Quality, Ergonomics
PROS:
- Overall the laptop build is excellent. Tough thing indeed.
- The Clevo case is practical and pretty. Very user friendly. Everything is in it's expected place, short cut keys for almost every function you could think of (they can take some time remembering them all!!)
- Keyboard has very nice travel and feel, and after using for several hours a day, it's comfortable. People used to chiclet-style/spaced keyboard will take around a week to get used to this keyboard's more conventional layout, most likely.
- Fingerprint sensor is fast.
CONS:
- Fingerprint sensor is small, borderless, and hard to see in anything but bright light (see pic below, sensor is that tiny black rectangle top-left of touchpad!!). The only major gripe I have.
Temperature, Noise
PROS:
- Very quiet and cool when low-demand browsing, watching films/tv, etc.: GPU~38C, CPU~34C, ambient~20C
- Relatively cool during load: GPU-CPU Usage: ~70% -> GPU/CPU stay below 70 usually
- Heat is mostly kept away from keyboard and wrist-resting areas (this comes at the cost of a very hot above-keyboard area after intense-gaming, but that really doesn't matter since it's never touched)
NOTES:
- Neither a pro/con, the laptop will get very noisy during intense gaming-type loads (BF4, etc.). This noise is neccessary for this calibre of laptop, and it really is unavoidable. If intense-gaming, consider noise-cancelling headphones. heat reduces the lifetime of your batteries, HDD's, SSD's, CPU, RAM, GPU, basically anything electronic, and therefore I really thank PCS for not sacrificing low temperatures for a few cheap decibels (like MSI has done with their notoriously-hot high-end gaming laptops).
Screen
I'm not an expert with screens, so take this as somewhat an "amateur" review of this part...
PROS:
- Great color depth
- The deepness of the blacks make me feel like i'm staring into the devil's soul (is that why you ship the PC with a mostly black background PCS eh?
).
- Great max brightness.
- IPS tech offers great viewing angle
- Matte finish really is worth all the hype
CONS:
- Minimum brightness could be darker for late-night stuff, but that's a very minor gripe.
NOTES:
- If you are on a budget, don't consider 4K. It is useless on screens smaller than ~20", and 1080p looks beautiful already.
Sound
PROS:
- The subwoofer does improve the bass tones of the audio. That is rare and impressive for a laptop, and well appreciated for films, tv, etc.
Customer Service, Build Time, Delivery
PROS:
- From order to dispatch took 12 working days. That's really not bad for a laptop like this.
- Never needed customer service, but there was explicitly-given helplines available, nice flowchart of the order/build process, and other customers give glowing reviews of customer service. I'll echo that.
- More a pro of DPD: 1 working day between dispatch and delivery (~100 miles)
- The laptop and everything else is packaged neatly, securely, and nothing seems to have been bumped around at all. Nothing to complain about in terms of internal package safety/quality.
CONS:
- Box was slightly messed up at one of the external faces, but really, that's being picky (see pic below).
I won't bother reviewing connectivity, etc., since it's all laid out in the spec. All the ports work great, and the laptop even comes with a "free" external Hard-Disk/Optical drive to usb adapter!!
Conclusion
10/10
Would definitely recommend this laptop with PCS, it's excellent. I can't think of a single glaring fault.
(Congrats on recieving a 9/10 from KitGuru on the new Defiance also guys!)
Overview of My Config
Form Factor: 17.3"
CPU: i7 6700K
GPU: GTX 1070 (mobile)
RAM: 16GB 2133MHz HyperX (most people's choice it seems)
Screen: 1080p
1st Storage Drive: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO
2nd Storage Drive: 500GB Generic HDD
Build Quality, Ergonomics
PROS:
- Overall the laptop build is excellent. Tough thing indeed.
- The Clevo case is practical and pretty. Very user friendly. Everything is in it's expected place, short cut keys for almost every function you could think of (they can take some time remembering them all!!)
- Keyboard has very nice travel and feel, and after using for several hours a day, it's comfortable. People used to chiclet-style/spaced keyboard will take around a week to get used to this keyboard's more conventional layout, most likely.
- Fingerprint sensor is fast.
CONS:
- Fingerprint sensor is small, borderless, and hard to see in anything but bright light (see pic below, sensor is that tiny black rectangle top-left of touchpad!!). The only major gripe I have.
Temperature, Noise
PROS:
- Very quiet and cool when low-demand browsing, watching films/tv, etc.: GPU~38C, CPU~34C, ambient~20C
- Relatively cool during load: GPU-CPU Usage: ~70% -> GPU/CPU stay below 70 usually
- Heat is mostly kept away from keyboard and wrist-resting areas (this comes at the cost of a very hot above-keyboard area after intense-gaming, but that really doesn't matter since it's never touched)
NOTES:
- Neither a pro/con, the laptop will get very noisy during intense gaming-type loads (BF4, etc.). This noise is neccessary for this calibre of laptop, and it really is unavoidable. If intense-gaming, consider noise-cancelling headphones. heat reduces the lifetime of your batteries, HDD's, SSD's, CPU, RAM, GPU, basically anything electronic, and therefore I really thank PCS for not sacrificing low temperatures for a few cheap decibels (like MSI has done with their notoriously-hot high-end gaming laptops).
Screen
I'm not an expert with screens, so take this as somewhat an "amateur" review of this part...
PROS:
- Great color depth
- The deepness of the blacks make me feel like i'm staring into the devil's soul (is that why you ship the PC with a mostly black background PCS eh?
).- Great max brightness.
- IPS tech offers great viewing angle
- Matte finish really is worth all the hype
CONS:
- Minimum brightness could be darker for late-night stuff, but that's a very minor gripe.
NOTES:
- If you are on a budget, don't consider 4K. It is useless on screens smaller than ~20", and 1080p looks beautiful already.
Sound
PROS:
- The subwoofer does improve the bass tones of the audio. That is rare and impressive for a laptop, and well appreciated for films, tv, etc.
Customer Service, Build Time, Delivery
PROS:
- From order to dispatch took 12 working days. That's really not bad for a laptop like this.
- Never needed customer service, but there was explicitly-given helplines available, nice flowchart of the order/build process, and other customers give glowing reviews of customer service. I'll echo that.
- More a pro of DPD: 1 working day between dispatch and delivery (~100 miles)
- The laptop and everything else is packaged neatly, securely, and nothing seems to have been bumped around at all. Nothing to complain about in terms of internal package safety/quality.
CONS:
- Box was slightly messed up at one of the external faces, but really, that's being picky (see pic below).
I won't bother reviewing connectivity, etc., since it's all laid out in the spec. All the ports work great, and the laptop even comes with a "free" external Hard-Disk/Optical drive to usb adapter!!
Conclusion
10/10
Would definitely recommend this laptop with PCS, it's excellent. I can't think of a single glaring fault.
(Congrats on recieving a 9/10 from KitGuru on the new Defiance also guys!)
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