Laptop review
I've had the Optimus VIII for over two weeks now so it's given me a good chance to put it through its paces before leaving a review.
The laptop arrived pretty quickly (much to the delight of my girlfriend - because I hadn't shut up about getting it for about 8 weeks before I even placed the order), and when it arrived, it was well packaged - so I was confident that there wouldn't have been any damage in transit even if it had been delivered by Ace Ventura (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzEHbHgrslo).
My first impression of the laptop was that the chassis was much nicer than it looks in the pictures on the website (and the few pictures I could find elsewhere on the internet.) The pictures on the site were putting me off slightly and I actually considered getting the 15.6 version because it looked a bit nicer, but I'm glad that I got the 17.3 version in the end. The chassis is really nice and the screen is crystal clear (the screen size is what swayed me in the end). The 5 setting backlit keyboard is great for working at night as well.
The laptop feels pretty light but doesn't feel cheaply made. The hinges feel like they will stand the test of time; the keyboard feels nice; the mousepad is responsive; and the mousepad buttons don't feel like they are about to sink in every time you click them.
The reason I got the laptop is that I'm a full stack developer and this laptop was needed for work purposes because my old laptop (Lenovo G500 with i3, 8GB RAM, integrated graphics and a serial ata drive) just wasn't keeping up with me.
I tend to have a lot of programs open at the same time; usually: Visual Studio, Sql Server Management Studio, Photoshop, various different browsers and emulators, and Adobe Premier.
So far, this laptop hasn't missed a beat with all of these open at the same time. I only got 16GB of RAM as I thought this would be sufficient for my purposes; and it has been so far. Glad that PC Specialist offered a single 16GB rather than two 8GB config for the RAM option though, as upgrading will be cheaper and easier if needs be at a later date.
The m.2 PCIe NVME was worth every penny! So glad I ended up having to go for the 1TB rather than my initial choice of a 512GB (which wasn't available when I ordered) with a Hybrid drive.
Boot up time is about 7 secs, and programs like Visual Studio and Photoshop (which normally take quite a while to open) are open and ready within a couple of seconds. Build/compile times in Visual Studio are about 4 or 5 secs, whereas before, it would generally take 30 secs to a min depending on the project (and when you're doing so many builds per day it soon mounts up). Although, with the latter, I'm guessing that the processor upgrade may also have made a difference to this.
Full HD video rendering with Adobe Premier is rapid with GPU acceleration!
I haven't tried any 3D rendering with it yet but I imagine it will handle it just fine.
I got the laptop without an operating system (which is a nice option from PC Specialist as it helped to keep the cost down where it wasn't needed and get better spec elsewhere) but I have installed Windows 10 Professional on it. It has been really stable. No crashes, and running smoothly.
I've also done a little bit of gaming with the laptop. The games I've played are: GTA V, Tom Clancy's The Division, and Arma III. These have all been played on either very high or ultra settings and the 4GB 1050 TI graphics card is handling them great. Getting around 60 frames per sec on average with these settings, so pretty much perfect. Arma III on very high still runs at respectable mid 40's and I've played it on ultra settings and it's still pretty smooth (at least 30 fps.)
My girlfriend's review of the laptop:
Q. What do you think about my new laptop?
A. “It's the bain of my life”.
Q. Why?
A. “Because you never shut up about it”.
Q. Would you like to add any further comments about my laptop?
A. “No, I just want to watch this love” (watching telly).
Q. What do you think about the overall look of the laptop?
A. “It takes up more space than I would like. I can see less of the telly now”
Q. What do you think about the speed of the new laptop?
A. “You've not set me up an account on it so I wouldn't know”.
I've had the Optimus VIII for over two weeks now so it's given me a good chance to put it through its paces before leaving a review.
The laptop arrived pretty quickly (much to the delight of my girlfriend - because I hadn't shut up about getting it for about 8 weeks before I even placed the order), and when it arrived, it was well packaged - so I was confident that there wouldn't have been any damage in transit even if it had been delivered by Ace Ventura (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzEHbHgrslo).
My first impression of the laptop was that the chassis was much nicer than it looks in the pictures on the website (and the few pictures I could find elsewhere on the internet.) The pictures on the site were putting me off slightly and I actually considered getting the 15.6 version because it looked a bit nicer, but I'm glad that I got the 17.3 version in the end. The chassis is really nice and the screen is crystal clear (the screen size is what swayed me in the end). The 5 setting backlit keyboard is great for working at night as well.
The laptop feels pretty light but doesn't feel cheaply made. The hinges feel like they will stand the test of time; the keyboard feels nice; the mousepad is responsive; and the mousepad buttons don't feel like they are about to sink in every time you click them.
The reason I got the laptop is that I'm a full stack developer and this laptop was needed for work purposes because my old laptop (Lenovo G500 with i3, 8GB RAM, integrated graphics and a serial ata drive) just wasn't keeping up with me.
I tend to have a lot of programs open at the same time; usually: Visual Studio, Sql Server Management Studio, Photoshop, various different browsers and emulators, and Adobe Premier.
So far, this laptop hasn't missed a beat with all of these open at the same time. I only got 16GB of RAM as I thought this would be sufficient for my purposes; and it has been so far. Glad that PC Specialist offered a single 16GB rather than two 8GB config for the RAM option though, as upgrading will be cheaper and easier if needs be at a later date.
The m.2 PCIe NVME was worth every penny! So glad I ended up having to go for the 1TB rather than my initial choice of a 512GB (which wasn't available when I ordered) with a Hybrid drive.
Boot up time is about 7 secs, and programs like Visual Studio and Photoshop (which normally take quite a while to open) are open and ready within a couple of seconds. Build/compile times in Visual Studio are about 4 or 5 secs, whereas before, it would generally take 30 secs to a min depending on the project (and when you're doing so many builds per day it soon mounts up). Although, with the latter, I'm guessing that the processor upgrade may also have made a difference to this.
Full HD video rendering with Adobe Premier is rapid with GPU acceleration!
I haven't tried any 3D rendering with it yet but I imagine it will handle it just fine.
I got the laptop without an operating system (which is a nice option from PC Specialist as it helped to keep the cost down where it wasn't needed and get better spec elsewhere) but I have installed Windows 10 Professional on it. It has been really stable. No crashes, and running smoothly.
I've also done a little bit of gaming with the laptop. The games I've played are: GTA V, Tom Clancy's The Division, and Arma III. These have all been played on either very high or ultra settings and the 4GB 1050 TI graphics card is handling them great. Getting around 60 frames per sec on average with these settings, so pretty much perfect. Arma III on very high still runs at respectable mid 40's and I've played it on ultra settings and it's still pretty smooth (at least 30 fps.)
My girlfriend's review of the laptop:
Q. What do you think about my new laptop?
A. “It's the bain of my life”.
Q. Why?
A. “Because you never shut up about it”.
Q. Would you like to add any further comments about my laptop?
A. “No, I just want to watch this love” (watching telly).
Q. What do you think about the overall look of the laptop?
A. “It takes up more space than I would like. I can see less of the telly now”
Q. What do you think about the speed of the new laptop?
A. “You've not set me up an account on it so I wouldn't know”.
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