11.6" Inferno review

Pigeon_Lady

Member
Hello All,

I thought I could post my review here as well. Maybe, it will come useful to someone undecided.

I have had my 11.6" Inferno for almost two weeks now and I guess it is the right time to write a review.


Ordering process and delivery


This is usually the most stressful part of the online shopping for me. When normally I feel I do not have enough information about the product, here there was ample of it. I could play with the configuration toy as much as I wanted until I was completely satisfied with the result. And it was almost as fun as playing games on my new laptop. Great start! I feel I need to mention the PC Specialist Forum, where I could find answers to any of my questions. It allowed me to make a truly informed choice and educate myself about computers a bit more.
I chose the fast track service and I was really happy that I did. Although, I must say at points I felt like they are teasing me. There was nothing happening in the process for like 2 days, and then suddenly there was a jump over few steps at once. My impatient nature was really tried here. But it could always be soothed with the chance to inquire into the process via e-mail. The replies were always very fast and I was really happy with the whole experience. And the delivery was really fast preceded by a text message in the morning. Amazing service.

The look

Now it gets really girly here for a moment. I was never really convinced about the look of the Inferno when I saw it on the photos. But I truly believe no-one and nothing should be judged by appearance only. So I got it based on the size and available specs. But here I was really surprise. The laptop is not as ugly as I thought. It is actually quite sexy and looks really solid. (Maybe it is just that thing when you find something really ugly when it belongs to everyone else, and then it seems like the most beautiful creature when it is yours. Like with babies.) I love the fact it is not branded. Makes it a bit more personal, and provides plenty of opportunities to convert people into PC Specialist addicts.

The specs

I don’t feel I know enough to comment on that in length, but so far the graphic card (NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 650M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11) and the processor (Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB) have handled everything I threw at them. It might not be much for some people, but I was able to do some moderate gaming, video editing, screen recording and web browsing at the same time without any decrease in performance. My last laptop struggled with just one of those at a time. So this came to me as a bit of a shock; a very positive one. I opted for a fast HDD (320GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD3200BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)) and I am fairly happy with it. Although, I am pretty sure I will upgrade it to SSD in a few months. Overall, I am very happy with the machine. And the chance for an upgrade at some point in the future gives me peace about its ability to hold well in the next few years. On the whole, the available specs are superb and far superior to those of other laptops of similar size and price range (both in UK and Poland).
What needs to be mention here is also the straightforwardness of driver installation. The CD is provided and a child could use and install it. Absolutely perfect, the drivers are the last thing I want to worry about and get stressed over.

The laptop in use

I should probably comment on the speakers, microphone, keyboard and track pad. Oh my goodness, the built in mic is not very good at all, but to be fair, it is not something I even looked at when I was considering the laptop. I got an external one for like £2 pounds and I am very happy with it now. The speakers are not great, but were enough for me. It would be nice if there were better, but I am not too upset they are not.
Now, I am in love with the keyboard. It took me only few minutes to get used to it (to be honest, it is a bit more tricky to switch to a normal size keyboard at my office now). Note for gamers: the arrow buttons are kind of small and the right shift is tiny compared to the normal size keyboards. It can be a bit of a problem with some games. (Let’s just say that for the first few days Lara Croft in my game was moving with as much grace as her butler in TR2).
I did not use the mouse/track pad that much. I hate them anyways, so I am not a good person to give a judgement about this specific one. Fn+F1 is, therefore, my favourite key combination. However, as track pads go, the Inferno one is not the worst I have had. It is not the best either. It is just good really, but not brilliant enough for me to be elated. What I basically want to say is that if you are really focused on these things in a laptop, Inferno might not be for you, but if, like me, you just want them to be good enough not to cause any additional frustration, this laptop will not disappoint.
The matte screen was not my initial choice but after travelling on a train, a bus, a plane and a car this past week, I was very happy I got it. Just don’t let your children/spouse/partner/animal/creepy stranger touch it with greasy fingers. It took me a while to get rid of the marks.
What else could I add here? The size was the reason I got it and I was really happy I did. Using it on a plane was really comfortable (even on the cheap airlines) and it fits perfectly in my handbag. It is not too heavy so I can move it about easily. Also, the charger is not too bad. It is obviously a bit bigger (I got 120V one) than the average ones, but it is a bit flatter and should fit in any bag easily.


Conclusions


I love this laptop. I was not entirely convinced about it in the beginning. Even after ordering it, I felt really uncomfortable with spending so much money on something like that. I was looking forward to getting it but in the same time was really sceptical. After only one day of using it, all those feeling were gone and I am really enjoying working on it now. I would really recommend it to anyone who travels a lot as long as they have access to sockets because the battery life is not great (about 3 hours or so). I am very happy with my choice and I will definitely use PCS again.


Thank you to everyone on this forum who helped me decide to get this laptop!
 

Seppie

Active member
Congrats! Thanks for the review, enjoyed reading it and looking forward to having an inferno of my own.

Glad to hear you enjoy using the smaller sized keyboard too, it looks like something that will take a while to get used to but you seem to have cracked it really very quickly!
 

Toxophilix

Bright Spark
Great review. Really glad that you are liking your laptop.

I can totally identify with what you say about the Inferno's looks, performance, and all-round goodness. There is now a whole string of reviews on here raving about this machine. I think there's just something very likeable about it.
 

Pigeon_Lady

Member
I will try to post some photos tonight.

Although, I think fate is playing some games with me. I have started having problems with the laptop only few hours after posting the review. I think there is something wrong with the HDD (now I really regret not getting SSD for all the traveling I am doing) - the system stops loading on the blue Windows screen. I am not too worried or upset - there are so many great reviews about the PCS customer support service. I will give them a call today or tomorrow and let you know how it goes.

Seppie, I have tiny hands and short fingers, so the keyboard is perfect for freaks like me.

UPDATE: Laptop is working. Reinstalling the system helped.
 
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