15.6" Cosmos II Review

[Tom DWC]

Hey all,

This is my review of my new Cosmos II laptop. I realized it's been a few years since I've done a really in depth review of a purchase so I've tried to make it as detailed as possible and in doing so gone off on a bit of a tangent at times, start reading from "Review" to skip all of the preamble.

Requirements

I recently ordered the Cosmos II as a replacement for my Vortex III which I purchased back in 2012 and have recently sold. While this made for an ideal desktop replacement I needed something more portable for frequent train travel and the 17.3" machine was just too bulky (not to mention heavy) for this purpose. I wanted a laptop that was thinner, lighter and more streamlined with better battery life.

Therefore in terms of the options available it really came down to the 15.6" Ultranote II or the 15.6" Cosmos II. I settled for the Cosmos due to the dedicated GPU, allowing for some casual gaming. The form factor of the two systems is very similar so if graphics power is less of a concern, the Ultranote is well worth a look due to its improved battery life over the Cosmos, and the integrated graphics are more than enough for HD video playback and even some basic gaming nowadays.

One of the main reasons I continue to use PC Specialist is the availability of custom built configurations. I tend to do the desktop stuff myself now but in the laptop sector the choices on offer are much more limited, especially in the UK. For example, it’s next to impossible to find a high resolution, matte IPS display on the retail market and that's where companies like PC Specialist are so valuable, offering customizable chassis from vendors such as Clevo.

The specification was as follows:

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4200M (2.50GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 850M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY*
*120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7260 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH

I'll now explain why I made these choices so if you're in the market for something similar, you can use this as a guideline.

I really can't stand low resolution displays and think they should have died a death some time ago now, so I wouldn't recommend the glossy 1366x768 TN panel for any kind of graphics work or even general productivity. This is just my personal opinion but a display is the thing you're going to be looking at most when using your computer, so why skimp here? At the very least pick up the glossy FHD 1920x1080 TN panel. Even then though, you're getting the tradeoff of poor viewing angles and inaccurate colour reproduction. If your budget allows opt for the matte FHD 1920x1080 IPS screen. Not only does this type of screen produce more accurate colours with wider viewing angles, matte screens are also far more practical to use outdoors in bright light and deal much better with reflections, important if you're going to be taking the laptop on trips. They aren't for everyone but the pros outweigh the cons in my view. The only reason you might want to opt for one of the TN panels instead is if you're a heavy gamer and want the best response times, though the response time on the IPS panel is still acceptable.

A dual core i5 with hyper-threading (for 4 threads presented to the operating system) is a pretty powerful mobile chip and more than adequate for most tasks, but if you’re going to be doing a lot of intensive video encoding or running multiple virtual machines then you should probably consider a quad core i7. There’s not really any reason to consider the dual core i7 and whether or not the i5 and i7 models with an incremental bump in clock speed is worth it is really subjective. What I will say is that with the expectation of the 3550M and i3 range, all of these processors make use of turbo boost and so run at higher than stated speeds almost all of the anyway, unless thermally limited (more on that later).

There’s hardly any difference between the 1333Mhz and 1600Mhz memory and the modest price difference reflects this. I would recommend 8GB of RAM for most users unless your usage requirements are light, in which case 4GB should be fine. Note that if you make use of the Intel HD 4600 graphics while on battery power, it shares the system memory, so more RAM equals slightly faster performance.

Not much to say here, there’s absolutely no reason to choose the 740M over the 850M when they’re exactly the same price! The only advantage the 740M may have is reduced power consumption while on battery power, but it’s going to be a slight difference at best, especially when considering the power optimisations of the 8 series over 7 series cards. By the way, the 850M is a DDR3 card, not the slightly faster DDR5 model as stated on the website at the time of ordering. The DDR3 model is clocked a bit higher but in theory the DDR5 version should still be faster due to the increased bandwidth. After looking at some benchmarks of the two this doesn’t appear to be too much of a difference in performance though.

I would only suggest a 5400RPM hard drive if it’s for storage purposes, if you’re going to be running the OS off of the drive then get a 7200RPM model. Even better, get an SSD boot drive instead, the gulf between the two is so huge that once you’ve used an SSD you can never really go back to a mechanical drive. The bay caddy gives you another slot for a drive, and that’s where I installed my own SSD. Alternatively you can have a DVD drive here, and the Blu-Ray option is nice too. For some reason at the time of writing no MSATA options are currently available on the configurator.

The better quality thermal paste is well worth the buy if it can help reduce temps (and therefore give the CPU more thermal headroom to boost) and prolong the life of the system as well.

The wireless AC card uses brand new technology, which follows on from wireless N. Not many routers can take advantage of this yet but at least it’s there for the future. It’s worth getting but any of the others will do just fine too.

By the way the silver warranty offered by PCS is a bargain at £5 in the event that anything does go wrong within the first year of owning the laptop and if it has to go back.

I hope this helps you when speccing up your own system but as always, post it up on these forums for feedback. It never hurts to have a few more sets of eyes check it over too.

 

[Tom DWC]

Review

Order Process & Customer Service

I opted for the 5 day fast track option, I ordered the system on a Wednesday morning and had it by Monday the following week – if you know you’re impatient or going to need the laptop sooner rather than later then this really is good value. One drawback to ordering a custom specification is the time it can take. This is in no way unreasonable though, just something you should be aware of.

I rarely have to contact PCS but whenever I do I find them to be helpful and knowledgeable. The benefits of a UK based call center with enthusiastic techies are self-explanatory. As always I was kept well informed during the order process by email and SMS during dispatch and delivery.

Speaking of delivery DPD are good as couriers go with a 1 hour time estimate and PCS package their laptops very well indeed.

Build Quality

Given the price point for this chassis, the build quality is more than adequate. Don’t expect any aluminum here, the laptop is plastic and the speaker grill is merely a pattern effect.

The fit and finish is good and it was robust enough to pick up with one hand – though I’d rather not as with the battery and two drives, it isn’t all that light at just over 2KG. There’s some slight flex across the lid and chassis, including the keyboard tray, but it was minor and didn’t cause me any concern – certainly no worse than many other laptops in this price range. Also applying pressure to the back of the lid did not result in any screen flickering or distortion which is always a good sign.

One thing worth mentioning, I have to hold the power button down for a fraction longer than you might expect for it to power on, but it’s no big deal once you get used to it.

I like the minimalistic styling, there’s no garish logos or branding to be found here. The plainness won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it isn’t offensive either. I think the laptop actually looks better closed than it does open, the textured aluminum effect on the lid and the shape of the exterior is nice, in contrast to the relatively plain interior. The shape makes the laptop look thinner than it actually is, though given the hardware inside it’s still quite thin.

All in all I’m happy with the build quality of the laptop and it has slightly exceeded my expectations. It’s not as sturdy as my Vortex III was, but it is also half the price.

Accessibility

Like most barebones laptops it’s very easy to get inside the Cosmos II for maintenance and/or upgrades. There’s just two screws to remove and the back panel comes off to reveal the internal components. Lovely. This is how it should be, Apple.

Display

The 1920x1080 matte IPS display is nothing short of a delight. It deals with light and reflections very well, due to the traditional matte coating, as opposed to the semi-matte being used on more and more desktop monitors. I actually prefer a semi-matte finish as it still deals with light and reflections well while being less grainy and giving off that “punchy” image clarity people tend to like about a gloss display. The display here is not overly grainy however, and handles light and reflections better.

The viewing angles are excellent with only a small amount of IPS glow. There is some backlight bleed but it’s only visible in a darkened room and not too noticeable unless you’re watching a movie in the dark due to the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. It’s no worse in this regard than my desktop monitor which cost far more.

As far as I can tell colour accuracy is good, I couldn’t discern any noticeable differences in comparison to my desktop monitor which I know to have 99.5% sRGB coverage.

Unfortunately I did have one dead pixel but it actually took me a few days to notice as it only shows up against certain colours. As white and black are not two of these colours I’m not too bothered by it and won’t be requesting an RMA. It’s something I’m prepared to accept given how unnoticeable it is in most situations.

It may not be completely perfect but it’s far better than the TN panels found on most laptops.

Keyboard

I should start by saying that I’m not a fan of chiclet keyboards, I use a mechanical keyboard with my desktop and that’s what I’m used to. However, I found the keyboard on the Cosmos II to be perfectly useable and rather accurate too. I haven’t found myself making many mistakes like I do on many other chiclet keyboards and I got used to it almost immediately.

The gold standards of chiclet keyboards always seems to be the one found on the MacBook. I honestly have never understood this, having used it, it was okay – very accurate to type on, but I found the response to be quite harsh. Some may find the keyboard on the Cosmos to be mushy in comparison but I wouldn’t say I find that, I prefer the softer feedback the keys give.

To me the keyboard is absolutely fine and better than I thought it might be. I definitely prefer it to the keyboard on the Vortex III.

Touchpad

One thing MacBook’s do get absolutely right is the large touchpad. The Cosmos II gets this right as well, by Windows laptop standards it’s huge! It’s responsive too and the finger glides pretty well against the surface with minimal resistance. It also has two dedicated click buttons with tactile feedback as opposed to those horrible buttons on some laptops that are either built into the touchpad itself or combined into one button. I like the touchpad.

Speakers

I wasn’t expecting much from the speakers despite the Sound Blaster branding and I’m glad I didn’t, like most laptops speakers they’re nothing much to shout about. The maximum volume output is low and bass is virtually non-existent. They’re fine for general use and the odd YouTube video but for any serious listening plug in a pair of headphones. On the plus side the output from the headphone jack was perfectly clear with a couple of different headphones I used, and I’m told clarity was good when I plugged in a basic headphone mic.

Wireless Connectivity

This is based on the AC wireless card. It delivers fantastic performance, with good range and great speeds if you have the connection for it.

Performance

With this particular configuration the system absolutely flies, it keeps up with my desktop for all basic and moderate tasks, only falling behind on the intensive stuff and gaming, as to be expected of course! It actually boots considerably faster than my desktop, arriving at the login screen in just under 12 seconds (OS installed on SSD) due to the lightweight BIOS which posts very quickly.

Speaking of the BIOS it’s minimal but has everything you need on a laptop, including UEFI boot support which is enabled by default. For the non-techies reading this, that’s a good thing.

The chassis never got overly warm and was quiet during general operation, though the fan did get quite loud when the system was under load. This is quite normal. The cooler kept the system within acceptable parameters in regards to temperature and I didn’t observe any throttling with turbo boost active on a very regular basis, which is great. No complaints here.

Battery Life

I wasn’t expecting too much here given the relatively powerful hardware and somewhat low capacity battery, but I was surprised. From a full charge I got about 4 hours of general use out of it before I needed to plug it back into the mains. This consisted of some web browsing and downloads over the WiFi and some HD video playback. It’s got more than enough juice to last a few hours on the train while still providing plenty of horsepower and that’s more than enough for me.

AC Adapter

The power brick is a decent size, not overage large and pretty thin. It’s fairly light too so definitely okay for packing in a bag when on the move.

 

[Tom DWC]

Also here's a short video having a quick look at the laptop:

[video=youtube_share;LaaP-EGlUVQ]http://youtu.be/LaaP-EGlUVQ[/video]

Well I think that just about wraps up this review.

If I've missed anything, you have any questions or would like me to cover anything else, just let me know. I’m more than happy to run any particular free benchmark tests and battery tests, or game benchmarks (if I have it).

 

[vanthus]

Great review Tom + rep

 

[jultok]

Hi, excellent review. I have also been looking at the cosmos ll for some time but still struggle to decide on right spec. The changes I have to what you ordered are -
1 - glossy FHD 1920x1080 TN panel. Not the IPS version. Keeps cost down.
2 - include optical drive. notice you did not include one. Any reson for this?
3 - standard 150bps wireless + bluetooth. I don't think the signal in my house is great (solid thick walls). Would choosing a different card improve things much.

I was also a bit disappointed to read that the gtx850 is the ddr3 version not the ddr5 one. one review I read stated the ddr3 version was better suited to lower resolution panels. Bit concerned about ordering a 1920x1080 panel with this card and to be honest its the main thing giving me cold feet about going ahead with an order. Are you having any issues with your setup?

thanks

 

[Tom DWC]

Hi,

1 - Still a good choice over the 1366x768 panel.
2 - Useful to have. I opted for the caddy instead so I could add a solid state boot drive and still have a hard drive for mass storage.
3 - The mbps given is just an indication of the maximum speed the card can receive, so if the signal isn't strong enough to reach these levels anyway then it shouldn't matter too much. However, the 300mbps wireless N card is dual band, which should deliver better range if your router supports it (and most modern routers do).

I was disappointed when I found out, especially as it was sold as the GDDR5 version. No doubt this was an accidental error and it's been corrected now. That said if PCS start stocking the GDDR5 version in future I would try for a swap.

In theory it should be a bottleneck at 1920x1080 but so far I can't say it seems all that much slower. I've only tried a couple of games for now, Age of Empires 2 HD Edition which is so lightweight it wouldn't show any difference on either card, and GRID 2. This performed at 60+ fps at 1080p on high settings, which is a strong showing and when I changed the settings around a bit it delivered almost identical numbers to the benchmark on notebookcheck, and I imagine those results are from the GDDR5 version since they don't state otherwise. This might be because the higher core clock on the DDR3 version is bridging the gap in performance but without trying a few more games I couldn't say for sure.

I'll try a few more later and post the results here. Either way both models are definitely a fair bit faster than the card they replace though, the 750M.

 

[Tom DWC]

Benchmarks:

Tomb Raider Benchmark Tool -

1920x1080
High Preset

Min: 31
Max: 50
Avg: 40.5

1920x1080
Ultra Preset

Min: 27.1
Max:40
avg: 32.1

Sleeping Dogs Benchmark Tool

1920x1080
Medium Preset

min: 54.5
max: 67.7
avg: 59.7

1920x1080
High Preset (HD Textures Enabled)

Min: 19.5
Max: 53
Avg: 34.2

Metro: Last Light Benchmark Tool

1366x768
Medium Quality
4x Texture Filtering
Low Motion Blur
Tessellation Off

Min: 11.35
Max: 115.02
Avg: 59.51

Bioshock Infinite Benchmark Tool

1920x1080
High Preset

min: 5.74
max: 141.19
avg: 48.62

Note Bioshock Infinite's benchmark tool always throws out unrealistic minimum fps readings and the Metro: Last Light one is more taxing than during the gameplay itself.

Having looked at notebookcheck again some of the benchmarks are with the DDR3 card and others are with the GDDR5. The performance numbers pretty much match others with the DDR3 card and the GDDR5 version looks to be a bit faster, but not by as much as you might think.

 

[jultok]

Thanks for the feedback and benchmarks. Will hopefully get my order in soon, once I've done some tinkering on the configurator. +rep

 

[Niem]

Great review +rep

 

[Timelord104]

Would this laptop be better for stuff like lan parties and going round to your mates to play games then the 14" Skyfire laptop?

 

[Tom DWC]

Would this laptop be better for stuff like lan parties and going round to your mates to play games then the 14" Skyfire laptop?

Currently they both use the same GPU so you could spec either of them very similarly - it wouldn't make much difference in terms of performance. The Skyfire has the smaller screen and is also a bit lighter, So I guess it really comes down to that and which you prefer the look of.

The 850M isn't really up to what I would call heavy duty gaming though, it's capable but you might want to consider a higher end chassis for gaming depending on your requirements and budget.

 

[Timelord104]

Have you seen the Gigabyte P34G V2 laptop, its a 14" that weights only 1.67kg and has a 860M inside it, what would you think of that one or is the 13.3" Optimus V better?

 

[keynes]

Have you seen the Gigabyte P34G V2 laptop, its a 14" that weights only 1.67kg and has a 860M inside it, what would you think of that one or is the 13.3" Optimus V better?

Depends on the price and a fair comparison will be like for like. Since the forum belongs to PCS it is not encouraged to give advice on other retailer's systems/laptops

 

[Timelord104]

So its not recommend to compare stuff from PCS to other companies then?

 

[keynes]

So its not recommend to compare stuff from PCS to other companies then?

Not to give advice on other builds. If you are looking at value for money compare the same system with the same cpu, ram, hdd, gpu and look which one is cheaper. I am pretty sure PCS is going to offer better value for money.

 

[Timelord104]

Ok thanks for advice, sorry if I upset PCS I'm just starting on forums

 

[kavaman]

How is the heat while using this pc. Does the computer get hot and does the ips panel heat up much (ive read ips heats more then tn). Im really thinking of maybe ordering this. My house gets pretty hot during the summer, and i dont really like holding a really hot computer on my lap.

Would you consider the response time on the panel is good enough for gaming. Im not really hard core into games, but i do like to play sometimes. So even good enough for FPS shooters?

 

[Tom DWC]

How is the heat while using this pc. Does the computer get hot and does the ips panel heat up much (ive read ips heats more then tn). Im really thinking of maybe ordering this. My house gets pretty hot during the summer, and i dont really like holding a really hot computer on my lap.

Would you consider the response time on the panel is good enough for gaming. Im not really hard core into games, but i do like to play sometimes. So even good enough for FPS shooters?

The only real heat comes out of the vent on the left hand side towards the back, where the graphics card is placed. When on your lap the underside will get warm but that's to be expected and the heat isn't excessive. The keys don't get uncomfortable to the touch when the laptop is under load either.

If the back of the screen gets warm I haven't noticed, so I wouldn't think it ever becomes noticeable.

In terms of gaming, good enough, yes - optimal, probably not. As my second machine I only use it for casual gaming and I'm more than happy with the response time for this purpose. I have noticed some mild ghosting when playing an MMORPG but not enough to find it distracting. Though I've always found minor ghosting to be worth the trade off for more accurate colors and viewing angles. For competitive FPS multiplayer or for someone used to a high response rate TN panel it almost certainly won't be fast enough. But should be fine for some casual sessions.

Having used the screen for a few months now and gotten more used to it, in comparison to my main monitor it does have a slight yellow hue (only noticeable on whites) but it's very subtle, if I wasn't going to and from my desktop monitor frequently I would never have noticed. Also the screen I'm comparing it with is a premium display so it's an unfair comparison. The Cosmos screen holds up very well all things considered. The biggest criticism I can level at it is temporary burn-in, which I've never experienced on an IPS screen before, very similar to what plasma screens can get. The only time I notice it is when shutting down the PC, against the very dark grey shutdown screen. Along the top I can see the outline of my browser tabs. Whenever I boot it up again later it's always gone though.

 

[dframe]

Ips or not? :O

In terms of gaming, good enough, yes - optimal, probably not. As my second machine I only use it for casual gaming and I'm more than happy with the response time for this purpose. I have noticed some mild ghosting when playing an MMORPG but not enough to find it distracting. Though I've always found minor ghosting to be worth the trade off for more accurate colors and viewing angles. For competitive FPS multiplayer or for someone used to a high response rate TN panel it almost certainly won't be fast enough. But should be fine for some casual sessions.

Having used the screen for a few months now and gotten more used to it, in comparison to my main monitor it does have a slight yellow hue (only noticeable on whites) but it's very subtle, if I wasn't going to and from my desktop monitor frequently I would never have noticed. Also the screen I'm comparing it with is a premium display so it's an unfair comparison. The Cosmos screen holds up very well all things considered. The biggest criticism I can level at it is temporary burn-in, which I've never experienced on an IPS screen before, very similar to what plasma screens can get. The only time I notice it is when shutting down the PC, against the very dark grey shutdown screen. Along the top I can see the outline of my browser tabs. Whenever I boot it up again later it's always gone though.

Hi, I have never had or used an IPS screen before so this quote has made me a bit cautious: would the ghosting be noticeable if i'm used to traditional TN panels? I will be doing some gaming such as watch dogs and minecraft and I would hate it if, for example, the hud was visible during a cutscene Also do you know of any good way to see the difference before buying? Any good youtube videos showing a similar level of ghosting to what you have experienced?

Thanks

 

[Tom DWC]

Hi, I have never had or used an IPS screen before so this quote has made me a bit cautious: would the ghosting be noticeable if i'm used to traditional TN panels? I will be doing some gaming such as watch dogs and minecraft and I would hate it if, for example, the hud was visible during a cutscene Also do you know of any good way to see the difference before buying? Any good youtube videos showing a similar level of ghosting to what you have experienced?

Thanks

It's hard to say because some people notice it more than others. I can see the difference between TN and IPS in terms of response times but I can still happily game on an IPS screen, and this one is no different. The HUD wouldn't stay visible during a cutscene, that would be an extreme example and it's nowhere near that bad. The burn-in I mentioned is a separate issue and only happens temporarily when the same image has been on display for a period of time (and is so faint you only see it against a black background).

I guess it really depends what expectations you have, as long as you aren't expecting it to offer TN response times then for casual gaming it should be adequate.

Aside from gaming I find that movies are fine, watching football on it wasn't too great. It's high speed sudden movements that show it up, it looks a bit blurry/choppy when the ball's kicked up the pitch whereas with a higher response rate it would be much more smooth.