Chassis & Display - Ionico Series: 16" Matte QHD 240Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1600)
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™ i9 14 Core Processor 13900H (5.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) - 32GB PCS PRO SODIMM DDR5 4800MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4050 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive - 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)
A little review, and feedback for my latest order.
Having previously ordered desktop boxes, this would be my first laptop from PCSpecialists.
Price - In this context, I could find cheaper, I could find more expensive, I could find wildly more expensive! In general I found the price pretty comparable with off the shelf machines that were either slightly older spec, or had a couple of areas below the spec of this. These might be ram, disk, processor, graphics, etc. It varied. All in all though, this got me all the bits I wanted, at a comparable price point.
Having not ordered a laptop from PCS before, the chassis worried me a bit. Cases I could research, but tracing this back, even to the supplier left a few details missing. I eventually got most of the important information, but materials the case was made of worried me, right up until it arrived. I was please to feel a metallic screen back, and keyboard surround - not cheaper plastics etc. The underside I was expecting to be plastic, regardless of the surfaces - but again metal. A very nice and strong chassis, I was pleased.
On firing up, I got all the annoying flashing LEDs, keyboard lights, etc. But... The screen looked lovely, nice high resolution, bright (I usually run it dimmed). Though, when dimmed, the blacks are still very black. This is not a problem, but when doing some CAD modelling, and photoshopping, it often needs the brightness turned up to see the contrast in the blacks.
Speed, performance, and general use - it is quick as expected. CAD is a dream, 3D work without issue, photo and video, easy.
When the graphics card cuts in, then the helicopter lands in the room! This thing is not quiet when working hard!!! Personally, I have no issue with this, it helps me know when it is under load, the cooling is doing the job it is meant to do, etc, etc. But you might find it a bit noisy in a library or school!
The build is ready to accept disk and ram upgrades - should I ever want to push it further. And I appreciate this over the soldered in RAM that comes from many companies (Lenovo, etc).
It is a beefy laptop, it is quite large, and it is heavy. But, as expected when order a 16" laptop.
However, it does still fit in my laptop bag that I had an older 14" in - so the screen surround is minimal and helpful here.
I have had a few Win11 based niggles - it is struggling to push through some early updates. But these seem to be resolving slowly.
Don't forget your Windows Serial is in the order area!
Anyway, summary - I like it, I am happy, and all my initial worries while waiting for it to arrive were proven to not be an issue. A lovely machine.
Please ignore the dust in the photos!!!
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™ i9 14 Core Processor 13900H (5.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) - 32GB PCS PRO SODIMM DDR5 4800MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4050 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive - 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (3500 MB/R, 3200 MB/W)
A little review, and feedback for my latest order.
Having previously ordered desktop boxes, this would be my first laptop from PCSpecialists.
Price - In this context, I could find cheaper, I could find more expensive, I could find wildly more expensive! In general I found the price pretty comparable with off the shelf machines that were either slightly older spec, or had a couple of areas below the spec of this. These might be ram, disk, processor, graphics, etc. It varied. All in all though, this got me all the bits I wanted, at a comparable price point.
Having not ordered a laptop from PCS before, the chassis worried me a bit. Cases I could research, but tracing this back, even to the supplier left a few details missing. I eventually got most of the important information, but materials the case was made of worried me, right up until it arrived. I was please to feel a metallic screen back, and keyboard surround - not cheaper plastics etc. The underside I was expecting to be plastic, regardless of the surfaces - but again metal. A very nice and strong chassis, I was pleased.
On firing up, I got all the annoying flashing LEDs, keyboard lights, etc. But... The screen looked lovely, nice high resolution, bright (I usually run it dimmed). Though, when dimmed, the blacks are still very black. This is not a problem, but when doing some CAD modelling, and photoshopping, it often needs the brightness turned up to see the contrast in the blacks.
Speed, performance, and general use - it is quick as expected. CAD is a dream, 3D work without issue, photo and video, easy.
When the graphics card cuts in, then the helicopter lands in the room! This thing is not quiet when working hard!!! Personally, I have no issue with this, it helps me know when it is under load, the cooling is doing the job it is meant to do, etc, etc. But you might find it a bit noisy in a library or school!
The build is ready to accept disk and ram upgrades - should I ever want to push it further. And I appreciate this over the soldered in RAM that comes from many companies (Lenovo, etc).
It is a beefy laptop, it is quite large, and it is heavy. But, as expected when order a 16" laptop.
However, it does still fit in my laptop bag that I had an older 14" in - so the screen surround is minimal and helpful here.
I have had a few Win11 based niggles - it is struggling to push through some early updates. But these seem to be resolving slowly.
Don't forget your Windows Serial is in the order area!
Anyway, summary - I like it, I am happy, and all my initial worries while waiting for it to arrive were proven to not be an issue. A lovely machine.
Please ignore the dust in the photos!!!