Defiance 15.6"

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tyepye

Member
Just took delivery of my new laptop, had a quick take out of the box before I had to head back to work (I do love DPD delivery times). Killing me not being able to play with it!

Laptop took 6-7 working days to complete which was bang on the estimate so very happy with the service from PCS.

My spec:

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4720HQ (2.60GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED, 1 e-SATA COMBINED)
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Already got 2 SSDs so didn't need to get a decent HDD, hence the cheapest option here. I'm coming from a gaming desktop to a laptop for the first time. Don't really sit at my desk playing games anymore and for a while now I have just been streaming games using either steam stream or nvidia stream. So decided to go the whole hog and just get a laptop and sell off the desktop.

Looking forward to getting it configured tonight and hopefully get in some gameplay :)

Will post updates as I go.
 
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tyepye

Member
So have got my new laptop unpacked and booted. Took out the supplied drive and put in my 2 Ssds. A Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB for OS and a Crucial M4 256GB for Data.

Currently reinstalling Windows 7 using my USB bluray drive. Patiently waiting.
 
T

tyepye

Member
So got all the windows updates installed along with the correct drivers.

Tomorrow will get on installing my programs and games :)

First impressions of the laptop are great though. The bottom was a bit tricky getting off but just had to be brave and pull a bit harder than I thought.

People say the power brick is massive but I think the size is fine. The fans span up a little bit but nothing major and I could barely hear them over the telly.

Build quality seems solid. Some reviews I've read mention the flexibility of the screen but as I only touch it when opening/closing this isn't an issue.

So far so good then. Hopefully will actually get to play games tomorrow evening :)
 
A

accip

Active member
I eagerly await your verdict on the laptop's gaming performance. Just ordered one myself (same specifications as yours, just different hard disks), so am quite excited and nervous at the same time :D
 
T

tyepye

Member
Did a quick capture on my lunch break in GTA V driving around and shooting up some cops/people, crashing into cars and blowing up helicopters. Using FRAPS for frame rates. Originally I had it locked to 30FPS without realising (VSYNC half = 30fps) now set to off my results are:

Using Nvidia Geforce Experience recommended settings:

gta settings.png


Min 59, Max 270, Avg 151

which suggests to me that I can push it higher (or i had some sort of anomaly, will try doing some missions over a sustained time rather than a quick 5 minute in and out).

Will try some tweaking later.
 
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accip

Active member
Thanks, just wondering if it will fit in my bag. Having a choice paradox right now, always fun :)
 
T

tyepye

Member
So after using the laptop of a couple of weeks it really is great.

Case

The case is really nice. It has a nice brushed finish, which although is prone to finger smudges still looks and feel nice. It really is quite thin when you consider the hardware inside, this does mean that the screen is a bit wobbly but as I don't move or shake my laptop much while gaming it really isn't a problem. The keyboard is nice to type on and the white backlight is useful for gaming in the evening. Trackpad is very responsive all over as are the click buttons. The fingerprint scanners is cool but I do find the software doesn't always load up quick enough on boot and sometimes it's just quicker to type in my password. When I do use it though it's again very responsive and accurate. I haven't used the ports that often, just the USB 3.0 ports which work as expected.

Screen

The screen is very bright and responsive and you can dim the brightness when required. The resolution is really crisp and games look great, it's great to have a 1080p screen in a 15" laptop. I havent noticed any backlight bleeding from it, so if it has some it is minimal to my eyes.

Gaming

I've played a few games on in but mainly GTAV at the moment. It runs beautifully and I never have any drops in framerate using high settings. It's very comfortable to game on my lap. I have used an Xbxo 360 controller and an external mouse with the laptop's keyboard and have not experienced any problems.

Cooling

The device is very good at keeping itself cool. When gaming I get temps around 70c for the CPU which is great. The fans do spin up but if you have some background noise, e.g. TV or play with headphones you won't hear them. I've gamed next to the wife most of the time and she hasn't complained when watching her programmes on TV. When I'm not gaming the fans hardly spin up at all which is what you want.

Conclusion

Overall I am delighted with the Defiance 15.6" laptop. I have been umming and ahhing over whether to go from a PC to a Laptop for a couple of years now but finally took the plunge and glad I have. The service from PCS was top notch, was ready in the predicted time period and received next day after dispatch. Obviously I haven't had any issues that require talking to customer service but would feel confident in doing so after the build process. Their laptops also seem cheaper than the rest of the competition that sell Clevo bases which was another factor with going with them.

I only have positive things to say about the laptop and have no problems recommending it to people who want a relatively light and thin gaming laptop that can handle pretty much anything that is thrown at it gaming wise.

A few pics

DSC_0351.jpg

It came packaged well.

DSC_0352.jpg

and protected too on the inside

DSC_0353.jpg

it looks really nice

DSC_0366.jpg

Even my cat agrees :D
 
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