Defiance III 15.6" 1070 Review

O

Opotling

Member
So I've now had my lovely, slim, cool and not so quiet laptop for about 10 days now and although it certainly has a few negatives, I ruddy love it.

Here's the specs...

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk
NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Supply
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
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-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
30 Day Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Promotional Item
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
Quantity
1


Pro's

1. Delivery was super speedy. I originally didn't bother with paying for fast track delivery but naturally when you spend £1,500 it's very hard not to spend £30 more and get it a few days earlier! Placed order on a Friday and it arrived the following Friday. Very impressed.

2. Build quality is great. It's very thin (when compared to other gaming laptops). Took the back off the day I got it, to install a new 500gb Samsung EVO and all looked in order, nice and easy to do! Keyboard is great with very little flex and is actually much nicer than the pictures on the site showed (Think they might have been from an older chassis?), this keyboard looks and feels more like the steel series keyboard found on an MSI. Likewise, the trackpad is a huge step up from my old Samsung laptop and it has two dedicated buttons which I much prefer. There is a fingerprint scanner but after several failed attempts to set it up I've given up on the lil bugger, it's not great.

3. Laptop stays very cool under load. Max I've hit is 78 after a couple of hours gaming on Dirt Rally and Shogun 2.

4. GPU - The 1070 has smashed everything I've thrown at it so far, having said that I haven't tried any recent AAA games. I have played total war: warhammer on it and it handled it with ease.

Con's

1. Back light bleed. I always wonder why oh why a laptop that costs more than my car can be shipped with backlight bleed. I mean it's only noticeable against dark backgrounds but it's without a doubt the biggest let down of the laptop. The actual 60hz IPS screen is very nice. For those that are wondering, the screen only OC's to 63hz so I turned mine back to 60. I did ask PCS for the screen model number which they said they would get for me but alas no follow up email came. The pessimist in me wonders if now that they've got my money they can't be bothered to reply but I'd like to think not.

2. Battery life isn't fantastic... On low brightness and power saver and doing general browsing I get around 3hours.. I have disabled optimus or "MS hybrid" as it's called, so maybe this could be improved? But still not bad battery life...

3. No thunderbolt 3.. Bit disappointing but then again I'd probably never use it and with mobile GPUs pretty much as powerful as their PC counterparts (Even though they're the same they're still a few % lower), I don't ever see the need for an eGPU so no big loss.

4. Fan noise - Not really a con as it's probably one of the biggest plus's for a thin gaming laptop but my god these fans can get a tad noisy! I had my headphones on the first time they revved up fully so I didn't hear them but the look on my girlfriends face was hilarious. To be fair as far as fan noises go they're quite pleasant and you'll forget about them eventually and at the end of the day they're doing their job and keeping the thing cool. To a certain extent you can control when the fan's come on and at what speed so you can adjust accordingly.


All in all I love this laptop. It's ultra portable (even though the power adapter probably weighs half as much as the lappy!), ridiculously quick and I love the design. It has next to no branding apart from the speakers and the standard stickers. The fan slots at the back are a bit racy but I wouldn't be ashamed to get this laptop out in a work meeting. I hope this review helps anyone on the fence about making a purchase, I know it's not the most technical of reviews but all I can say is this thing has been a pleasure so far :)

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Any questions, give me a shout.

Pictures





 
Last edited:
T

Tadg Keating

New member
Hey, thanks for sharing.
Any chance you could post some pics of the backlight bleed in action?
Is the screen actually gsync? I see the GPU listed as gsync, but nothing on the screen.
Thanks for you time.
 
R

rav007

Enthusiast
I am quite concerned about the battery life difference from the specs. It says the battery life should be around 325 minutes, or around 5.5hrs and you are getting 3. I assume running in the "GSYNC" mode would always have the dGPU active but on a low power state? Could you test the battery life on the optimus setting just on the integrated GPU if you have time to spare? Would be great to get the full picture on this as I assume people using it on battery power won't be playing games and therefore won't generally have the GSYNC option on, will likely opt for optimus. :chef:
 
O

Opotling

Member
To be fair my 3 hours was a rough guide.. I'll do a proper test for you with MS Hybrid activated considering you asked so nicely...

Anyway he's another picture of the keyboard...


This is the picture of the backlight bleed.. It looks worse in the photo than it actually is, especially the top right...


and to step aside from laptops... here's my new puppy. His name is Ralph and he is the boy.
 
R

rav007

Enthusiast
I noticed that the image of the right side ports doesn't have the 2 USB type C ports that are advertised on the website. Do you have USB type C ports on the GTX 1070 chassis?
 
J

JuJu.Lp

New member
So are there two different types of keyboards for this laptop? Yours looks great, is it translucent around the edges?
Some other people with this laptop appear to have the keyboard that looks like the older version when it was just a white backlight and the key caps didn't realy light up very much.
 
H

Howie

Member
Opotling said:
Any questions, give me a shout.
Click to expand...


Hi Opotling,

I recently got my Defiance III and was wondering if you could kindly do a quick check for me.

A problem I've been having is whenever I have my GPU set to the discrete mode, the function buttons for brightness adjustment fail to work. This is also the same for both the "control centre" that came with the driver disc and the "action centre" in windows 10. The pop up reading changes but for some obscure reasons, windows just refuses to register and change the actual brightness for the screen. It seems as if the function buttons only work with the Intel HD 530 driver.... The only way round atm is by going to the "adjusting the desktop colour setting" in the Nvidia control panel, which is rather annoying when you are in the middle of playing games or watching a movie.... Have you run into the same problem or have you always been using the MSHybrid mode for the GPU?

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte 3K IPS LED Widescreen (2880x1620)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6820HK (2.7GHz, 3.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
64GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC

Cheers,
Howie
 
B

bash1987

Member
Howie said:
Hi Opotling,

I recently got my Defiance III and was wondering if you could kindly do a quick check for me.

A problem I've been having is whenever I have my GPU set to the discrete mode, the function buttons for brightness adjustment fail to work. This is also the same for both the "control centre" that came with the driver disc and the "action centre" in windows 10. The pop up reading changes but for some obscure reasons, windows just refuses to register and change the actual brightness for the screen. It seems as if the function buttons only work with the Intel HD 530 driver.... The only way round atm is by going to the "adjusting the desktop colour setting" in the Nvidia control panel, which is rather annoying when you are in the middle of playing games or watching a movie.... Have you run into the same problem or have you always been using the MSHybrid mode for the GPU?

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte 3K IPS LED Widescreen (2880x1620)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6820HK (2.7GHz, 3.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
64GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC

Cheers,
Howie
Click to expand...

Hey, is the 3k screen G-sync?
And what kind of fps do you get in games at the native resolution?
Thanks
 
V

vijxy7

New member
Opotling said:
So I've now had my lovely, slim, cool and not so quiet laptop for about 10 days now and although it certainly has a few negatives, I ruddy love it.

Here's the specs...

Chassis & Display
Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor 6700HQ (2.6GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070 - 8.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk
NOT REQUIRED
M.2 SSD Drive
128GB SAMSUNG SM951 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2000MB/R, 650MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Supply
1 x 230W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
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-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language
DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media
Windows 10 (64-bit) Home DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
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)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
30 Day Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 8 to 10 working days
Promotional Item
FREE PARAGON GAME READY PACK with select GTX 10 Series GPUs!
Quantity
1


Pro's

1. Delivery was super speedy. I originally didn't bother with paying for fast track delivery but naturally when you spend £1,500 it's very hard not to spend £30 more and get it a few days earlier! Placed order on a Friday and it arrived the following Friday. Very impressed.

2. Build quality is great. It's very thin (when compared to other gaming laptops). Took the back off the day I got it, to install a new 500gb Samsung EVO and all looked in order, nice and easy to do! Keyboard is great with very little flex and is actually much nicer than the pictures on the site showed (Think they might have been from an older chassis?), this keyboard looks and feels more like the steel series keyboard found on an MSI. Likewise, the trackpad is a huge step up from my old Samsung laptop and it has two dedicated buttons which I much prefer. There is a fingerprint scanner but after several failed attempts to set it up I've given up on the lil bugger, it's not great.

3. Laptop stays very cool under load. Max I've hit is 78 after a couple of hours gaming on Dirt Rally and Shogun 2.

4. GPU - The 1070 has smashed everything I've thrown at it so far, having said that I haven't tried any recent AAA games. I have played total war: warhammer on it and it handled it with ease.

Con's

1. Back light bleed. I always wonder why oh why a laptop that costs more than my car can be shipped with backlight bleed. I mean it's only noticeable against dark backgrounds but it's without a doubt the biggest let down of the laptop. The actual 60hz IPS screen is very nice. For those that are wondering, the screen only OC's to 63hz so I turned mine back to 60. I did ask PCS for the screen model number which they said they would get for me but alas no follow up email came. The pessimist in me wonders if now that they've got my money they can't be bothered to reply but I'd like to think not.

2. Battery life isn't fantastic... On low brightness and power saver and doing general browsing I get around 3hours.. I have disabled optimus or "MS hybrid" as it's called, so maybe this could be improved? But still not bad battery life...

3. No thunderbolt 3.. Bit disappointing but then again I'd probably never use it and with mobile GPUs pretty much as powerful as their PC counterparts (Even though they're the same they're still a few % lower), I don't ever see the need for an eGPU so no big loss.

4. Fan noise - Not really a con as it's probably one of the biggest plus's for a thin gaming laptop but my god these fans can get a tad noisy! I had my headphones on the first time they revved up fully so I didn't hear them but the look on my girlfriends face was hilarious. To be fair as far as fan noises go they're quite pleasant and you'll forget about them eventually and at the end of the day they're doing their job and keeping the thing cool. To a certain extent you can control when the fan's come on and at what speed so you can adjust accordingly.


All in all I love this laptop. It's ultra portable (even though the power adapter probably weighs half as much as the lappy!), ridiculously quick and I love the design. It has next to no branding apart from the speakers and the standard stickers. The fan slots at the back are a bit racy but I wouldn't be ashamed to get this laptop out in a work meeting. I hope this review helps anyone on the fence about making a purchase, I know it's not the most technical of reviews but all I can say is this thing has been a pleasure so far :)

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

Any questions, give me a shout.

Pictures





Click to expand...
hi how much did this Defiance III 15.6" GTX 1070 option cost and where did you get it from because when i look on pc specialist all i can find is a 15.6" Defiance III w/ a GTX 1060, also how long is the battery life while surfing the internet in Optimus mode
 
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