Defiance III 15.6" laptop review

[GeorgeHillier]

Hi guys, so I received my laptop yesterday and thought I'd write a quick review. For now I'll leave out performance as I haven't had enough time to test that fully. For starters here were my specs:

Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® CoreTM i7 Quad Core Processor 7700HQ (2.8GHz, 3.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE 2400MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 16GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 - 6.0GB GDDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1, G-SYNC
1st Hard Disk NOT REQUIRED (Added my own)
M.2 SSD Drive 128GB SAMSUNG SM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3100MB/R, 700MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor 1 x 200W AC Adaptor
Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options 3 x USB 3.1 Type A, 2 x USB 3.1 Type C AS STANDARD
Battery Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language DEFIANCE SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
DVD Recovery Media NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Notebook 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 FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Quantity 1
Total Order Price Ex VAT £1,008.33
Total VAT Amount £201.67
Total Order Price £1,210.00


General build quality: 8/10
The build quality is great in general, no flex in the chassis, a good keyboard and very easy to access the internals to change the hard drives, memory and SSDs. I added my own hard drive and took me less than 30 minutes to open up the laptop, add the drive and seal it all back up. The only downside is the trackpad isn't the best, but this could be partially down to the fact I'm not used to it yet.

Screen quality: 9/10
I went with the 1080p standard screen option, it's a really clear screen and the colours are very good for a laptop of this price point. As a plus it has gsync enabled which makes everything more smooth, so no real complaints. I knocked off one star as I'd have liked to have seen a higher refresh rate monitor as an option.

Fast track service: 10/10
I went with the 3 day fast track service, it was extremely fast and was finished in the time advertised, so far no issues with the laptop so no complaints there!

Delivery: 4/10
This was the major let down with my system, as I had paid for the 3 day fast track yet delivery was delayed by a day due to my house number being missed off of the dpd delivery label. I had provided PC Specialist with the correct address but they somehow missed off the number and then had to return it to the depot for the next day, least to say I was a bit annoyed about this.


I'll update this with performance and some other bits at a later date when I've put it through its paces a bit more, one question I do have to any owners is how to change the rbg keyboard colours?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Wow, that was quick!

Do you have some software running called control center, should be in running programs, that governs the keyboard lights.

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Wow, that was quick!

Do you have some software running called control center, should be in running programs, that governs the keyboard lights.

Haha, yes it was quick I looked and couldn't find it, so downloaded it and installed it, may try underclocking the gpu slightly for better battery

 

[SpyderTracks]

Haha, yes it was quick I looked and couldn't find it, so downloaded it and installed it, may try underclocking the gpu slightly for better battery

I think PCS have done away with installing it by default as some people consider it bloat ware, but so long as you keep it up to date, it greatly enhances any clevo laptop.

 

[Oussebon]

may try underclocking the gpu slightly for better battery

Not sure how it works with modern laptops, but for desktops if you get Nvidia Inspector you can enable "multi monitor power saving" which downclocks the GPU when its under certain load thresholds.
http://pcgamesbeat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/enable-power-saving-mode-on-nvidia-gpus.html

While introduced to handle an issue where the GPU wouldn't downclock properly if you had 2 monitors, it works just as well for single monitor scenarios where your GPU is under very low load but is still not downclocking (e.g. browser hardware acceleration that makes it ramp up to its full base clock)

 

[GeorgeHillier]

I think PCS have done away with installing it by default as some people consider it bloat ware, but so long as you keep it up to date, it greatly enhances any clevo laptop.

Ah that makes sense, I can't seem to get the backlight setting to stick though, trying to make it default to red but as soon as I restart the PC it goes back to blue :/

Not sure how it works with modern laptops, but for desktops if you get Nvidia Inspector you can enable "multi monitor power saving" which downclocks the GPU when its under certain load thresholds.
http://pcgamesbeat.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/enable-power-saving-mode-on-nvidia-gpus.html

While introduced to handle an issue where the GPU wouldn't downclock properly if you had 2 monitors, it works just as well for single monitor scenarios where your GPU is under very low load but is still not downclocking (e.g. browser hardware acceleration that makes it ramp up to its full base clock)

Ah, I'll have a look into it, cheers I already set nvidia to power saving mode when not gaming so that should help somewhat, I just need to test the battery life a bit more to see if it's worth me tweaking it any more

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Never mind, seems to be keeping the correct backlight colour now! Also I tested out Battlefield 1 and it runs 60-70fps constantly at 1080p ultra settings

I'm tempted to hook the laptop up to my 1440p 144hz desktop screen and see how viable it is to play games on that at high or something

 

[Korb]

Nice review! How are temps doing on heavy load?

 

[GeorgeHillier]

Nice review! How are temps doing on heavy load?

Thanks Temps are within check and what I expected, the highest I saw the GPU get was 75 degrees, the CPU is usually about the same when gaming but can get higher if running a stress test for a while on purpose!

 

[Scott_shogun69]

How is this running so far? My partner bought a build extremely similar; same gpu, cpu & ram etc.. Yet its struggling to run games at 60fps. The CPU overclocker also didn't work and we've had problems reinstalling the control panel, have you had any of these problems?

 

[GeorgeHillier]

How is this running so far? My partner bought a build extremely similar; same gpu, cpu & ram etc.. Yet its struggling to run games at 60fps. The CPU overclocker also didn't work and we've had problems reinstalling the control panel, have you had any of these problems?

Been fine so far, I must admit I haven't used it super heavily as I have my desktop for that, but it has been around a week and still all running well. Not had a single game that has run below 60fps that I've tried. Perhaps early access games like PUBG, Rust etc may run below 60 but that would be because their optimisation is rubbish and runs badly on everything.

 

[Oussebon]

How is this running so far? My partner bought a build extremely similar; same gpu, cpu & ram etc.. Yet its struggling to run games at 60fps. The CPU overclocker also didn't work and we've had problems reinstalling the control panel, have you had any of these problems?

I'd suggest you make a new topic - post the spec and the details of the issues you've had. People can suggest a few things to try. You can do that as well as contact PCS directly for support.

 

[Retro]

I think PCS have done away with installing it by default as some people consider it bloat ware, but so long as you keep it up to date, it greatly enhances any clevo laptop.

I am expecting my own Defiance in a few days (3 days in Pre-Production atm) and i just popped in here and saw this "control centre" mentioned. Can someone tell me if i do need to download it to improve performance where i can get it from? Is it from a specific company?

Thanks in advance unk:

 

[GeorgeHillier]

I am expecting my own Defiance in a few days (3 days in Pre-Production atm) and i just popped in here and saw this "control centre" mentioned. Can someone tell me if i do need to download it to improve performance where i can get it from? Is it from a specific company?

Thanks in advance unk:

If you just google the clevo model number you can find the driver download that way, or on the PCSpecialist site once you're logged in, in the download section.

As for if you need it, I would say get it just for the keyboard customisation with lighting and macro keys, there's not a whole lot you can do with regards to increasing performance apart from overclocking, however it's fine at stock speeds and would just be louder if you did overclock anyway.

 

[SpyderTracks]

If you just google the clevo model number you can find the driver download that way, or on the PCSpecialist site once you're logged in, in the download section.

As for if you need it, I would say get it just for the keyboard customisation with lighting and macro keys, there's not a whole lot you can do with regards to increasing performance apart from overclocking, however it's fine at stock speeds and would just be louder if you did overclock anyway.

I just reinstalled Windows 10 on mine and had high cpu usage for windows modules installer until I installed hotkey (control center). It's still my belief that it's an integral driver for a clevo laptop and that the system is not properly configured without it.

 

[Retro]

Sound lads, i shall find it and install.

At the least it will do no harm adding some nice visuals and at most it will calm down my cpu!!

Thanks bunches

 

[Arcadeon]

Hi, I'm thinking of getting the Defiance III as well (17.3"), I was wondering if there is easy access to the fans/heat sinks for cleaning out dust? (i.e. is there a lot to remove before you reach them)

Thanks in advance