Aristotle
Member
This is a review of the new Lafité III laptop that I ordered from PC Specialist, and which arrived about a week ago.
After shopping for laptops on the internet, and not finding what I wanted, I realized I had fairly specific requirements for my new machine. I work from home, and my laptop is the lifeline to my business. I needed something fast, reliable, and light enough to be extremely portable, be powerful enough to handle any and all multitasking that I needed to do, and finally, also be tough enough to withstand days of travel at a time. Truth be told, I was always impressed with the MacBooks, which feature a small, portable and premium quality aluminum chassis, with some decent specs under the hood. But what always put me off was the Mac OS, the fact that the specs are no longer so impressive, and not wanting to be tied down to the whole Mac ecosystem thing. A similar quality Windows PC with some decent power inside was looking like it would be well over a thousand Euros, and of course I was therefore eying some gaming PC's which were on sale for a similar price to the Lafité III, but came with some over-the-top specs that I will never use, and aren't nearly as portable as I'd like.
On a whim I decided to check out PC Specialist. The website was easy to navigate and it became apparent that all I needed to do was find the right chassis for my needs, and fill it up to the exact specifications I required. It was a pleasure to be involved in the process of designing my new laptop, and after doing some research, I settled on the specs below:
Lafité Series: Aluminium Chassis: 13.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Intel® CoreTM i7 Dual Core Processor i7-7500U (2.70GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
8GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 620 - 1.7GB Max DDR4 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
1 x Lafité Series 40W AC Adaptor
2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Lafité Series 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (36WH)
LAFITÉ SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
I had originally intended to run Windows on the machine, but ultimately decided to make the switch to Linux while I waited for the order to arrive. When the laptop did arrive, It came with a test version of Windows pre-installed. I simply inserted the bootable USB, and had the laptop re-partitioned, Windows deleted, and a fresh version of Linux whizzing along without any installation issues whatsoever after only about 15 minutes time.
The power button is no longer on the keyboard as it was with the Lafité II design. It is now integrated on the left hand side panel in between the USB slot and the mic/headphone jacks. It is not in the way at all. The chassis is light, elegant and unassuming. Lightly brushed aluminum metal in a silver finish, with no branding whatsoever. I like that. The keyboard, on which I'm currently writing this review, though not premium, is of good quality, and easy enough to use. It has adjustable backlighting (an essential), and does not impede your work flow. Being able to design it to your own specs means that it's simply a fast, lean, and highly portable machine.
In the end, I'm satisfied with the purchase and enjoyed the experience of designing my own laptop. I got exactly what I needed, for about half the price of an almost similar OEM machine, and I'd expect this laptop to avoid redundancy and last for at least a few years. The Lafité III is a good quality buy, a highly recommended portable laptop, and definitely a Mac killer.
After shopping for laptops on the internet, and not finding what I wanted, I realized I had fairly specific requirements for my new machine. I work from home, and my laptop is the lifeline to my business. I needed something fast, reliable, and light enough to be extremely portable, be powerful enough to handle any and all multitasking that I needed to do, and finally, also be tough enough to withstand days of travel at a time. Truth be told, I was always impressed with the MacBooks, which feature a small, portable and premium quality aluminum chassis, with some decent specs under the hood. But what always put me off was the Mac OS, the fact that the specs are no longer so impressive, and not wanting to be tied down to the whole Mac ecosystem thing. A similar quality Windows PC with some decent power inside was looking like it would be well over a thousand Euros, and of course I was therefore eying some gaming PC's which were on sale for a similar price to the Lafité III, but came with some over-the-top specs that I will never use, and aren't nearly as portable as I'd like.
On a whim I decided to check out PC Specialist. The website was easy to navigate and it became apparent that all I needed to do was find the right chassis for my needs, and fill it up to the exact specifications I required. It was a pleasure to be involved in the process of designing my new laptop, and after doing some research, I settled on the specs below:
Lafité Series: Aluminium Chassis: 13.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Intel® CoreTM i7 Dual Core Processor i7-7500U (2.70GHz, 3.5GHz Turbo)
8GB Corsair 2133MHz SODIMM DDR4 (1 x 8GB)
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 620 - 1.7GB Max DDR4 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
1 x Lafité Series 40W AC Adaptor
2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf European Power Cable
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Lafité Series 3 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (36WH)
LAFITÉ SERIES SINGLE COLOUR BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
I had originally intended to run Windows on the machine, but ultimately decided to make the switch to Linux while I waited for the order to arrive. When the laptop did arrive, It came with a test version of Windows pre-installed. I simply inserted the bootable USB, and had the laptop re-partitioned, Windows deleted, and a fresh version of Linux whizzing along without any installation issues whatsoever after only about 15 minutes time.
The power button is no longer on the keyboard as it was with the Lafité II design. It is now integrated on the left hand side panel in between the USB slot and the mic/headphone jacks. It is not in the way at all. The chassis is light, elegant and unassuming. Lightly brushed aluminum metal in a silver finish, with no branding whatsoever. I like that. The keyboard, on which I'm currently writing this review, though not premium, is of good quality, and easy enough to use. It has adjustable backlighting (an essential), and does not impede your work flow. Being able to design it to your own specs means that it's simply a fast, lean, and highly portable machine.
In the end, I'm satisfied with the purchase and enjoyed the experience of designing my own laptop. I got exactly what I needed, for about half the price of an almost similar OEM machine, and I'd expect this laptop to avoid redundancy and last for at least a few years. The Lafité III is a good quality buy, a highly recommended portable laptop, and definitely a Mac killer.