Optimus V 15.6" Review

[SawGex]

Hello PCSpecialist!
It's been a long time since I last posted on here. I used to be under the name of 'Agonul' on this forum. I bought a PC from you guys exactly on the 21st of November, 2010 (around 4 years ago or so). The PC components have practically been replaced with higher end ones, which I upgraded myself so it's not really a PCSpecialist PC anymore (I think 2 RAM modules and the hard drive are the only components from PCSpecialist left in my computer) Anyway, to ensure that this post doesn't seem like I'm introducing myself I will elaborate a bit more on the laptop I've ordered.

So, I've ordered a laptop which will allow me to PC game on the go and also keep me up to date with all of my college work; and soon - university work. Of course, PCSpecialist was my first choice as they handled everything extremely well when I first ordered my PC from and also because the pricing appealed a lot to me. I must say that I'm very much looking forward to it arriving, I've never even owned a laptop so it'll be very useful for me and be excellent for when I don't feel like starting up the main beast. The reason why I haven't included an OS is because I can't say I'm very fond of Windows 8 and I have my old Windows 7 disc which I shall be using.

I'm going to start with a pre-review which is simply about the service before actually receiving the laptop. The pre-review will be scores out of 10 and consist of five categories which are:

Ordering process - How easy it was to actually make the order, ut of 10.
Order maintenance - This is a rating out of 10 of the tracking of the order to see which stage of production it is in as well as the
Customer support - Should I require to contact PCSpecialist before or after this order, I will grade the customer service out of 10. If I don't need to contact them then this category will be eliminated.
Order clarity - This is a rating on how clear everything is on the "my order" page, the more cluttered it is the lower the rating.
Delivery - The quality of the delivery which will be graded out of 10. How close the dispatch time to the average timescale will also be included in this sub-category.

Overall for pre-review: /50

I'll follow up this with a review which will also be graded on ten categories;

Aesthetics - This is basically the look and feel of the laptop chassis. The more premium it looks and feels, the higher it gets out of 10.
Performance - This category is simply how well it performs with day-to-day tasks as well as gaming and connectivity too. The better it performs, the higher the score.
Display - How good the display looks, the better it looks the higher the score.
Sound - The quality of the sound, this will have two sub-scores which will comprise of headphone quality (out of 5) and speaker quality (out of 5) so both sub-scores will be calculated in order to formulate a score out of 10.
Use - Simply how easy it to use, such as the keyboard and track-pad.
Battery life - How well the relative battery life is, this will be graded by two sub-categories being load battery life and idle battery life.
Portable - How light the laptop is, and how easy it is to take around with me.
Features - This includes the webcam quality, microphone quality, USBs/e-sata, optical disc drive, bluetooth and NVIDIA Optimus. The better quality the features, the higher the score.
Ease of set-up - This scores how easy the laptop was to set-up, points will not be deducted if I made any mistakes whilst setting it up.
Frustration level - This should be pretty simply, the more frustrating it is the lower the score - thought I'd include this one!

Overall for laptop: /100

Overall: This'll be every score on each category for both the pre-review and review added up and will be a percentage.

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
750GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD7500BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1202 WIRELESS GAMING 802.11N + BLUETOOTH 4.0
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
BACKLIT OPTIMUS UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

 

[SawGex]

Ordering process diary

Processing
Day 1: I've ordered the laptop and kick started the review! I'm very much looking forward to receiving this portable beast .

Pre-production
Day 2: The laptop is now on its 1st working day of pre-production. Click me!
Day 3: The laptop is now on its 2nd working day of pre-production.
Day 4: The laptop is now on its 3rd working day of pre-production.
Day 5: The laptop is now on its 4th working day of pre-production. It shouldn't be too long before it proceeds onto the next stage.
Day 6: Not a working day.
Day 7: Not a working day.
Day 8: The laptop is now on its 5th working day of pre-production.
Day 9: The laptop is now on its 6th working day of pre-production.
Day 10: The laptop is now on its 7th working day of pre-production. As this was the case, I emailed them to elaborate a bit more on the status of the order, and they told me that it's due for building very shortly.
Day 11: The laptop is now on its 8th working day of pre-production.
Day 12: The laptop is now on its 9th working day of pre-production.
Day 13: Not a working day.
Day 14: Not a working day.

In building, in testing & in quality control
Day 15: The laptop has been built on it's 10th working day! Hooray! I got a nice email from them confirming that it is has been built and will be tested and configured. Click me!
Day 16: The laptop is now in quality control and it's on its 11th working day.
Day 17: The wait is almost over! The laptop has been dispatched and should hopefully be with me tomorrow. 12th working day.
Day 18: It's here! The review is on its way.

 

[SawGex]

Pre-review

Ordering process - 10/10
The reason I've given it a 10/10 is mainly because it was so simple and straight forward. The only reason I would've given it a lower score is simply so it doesn't set the precedent of every review category being 10/10. It was a very simple process, I customized the laptop to my liking, read the terms and conditions (being a law student I seem to be doing this quite a lot!) and placed the order after filling in the relevant information. After placing the order, I was sent an email which confirmed the order and provided me with an order number.
It was as simple as that, there were no hold ups for me and the ease of ordering built up the anticipation even more which is why I gave it a 10/10.

Order maintenance - 9/10
The reason I deducted one point is because I'm being extremely picky and would have loved to see a 'remember me' option on the log-in but then again this is most likely for added security. So far, the tracking is excellent. It provides details on each stage of the order. I also like the 'date processed' as it's useful to know the date & time of when an order was placed. I think it was very informative how it provided me with the '% of Orders Dispatched Within Timescales Indicated" as well as how it also showed a flowchart for the entire order process from placing the order to receiving it.

Customer support - 10/10
Great customer service, emailed them and got a reply addressing all of my queries fairly swiftly. No complaints here so it's a 10/10 in this section.

Order clarity - 10/10
Everything on the 'my orders' page is very easy to read and provides all the details you need to know. The page isn't cluttered at all and everything is easy to read so therefore it's a 10/10.

Delivery - 10/10
Delivery was fantastic, it arrived at the correct quoted time and was built and dispatched in accordance to the 'average timescale'. I liked how with DPD I could track every detail of the order, from the name of the actual person delivering the item to it arriving at the exact quoted time. Props to both PCSpecialist and DPD for making it great.

Overall: 49/50

Images of order tracking:
The confirmation email (click me!)
My orders (click me!)
Order status guide (click me!)
Order is now in-building

Image of delivery box:
Delivery box front angle
Delivery box on its side

Image of unboxing:
First thing you see when you open the box
The box containing the actually laptop
Inside the laptop box

Image of accessories:
The battery of the laptop
The driver CDs and manuals

Please look at the next page for the laptop up and running - oh, and the review too.

 

[SawGex]

Laptop review

Aesthetics - 8/10
The laptop has a very premium feel to it, it's not that heavy and can be held in one hand with ease for most people. It looks very generic (or "laptoppy", if you will), but generic in the way that there isn't anything unsightly on the chassis. The laptop has a very sleek design, with bright back-lit keys - though it would have been nice to be able to change the colours of them. There aren't any logos on the laptop chassis with the exception of the nVidia, Intel and Sound Blaster stickers (which compliments the chassis very nicely). The grey finish gives it a very nice chrome look but I wouldn't mind seeing a piano black version of the chassis either. In this department, I would definitely say 8/10 for aesthetics, it feels fantastic and looks great but it would have been nice to have seen other aesthetic characteristics explored (such as deviating from the typical laptop look).

Performance - 10/10
This laptop is an absolute beast. It hasn't struggled with any of the games or applications I've put it through and performs exactly to my expectations. The performance doesn't stutter at all and it does exactly what it is meant to do. I've had the laptop for a week now and have had zero performance issues with it. No faults here and it's been brilliant performance wise, so definitely a 10/10 here.

Display - 10/10
The display is simply amazing. When I first turned on the laptop, the display lit up and welcomed me with an extremely bright and vibrant display. There is no ghosting at all (at least I haven't noticed) and it looks amazing when gaming. I love this screen a lot and I'm pretty confident that I will love the screen for quite a long time. So it's definitely going to be 10/10 here.

Sound - 8.5/10
The sound seems to have been the most controversial part of this laptop among other Optimus V 15.6 reviews - but it seems as though the very aspect of it being a laptop is being forgotten about. Laptop speakers are not designed to pump your room full of bass and shake your room but are designed to give you a more personal experience when it comes to audio. When I first listened to the laptop speakers, they were exactly how I expected - to be like laptop speakers. They've been faultless so far, I've been able to watch my TV shows and films with no problem using the laptop speakers. Of course, if you are an audiophile then I do advise you to go with external speakers. However, if you're not just a general user/gamer who doesn't seek out the very best of speakers then these speakers will accompany your needs very nicely. Whether it's listening to music, viewing media or playing games - these speakers certainly do not disappoint. As they aren't perfect, I have given them 8.5/10 because perfect laptop speakers would match external speakers.

Use - 9/10
The laptop is very easy to use. The Optimus V 15.6 I have has the UK layout so the enter key is bigger! The track pad is absolutely fine, it does exactly what it should do though it does lack a middle mouse button which I had to question because I do find myself using the middle mouse button quite a lot on my desktop. But nevertheless, the keyboard looks great with the white back-lighting and the tracking pad is very easy to use. This is however my first laptop, and I've very little experience with other track-pads which may be the reason as to why this one has been slated quite a bit in other reviews which I've seen.

Battery life - 7/10
The battery life is fairly poor. To be honest, that's expected if it's packing components which can run BF4 maxed out at 1080p. If you're not a gamer and you get the Optimus V 15.6 for activities which don't use much power, then you will be disappointed. Upon playing 10 minutes of BF4 without the charger plugged in set my battery life from 91% to 79%. It really does cut through the battery quickly. Of course, if you're not bothered about the battery life and you constantly have the charger in then this will not be an issue for you. The reason why I have given this sub-category 7/10 is simply because the Optimus V will disappoint you if you're seeking out a laptop solely based on its battery life.

Portable - 10/10
The laptop is very easy to take around with me. It fits nicely in my Timberland laptop bag and doesn't cause any hassle on the weight side. The laptop is fairly light and can easily be picked up with one hand (though I do advise against it as if I were to drop it... well lets just say, I would have to probably work overtime). I've had no problems with it so there's no reason to grade it down for this one.

Features - 6/10
This is the only part which I feel has suffered a fair amount. The only features I've really recognized are the 'VGA' and 'Airplane mode' buttons. I still can't seem to get these to work, despite installing all of the required drivers for it - I'm not too sure if this was just overlooked during testing or if I'm the one at fault here. In all fairness, I don't really need to use the VGA or Airplane mode button so there isn't any loss for me here. I would have liked to see volume dials on the laptop but key-binding software can easily compensate for the lack of volume (+ and -) dials There are actual volume keys, but they seem to have been placed on the F5 (refresh page) and F6 button which I feel wasn't the best of places to put them due to my page refreshing each time I pressed F5 to crank up the volume. Nevertheless, it won't kill me to use Windows or keybinds to adjust the volume.

Ease of set-up - 8.5/10
Set-up was easy and straight forward. I installed Windows myself with the spare Windows 7 disc lying around in my house. I've graded this down to 8.5/10 mainly because the drivers discs which were provided did not work for me and kept saying my OS was not supported. However, PCSpecialist did do a grand job in supplying all the relevant drivers on the website - though some of them seemed to not work or be compatible with my OS.

Frustration level - 10/10
I can't recall getting frustrated with the laptop at all so there's nothing bad to say here.

Overall 87/100

Images:
The laptop UK keyboard - birdseye view
The laptop screen displaying "starting windows" - front view
Installing windows - birds eye-ish view
Back of laptop

Laptop with my set-up
Set up including laptop
Laptop and PC together
Full setup

 

[SawGex]

Temperature and acoustics

Temperatures are measured using SpeedFan. There is Artic Cooling thermal paste on the components in order to dissipate heat easily.

Temperature - CPU (Idle) - 35C
Temperature - CPU (Load - 65C
Temperature - GPU (Idle) - 43C
Temperature - GPU (Load) - 60C

Accoustics will be measured from 1 to 10 inaccurately. If it's silent then it's a 1, if it sounds like a hair dryer than it's a 10.

Acoustics (idle) - 1 (Equal to complete silence)
Acoustics (load) - 6 (Equal to the sound of a library with a few conversations taking place scattered about)

 

[SawGex]

Conclusion

Overall, this is a great laptop which is going to serve me well over the next few years. It's a laptop in which the motto can very much be "does exactly what it says on the tin". I personally feel as though it has exceeded my expectations quite a lot, though for others it might leave a few things to be desired. The display and performance has to be the main highlights for this laptop, if you're looking for one which has a great display and great performance then look no further than this one. PCSpecialist have also been fantastic like they were several years ago when I bought from them, keeping me informed of the order's status and dispatching it in accordance to the timescale. My final words in this is to say that you shouldn't spend £1500 on a branded laptop which has exactly the same specs when you could get this fine piece of kit for under £900 without any of that bloatware!

Pre-review overall: 98%
Laptop overall score: 87%

PCSpecialist (pre-review + review) score: 91%

 

[Greenman]

Talk about in-depth, and you've not even received it yet ^^

Hope you're happy with it when it arrives.

 

[SawGex]

Talk about in-depth, and you've not even received it yet ^^

Hope you're happy with it when it arrives.

For sure! When I was researching this laptop I was trying to find reviews which were really in-depth, so unfortunately I couldn't find any of such so I decided to make a review which would be really in-depth.

 

[daveeb]

Blimey, if i ever need legal representation I think i'll contact you ! You're very thorough.:yes:

 

[SawGex]

The review is complete. I decided to write the review a week after receiving the laptop as I feel that's the adequate duration needed in order to make a judgement.

 

[moosEh]

Great Review + rep

 

[abby010]

Thanks for the in depth review! What do you think of the weight of the laptop? I'm thinking of getting it with similar specs to yours but 2.7kg seems pretty heavy. Also, do you think the second hard drive made a huge difference in the performance?

 

[SawGex]

My laptop screen has glitched up completely. It's impossible to see anything on the screen as it's just whiteness with lines resembling cracks. As a computing specialist, I'm aware that things like this cannot be fixed by the end user and have to be sent back to the manufacturer. I've submitted an RMA (though I accidentally pressed the button three times due to my slow 3G internet) to PCSpecialist. I will also be assessing my RMA experience in the form of a review and it will be factored into the overall score. I've heard PCSpecialist have excellent after-sale support so I'm looking forward to my experience with PCS.

The unfortunate demise of the display

 

[neilfisher]

Nice review.

I've only had mine a couple of days now, and have had similar experiences.

The only thing I have not been happy with is the battery life, but it's mostly for me to use sat on the sofa at home, so I can live with plugging it in most of the time anyway.

 

[danl]

I'm thinking of buying a laptop like this and I was wondering whether the lid of the laptop has a glossy or matte finish?