Hi all,
giving back some feedback for anyone considering a similar purchase.
First the spec:
===========================================================
Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3632QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 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 (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-2230 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH) (Up to 7 Hours)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month 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
===========================================================
Waiting time - approx 10 days from order placed. Most of that time spent in pre-production.
Enquiries during waiting time (aka "are we there yet?! ... wheres my stuff..!!) - prompt and efficient.
Delivery - fast once dispatched
Packaging - very solid
I ordered without operating system as I had my own OS licenses to use, I also wanted to dual-boot with linux.
If you are in the same category as me - heads up - *format the HD* before installing your own version! ...
reason = W8 gets confused between licenses (PC-Specialist pre-installed a trial version of W8 which I didnt want).
Once I got the machine setup, I installed the drivers that came on the accompanying CD - all fine so far.
Problems:
* The screen (Full HD) is quite amazing - superb to have the extra desktop space to work with (I write software most of the day),
however, whatever way the screen was fitted, there is a quite noticeable bleed / halo at both the top right and top left of the screen,
but *only* when the screen is dark. I would normally send something like this back, but, my old machine died and I simply cannot
afford to be without the machine for the time it would take to send back, get looked at and returned. Also, I have noticed a similar
complaint from other about laptop screens here so it seems perhaps to be a thing.... as I am not using it for its black screen the
fault is not causing me concern so I will put up with it.
* there is a slight gap/pinch at the top right side of the screen enclosure ... suspect this has something to do with bad fitting of the screen
itself - again, not going to return it for inspection for the reason above.
* Case - the edge of the case at the wrist had been reported by others as being "sharp" - and it is ... the issue is not noticeable of course
when wearing long sleeves, but when wearing a t-shirt I find myself avoiding the edge of the laptop case due to the sharpness.
* Microphone - not the greatest ... perhaps its a driver issue, not sure, have requested a link from the company for updated W8 mic drivers.
The issue is that the pickup volume is *extremely* low ... almost to the point of inaudible ... when I look at the settings in W8 it shows that
its turned up full but when testing the blue bar only barely registers .... for investigation....
Good points:
* Speed - I purchased one of those hybrid hard-drives ... its a 7.5k rpm so faster than normal drives but also supposedly has this caching
that speeds up frequently used data/applications. In practice it seems to work, and the machine is well suited to my needs. Down the road
I might consider putting in an mSata SSD and move the OS and apps to there to speed it up even more.
* Battery life - seems good so far - not measured fully yet as I use the machine under different load types (dev, virtual machines, etc)
* Overall neatness factor - very tidy - I especially like the power-pack - really small and neat and as a bonus, it has a very long cable
so will stretch quite far.
* Strength - quite a solid machine, no obvious flexing anywhere
* Feel (subjective!) ... most of the time its fine, sometimes , esp when I am working very fast there is an almost echo/hollow feel from
the case - I suspect this is because its a generic case and has room to spare unlike some branded machines that are precision engineered
with custom parts etc..
* Mouse - very good - responds well - only slight issue I am having is with the windows 8 gesture mapping - have to find a way of turning
some of the more annoying ones off!
* Sound - headphone output good, on-board speakers very tinny - would benefit greatly from plugging in a woofer I suspect!
* Keyboard - the keys are a wee bit wider than my prev machine (sony viao 11") but after a few hours of getting used to them they are
good - nice feel, not to much travel, and the addition of the number pad is interesting.
* Screen hinge - nice and firm, no sloppiness in opening or closing
* Overall finish - plastic, but with a brushed alum kind of look to it - time will tell how the finish lasts.
* Ports - only tried so far with single screen output (display extended) - will try to get two external monitors working at some stage and report back.
Summary - overall very impressed, would purchase again - and for the price, excellent excellent value, far exceeds what I could have
got for the same price retail or branded, and the few bad points / niggles fade away overall. I'll be back to PC-Specialist for my next machine
and heavily recommending them on!
giving back some feedback for anyone considering a similar purchase.
First the spec:
===========================================================
Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3632QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - Hard Disk
750GB SEAGATE MOMENTUS XT HYBRID, SATA 6 Gb/s, 32MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 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 (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-2230 (300Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH) (Up to 7 Hours)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Keyboard Language
ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month 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
===========================================================
Waiting time - approx 10 days from order placed. Most of that time spent in pre-production.
Enquiries during waiting time (aka "are we there yet?! ... wheres my stuff..!!) - prompt and efficient.
Delivery - fast once dispatched
Packaging - very solid
I ordered without operating system as I had my own OS licenses to use, I also wanted to dual-boot with linux.
If you are in the same category as me - heads up - *format the HD* before installing your own version! ...
reason = W8 gets confused between licenses (PC-Specialist pre-installed a trial version of W8 which I didnt want).
Once I got the machine setup, I installed the drivers that came on the accompanying CD - all fine so far.
Problems:
* The screen (Full HD) is quite amazing - superb to have the extra desktop space to work with (I write software most of the day),
however, whatever way the screen was fitted, there is a quite noticeable bleed / halo at both the top right and top left of the screen,
but *only* when the screen is dark. I would normally send something like this back, but, my old machine died and I simply cannot
afford to be without the machine for the time it would take to send back, get looked at and returned. Also, I have noticed a similar
complaint from other about laptop screens here so it seems perhaps to be a thing.... as I am not using it for its black screen the
fault is not causing me concern so I will put up with it.
* there is a slight gap/pinch at the top right side of the screen enclosure ... suspect this has something to do with bad fitting of the screen
itself - again, not going to return it for inspection for the reason above.
* Case - the edge of the case at the wrist had been reported by others as being "sharp" - and it is ... the issue is not noticeable of course
when wearing long sleeves, but when wearing a t-shirt I find myself avoiding the edge of the laptop case due to the sharpness.
* Microphone - not the greatest ... perhaps its a driver issue, not sure, have requested a link from the company for updated W8 mic drivers.
The issue is that the pickup volume is *extremely* low ... almost to the point of inaudible ... when I look at the settings in W8 it shows that
its turned up full but when testing the blue bar only barely registers .... for investigation....
Good points:
* Speed - I purchased one of those hybrid hard-drives ... its a 7.5k rpm so faster than normal drives but also supposedly has this caching
that speeds up frequently used data/applications. In practice it seems to work, and the machine is well suited to my needs. Down the road
I might consider putting in an mSata SSD and move the OS and apps to there to speed it up even more.
* Battery life - seems good so far - not measured fully yet as I use the machine under different load types (dev, virtual machines, etc)
* Overall neatness factor - very tidy - I especially like the power-pack - really small and neat and as a bonus, it has a very long cable
so will stretch quite far.
* Strength - quite a solid machine, no obvious flexing anywhere
* Feel (subjective!) ... most of the time its fine, sometimes , esp when I am working very fast there is an almost echo/hollow feel from
the case - I suspect this is because its a generic case and has room to spare unlike some branded machines that are precision engineered
with custom parts etc..
* Mouse - very good - responds well - only slight issue I am having is with the windows 8 gesture mapping - have to find a way of turning
some of the more annoying ones off!
* Sound - headphone output good, on-board speakers very tinny - would benefit greatly from plugging in a woofer I suspect!
* Keyboard - the keys are a wee bit wider than my prev machine (sony viao 11") but after a few hours of getting used to them they are
good - nice feel, not to much travel, and the addition of the number pad is interesting.
* Screen hinge - nice and firm, no sloppiness in opening or closing
* Overall finish - plastic, but with a brushed alum kind of look to it - time will tell how the finish lasts.
* Ports - only tried so far with single screen output (display extended) - will try to get two external monitors working at some stage and report back.
Summary - overall very impressed, would purchase again - and for the price, excellent excellent value, far exceeds what I could have
got for the same price retail or branded, and the few bad points / niggles fade away overall. I'll be back to PC-Specialist for my next machine
and heavily recommending them on!
