I've been lurking on the forums since I ordered my laptop (shame I didn't check them beforehand as perhaps I'd have gotten good advice about spec). I thought I'd post a review of my experience ordering from PCS in the hope that positives and negatives provide a balanced view for prospective customers. Please remember, though, that my experiences are subjective and I know for certain some people have had better and worse experiences than I have!
MY REQUIREMENTS
THE SPECS
Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-3230M (2.60GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
UltraNote Series: 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 & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + 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 Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W 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
ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
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)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1
ORDERING PROCESS & CUSTOMER SERVICE
The initial ordering process is pretty smooth. I ordered on 3rd November, which was a Sunday so the order was processed the next day. It went into pre-production on the 5th.
On 11th November I get informed one of the parts isn't available. They're upgrading my wireless card from the N-6235 to the N-7260 at no cost, which is a nice touch. When I checked the PCS site to find out more about the wireless card options I noticed that the AC version of this card was only £2 more, so I upgraded straight away because I'm sure I'll take advantage of that extra speed further down the line. The order amendment process is very smooth and I'm quite impressed.
On 12th November I got another email from PCS, this time to assure me they are processing my order but sometimes they take longer than estimated: "sometimes orders can take 7-8 working days to enter the building and testing process". Not long after this, like some other customers, I started to get a bit frustrated by the long wait if I'm honest.
I contacted PCS on a few occasions after this. Once (don't remember what date) I used the live chat service, which personally I thought was poor. Took a long time to connect and didn't feel like I got a great service, but maybe they were busy. Eventually I was told it would be a few working days before building and should have it within a week.
None of this occurred, so on the 21st I tried emailing them. I got a response 1 hour an 10 mins later. Again I'm impressed. "large influx of orders". "dispatched within 2-3 working days as a maximum". Again, none of this occurred, but it finally started moving through the production process the next day (and to be fair it was was dispatched late on the 27th).
I emailed PCS another time. I'd had plenty of time to think about it and decided at the last minute to order the dead pixel guarantee for 1 year. There's a £5 charge for amending orders after the build process has started, which seems sensible with internal stuff but not so much with guarantees and the like, so I emailed them. They didn't respond to my email within 2 days and I got worried the laptop would be shipped before I could get the guarantee, so I rang them up on the 26th and they processed the amendment without the £5 fee. Apparently it would be too much hassle to amend the ordering system so it's best to just call them. Again I have to comment that customer service was excellent.
I got a text message at 8am yesterday (29th November) telling me the hour slot in which to expect my delivery, and I received the laptop at about 5pm - comfortably inside the delivery window and almost exactly as I returned home from work!
FINAL COMMENTS
First, I ordered from PCS because of the perceived value for money on offer, but was worried about build quality and customer service. I'll hopefully get around to reviewing the machine itself later on.
Customer service is clearly something PCS take seriously, and they have some impressive systems set up to assist them with this. Like most organisations, though, I think there's room for improvement and I hope they will take some comments on board. I don't want to come across like another customer with a grudge to bear, but just want to help future customers and PCS to see a balanced view - which I think is the point of these reviews, right?
WOULD I RECOMMEND PC SPECIALIST?
I'm not usually a one word answer kind of person (he says after writing a lengthy post). I'd give any friend or family member the following summary:
1. Unbeatable value for laptops.
2. Customer service (phone) is very good.
3. Easy ordering process if you know what you want.
4. Some orders take ages. Unless you can afford extra for fast track, be prepared to wait!
5. Read (and search) the forums. Ask for advice there if you need it.
6. Subjective comments of performance of my laptop (to be decided).
MY REQUIREMENTS
- I spend a lot of time working on software/web development so I live in a text editor and browser for hours at a time. This isn't especially CPU intensive but as I tend to have a lot running at once I need to think about a decent amount of RAM.
- I watch a lot of films and TV programs from the internets. It'll be nice to watch them anywhere in the house. I'm happy to use headphones or external speakers for decent sound.
- General internet usage. Again dozens of tabs = need moar RAM.
- I use Linux, so maybe less resource hungry than Windows and I can definitely cope with a small hard drive.
- My other machines are all old or low power. None have more than 2GB RAM. Best processor is a toss up between the Little Falls 2 Intel Atom and an AMD Athlon 64 3200! Basically, anything I bought would've blown them out of the water.
- I originally budgeted for £400 but ended up spending £579(!) after adding HD screen, i5 processor, swapping in a small SSD, increasing RAM to 8GB and a few other things I probably don't really need!
THE SPECS
Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-3230M (2.60GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
UltraNote Series: 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 & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + 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 Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W 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
ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
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)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 11 to 13 working days
Quantity
1
ORDERING PROCESS & CUSTOMER SERVICE
The initial ordering process is pretty smooth. I ordered on 3rd November, which was a Sunday so the order was processed the next day. It went into pre-production on the 5th.
On 11th November I get informed one of the parts isn't available. They're upgrading my wireless card from the N-6235 to the N-7260 at no cost, which is a nice touch. When I checked the PCS site to find out more about the wireless card options I noticed that the AC version of this card was only £2 more, so I upgraded straight away because I'm sure I'll take advantage of that extra speed further down the line. The order amendment process is very smooth and I'm quite impressed.
On 12th November I got another email from PCS, this time to assure me they are processing my order but sometimes they take longer than estimated: "sometimes orders can take 7-8 working days to enter the building and testing process". Not long after this, like some other customers, I started to get a bit frustrated by the long wait if I'm honest.
I contacted PCS on a few occasions after this. Once (don't remember what date) I used the live chat service, which personally I thought was poor. Took a long time to connect and didn't feel like I got a great service, but maybe they were busy. Eventually I was told it would be a few working days before building and should have it within a week.
None of this occurred, so on the 21st I tried emailing them. I got a response 1 hour an 10 mins later. Again I'm impressed. "large influx of orders". "dispatched within 2-3 working days as a maximum". Again, none of this occurred, but it finally started moving through the production process the next day (and to be fair it was was dispatched late on the 27th).
I emailed PCS another time. I'd had plenty of time to think about it and decided at the last minute to order the dead pixel guarantee for 1 year. There's a £5 charge for amending orders after the build process has started, which seems sensible with internal stuff but not so much with guarantees and the like, so I emailed them. They didn't respond to my email within 2 days and I got worried the laptop would be shipped before I could get the guarantee, so I rang them up on the 26th and they processed the amendment without the £5 fee. Apparently it would be too much hassle to amend the ordering system so it's best to just call them. Again I have to comment that customer service was excellent.
I got a text message at 8am yesterday (29th November) telling me the hour slot in which to expect my delivery, and I received the laptop at about 5pm - comfortably inside the delivery window and almost exactly as I returned home from work!
FINAL COMMENTS
First, I ordered from PCS because of the perceived value for money on offer, but was worried about build quality and customer service. I'll hopefully get around to reviewing the machine itself later on.
Customer service is clearly something PCS take seriously, and they have some impressive systems set up to assist them with this. Like most organisations, though, I think there's room for improvement and I hope they will take some comments on board. I don't want to come across like another customer with a grudge to bear, but just want to help future customers and PCS to see a balanced view - which I think is the point of these reviews, right?
- I thought emailing an update at 6 working days of pre-production was a nice touch but then heard nothing till it was built at 14 working days (19 days after I ordered). Hardly confidence-inspiring.
- I don't know why my order took so long to be completed. According to PCS, about 5% of laptop orders took longer than 21 days (is this working days or normal days?). Is there anything about 1 in 20 orders that results in these delays?
- If my amendment to the order or unavailability of compenents caused it to take longer I'd really have appreciated being informed of this.
WOULD I RECOMMEND PC SPECIALIST?
I'm not usually a one word answer kind of person (he says after writing a lengthy post). I'd give any friend or family member the following summary:
1. Unbeatable value for laptops.
2. Customer service (phone) is very good.
3. Easy ordering process if you know what you want.
4. Some orders take ages. Unless you can afford extra for fast track, be prepared to wait!
5. Read (and search) the forums. Ask for advice there if you need it.
6. Subjective comments of performance of my laptop (to be decided).