Billy Bronco
Member
I received my laptop (details below) a couple of weeks ago but have been too busy playing with it to get around to this review but here we are now.
1. The laptop selection and specification.
After several months researching on YouTube and online generally, I stumbled upon PCS and then started another month or so investigating their laptops and reviews online which were mainly positive. I then joined the forum and posted a few questions which members helped me with and this was invaluable. You also rarely get a company who will build you a laptop then let you take it to bits again within and covered by warranty, within reason of course.
The configuration tools were fantastic and you can chop change, mix match different variations and get an instant price. More importantly, if, like me your a novice, if you configure a poor selection you get a warning that there is not compatibility and then it guides you to the alternatives. The advantage of their configuration process is that you can chop and change and save as many variations as you want without any pressure and without feeling you've pushed your luck and wasting anyone's time.
I was looking for a laptop which would be suitable for video editing in 4K and gaming neither of which I did at the time of order but that's what I intended using it for to give me another interest. Finally, I was ready to buy a laptop which was specified as noted below.
I had one special request and that was not to have any stickers on the keypad deck I wanted a very clean look and that's exactly what I received which saved me loads of time trying to remove them because I just hate stickers all over products. I know that might seem daft but I ordered the laptop with the spec of my choice so I didn't need a sticker to remind me I had nvidea products etc and I bought it for me not to show off in a cafe lol.
Chassis & Display - Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz LED Widescreen (1920x1080) + G-Sync
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) - 32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive - 2TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive - 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive - 1TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
AC Adaptor - 2 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable - 2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
2. The ordering, manufacture and dispatch process.
Monday 23rd September at 20:57 order placed and confirmation e-mail received with my invoice. The order then went into a pre-production phase.
Wednesday 25th September I had to complete an order verification code requested by my bank which was authenticated ad approved by PCS.
Tuesday 1st October I received a further update advising that my laptop was now being assembled and I was able to track the progress. hat day I also received a further e-mail advising that they hoped to take no longer than 6 days. At 22:53 the same day i received a further e-mail advising that my order was awaiting dispatch.
Wednesday 2nd October I was advised that my order had been dispatched. Same day i received a confirmation from the courier that I should expect delivery on 7th October.
Friday 4th October Laptop arrived earlier than expected
That's a grand total of 11 days from order to receipt, which i think is fantastic.
3. Take delivery and first impressions.
Well, my first impressions were...crap...the box is quire badly damaged on one edge (see photos 1&2) so I expected a damaged laptop possibly needing to be returned even before i had a chance to switch the thing on. How wrong was I, I opened the outer box to reveal a further Inner box shielded bu bubbly wrap which was a few inches smaller than the outer box so the initial damage I viewed was nowhere near the inner box ( see photo 3). So, I removed the inner box which was very tightly held in place and contained the laptop. When I opened that box the laptop was snugly encased in polystyrene (see photo 4) and when I eventually freed the laptop it was still surrounded in the tight fitting polystyrene (see photo 5). I prized that away to reveal the "actual" laptop which was contained within a sealed bag and then each surface was further protected by plastic film.
I've not photographed the alptop as such because PCS have extensive photos and a video if you want to check them out. It is a very slick looking machien and i love the orange accents.
So, the laptop was now revealed in all it's glory and fired up for the first time (see photo 6) and what a sight to behold. The finish was flawless with nice clean edges, the track pad feels amazing and very slick and the keys have a nice positive feel to them with a definite click in use and good travel. All the chassis recesses are clean and the lights fit perfectly within their desired slots. The keyboard has a multi-colour options (around 15 or so) but these are not area specific the entire keyboard lights up with the colour you select but there is a good range of colours and the individual keys are easily readable. Lets face it, if I want to buy a disco light I'll buy one so why would I expect,or want, my laptop to flash annoyingly at me? Theres finger print recognition which, whilst not 100% accurate each start up, it does work on and off (to be honest it might just be my impatience to get up and running that i rushed that process so i plan to go back and re set it).
The 100Hz screen is superb and the colours are very natural in my opinion out of the box. There is a bit of light bleed around the perimeter but I have that on my 65" Samsung TV and it's not noticeable 99.9% of the time
I didn't buy windows 10 but it came installed and was used for test purposes and, you could probably just use it as is but you don't have the customisation options etc that you get with the authenticated version. I used my windows 7 activation key and it accepted it no problem so I now have full active windows 10. I'm no computer guy but obviously it's in the interest of windows to promote their product and get as many people using it as possible, so i think windows know about the back door approach but are allowing it to boost usage but, who knows.
My only slight gripe is in relation to the SD card reader, don't get me wrong, it's great to have the car reader but I find it's location tucked under the angled front panel, makes it quite fiddly to insert but it might just be me.
Remember that i am no expert these are just my views on the laptop.
4. A few weeks in use.
I downloaded DaVinci Resolve 16 (free photo editing suite...ano I can't believe it's free either) and I am still getting to grips with it but it does seem quite an extensive programme and I occasionally here the fan speed crank up at certain times. Yes, the fans are noisy at full tilt but it's more a wind rush sound than spinning sound and, what the hell, if it keeps it cool I'm happy. I've been doing my usual surfing, You Tube and some downloads and I've not heard the fans kick up yet so, all in all, I'm delighted with temperatures and cooling. I have bought a laptop cooling stand but mainly just so the laptop is placed above my legs and not blocking the vents.
The laptop does everything very quickly with no annoying lag so it's amazing. It starts up at an incredible speed and everything is just flawless
I've not played any games yet but did get a free game which should be available to me on the 25th of this month so a nice little bonus.
5. Final thoughts
If you are looking for a PC of any kind, look no further. PCS have been fantastic to deal with, their communication is first class and the product they sent me is head and shoulders above anything I could have bought in the High Street and, at a substantially lower price.
First class company to deal with and I will recommend anyone to go to them when they want a quality product with high specification at an affordable price....I'm actually gobsmacked at how good my laptop is so thank you PCS.
1. The laptop selection and specification.
After several months researching on YouTube and online generally, I stumbled upon PCS and then started another month or so investigating their laptops and reviews online which were mainly positive. I then joined the forum and posted a few questions which members helped me with and this was invaluable. You also rarely get a company who will build you a laptop then let you take it to bits again within and covered by warranty, within reason of course.
The configuration tools were fantastic and you can chop change, mix match different variations and get an instant price. More importantly, if, like me your a novice, if you configure a poor selection you get a warning that there is not compatibility and then it guides you to the alternatives. The advantage of their configuration process is that you can chop and change and save as many variations as you want without any pressure and without feeling you've pushed your luck and wasting anyone's time.
I was looking for a laptop which would be suitable for video editing in 4K and gaming neither of which I did at the time of order but that's what I intended using it for to give me another interest. Finally, I was ready to buy a laptop which was specified as noted below.
I had one special request and that was not to have any stickers on the keypad deck I wanted a very clean look and that's exactly what I received which saved me loads of time trying to remove them because I just hate stickers all over products. I know that might seem daft but I ordered the laptop with the spec of my choice so I didn't need a sticker to remind me I had nvidea products etc and I bought it for me not to show off in a cafe lol.
Chassis & Display - Vortex Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz LED Widescreen (1920x1080) + G-Sync
Processor (CPU) - Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor 9750H (2.6GHz, 4.5GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) - 32GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 - 6.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st Storage Drive - 2TB SEAGATE 7mm SERIAL ATA III 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 128MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st M.2 SSD Drive - 500GB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3200MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive - 1TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
AC Adaptor - 2 x 180W AC Adaptor
Power Cable - 2 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
2. The ordering, manufacture and dispatch process.
Monday 23rd September at 20:57 order placed and confirmation e-mail received with my invoice. The order then went into a pre-production phase.
Wednesday 25th September I had to complete an order verification code requested by my bank which was authenticated ad approved by PCS.
Tuesday 1st October I received a further update advising that my laptop was now being assembled and I was able to track the progress. hat day I also received a further e-mail advising that they hoped to take no longer than 6 days. At 22:53 the same day i received a further e-mail advising that my order was awaiting dispatch.
Wednesday 2nd October I was advised that my order had been dispatched. Same day i received a confirmation from the courier that I should expect delivery on 7th October.
Friday 4th October Laptop arrived earlier than expected
That's a grand total of 11 days from order to receipt, which i think is fantastic.
3. Take delivery and first impressions.
Well, my first impressions were...crap...the box is quire badly damaged on one edge (see photos 1&2) so I expected a damaged laptop possibly needing to be returned even before i had a chance to switch the thing on. How wrong was I, I opened the outer box to reveal a further Inner box shielded bu bubbly wrap which was a few inches smaller than the outer box so the initial damage I viewed was nowhere near the inner box ( see photo 3). So, I removed the inner box which was very tightly held in place and contained the laptop. When I opened that box the laptop was snugly encased in polystyrene (see photo 4) and when I eventually freed the laptop it was still surrounded in the tight fitting polystyrene (see photo 5). I prized that away to reveal the "actual" laptop which was contained within a sealed bag and then each surface was further protected by plastic film.
I've not photographed the alptop as such because PCS have extensive photos and a video if you want to check them out. It is a very slick looking machien and i love the orange accents.
So, the laptop was now revealed in all it's glory and fired up for the first time (see photo 6) and what a sight to behold. The finish was flawless with nice clean edges, the track pad feels amazing and very slick and the keys have a nice positive feel to them with a definite click in use and good travel. All the chassis recesses are clean and the lights fit perfectly within their desired slots. The keyboard has a multi-colour options (around 15 or so) but these are not area specific the entire keyboard lights up with the colour you select but there is a good range of colours and the individual keys are easily readable. Lets face it, if I want to buy a disco light I'll buy one so why would I expect,or want, my laptop to flash annoyingly at me? Theres finger print recognition which, whilst not 100% accurate each start up, it does work on and off (to be honest it might just be my impatience to get up and running that i rushed that process so i plan to go back and re set it).
The 100Hz screen is superb and the colours are very natural in my opinion out of the box. There is a bit of light bleed around the perimeter but I have that on my 65" Samsung TV and it's not noticeable 99.9% of the time
I didn't buy windows 10 but it came installed and was used for test purposes and, you could probably just use it as is but you don't have the customisation options etc that you get with the authenticated version. I used my windows 7 activation key and it accepted it no problem so I now have full active windows 10. I'm no computer guy but obviously it's in the interest of windows to promote their product and get as many people using it as possible, so i think windows know about the back door approach but are allowing it to boost usage but, who knows.
My only slight gripe is in relation to the SD card reader, don't get me wrong, it's great to have the car reader but I find it's location tucked under the angled front panel, makes it quite fiddly to insert but it might just be me.
Remember that i am no expert these are just my views on the laptop.
4. A few weeks in use.
I downloaded DaVinci Resolve 16 (free photo editing suite...ano I can't believe it's free either) and I am still getting to grips with it but it does seem quite an extensive programme and I occasionally here the fan speed crank up at certain times. Yes, the fans are noisy at full tilt but it's more a wind rush sound than spinning sound and, what the hell, if it keeps it cool I'm happy. I've been doing my usual surfing, You Tube and some downloads and I've not heard the fans kick up yet so, all in all, I'm delighted with temperatures and cooling. I have bought a laptop cooling stand but mainly just so the laptop is placed above my legs and not blocking the vents.
The laptop does everything very quickly with no annoying lag so it's amazing. It starts up at an incredible speed and everything is just flawless
I've not played any games yet but did get a free game which should be available to me on the 25th of this month so a nice little bonus.
5. Final thoughts
If you are looking for a PC of any kind, look no further. PCS have been fantastic to deal with, their communication is first class and the product they sent me is head and shoulders above anything I could have bought in the High Street and, at a substantially lower price.
First class company to deal with and I will recommend anyone to go to them when they want a quality product with high specification at an affordable price....I'm actually gobsmacked at how good my laptop is so thank you PCS.
