I received my new laptop today, a 17.3" Vortex IV. Here's the specs I chose:
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/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
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex 17.3" Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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
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)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
First thing I must say is that the fast track 3 working day dispatch was just that, as the laptop was built and dispatched within 3 days. I ordered it on Sunday, and it was delivered on Thursday. It was really well packaged, coming in a box within another box, with some really heavy duty bubble wrap at both ends of the second box. When I say heavy duty, I mean some kind of industrial strength bubble wrap. My son loves bubble wrap, but he'll have a tough time popping this stuff!
On opening the second box, I was met by my laptop, which was inside a pink plastic bag. It had protective packaging on either end, and the top had a plastic sheet stuck on it. To one side of the laptop was a smaller box, containing the charger cables and battery. Down the side of the box was a packet, which had all the booklets and CDs (including the driver CD and Nero 12 Essentials) inside.
All in all, I'm very pleased with the way the laptop and accessories were packaged. The chance of accidental damage was at a minimum, due to all the boxes and protective packaging surrounding everything.
Now, on to the laptop itself. Here's a few photos of it to wet your appetite:
As you can see from the first photo, the top of the laptop is metal. The wrist area below the keyboard is also metal. The rest of the chassis is plastic. The quality feels good, with it being solid and weighty. This laptop feels every so slightly heavier than my old Skyfire, but that's not a problem when it's always on my knees. In terms of thickness, I'd say it's a bit thinner than my Skyfire, but once again not by much. I'm a bit confused by the stickers on it, as one of them says Sound Blaster X-Fi on it. I don't have that sound card in my laptop though, so I'm not sure why the sticker is there.
So, I plugged it in and booted my new baby up. I installed Windows 7 and stuck in my serial key, and then rebooted to see how quick it'd load up Windows 7. Just over 16 seconds later, and it was all loaded up and ready to go! I was shocked and very impressed by the speed of it. Having an SSD definitely speeds things up. I've never timed my old Skyfire, but I'd say it takes at least twice as long at that to boot up Windows 7.
Installing the drivers was pretty easy, as they're all on the driver CD which came with the laptop. The program included on the CD didn't like my OS, so I had to install the drivers one by one from their individual folders. That didn't bother me, and probably didn't take any longer than using the CDs' program.
I have to say, the backlit keyboard is pretty awesome. You can change the colour of it. I changed mine to red, but my son wanted it to look like a rainbow so now it's three different colours. It looks really cool, and I can't wait to see what it looks like in the dark!
I tested the sound through the laptops speakers, and it's decent. 100% volume isn't really loud, but loud enough that you can hear music from another room. They're not the greatest speakers, but not bad. Rather tinny, like all other laptops I've owned.
The display is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It's bright and vibrant enough, but there's something no right about it. when I shift my eyes around the screen or when I move the screen while looking at it, I swear it looks slightly blocky. On my Skyfire matte display, this wasn't the case. I don't know what to make of this. There's no dead pixels or anything, just a slightly blocky appearance. It may just be my eyes adjusting to the new screen, or it may be a bigger problem.
I've only tried one game so far, Dying Light. I got a constant 60fps with all settings set to their highest. The laptop handles the game brilliantly, and loading screens barely pop up before they disappear again due to the SSD. It truly looks beautiful (well, as beautiful as a zombie game can look with all the dismemberment and gore). The blocky screen doesn't seem to effect gaming, or I couldn't see it with all the moving images.
All in all I'm pretty happy with my purchase. I'm not sure about the quality of the screen, but the performance of the laptop is fantastic.
Chassis & Display
Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 970M - 6.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
1st Hard Disk
120GB KINGSTON HYPERX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
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 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/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
Firewire
1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery
Vortex 17.3" Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
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
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)
Dead Pixel Guarantee
1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
First thing I must say is that the fast track 3 working day dispatch was just that, as the laptop was built and dispatched within 3 days. I ordered it on Sunday, and it was delivered on Thursday. It was really well packaged, coming in a box within another box, with some really heavy duty bubble wrap at both ends of the second box. When I say heavy duty, I mean some kind of industrial strength bubble wrap. My son loves bubble wrap, but he'll have a tough time popping this stuff!
On opening the second box, I was met by my laptop, which was inside a pink plastic bag. It had protective packaging on either end, and the top had a plastic sheet stuck on it. To one side of the laptop was a smaller box, containing the charger cables and battery. Down the side of the box was a packet, which had all the booklets and CDs (including the driver CD and Nero 12 Essentials) inside.
All in all, I'm very pleased with the way the laptop and accessories were packaged. The chance of accidental damage was at a minimum, due to all the boxes and protective packaging surrounding everything.
Now, on to the laptop itself. Here's a few photos of it to wet your appetite:
As you can see from the first photo, the top of the laptop is metal. The wrist area below the keyboard is also metal. The rest of the chassis is plastic. The quality feels good, with it being solid and weighty. This laptop feels every so slightly heavier than my old Skyfire, but that's not a problem when it's always on my knees. In terms of thickness, I'd say it's a bit thinner than my Skyfire, but once again not by much. I'm a bit confused by the stickers on it, as one of them says Sound Blaster X-Fi on it. I don't have that sound card in my laptop though, so I'm not sure why the sticker is there.
So, I plugged it in and booted my new baby up. I installed Windows 7 and stuck in my serial key, and then rebooted to see how quick it'd load up Windows 7. Just over 16 seconds later, and it was all loaded up and ready to go! I was shocked and very impressed by the speed of it. Having an SSD definitely speeds things up. I've never timed my old Skyfire, but I'd say it takes at least twice as long at that to boot up Windows 7.
Installing the drivers was pretty easy, as they're all on the driver CD which came with the laptop. The program included on the CD didn't like my OS, so I had to install the drivers one by one from their individual folders. That didn't bother me, and probably didn't take any longer than using the CDs' program.
I have to say, the backlit keyboard is pretty awesome. You can change the colour of it. I changed mine to red, but my son wanted it to look like a rainbow so now it's three different colours. It looks really cool, and I can't wait to see what it looks like in the dark!
I tested the sound through the laptops speakers, and it's decent. 100% volume isn't really loud, but loud enough that you can hear music from another room. They're not the greatest speakers, but not bad. Rather tinny, like all other laptops I've owned.
The display is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It's bright and vibrant enough, but there's something no right about it. when I shift my eyes around the screen or when I move the screen while looking at it, I swear it looks slightly blocky. On my Skyfire matte display, this wasn't the case. I don't know what to make of this. There's no dead pixels or anything, just a slightly blocky appearance. It may just be my eyes adjusting to the new screen, or it may be a bigger problem.
I've only tried one game so far, Dying Light. I got a constant 60fps with all settings set to their highest. The laptop handles the game brilliantly, and loading screens barely pop up before they disappear again due to the SSD. It truly looks beautiful (well, as beautiful as a zombie game can look with all the dismemberment and gore). The blocky screen doesn't seem to effect gaming, or I couldn't see it with all the moving images.
All in all I'm pretty happy with my purchase. I'm not sure about the quality of the screen, but the performance of the laptop is fantastic.
unk: