Cosmos II review

[rn1]

Hello all. I have my Cosmos II laptop from PC Specialist 2 weeks ago so thought I would write a review to see if I can help anyone else who is considering buying the same one. Yes the review of this laptop that is linked in the review section is very good and provides alot of detail on the laptop but I thought I would attempt to write one of my one and allow any prospective buyers to see it from another consumers point of view and to ask me any questions about it.

The reason I was drawn to the Cosmos II is that I will be travelling alot over the next 18 months so I need something that's lightweight, portable and will still pack a punch performance wise. I read though the review and I was also recommended this particular laptop on the forum. I'm not too concerned about battery life as I plan on using it when stationery and indoors near to wall sockets.

The Spec:

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4210M (2.60GHz) 3MB

Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 850M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
1TB SEAGATE HYBRID GEN3 SSHD Drive, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

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
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH

USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Battery
Cosmos Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor

Keyboard Language
COSMOS SERIES UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

For my review I will break it down into several sections just to make it easier to read as opposed to a huge clump of paragraphs

Ordering and pre-delivery

Was very simple and straight forward to use the website for placing my order and I found the website to be easy enough to navigate. I didn't needn't need to phone up or use the online chat function so cannot comment on this.

The worst part of the whole experience was definitely the wait time between ordering and the laptop being delivered! If you're about to place an order I would seriously recommend that you give some consideration into paying a little extra for the fast track build service as it will be worth it as may of the forums members will also tell you. I found myself, probably like many reading this, thinking "yeah it'll be fine it's only 2 weeks I need to wait". I thought I would be fine waiting and it would all be no problem. I was wrong. I was on the forum daily, checking my email to see if there was any updates on he progress of the build and checking the website for any information I could get.

It didn't take long until I started getting emails and updates ( 4 working days/ 6 calendar days) before I moved onto the next stage and I was fully built and dispatched after 8 working days

note to self: Pay the extra to fast track!

Arrival

Arrived 2 weeks ago now and was delivered just before 11am by DPD. I personally really like DPD as a company, I've never had any issues with them and I like the 1 hour time slots that they send t you so you know roughly when to expect delivery which I think, although only a small thing, is a great idea and I wonder why all companies aren't doing it.

When it arrived, it was, as you would expect, very well packaged. A large outside cardboard box contains the smaller laptop box which is suspended by plastic air pockets and ensures it doesn't move during transit. The product is so well packaged, it was quite hard to remove the actual laptop from its box! 10/10 for packaging! The contents are also complimented by guides and information.

Information that arrives with the laptop will guide you through the initial set up of windows as it can seem a little confusing at times. Also, make sure to download all of the drivers that are on a separate disk and not pre-loaded onto the laptop. The drivers etc are all very very easy to download from the disk, however I am lead to believe that the after sales support are very helpful and if you're unsure then its probably best to give them a call as they can guide you though how to do it all properly if you have any doubts.

 

[rn1]

The next section describes how I feel the laptop runs on 2 levels- general use and gaming use. I've split these into 2 sub sections.

General use

Some criticisms I have seen over the mouse not being very quick to respond or is slow to move across the screen seem to be untrue. If you feel that the mouse is a little slow to track across the screen ( not the response time as this is very accurate) then remember that it can be adjusted to your own individual preference so don't let this put you off. Typing on the keyboard is actually very nice. I haven't had a laptop for about 4 years now after going to desktop so it didn't take me a hile to get used to this style of keyboard but it seems very comfortable to type on and I would recommend it. I have been able to type up a report on it with no issues but obviously it may take you a while to get used t it particularly if you are used to a desktop keyboard.

Surfing the internet is as good as can be expected. I was a little worried about going for the N-135 wireless card as I had heard that there have been a few issues with it dropping connection and reporting lower than normal speeds. I have not experienced any issues with the N-135 so I cannot fault it for its performance. The integrated webcam is not the best, but it is an integrated webcam so is probably as good as you can expect particularly for this budget range. If you are going to be using applications that require a webcam alot then it is probably best that you look for a decent external webcam. If, like me you won't be using the webcam for anything other than the occasional Skype call then the integrated will do the job.

Due to the 1080p screen that comes with this particular laptop, watching films is a dream. The screen gives a brilliant level of clarity and a sharp picture. I have not tried changing any of the settings involving contrast and brightness, so im running the screen as it came out of the box.

gaming use

I've not played too many games as of yet but those that I have tried to run run really well. Games that I've tried to run are; Football Manager 2014, Dota 2 and Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Phantoms. Each of these games have ran smoothly on the highest settings at 1080p. I haven't looked into the fps rate, but the 850m graphics card seems to cope in an almost seamless manor. At first I didn't think that the 850m was coping with the games but I soon realized that I had to change a few settings about as games were running off of the integrated graphics that really struggled to support these.

After changing settings and opening the Nvidia control panel I realised that it is possible to optimize games for your PC which meant it looked the best it could on this particular laptop. As I sad above, the graphics card was running these games at the highest settings, and on the 1080p, it looks fantastic. I am not sure how it would run on games that are more GPU intensive than the list above, but i'd imagine you can expect a good performance.

Battery life, Memory and OS

Something that I was never too concerned about when I was looking at various combinations of build was the battery life of the laptop. As I mentioned at the start, I went for a laptop because I will be travelling alot over the next 18 months but I won't be using it out and about if that makes sense. I will be using the laptop mainly indoors and plugged in so as long as it lasts over an hour then it is fine by me.

In terms of the battery life, I have tried out unplugged on max settings while playing Tom Clancy and it was able to run for just under 2 and a half hours, so as far as I can see, it has a really good battery life. Obviously I would not be expecting the same results as an ultra book, but if you aren't too concerned about battery life then I would recommend that you seriously consider making the Cosmos II an option.

The Hard drive is a Hybrid drive so after the laptop has turned on and off again a few times it quickly realises that i should transfer this to the SSD section. The result of this mean that from a cold boot to start up it only takes 20 seconds maximum. The amount of RAM also means that the laptop runs smoothly as does the i5 Processor.

The Operating System, is a matter of opinion. For some people Windows 8 is fantastic whilst for others it will be hell on Earth. In my opinion it is OK. It runs everything that I've asked it to and i am able to do everything I need to using the conventional window home screen. I don't particularly like the tiles of the start menu personally and I feel that this feature is more suited towards a touchscreen device. I can see what Windows have tried to do with it, but unless you're getting a touchscreen I don't see the benefit of the tiled start menu. I do like hat you can keep a conventional desktop that we have became accustomed to. With regards to Windows 8, don't let it put you off especially if you've not tried before like myself. In my opinion it isn't as bad as most people make it out to be an i'm glad that I tried it for myself. If you're still unconvinced by the lack of an old school start menu, then again this shouldn't stop you from being put off of Windows 8 particularly as there are downloadable programs such as startisback that will give you the old style start menu back- as its title suggests.

summary

Would I recommend this laptop? Yes. For the price you're paying I don't think that you can find anything that will be significantly better. Obviously I appreciate that a Desktop will be much better for gaming and performance but it may not be practical for everyone especially if you'll be moving around alot or don't have the space. I don't think that the webcam is very good, but for me this is something I can live with. I know there will be people who will use a webcam alot and to those people I would say to buy an external webcam.

Changes that I would maybe recommend to PS Specialist would be to allow the buyer to select their Operating System as I know there are a few who would rather run with Linux or another Operaing System. This isnt something that had an effect on me but it may have an effect on some others. I do also appreciate that PC Specialist are offering the cosmos II that was reviewed and that contained Windows but I think a little choice would be beneficial

 

[Rob__F]

Hey rn1,

It's great to know that you've had such a good experience with the Cosmos II and are happy with it, as personally I had quite a bad experience with both the machine and PCS customer service. Nevertheless, the call centre manager was very friendly and resolved our issues with ease, but unfortunately I'm not sure I'll be using PCS again...

I wish you the best of luck with the machine and hope hope that it works out for you better than it did for me!

~ Rob

 

[Wozza63]

Good review, I also have a Cosmos II and love it!

 

[rn1]

Hey rn1,

It's great to know that you've had such a good experience with the Cosmos II and are happy with it, as personally I had quite a bad experience with both the machine and PCS customer service. Nevertheless, the call centre manager was very friendly and resolved our issues with ease, but unfortunately I'm not sure I'll be using PCS again...

I wish you the best of luck with the machine and hope hope that it works out for you better than it did for me!

~ Rob

Sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with the Cosmos II! Yeah I've heard that the call centre manager is quite friendly and fair, but 1 bad experience with a company can put you off. I've had this with a few companies myself and have promised not to go back.

Hopefully you'll have a change of heart in the future

 

[rn1]

Good review, I also have a Cosmos II and love it!

Thanks

Yeah I absolutly love the Cosmos II! for being one of the lower end machines on the website, i'm very very impressed! Handles everything I have thrown at it with ease.