Thought I'd pop a long-term review in about my laptop. I took delivery of it in August 2015.
First off, it's worth noting that this is my every day workhorse. And I do mean workhorse - it goes everywhere with me and is in daily use and abuse.
I'll pop the spec down. Now before anyone comes back with things like "32GB is overkill..." it may well be for most use cases. Mine, however, involves running multiple virtual servers and desktops in a lab/demo environment, so that amount of RAM could ideally have done with doubling but then the CPU would've been a bottleneck. Not that, as of right now, either are
So the spec:
Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 15.6" Glossy 4K PLS LED Widescreen (3840x2160)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4870HQ (3.7GHz Turbo, Iris™ Pro)
Memory (RAM) 32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Hard Disk NONE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
M.2 SSD Drive 500GB Crucial MX200 M.2 2280 SSD (upto 555MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive 500GB Crucial MX200 M.2 2280 SSD (upto 555MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
RAID RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Ext DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Cable 2 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED, 1 e-SATA COMBINED)
Battery Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language DEFIANCE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
OS License Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD &
DVD Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands NONE
Stand-Alone Monitor NONE
Additional Keyboard NONE
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Game Streaming NONE
External Speakers NONE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets 0 NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
The purchasing experience was lacking. Despite paying for the expedited build it took weeks. And whilst I could have tolerated the delays had I got decent feedback from PCS what I actually got was contradictions and outright lies. That almost lead to me cancelling the order there and then.
And then the build quality of the first machine when it did finally arrive was terrible. I had trapped wires, bits of plastic covering stuck out of the sides and a diagnostic log file on the SSD that said the GPU had failed soak testing repeatedly.
I really did lose my temper with them at that point and told PCS I wanted a replacement machine. And, in fairness to them, that is precisely what they sent me.
And the second time round there were no such quality issues.
However, and I do not land any of this on the shoulders of PCS, Windows 10, which was brand new at the time was a royal pain in the backside.
The trackpad was missing basic functions such as two-fingered scrolling. It was under sensitive to the point it was unusable at times. The fingerprint scanner, though recognised, wouldn't work either natively with Windows Hello, or with the included manufacturer software.
Subsequent updates to drivers from Synaptics and Microsoft slowly improved this but it was really the Anniversary Upgrade that really put them to bed.
I would struggle to give an average time on battery as I rarely use it on battery because of the load I put it under. That said, when I've just been typing docs on in back in a hotel room, I'd say a good couple of hours plus.
I am an occasional gamer and it's never failed to run at high quality (not maxed out now, by any means but certainly beautiful). For example, it ran Doom 2016 and GoW 4 without missing a beat. Interestingly, I had better performance when I ran Doom using the Vulkan driver than I did with the DX12. It looked better, too, to my eyes. And yet, I know others such as Spydertracks on here have had nothing but problems running Vulkan.
One thing I am keeping an eye on is temps - it seems to run very very hot at times. Not just gaming which I can understand. I've given the vents a good blow out though, but I suspect it could do with a repaste when I get the time. And when the temps come up, so do the fans and by christ they're loud. I swear this thing could be registered as a drone. It really does sound like it's going all out to achieve take off.
One of the things that attracted me to the Defiance chassis was the amount of storage it can take. I bought it with 2 x m2 SSD's in RAID 0 and added a 1TB SATA SSD and a 2TB spinner. The lack of an internal DVD was never an issue to me as I was coming from a MacBook Pro where I'd taken the DVD drive out a day after buying it to put in an SSD.
One of the things that struck me when I first took delivery was that for a 15.6" model, it's big. Far wider than other ones I've used. That does have the added advantage of an almost full size keyboard which I love. The Apple backlit keyboard spoiled me so another backlit one was a must-have. I do wish Synaptics would try to match the Apple touchpad for quality too though. It really is the best one I've ever used.
In hindsight I wish I hadn't gone for the 4k screen.
The screen itself is simply stunning. No bleed, no aberrant colouring nothing. Blacks are black, whites are white. Even gaming, it's fantastic. That said, it feels as flimsy as anything. It flexes frightening amounts. But...has never given me any problems, so it's just aesthetics I guess.
But Windows again...it just struggles with high DPI displays.
Random applications will have tiny, tiny, icons and text even while the main window is fine, for example. Most, to be fair, I've now found workarounds for but not all. Even Microsoft can't seem to get it quite right - connecting to the same server via Remote Desktop, for example is a Russian Roulette of fun as to whether it'll manage to scale properly or not.
I would also not choose another Intel WiFi card. Number 1 - the native Windows driver sucks. The first time I rebuilt it, I made the mistake of not downloading the Intel WLAN driver. After connecting fine for all of 30 seconds it refused to stay connected or reconnect. My own fault in part as I always (usually) ensure I have the network and chipset drivers pre-downloaded as an absolute bare minimum to avoid just this kind of thing. Luckily, a quick cable connection solved it.
However, here's a gem for you. Intel don't allow software changing of the Mac Address of their NICs. This means Windows 10's ability to connect to open WiFi hotspots with a randomised Mac Address doesn't work, for example.
And the Synaptics driver, though much improved is still poor performing - it doesn't ignore my palm for example, even though it's checked in the driver settings. so I get frustrated with random mouse clicks which means if I am typing long documents, I inevitably have to go to an external mouse and temporarily turn off the trackpad.
As an IT professional, it niggles me that the BIOS is locked and I cannot simply upgrade it myself at will as and when they become available. I get it why this is the case for your average mass produced machine but I don't think PCS customers tend to be on the PC World shopping end of the spectrum and it'd be nice to have a choice.
If I had to score the system fairly I think I'd give the following:
Initial PCS communications and build time: 30%
Subsequent communications and response: 100%
Hardware: 85% *let down by Synaptics*
Overall happiness with the system: 95% *again that touchpad*
Performance - rapid! It's like speedy gonzales on acid! Nothing seems to lag or take inordinate amounts of time to function
Would I buy another? And from PCS? Definitely. Would I recommend them? Definitely, also.
Did they make mistakes? Yes, but - and this is the important bit for me - when they were called out about them they acted properly to do the right things as quickly as possible. Humans make mistakes. Hardware fails. It's how the company reacts to those things that I feel is the important thing and PCS really did step up to the mark.
First off, it's worth noting that this is my every day workhorse. And I do mean workhorse - it goes everywhere with me and is in daily use and abuse.
I'll pop the spec down. Now before anyone comes back with things like "32GB is overkill..." it may well be for most use cases. Mine, however, involves running multiple virtual servers and desktops in a lab/demo environment, so that amount of RAM could ideally have done with doubling but then the CPU would've been a bottleneck. Not that, as of right now, either are
So the spec:
Chassis & Display Defiance Series: 15.6" Glossy 4K PLS LED Widescreen (3840x2160)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4870HQ (3.7GHz Turbo, Iris™ Pro)
Memory (RAM) 32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 980M - 4.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - Hard Disk NONE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
M.2 SSD Drive 500GB Crucial MX200 M.2 2280 SSD (upto 555MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive 500GB Crucial MX200 M.2 2280 SSD (upto 555MB/sR | 500MB/sW)
RAID RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Ext DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
Power Cable 2 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + MIC/Headphone + SoundBlaster X-Fi MB3
Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-7265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 4 x USB 3.0 PORTS (1 x POWERED, 1 e-SATA COMBINED)
Battery Defiance Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (60WH)
Keyboard Language DEFIANCE SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
OS License Genuine Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc DVD &
DVD Recovery Media Windows 10 (64-bit) Professional DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Laptop Cooling Stands NONE
Stand-Alone Monitor NONE
Additional Keyboard NONE
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Game Streaming NONE
External Speakers NONE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets 0 NONE
Surge Protection NONE
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
The purchasing experience was lacking. Despite paying for the expedited build it took weeks. And whilst I could have tolerated the delays had I got decent feedback from PCS what I actually got was contradictions and outright lies. That almost lead to me cancelling the order there and then.
And then the build quality of the first machine when it did finally arrive was terrible. I had trapped wires, bits of plastic covering stuck out of the sides and a diagnostic log file on the SSD that said the GPU had failed soak testing repeatedly.
I really did lose my temper with them at that point and told PCS I wanted a replacement machine. And, in fairness to them, that is precisely what they sent me.
And the second time round there were no such quality issues.
However, and I do not land any of this on the shoulders of PCS, Windows 10, which was brand new at the time was a royal pain in the backside.
The trackpad was missing basic functions such as two-fingered scrolling. It was under sensitive to the point it was unusable at times. The fingerprint scanner, though recognised, wouldn't work either natively with Windows Hello, or with the included manufacturer software.
Subsequent updates to drivers from Synaptics and Microsoft slowly improved this but it was really the Anniversary Upgrade that really put them to bed.
I would struggle to give an average time on battery as I rarely use it on battery because of the load I put it under. That said, when I've just been typing docs on in back in a hotel room, I'd say a good couple of hours plus.
I am an occasional gamer and it's never failed to run at high quality (not maxed out now, by any means but certainly beautiful). For example, it ran Doom 2016 and GoW 4 without missing a beat. Interestingly, I had better performance when I ran Doom using the Vulkan driver than I did with the DX12. It looked better, too, to my eyes. And yet, I know others such as Spydertracks on here have had nothing but problems running Vulkan.
One thing I am keeping an eye on is temps - it seems to run very very hot at times. Not just gaming which I can understand. I've given the vents a good blow out though, but I suspect it could do with a repaste when I get the time. And when the temps come up, so do the fans and by christ they're loud. I swear this thing could be registered as a drone. It really does sound like it's going all out to achieve take off.
One of the things that attracted me to the Defiance chassis was the amount of storage it can take. I bought it with 2 x m2 SSD's in RAID 0 and added a 1TB SATA SSD and a 2TB spinner. The lack of an internal DVD was never an issue to me as I was coming from a MacBook Pro where I'd taken the DVD drive out a day after buying it to put in an SSD.
One of the things that struck me when I first took delivery was that for a 15.6" model, it's big. Far wider than other ones I've used. That does have the added advantage of an almost full size keyboard which I love. The Apple backlit keyboard spoiled me so another backlit one was a must-have. I do wish Synaptics would try to match the Apple touchpad for quality too though. It really is the best one I've ever used.
In hindsight I wish I hadn't gone for the 4k screen.
The screen itself is simply stunning. No bleed, no aberrant colouring nothing. Blacks are black, whites are white. Even gaming, it's fantastic. That said, it feels as flimsy as anything. It flexes frightening amounts. But...has never given me any problems, so it's just aesthetics I guess.
But Windows again...it just struggles with high DPI displays.
Random applications will have tiny, tiny, icons and text even while the main window is fine, for example. Most, to be fair, I've now found workarounds for but not all. Even Microsoft can't seem to get it quite right - connecting to the same server via Remote Desktop, for example is a Russian Roulette of fun as to whether it'll manage to scale properly or not.
I would also not choose another Intel WiFi card. Number 1 - the native Windows driver sucks. The first time I rebuilt it, I made the mistake of not downloading the Intel WLAN driver. After connecting fine for all of 30 seconds it refused to stay connected or reconnect. My own fault in part as I always (usually) ensure I have the network and chipset drivers pre-downloaded as an absolute bare minimum to avoid just this kind of thing. Luckily, a quick cable connection solved it.
However, here's a gem for you. Intel don't allow software changing of the Mac Address of their NICs. This means Windows 10's ability to connect to open WiFi hotspots with a randomised Mac Address doesn't work, for example.
And the Synaptics driver, though much improved is still poor performing - it doesn't ignore my palm for example, even though it's checked in the driver settings. so I get frustrated with random mouse clicks which means if I am typing long documents, I inevitably have to go to an external mouse and temporarily turn off the trackpad.
As an IT professional, it niggles me that the BIOS is locked and I cannot simply upgrade it myself at will as and when they become available. I get it why this is the case for your average mass produced machine but I don't think PCS customers tend to be on the PC World shopping end of the spectrum and it'd be nice to have a choice.
If I had to score the system fairly I think I'd give the following:
Initial PCS communications and build time: 30%
Subsequent communications and response: 100%
Hardware: 85% *let down by Synaptics*
Overall happiness with the system: 95% *again that touchpad*
Performance - rapid! It's like speedy gonzales on acid! Nothing seems to lag or take inordinate amounts of time to function
Would I buy another? And from PCS? Definitely. Would I recommend them? Definitely, also.
Did they make mistakes? Yes, but - and this is the important bit for me - when they were called out about them they acted properly to do the right things as quickly as possible. Humans make mistakes. Hardware fails. It's how the company reacts to those things that I feel is the important thing and PCS really did step up to the mark.
