Fusion 15.6" (Text Only Review)

gw

New member
I've had this laptop for over a month now. Time for feedback.

One of the first things that come to mind on this laptop is the slimline professional understated look of the lid, the low key fan slots at the back and the ports. It is finally the perfect mix between quality and good value as you can feel how well built it is.

The screen hinges are solid, the screen won't wobble or move when you shake the laptop, but yet it can close / open with just a slightly firm finger. For me, they couldn't have got it better. The screen itself is very good, fresh 1080p but going from 29 inch screens to 15" in the same resolution has got me thinking it's like 4k. (I did debate whether to get a 4k laptop - because er futureproofing? - Defintely glad I didn't this is almost too sharp for me and I'm young with good eyesight!). I do love the screen, I thought I mention that again.

Keybord is personal preference, I much prefer soft touch typing rather than mech, but this laptop has keys that are inbetween. I would have prefered soft touch but these are very suitable to type with and the size and placement are excellent allowing me to almost touch type right off the bat with miminal time to get used to the keyboard. Whilst gaming, (yes this laptop does game), your fingers won't slip or miss as much as on a soft keyboard, there is travel (1.5mm maybe) on the keys.

I hate trackpads, but I'm using this one rather than a mouse most of the time. Multi gestures are great, zoom in zoom out, two finger down for scroll, the trackpad is so big I enjoy using it. I haven't had any problem with accuracy etc it seems to do it's job well like the rest of this laptop.

I think that's it for the design.

Performance - The i5 8265u is strong, after some playing about I got a score of 94% on the userbenchmark site for desktop, 20% for gaming, and 50% for workstation. It breezes through tasks, it's got me thinking who needs desktop processors now?
The Mx250 is good but not for ultra hardcore gaming. But contrary to popular belief it CAN GAME, I limit it to 30fps gaming on GTA 5 @1080p with med settings with temps at 60 to 70. It will deal out 50+fps on GTA5 same settings. For an 1.5kg portable laptop, that's amazing. If you are gaming, do get a cooler pad. For none gamers, there's no need, the laptop cpu runs at 40 to 60 degrees, keyboard never gets hot even when gaming. I do wish the extractor fan would be more powerful.

If there's no other reason to get this laptop, get it for the battery life. It lasts longer than my phone. It'd deal out a day at the office and then some. You could game your way through several boring meetings or watch nextflix all day. Maxed gaming will do 3 hours+. Normal desktop activites like web browsing you're looking at 8+ hours. If you're careful about your settings you can get this thing to last hours longer.

No problems with it. My Spec - i5, mx250, 512gb nvie adata, no operating system (I paid £3 online), 16gb ram.

I didn't buy operating system so I had to set it up myself, it was a chore. Tip: Keep updating windows, refresh that update button, restart it, repeat, until all the damn updates are done. Sometimes it won't even show up for a while making you think the updates are all done. I spent a day or so wondering why my windows didn't work right and why I couldn't install much needed drivers off the web etc. That was the reason why.

Don't get the i7. you're paying premium for 3% more power if that. Stick to i5.
I undervolted my CPU -0.095. I can also get much more power upping the tpd to 25w. This isn't needed and 20w is more than enough even for my gta gaming.

Hope this very poorly set out 5am review helps.
 

jonitfcfan

New member
Just to add to this I got mine a couple of days ago. Almost the same spec as above but with 2x 256GB ADATA SSDs instead, one for Windows and one for Linux. So far I've found that Debian and other OS's derived from it only seem to see one SSD at any one time, and it appears to be whichever one I set as the first drive in the BIOS boot priority. OpenSUSE was hit and miss in this department as well, and Parted Magic also only sees one SSD at a time. I nearly started an RMA request because I thought one of the SSDs was either faulty or missing, but I then tried Manjaro which seems to be the only Linux-based OS so far that has reliably detected both SSDs at once. No problems with Windows in this regard which is really strange (maybe it's a driver-related thing).

Most of the function keys seem to work with Linux (at least in Manjaro), although F2 [with a padlock icon, probably to lock the screen in Windows] and F5 [looks like a speedometer dial, not sure what this is for] don't seem to do anything here (I haven't tried in Windows yet). The touch sensitive button at the top left corner of the touchpad (to disable it) doesn't seem to do anything in Linux either.

One more observation I have is with the screen. As mentioned already the hinges appear to be very solid, but I would be a bit careful with trying to open the screen from either corner. The screen does flex a little if you do this which is probably down to the thickness of the screen itself. Not enough to damage it if you do it just a few times but I would imagine in the long run it might not be so good, which is why I'll lift it from the middle or use both hands on each corner from now on.

Otherwise it's been good so far, not much else to add to what's already been said here. I haven't tried gaming yet although I've managed to download Counter Strike: Global Offensive on my Manjaro installation, I'll have to try it out over the weekend and see what framerate I get!
 

ROBNET54

Member
Hey Guys, Helpful comments for sure!!. I myself I am pondering the purchase of a Fusion IV ( 14" or 15"). Some users have reported issues with the USB Ports (All fresh USB ports are hard to use, it takes several insertions -about 5/10?- to get the ports smooth) & the touchpad ( really difficult to use - jerky, jumpy, hard to position, etc).
Since you guys have had these machines for over 6 months, I wonder if you could update your reviews and comment on the issues above. Your opinion will be greatly appreciated & will help me !! Thanks in advance!!
 
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