Yamikotai
Expert
Note: This review isn't 100% finished yet, but it's just some images and a burn test I need to add. However I finished the majority of the review over a week ago I figured I'd post it 
Genesis IV Full Review
Hi, I’m Kieran Mitchell, and this my review of the Genesis IV 15.6” laptop from PC Specialist. These are the specifications:
Screen: 15.6" 1080p AUO 95% Gamut
CPU: Intel i7 3740QM @ 2.7GHz
RAM: 2x8GB 1600MHz (added myself)
GPU: Nvidia GT630M
SSD: 120GB OCZ Agility 3 (added myself)
HDD: 1TB WD Scorpio Blue
Battery: 2 x 62.16WH battery
Plus the 30-day pixel guarantee and Silver warranty.
Price for PCS model plus SSD+RAM: £920
First, I’d like to cover my experience with PC Specialist. The time between me ordering the laptop and it arriving on my doorstep was reasonable considering the time of year that I ordered it (lots of student loans coming in) – 14 days, or as it worked out, 9 working days. This is pretty much the standard estimated time for a custom system from them, so I was pleased with that. Support is good - replying to my inane questioning always within a day of asking - and even faster when I was asking more important things than technical details. The forums and its community are great – reasonably busy, with more than a few members dedicated to helping people out with tech issues or system configuration.
Being (mostly) a custom build service, PC Specialist (hereafter referred to as PCS) laptops don’t come installed with rubbish like office trials, anti-virus trials or your other usual shovelware. Not that this would have affected me anyway, since I opted for the ‘No Operating System’ route – one of the most appealing aspects of a PCS custom-build. As a power user, I’d never want to use an OS set up by someone else, though the particular allure of it not coming with an OS was the price saving – myself having collected various keys over the years from old systems, college and university – giving the Genesis IV a good price advantage compared to similar system right out of the door, even before you get to the hardware.
The Hardware
Before I continue, here’s the use case for the laptop – a rundown of my requirements. This laptop is mostly for work and academia - my university course is Ethical Hacking and Network Security, which requires a bit of a workhorse as I often need to run several VMs at once (a VM, or virtual machine, is basically running a virtual computer, on your computer; as you can guess, it takes a powerful machine to run more than one). This is on top of your usual word processing and media/internet consumption, and a bit of light gaming (Minecraft) on the side, since I have my desktop for the heavy games.
First up, the star of the show – the screen. I opted to spend the extra (£59) for the 1080p AUO 95% gamut LED. Suffice to say, it is magnificent. Colours are disturbingly accurate and vibrant. So far I’ve tested it by watching The Avengers from my Blu-Ray rip – keep in mind that this is a film I’ve watched a dozen times, and in some places it felt like I was watching a whole new film. Anywhere with even a subtle vibrancy of colour now looks spectacular, most notably the titular characters’ costumes – Iron Man’s suit looks fantastic, as do the iconic suit and shield of Captain America (the red ring around the shield particularly). And don’t get me started on Thor’s cape – I had no clue before how red it actually is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so red. And after saying that, I should point out that it doesn’t look over-saturated, just very (very) red. There were similar improvements in the recently-released remaster of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I also tried out Minecraft for a while, which looked noticeably nicer but didn’t show as much of a fundamental improvement as The Avengers and TNG did.
Overall, the screen is just wonderful – one of the requirements for my laptop this time round was at least a 1080p screen, after finding that the 1336x768 14” screen on my previous laptop rather sub-par for some tasks during my first year of university. This requirement was what ultimately led me to PCS, as they were one of the few companies I could find that would offer all of the specifications I wanted. The relatively resolution (1080p screen in a 15.6” format) makes all text and video look wonderfully sharp, allowing me to fit really quite a lot of work into a small space. When doing my research, I found some people complaining that they had to increase the DPI setting in Windows to use it comfortably, and in fact if you get the OS preinstalled by PCS they set it higher by default. Personally I find the default DPI perfectly usable and exactly what I’m after in a high-resolution screen. It’s especially nice for doing word processing on, as the fantastic whites make reading and writing in Word 2010 (which I’m writing this in) very easy on the eyes.
With a plentiful two paragraphs concerning the screen, I’ll move onto the touchpad. As touchpads go, it seems satisfactory – good features that work well, reasonable sensitivity, and left-right buttons with a decent click to them. Most of the issues I have with it currently will be irrelevant as I get used to them, such as the slightly different position (left-orientated compared to centre-orientated) and different touch-based shortcuts. I’m actually really pleased at some of those – I particularly like that all the shortcuts are editable. For example, by default a two-finger tap works as a middle-click (which I love), but it can be changed to a wide variety of other options, such as specific scrolling directions or zooming in/out. Another option I really like is that if I hold Shift, it greatly reduces the sensitivity for more accurate movement. While some of the defaults are useful, others aren’t quite as much, such as an upward three-finger swipe being ‘open My Computer’; personally I find it much easier just to press Windows+E. Still, I’m glad the option is there. The sensitivity of the pad is reasonable – I’m used to better (especially for when tapping to pad to left-click) but it’s just something I’ll need to get used to.
Now, I have one key issue with the touchpad, which is that occasionally – say, once or twice an hour – it will stop working. It only happens for 5-10 seconds when it does, which isn’t a huge problem, but is hugely inconvenient when it occurs. (Update: After using the Genesis IV for about 5 days now, this no longer happens. Either it was a minor issue that went away on its own, or I became accustomed to something that was causing it which I no longer do. Either way it’s fine now.)
On the other hand, the keyboard is flawless. I’ve intentionally written this review on it to get used to it, and I have to say I took to it rather quickly, except that I’m used to a smaller keyboard with no numpad. The keys are good, and spring back nicely. I’m used to a mechanical keyboard on my desktop and the Genesis IV’s keyboard doesn’t nearly match up of course, but it’s perfectly good for typing essays up on. Key spacing is good, and there’s no flexing of it or other areas of the laptop as a result of typing, which can be an issue with some laptops. It’s well-laid-out with a full-size British enter key, rather than the annoying thin US one, which is rather unsatisfying to use in comparison.
I went for the bottom-level option for WiFi (Intel N135), since I have some very good external antennae for any real WiFi use. Range is as good as any other built-in radio I’ve had on other laptops, and it being 802.11n meant I was able to download (using Rapidshare to ensure a saturated connection) at the full 4.2MB/s of my Virgin Media 30Mb connection with no issues.
To test the USB3 controller and ports, I used a Samsung M3 1TB external drive, and a Kingston DT Ultimate G2 16GB usb stick. I was able to reach both the maximum read and write speeds of both drives (90MB/s and 100MB/s, and 70MB/s and 60MB/s, respectively). There is one issue with the placement of the ports relative to the output vent, which I’ll get to later when I talk about the chassis.
The CPU – Intel i7-3740qm – handles everything I throw at it. Benchmarks for it can found at various places online so I won’t include them, but suffice to say it’s a beast.
Finally for the hardware I’ll talk about battery life. It’s okay. About what I’d expect. My previous laptop was Acer’s years-ago attempt at an ultrabook, and so had 7 hours battery life (but a 1.3GHZ dual-core Pentium). I knew not to expect great battery life on this, though I do think it could be better – keep in mind I have the Nvidia panel set to use the HD4000 integrated GPU for everything except for programs I specifically set to use the GT630m (so far, that’s only Minecraft). I did try for a while disabling one of the CPU cores to see if it made a difference – it didn’t really, and turned off HyperThreading so I now use it as it was intended. I ordered two of the higher-capacity 60something Wh batteries, though PCS sent me a standard 48WHr and 60something WHr battery in error, putting me in the fortunately unfortunate position of being able to test battery life with both (PCS sent out a replacement battery as soon as I contacted them). I end up getting about 2.5 to 3 hours on the weaker battery, and 3 to 3.5 hours on the better one.
Genesis IV Full Review
Hi, I’m Kieran Mitchell, and this my review of the Genesis IV 15.6” laptop from PC Specialist. These are the specifications:
Screen: 15.6" 1080p AUO 95% Gamut
CPU: Intel i7 3740QM @ 2.7GHz
RAM: 2x8GB 1600MHz (added myself)
GPU: Nvidia GT630M
SSD: 120GB OCZ Agility 3 (added myself)
HDD: 1TB WD Scorpio Blue
Battery: 2 x 62.16WH battery
Plus the 30-day pixel guarantee and Silver warranty.
Price for PCS model plus SSD+RAM: £920
First, I’d like to cover my experience with PC Specialist. The time between me ordering the laptop and it arriving on my doorstep was reasonable considering the time of year that I ordered it (lots of student loans coming in) – 14 days, or as it worked out, 9 working days. This is pretty much the standard estimated time for a custom system from them, so I was pleased with that. Support is good - replying to my inane questioning always within a day of asking - and even faster when I was asking more important things than technical details. The forums and its community are great – reasonably busy, with more than a few members dedicated to helping people out with tech issues or system configuration.
Being (mostly) a custom build service, PC Specialist (hereafter referred to as PCS) laptops don’t come installed with rubbish like office trials, anti-virus trials or your other usual shovelware. Not that this would have affected me anyway, since I opted for the ‘No Operating System’ route – one of the most appealing aspects of a PCS custom-build. As a power user, I’d never want to use an OS set up by someone else, though the particular allure of it not coming with an OS was the price saving – myself having collected various keys over the years from old systems, college and university – giving the Genesis IV a good price advantage compared to similar system right out of the door, even before you get to the hardware.
The Hardware
Before I continue, here’s the use case for the laptop – a rundown of my requirements. This laptop is mostly for work and academia - my university course is Ethical Hacking and Network Security, which requires a bit of a workhorse as I often need to run several VMs at once (a VM, or virtual machine, is basically running a virtual computer, on your computer; as you can guess, it takes a powerful machine to run more than one). This is on top of your usual word processing and media/internet consumption, and a bit of light gaming (Minecraft) on the side, since I have my desktop for the heavy games.
First up, the star of the show – the screen. I opted to spend the extra (£59) for the 1080p AUO 95% gamut LED. Suffice to say, it is magnificent. Colours are disturbingly accurate and vibrant. So far I’ve tested it by watching The Avengers from my Blu-Ray rip – keep in mind that this is a film I’ve watched a dozen times, and in some places it felt like I was watching a whole new film. Anywhere with even a subtle vibrancy of colour now looks spectacular, most notably the titular characters’ costumes – Iron Man’s suit looks fantastic, as do the iconic suit and shield of Captain America (the red ring around the shield particularly). And don’t get me started on Thor’s cape – I had no clue before how red it actually is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so red. And after saying that, I should point out that it doesn’t look over-saturated, just very (very) red. There were similar improvements in the recently-released remaster of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I also tried out Minecraft for a while, which looked noticeably nicer but didn’t show as much of a fundamental improvement as The Avengers and TNG did.
Overall, the screen is just wonderful – one of the requirements for my laptop this time round was at least a 1080p screen, after finding that the 1336x768 14” screen on my previous laptop rather sub-par for some tasks during my first year of university. This requirement was what ultimately led me to PCS, as they were one of the few companies I could find that would offer all of the specifications I wanted. The relatively resolution (1080p screen in a 15.6” format) makes all text and video look wonderfully sharp, allowing me to fit really quite a lot of work into a small space. When doing my research, I found some people complaining that they had to increase the DPI setting in Windows to use it comfortably, and in fact if you get the OS preinstalled by PCS they set it higher by default. Personally I find the default DPI perfectly usable and exactly what I’m after in a high-resolution screen. It’s especially nice for doing word processing on, as the fantastic whites make reading and writing in Word 2010 (which I’m writing this in) very easy on the eyes.
With a plentiful two paragraphs concerning the screen, I’ll move onto the touchpad. As touchpads go, it seems satisfactory – good features that work well, reasonable sensitivity, and left-right buttons with a decent click to them. Most of the issues I have with it currently will be irrelevant as I get used to them, such as the slightly different position (left-orientated compared to centre-orientated) and different touch-based shortcuts. I’m actually really pleased at some of those – I particularly like that all the shortcuts are editable. For example, by default a two-finger tap works as a middle-click (which I love), but it can be changed to a wide variety of other options, such as specific scrolling directions or zooming in/out. Another option I really like is that if I hold Shift, it greatly reduces the sensitivity for more accurate movement. While some of the defaults are useful, others aren’t quite as much, such as an upward three-finger swipe being ‘open My Computer’; personally I find it much easier just to press Windows+E. Still, I’m glad the option is there. The sensitivity of the pad is reasonable – I’m used to better (especially for when tapping to pad to left-click) but it’s just something I’ll need to get used to.
Now, I have one key issue with the touchpad, which is that occasionally – say, once or twice an hour – it will stop working. It only happens for 5-10 seconds when it does, which isn’t a huge problem, but is hugely inconvenient when it occurs. (Update: After using the Genesis IV for about 5 days now, this no longer happens. Either it was a minor issue that went away on its own, or I became accustomed to something that was causing it which I no longer do. Either way it’s fine now.)
On the other hand, the keyboard is flawless. I’ve intentionally written this review on it to get used to it, and I have to say I took to it rather quickly, except that I’m used to a smaller keyboard with no numpad. The keys are good, and spring back nicely. I’m used to a mechanical keyboard on my desktop and the Genesis IV’s keyboard doesn’t nearly match up of course, but it’s perfectly good for typing essays up on. Key spacing is good, and there’s no flexing of it or other areas of the laptop as a result of typing, which can be an issue with some laptops. It’s well-laid-out with a full-size British enter key, rather than the annoying thin US one, which is rather unsatisfying to use in comparison.
I went for the bottom-level option for WiFi (Intel N135), since I have some very good external antennae for any real WiFi use. Range is as good as any other built-in radio I’ve had on other laptops, and it being 802.11n meant I was able to download (using Rapidshare to ensure a saturated connection) at the full 4.2MB/s of my Virgin Media 30Mb connection with no issues.
To test the USB3 controller and ports, I used a Samsung M3 1TB external drive, and a Kingston DT Ultimate G2 16GB usb stick. I was able to reach both the maximum read and write speeds of both drives (90MB/s and 100MB/s, and 70MB/s and 60MB/s, respectively). There is one issue with the placement of the ports relative to the output vent, which I’ll get to later when I talk about the chassis.
The CPU – Intel i7-3740qm – handles everything I throw at it. Benchmarks for it can found at various places online so I won’t include them, but suffice to say it’s a beast.
Finally for the hardware I’ll talk about battery life. It’s okay. About what I’d expect. My previous laptop was Acer’s years-ago attempt at an ultrabook, and so had 7 hours battery life (but a 1.3GHZ dual-core Pentium). I knew not to expect great battery life on this, though I do think it could be better – keep in mind I have the Nvidia panel set to use the HD4000 integrated GPU for everything except for programs I specifically set to use the GT630m (so far, that’s only Minecraft). I did try for a while disabling one of the CPU cores to see if it made a difference – it didn’t really, and turned off HyperThreading so I now use it as it was intended. I ordered two of the higher-capacity 60something Wh batteries, though PCS sent me a standard 48WHr and 60something WHr battery in error, putting me in the fortunately unfortunate position of being able to test battery life with both (PCS sent out a replacement battery as soon as I contacted them). I end up getting about 2.5 to 3 hours on the weaker battery, and 3 to 3.5 hours on the better one.
Last edited:
