I've had my Genesis IV laptop for over ten days now – so I thought it only fair that I share my thoughts and experiences with it. I personally use Ubuntu as my only operating system, though I did briefly test Windows 8 as well.
Genesis IV Laptop Review:
Chassis:
The Genesis IV chassis looks very smart when first taken out of the box. The entire surface both inside and out is a shiny black plastic with a nice thin white line pattern. It has to be said that the laptop accumulates fingerprints fairly quickly, though giving it a wipe down every now and again is all one needs to do to rectify this problem. Physically, the casing feels very durable, and although I've yet to go at it with a hammer, it's well resisted being on bumpy rides in bags etc.
One thing I really like is that the power cable clicks and locks into place when plugged into the machine. My previous laptop suffered serious damage to its power socket when I tripped over the cable and it got pulled out at an awkward angle. I have a feeling this would be much less likely to happen on this laptop.
The laptop is also fairly light and easy to fit in a bag etc.
In addition, the laptop is usually silent when running (at least with an SSD). The fan hardly ever needs to activate and, even when it does, it's very quiet.
Screen:
I opted for the 15” 95% gamut matte display and I'll say now that it's AMAZING! Colours are fantastic, reds and blues are especially noticeable as being superior compared to other laptops. As it's a matte screen, it can be used near light sources (such as windows) without reflections, and it works much better outside as well. The 1920x1080 resolution is also really nice and makes everything appear clear. Windows 8 looks especially good as the Metro interface really benefits from the vibrant colours the screen can show.
Speakers:
This is the one area where the laptop is let down slightly. The speakers are not as loud as they could be, and the quality of the sound isn't that high. Don't get me wrong, they're not awful, and for a laptop they're not especially bad. If you just want to show YouTube videos to friends sat near you then it definitely is good enough - but if you're looking for something to fill a whole room with the latest tunes at the best quality then you'd probably want something which boasts finer speakers.
Once you plug in some decent headphones, however, everything sounds great again. This is even with the default integrated sound.
Performance:
I opted for the following performance-related specs:
Intel i5 3210M
4Gb 1600Mhz RAM
Intel 520 SSD – 128Gb
Nvidia GT 630M - 1GB
In this area, the laptop is amazing. It boots in about ten seconds (after BIOS) and logs in and loads programs instantly. Windows 8 boots even faster with its 'hybrid boot' technology. I've not tried any modern AAA games on this laptop, but it should be capable of handling most of them at medium settings. Urban Terror and STBC (both admittedly old games) run perfectly at maximum settings using only the integrated graphics, which is great for saving power.
Battery Life:
I opted for the more powerful 62.16WH battery, which gives me between 4.5 and 5.5 hours. It comes closer to 5.5 when you disable WiFi and Bluetooth, of course. If you use Windows, you might see it last even longer than this. I've managed to use it for several hours with speakers on full watching YouTube videos as well, so it really is quite impressive.
Keyboard and touchpad:
Keyboard is nice, with separated keys and a number pad. Touchpad supports two finger scrolling which is a really nice feature as well. I don't have any complaints about either of these two components.
OS Compatibility:
Windows – perfect once wireless driver is installed from CD (though if you order it with Windows installed this might be done for you)
Ubuntu – perfect (though memory card reader driver must be downloaded)
You can generalize from the Ubuntu result that most other Linux OSs are likely to run well on this laptop too.
Overall:
I'm very happy with this laptop – it's amazingly fast and was much cheaper (from PC Specialist) than any equivalents would be from a mainstream manufacturer. I love the screen especially, and I'm glad I upgraded to it. The sound is the only let-down, but even this isn't a major issue. All in all, I would recommend this laptop to pretty much anybody who isn't looking for a £1000+ super gaming machine. It's defiantly one of the best quality and best value laptops I've encountered.
(Price I paid - £640 – will vary depending on configuration. I see the graphics cards have also been upgraded since I bought mine, even more reason for me to recommend it to others)
PC Specialist service:
Laptop build time was exactly one day longer than predicted, so not too much problem there. Forums were really helpful in answering questions both before and after I bought, and I also received helpful responses to my E-mail inquiries. Laptop delivery took only one day.
Pictures:
(My video camera isn't the best for taking photographs, so the colours look a little rubbish on the screen. You'll just have to take my word (and that of others here) for the screen quality.
Genesis IV Laptop Review:
Chassis:
The Genesis IV chassis looks very smart when first taken out of the box. The entire surface both inside and out is a shiny black plastic with a nice thin white line pattern. It has to be said that the laptop accumulates fingerprints fairly quickly, though giving it a wipe down every now and again is all one needs to do to rectify this problem. Physically, the casing feels very durable, and although I've yet to go at it with a hammer, it's well resisted being on bumpy rides in bags etc.
One thing I really like is that the power cable clicks and locks into place when plugged into the machine. My previous laptop suffered serious damage to its power socket when I tripped over the cable and it got pulled out at an awkward angle. I have a feeling this would be much less likely to happen on this laptop.
The laptop is also fairly light and easy to fit in a bag etc.
In addition, the laptop is usually silent when running (at least with an SSD). The fan hardly ever needs to activate and, even when it does, it's very quiet.
Screen:
I opted for the 15” 95% gamut matte display and I'll say now that it's AMAZING! Colours are fantastic, reds and blues are especially noticeable as being superior compared to other laptops. As it's a matte screen, it can be used near light sources (such as windows) without reflections, and it works much better outside as well. The 1920x1080 resolution is also really nice and makes everything appear clear. Windows 8 looks especially good as the Metro interface really benefits from the vibrant colours the screen can show.
Speakers:
This is the one area where the laptop is let down slightly. The speakers are not as loud as they could be, and the quality of the sound isn't that high. Don't get me wrong, they're not awful, and for a laptop they're not especially bad. If you just want to show YouTube videos to friends sat near you then it definitely is good enough - but if you're looking for something to fill a whole room with the latest tunes at the best quality then you'd probably want something which boasts finer speakers.
Once you plug in some decent headphones, however, everything sounds great again. This is even with the default integrated sound.
Performance:
I opted for the following performance-related specs:
Intel i5 3210M
4Gb 1600Mhz RAM
Intel 520 SSD – 128Gb
Nvidia GT 630M - 1GB
In this area, the laptop is amazing. It boots in about ten seconds (after BIOS) and logs in and loads programs instantly. Windows 8 boots even faster with its 'hybrid boot' technology. I've not tried any modern AAA games on this laptop, but it should be capable of handling most of them at medium settings. Urban Terror and STBC (both admittedly old games) run perfectly at maximum settings using only the integrated graphics, which is great for saving power.
Battery Life:
I opted for the more powerful 62.16WH battery, which gives me between 4.5 and 5.5 hours. It comes closer to 5.5 when you disable WiFi and Bluetooth, of course. If you use Windows, you might see it last even longer than this. I've managed to use it for several hours with speakers on full watching YouTube videos as well, so it really is quite impressive.
Keyboard and touchpad:
Keyboard is nice, with separated keys and a number pad. Touchpad supports two finger scrolling which is a really nice feature as well. I don't have any complaints about either of these two components.
OS Compatibility:
Windows – perfect once wireless driver is installed from CD (though if you order it with Windows installed this might be done for you)
Ubuntu – perfect (though memory card reader driver must be downloaded)
You can generalize from the Ubuntu result that most other Linux OSs are likely to run well on this laptop too.
Overall:
I'm very happy with this laptop – it's amazingly fast and was much cheaper (from PC Specialist) than any equivalents would be from a mainstream manufacturer. I love the screen especially, and I'm glad I upgraded to it. The sound is the only let-down, but even this isn't a major issue. All in all, I would recommend this laptop to pretty much anybody who isn't looking for a £1000+ super gaming machine. It's defiantly one of the best quality and best value laptops I've encountered.
(Price I paid - £640 – will vary depending on configuration. I see the graphics cards have also been upgraded since I bought mine, even more reason for me to recommend it to others)
PC Specialist service:
Laptop build time was exactly one day longer than predicted, so not too much problem there. Forums were really helpful in answering questions both before and after I bought, and I also received helpful responses to my E-mail inquiries. Laptop delivery took only one day.
Pictures:
(My video camera isn't the best for taking photographs, so the colours look a little rubbish on the screen. You'll just have to take my word (and that of others here) for the screen quality.
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