JonathanLittle94
New member
2 years down the line from the initial purchase, I wanted to provide an honest, albeit largely negative review (i'll get to that bit later) of the 17.3" Recoil Series Gaming Laptop.
Positives
I'll start by saying that the actual performance of the Laptop, for the most part, has been satisfactory for the amount paid. It managed very graphically intensive games with relative ease. I've listed some of the positives below. However, these positives come at great cost for the longevity and overall performance of the laptop.
1. Visually appealing, a nice laptop: A fairly slim and lightweight laptop despite being on the larger end, which means it is great for if you are transporting it regularly, either for work purposes or if it travels around the country / world with you. It's not too heavy. A decent protective laptop bag and a few additional peripherals plus the laptop did not seem like hard-work to carry around for extended periods. The keyboard is a lovely RGB backlit mechanical keyboard which appeared to be very responsive (at first). This however comes at a cost, which i'll get to later.
2. Fairly decent spec out of the box: Has everything you need to be able to play most games comfortably, although you'll soon find yourself choosing optional upgrades if you want a bit of longevity out of the Laptop (or so I had hoped, again, more on that later). There is an optional booster button which kicks the cooling system into overdrive if you find yourself needing it with the laptop gaining heat. As expected, the laptop will whir quite loudly if you opt to enable the booster fan, not ideal for a room with more than just yourself in.
3. Screen-quality: Decent, high-quality screen which comes as standard. Games look lovely when playing on the laptop screen, which is a nice-to-have for portability. Not so important if you use an external monitor as your main screen. Let me be clear, I am talking about the quality on-screen, not the build of the laptop itself.
Negatives
Now for the negatives, and there are some pretty extreme negatives:
1. Build-quality(physical): I noted earlier that the laptop is visually appealing and lovely to look at, but that came at a cost. Upon further use a few months down the line, it became very obvious there were clear design flaws, particularly when it comes to the keyboard and chassis(and in particular the screen section). Firstly, the shape and flimsiness of the keys meant that they can rotate a couple of degrees either way, and often-times get stuck. Let me tell you that can be make-or-break when you're playing a game and can come at great cost. Seems a trivial thing right? Maybe it is, but when you're dropping £1.5k+ on a higher-end machine, you expect these sorts of things to be ironed out in the design section, and if not there, in the Quality Control.
The chassis, in particularly the screen, is incredibly bad-quality. Let me state that whilst I am a gamer, the laptop has not had intensive use over the last two years, and has sometimes gone on for weeks at a time without use. The case began to peel away from the screen after about a year of opening and closing the laptop to the point you can see the physical parts behind the screen.
2. Massive heating issue: As we all know, laptops are notorious for heating up quickly, and remaining hot for the time that it has been used. I even noted this shortly after receiving the laptop and decided to scale down the graphics and limiting the number of app and windows open at any one time. It had little effect unfortunately and the laptop quickly gained heat regardless.
3. The main crux, and ultimately the reason for posting my review, the motherboard: **Note I am not the only one to have had this issue, it seems common, and can be VERY COSTLY. The laptop has remained fairly static for the majority of its use over the last two years. The word careful does not do justice to the amount of care I took when moving, closing, and opening the laptop so as to preserve and not damage it. However, one morning, after opening the laptop and switching it on, the screen constantly flickered, to the point where I had to switch it off, immediately. Totally unusable. We're talking 4-5 flickers a second. After further investigation, it came down to an issue with the motherboard, as a screen replacement did not correct the issue, and there is no visible damage to any of the connecting wires. Therefore the laptop is only usable when connected to an external screen, with settings set to 2nd screen only, as the laptop would continue to flicker irrespective. The result? Circa £900 for a replacement motherboard. First impressions are key to anything, and as a result I will not be making any future purchases with PCSpecialist.
These are of course my own opinions on the machine in question. Others may have a completely different experience with the Recoil series, positive or negative, but I’d urge you to research the exact build-quality of the machine you are thinking about buying, as this is what led to the eventual downfall of my first gaming laptop.
I'll continue to use the laptop as a desktop from now on, but I will say this experience which turned out to be positive from the outset, quickly deteriorated and became a nightmare purchase. Yes, laptops deteriorate at a fairly fast pace, but 2 years old in 2022? Pretty damning.
If anyone is thinking about buying this particular series I’d be happy to answer any questions they might have on them.
Positives
I'll start by saying that the actual performance of the Laptop, for the most part, has been satisfactory for the amount paid. It managed very graphically intensive games with relative ease. I've listed some of the positives below. However, these positives come at great cost for the longevity and overall performance of the laptop.
1. Visually appealing, a nice laptop: A fairly slim and lightweight laptop despite being on the larger end, which means it is great for if you are transporting it regularly, either for work purposes or if it travels around the country / world with you. It's not too heavy. A decent protective laptop bag and a few additional peripherals plus the laptop did not seem like hard-work to carry around for extended periods. The keyboard is a lovely RGB backlit mechanical keyboard which appeared to be very responsive (at first). This however comes at a cost, which i'll get to later.
2. Fairly decent spec out of the box: Has everything you need to be able to play most games comfortably, although you'll soon find yourself choosing optional upgrades if you want a bit of longevity out of the Laptop (or so I had hoped, again, more on that later). There is an optional booster button which kicks the cooling system into overdrive if you find yourself needing it with the laptop gaining heat. As expected, the laptop will whir quite loudly if you opt to enable the booster fan, not ideal for a room with more than just yourself in.
3. Screen-quality: Decent, high-quality screen which comes as standard. Games look lovely when playing on the laptop screen, which is a nice-to-have for portability. Not so important if you use an external monitor as your main screen. Let me be clear, I am talking about the quality on-screen, not the build of the laptop itself.
Negatives
Now for the negatives, and there are some pretty extreme negatives:
1. Build-quality(physical): I noted earlier that the laptop is visually appealing and lovely to look at, but that came at a cost. Upon further use a few months down the line, it became very obvious there were clear design flaws, particularly when it comes to the keyboard and chassis(and in particular the screen section). Firstly, the shape and flimsiness of the keys meant that they can rotate a couple of degrees either way, and often-times get stuck. Let me tell you that can be make-or-break when you're playing a game and can come at great cost. Seems a trivial thing right? Maybe it is, but when you're dropping £1.5k+ on a higher-end machine, you expect these sorts of things to be ironed out in the design section, and if not there, in the Quality Control.
The chassis, in particularly the screen, is incredibly bad-quality. Let me state that whilst I am a gamer, the laptop has not had intensive use over the last two years, and has sometimes gone on for weeks at a time without use. The case began to peel away from the screen after about a year of opening and closing the laptop to the point you can see the physical parts behind the screen.
2. Massive heating issue: As we all know, laptops are notorious for heating up quickly, and remaining hot for the time that it has been used. I even noted this shortly after receiving the laptop and decided to scale down the graphics and limiting the number of app and windows open at any one time. It had little effect unfortunately and the laptop quickly gained heat regardless.
3. The main crux, and ultimately the reason for posting my review, the motherboard: **Note I am not the only one to have had this issue, it seems common, and can be VERY COSTLY. The laptop has remained fairly static for the majority of its use over the last two years. The word careful does not do justice to the amount of care I took when moving, closing, and opening the laptop so as to preserve and not damage it. However, one morning, after opening the laptop and switching it on, the screen constantly flickered, to the point where I had to switch it off, immediately. Totally unusable. We're talking 4-5 flickers a second. After further investigation, it came down to an issue with the motherboard, as a screen replacement did not correct the issue, and there is no visible damage to any of the connecting wires. Therefore the laptop is only usable when connected to an external screen, with settings set to 2nd screen only, as the laptop would continue to flicker irrespective. The result? Circa £900 for a replacement motherboard. First impressions are key to anything, and as a result I will not be making any future purchases with PCSpecialist.
These are of course my own opinions on the machine in question. Others may have a completely different experience with the Recoil series, positive or negative, but I’d urge you to research the exact build-quality of the machine you are thinking about buying, as this is what led to the eventual downfall of my first gaming laptop.
I'll continue to use the laptop as a desktop from now on, but I will say this experience which turned out to be positive from the outset, quickly deteriorated and became a nightmare purchase. Yes, laptops deteriorate at a fairly fast pace, but 2 years old in 2022? Pretty damning.
If anyone is thinking about buying this particular series I’d be happy to answer any questions they might have on them.
