I thought I would post a review of the Lafite II that I purchased in February 2016. I always like to wait at least six months before reviewing anything, to be able to give an honest appraisal of an item. Reviews based on first impressions aren't worth nearly as much as reviews based on substantial use of an item. I realise that PCS may be releasing a new 7th gen version of the Lafite soon, so I've given a break down of each of the features, many of which will likely be in common with a future edition of this machine. I hope people will find this useful.
The machine was bought as a general purpose machine, to be used for general office tasks as well as light computational tasks in the biological sciences. It needed to be portable to be transported between work and home regularly.
My previous machine was a 2012 Macbook Air with similar specs - 8Gb RAM, 250GB SSD, 4th gen i5 processor - and I used both machines in unison at one point so can provide a direct comparison. I believe the Macbook Air to be the direct competitor to this machine
Overall feel and ease of use
The Lafite has a high quality feel to it, far above its price tag of £508. The brushed aluminium case is extremely sturdy and has lasted well, with no blemishes or wear marks after almost a year of substantial use. The hinge between the body and screen is robust and strong, which is something I value highly from bad experiences with previous machines. Many people in my institution asked about the machine and were generally extremely impressed both by its appearance and price tag! The screen is excellent and has no viewing angle issues or dead pixels and gives an excellent high resolution image. The main negative aspect of the laptop was the touchpad. While certainly not bad, there is a slight "give" when I press the buttons, something I believe reveals the more budget nature of the laptop compared to others. The touchpad could also do with bigger slightly larger in my opinion.
Performance
The machine coped well with everything thrown at it. This was a mixture of simple office tasks, and a few light bioinformatic tasks and calculations (generally never taking more than about half an hour). The machine never felt hot to touch during fairly intensive tasks, and I could never hear the fan go above a whisper - this was an issue with previous versions of the BIOS i believe but now seems to have been fixed. I never benchmarked the laptop, or put it through extremely intensive tasks, but have full confidence it will continue to do everything asked of it. As a general office laptop, performance is excellent.
Durability and hardware issues
After almost a year of use, the machine looks as new and has had no hardware failures or issues. I am somewhat disappointed about the connectivity of the wireless. It is substantially slower than my Macbook air or smartphone to pick up new networks and connect to them. I am unsure if this is a hardware issue with the wireless card itself, is due wireless card being a poor one, or a driver/compatibility issue with Linux. I suspect the latter but am not certain.
Linux
I purchased the machine without a copy of Windows 10, as I wished to install Linux. I chose Elementary OS, which is based on Ubuntu but with a Mac OS like interface. I was surprised with the ease of install and the fact there there was only one compatibility issue - which I confess I can no longer remember the details of - but this was fixed with a 20 minute Google search by changing a single setting. The other issue is that the network card is slow to pick up wireless networks, taking up to about 20 seconds sometimes compared to my phone or MBA taking only 2-3 seconds. I believe this is likely to be a driver issue but is not a major inconvenience as once connected the laptop stays connected with good speeds.
Comparison to Macbook Air
In a single sentence... the Lafite II blows the Macbook Air out of the water. It isn't even close. Doing a comparison to the Early 2015 Macbook Air, the model available when I purchased my system:
Components/performance: Hands down win for Lafite. 250GB SSD > 125GB SSD. 8BG 1600MHz RAM > 4 GB 1600 MHz RAM. 6th gen i5 > 5th gen i5. Intel 520 graphics < Intel 6000 graphics.
Aesthetics/Appearance: Slight win for the MBA. The case is superior but not massively so.
Screen: Win for Lafite. The screen is higher resolution and leaves the MBA feeling rather dated in this respect.
Keyboard/Touchpad: Win for MBA. The touchpad is larger and higher quality on the MBA. The keyboards are similar but I marginally prefer the MBA.
Durability: Draw. I can only judge this from my experience but I had no issues with either machine in the first year.
Customer Care: Draw. Lafite warranty length is better - 1 year RTB, 2 parts warranty with Lafite compared to the 1 year MBA warranty - but being able to take to an Apple shop is very convenient for MBA.
Portability: Draw. Very similar size and shape, MBA is 80g lighter which in real world terms is irrelevant (I know from carrying both in my bag). The advertised battery life of the MBA is advertised as higher, but in the real world gets nowhere near this. Real world battery lifes were indistinguishable for me.
Connections: Lafite win. Lafite has 3 USB ports (3.1 type C, 3.0, 2.0) significantly better than the MBA's 2 USB ports (both 3.0). Lafite has an HDMI port, compared to the much less useful (i.e. less universally compatible) thunderbolt port on the MBA. I needed to carry around adapters for my MBA due to this, which I don't with the Lafite. Lafite also has a standard size power port which means you don't have to lob out a ridiculous £70 if you lose/break the power supply, which happened to me with the MBA. Lafite also has an M.2 port for expansion, which MBA does not.
Price: A laughably huge win for the Lafite. I paid £508 compared to £849 for the MBA (40% less). The Lafite was literally half the price of the 250GB SSD MBA.
So the MBA has a win on the aesthetics, the Screen/Touchpad/Keyboard is a draw, Lafite has a big win on performance and components, Lafite has an enormous win on price. You could literally buy two Lafites for the price of one MBA with same SSD size e.g. buy one now, wait a couple of years till the 8th gen Intel processors come out and buy ANOTHER brand new Lafite with all the new bells and whistles that will appear in this time (assuming PCS releases a new edition) while the MBA air user would be stuck with their ageing system. Oh, and then sell your old Lafite on Ebay for a couple of hundred or so.
Summary
The Lafite II is excellent. You get a system that looks almost as good as the MBA, although without the uber high quality feel of the MBA, but has better components and at half the price. The ability to install an OS of my choice on the Lafite is also a huge bonus for me, but perhaps not for all (because Mac OS X is actually quite excellent, just not as useful or versatile as being able to install any other OS for me). The touchpad is the only disappointing aspect of the system for me, but is still perfectly usable. If anyone is looking for a portable but capable ultrabook type laptop I won't recommend anything but the Lafite. I think the 13.3 inch screen is perfect for portability and ease of use, and no other system comes anywhere close to matches the specs of the Lafite, without costing massively more. Please improve the touchpad for the next edition PCS!
Specs
Chassis & Display
Lafité Silver Aluminium Chassis: 13.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-6200U (2.30GHz, 2.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 520 [Core™]
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 40W AC Adaptor
Sound Card
Realtek 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® AC-3160 M.2 (433Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT, 1 x USB 3.1 PORT + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Lafité Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6,300mAh)
Keyboard Language
LAFITÉ SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
The machine was bought as a general purpose machine, to be used for general office tasks as well as light computational tasks in the biological sciences. It needed to be portable to be transported between work and home regularly.
My previous machine was a 2012 Macbook Air with similar specs - 8Gb RAM, 250GB SSD, 4th gen i5 processor - and I used both machines in unison at one point so can provide a direct comparison. I believe the Macbook Air to be the direct competitor to this machine
Overall feel and ease of use
The Lafite has a high quality feel to it, far above its price tag of £508. The brushed aluminium case is extremely sturdy and has lasted well, with no blemishes or wear marks after almost a year of substantial use. The hinge between the body and screen is robust and strong, which is something I value highly from bad experiences with previous machines. Many people in my institution asked about the machine and were generally extremely impressed both by its appearance and price tag! The screen is excellent and has no viewing angle issues or dead pixels and gives an excellent high resolution image. The main negative aspect of the laptop was the touchpad. While certainly not bad, there is a slight "give" when I press the buttons, something I believe reveals the more budget nature of the laptop compared to others. The touchpad could also do with bigger slightly larger in my opinion.
Performance
The machine coped well with everything thrown at it. This was a mixture of simple office tasks, and a few light bioinformatic tasks and calculations (generally never taking more than about half an hour). The machine never felt hot to touch during fairly intensive tasks, and I could never hear the fan go above a whisper - this was an issue with previous versions of the BIOS i believe but now seems to have been fixed. I never benchmarked the laptop, or put it through extremely intensive tasks, but have full confidence it will continue to do everything asked of it. As a general office laptop, performance is excellent.
Durability and hardware issues
After almost a year of use, the machine looks as new and has had no hardware failures or issues. I am somewhat disappointed about the connectivity of the wireless. It is substantially slower than my Macbook air or smartphone to pick up new networks and connect to them. I am unsure if this is a hardware issue with the wireless card itself, is due wireless card being a poor one, or a driver/compatibility issue with Linux. I suspect the latter but am not certain.
Linux
I purchased the machine without a copy of Windows 10, as I wished to install Linux. I chose Elementary OS, which is based on Ubuntu but with a Mac OS like interface. I was surprised with the ease of install and the fact there there was only one compatibility issue - which I confess I can no longer remember the details of - but this was fixed with a 20 minute Google search by changing a single setting. The other issue is that the network card is slow to pick up wireless networks, taking up to about 20 seconds sometimes compared to my phone or MBA taking only 2-3 seconds. I believe this is likely to be a driver issue but is not a major inconvenience as once connected the laptop stays connected with good speeds.
Comparison to Macbook Air
In a single sentence... the Lafite II blows the Macbook Air out of the water. It isn't even close. Doing a comparison to the Early 2015 Macbook Air, the model available when I purchased my system:
Components/performance: Hands down win for Lafite. 250GB SSD > 125GB SSD. 8BG 1600MHz RAM > 4 GB 1600 MHz RAM. 6th gen i5 > 5th gen i5. Intel 520 graphics < Intel 6000 graphics.
Aesthetics/Appearance: Slight win for the MBA. The case is superior but not massively so.
Screen: Win for Lafite. The screen is higher resolution and leaves the MBA feeling rather dated in this respect.
Keyboard/Touchpad: Win for MBA. The touchpad is larger and higher quality on the MBA. The keyboards are similar but I marginally prefer the MBA.
Durability: Draw. I can only judge this from my experience but I had no issues with either machine in the first year.
Customer Care: Draw. Lafite warranty length is better - 1 year RTB, 2 parts warranty with Lafite compared to the 1 year MBA warranty - but being able to take to an Apple shop is very convenient for MBA.
Portability: Draw. Very similar size and shape, MBA is 80g lighter which in real world terms is irrelevant (I know from carrying both in my bag). The advertised battery life of the MBA is advertised as higher, but in the real world gets nowhere near this. Real world battery lifes were indistinguishable for me.
Connections: Lafite win. Lafite has 3 USB ports (3.1 type C, 3.0, 2.0) significantly better than the MBA's 2 USB ports (both 3.0). Lafite has an HDMI port, compared to the much less useful (i.e. less universally compatible) thunderbolt port on the MBA. I needed to carry around adapters for my MBA due to this, which I don't with the Lafite. Lafite also has a standard size power port which means you don't have to lob out a ridiculous £70 if you lose/break the power supply, which happened to me with the MBA. Lafite also has an M.2 port for expansion, which MBA does not.
Price: A laughably huge win for the Lafite. I paid £508 compared to £849 for the MBA (40% less). The Lafite was literally half the price of the 250GB SSD MBA.
So the MBA has a win on the aesthetics, the Screen/Touchpad/Keyboard is a draw, Lafite has a big win on performance and components, Lafite has an enormous win on price. You could literally buy two Lafites for the price of one MBA with same SSD size e.g. buy one now, wait a couple of years till the 8th gen Intel processors come out and buy ANOTHER brand new Lafite with all the new bells and whistles that will appear in this time (assuming PCS releases a new edition) while the MBA air user would be stuck with their ageing system. Oh, and then sell your old Lafite on Ebay for a couple of hundred or so.
Summary
The Lafite II is excellent. You get a system that looks almost as good as the MBA, although without the uber high quality feel of the MBA, but has better components and at half the price. The ability to install an OS of my choice on the Lafite is also a huge bonus for me, but perhaps not for all (because Mac OS X is actually quite excellent, just not as useful or versatile as being able to install any other OS for me). The touchpad is the only disappointing aspect of the system for me, but is still perfectly usable. If anyone is looking for a portable but capable ultrabook type laptop I won't recommend anything but the Lafite. I think the 13.3 inch screen is perfect for portability and ease of use, and no other system comes anywhere close to matches the specs of the Lafite, without costing massively more. Please improve the touchpad for the next edition PCS!
Specs
Chassis & Display
Lafité Silver Aluminium Chassis: 13.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED (1920 x 1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-6200U (2.30GHz, 2.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS 520 [Core™]
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 2 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 40W AC Adaptor
Sound Card
Realtek 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® AC-3160 M.2 (433Mbps, 802.11AC) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
1 x USB 3.0 PORT, 1 x USB 3.1 PORT + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Lafité Series 4 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (6,300mAh)
Keyboard Language
LAFITÉ SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Last edited: