Hello everyone!
It's time for my PCS laptop review!
Let me first say that I'm totally satisfied with this laptop. It performs great and i couldn't have asked any better for the price i paid.
If i'll ever have to buy a laptop again in the future, I'd buy it from PCS.
The specs:
The Price:
I paid 775€ (VAT and 40€ delivery to Italy included)
First of all, PCSpecialist has the best price on the web. I made a lot of research before buying, to see if there was a valid pre-built laptop that was a good alternative to the one i was going to buy here, but there wasn't.
Within the price range of 800€ i haven't found anything as good as this Cosmos IV. Especially because it has a fullHD IPS Panel, which is a rarity if not impossible to find in this price range.
Also, mind that i live in Italy, so the price above included 40€ of shipping...and the price still the best on the market. If you live in UK that means you get free shipping, and you can have it for even less!
Service and Shipping:
I haven't tried the customer service yet, but the way they updated you about the status of the order seemed serious and professional. They sent me an mail every 2 days describing the current production status with an estimated day of build or delivery. Every stage, from the payment to the delivery is summarized in a diagram in the order's page accessible once you place it. Super nice.
I have been really pleased when opening the box I found another box protected by a solid padding that firmly fitted the outer one. The actual laptop was also well protected with polystyrene.
The Use:
I'm a Graphic Design student, so i was searching for a good machine to carry around when I'm at university, and that could complement my desktop PC. The programs I use are mainly Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Blender. I have never had any problem so far.
The Design and Build Quality
Even if i don't mind the product design so much, especially with laptops, i have to say that it looks pretty nice and professional (no brands on the lid! yay!). Even better than the photo on the website. It's not made of aluminum, but it's impossible to find these kind of chassis at this price. The lid has a pleasant brushed metal texture but it's unfortunately also the weak point of the whole chassis, being a way to flexible for my taste (but don't worry, i tested the lid of my friends computers and it flexes as much as mine, if not even more, so i guess it's just my paranoia). A real downside though is that it also attracts fingerprints and scratches pretty easily.
The Insides
I opened the laptop to add a Samsung EVO 850 i bought my own. I placed it in the internal slot and the WD Black HDD in the HDD bay. I'm not an expert but i found the back-lid pretty easy to open and the placement operation was totally not hard to do. The only complaint i have is a strange sound that's coming from inside, but i can't really understand what this is. (the HDD and the laptop in general performs great anyways).
I opened a thread for it, please help me with it if you like! https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...us-loud-click-from-the-HDD-(Cosmos-IV-Laptop)
The Display
It's a nice IPS panel, colors look great, I'm not sure about the gamut coverage but it should be around the standard for a mid-range IPS. Notebookcheck.com reviewed a custom built clevo with exactly the same panel model and the display test had great results. I'm not sure if i can directly link it here but the laptop i'm talking about is the Clevo M504.
The Performance
the intel i5 processor performs nice, along with the GPU (haven't tested with any game yet, but the GPU acceleration works great in Adobe Applications and Blender). The RAM is also good but I'm planning to put it in dual channel with another 8gb bank pretty soon. I filled it just once with Photoshop, but it's understandable, since i had several high-res TIFF images opened at the same time.
The Battery
I keep it always connected when I'm at home or university, but i had a couple of occasions to test the battery time and it lasted around 3 hours of continuous work. A pretty good result considering the amount of power it needs.
Not sure how many hours other laptops last, but i think it's in the average.
Conclusion
Except for the strange click i hear from time to time (see above in "The Insides" part if you haven't already) and that worries me a bit, and a build quality that could have been a bit better, i absolutely suggest this laptop to everyone, for all the things that can offer for such a low price. The Cosmos IV looks professional, PCSpecialist looks professional. Can't get any better than that!
Thank you PCSpecialist!
You can find the full photo album here: http://imgur.com/a/PcobF
It's time for my PCS laptop review!
Let me first say that I'm totally satisfied with this laptop. It performs great and i couldn't have asked any better for the price i paid.
If i'll ever have to buy a laptop again in the future, I'd buy it from PCS.
The specs:
The Price:
I paid 775€ (VAT and 40€ delivery to Italy included)
First of all, PCSpecialist has the best price on the web. I made a lot of research before buying, to see if there was a valid pre-built laptop that was a good alternative to the one i was going to buy here, but there wasn't.
Within the price range of 800€ i haven't found anything as good as this Cosmos IV. Especially because it has a fullHD IPS Panel, which is a rarity if not impossible to find in this price range.
Also, mind that i live in Italy, so the price above included 40€ of shipping...and the price still the best on the market. If you live in UK that means you get free shipping, and you can have it for even less!
Service and Shipping:
I haven't tried the customer service yet, but the way they updated you about the status of the order seemed serious and professional. They sent me an mail every 2 days describing the current production status with an estimated day of build or delivery. Every stage, from the payment to the delivery is summarized in a diagram in the order's page accessible once you place it. Super nice.
I have been really pleased when opening the box I found another box protected by a solid padding that firmly fitted the outer one. The actual laptop was also well protected with polystyrene.
The Use:
I'm a Graphic Design student, so i was searching for a good machine to carry around when I'm at university, and that could complement my desktop PC. The programs I use are mainly Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Blender. I have never had any problem so far.
The Design and Build Quality
Even if i don't mind the product design so much, especially with laptops, i have to say that it looks pretty nice and professional (no brands on the lid! yay!). Even better than the photo on the website. It's not made of aluminum, but it's impossible to find these kind of chassis at this price. The lid has a pleasant brushed metal texture but it's unfortunately also the weak point of the whole chassis, being a way to flexible for my taste (but don't worry, i tested the lid of my friends computers and it flexes as much as mine, if not even more, so i guess it's just my paranoia). A real downside though is that it also attracts fingerprints and scratches pretty easily.
The Insides
I opened the laptop to add a Samsung EVO 850 i bought my own. I placed it in the internal slot and the WD Black HDD in the HDD bay. I'm not an expert but i found the back-lid pretty easy to open and the placement operation was totally not hard to do. The only complaint i have is a strange sound that's coming from inside, but i can't really understand what this is. (the HDD and the laptop in general performs great anyways).
I opened a thread for it, please help me with it if you like! https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/foru...us-loud-click-from-the-HDD-(Cosmos-IV-Laptop)
The Display
It's a nice IPS panel, colors look great, I'm not sure about the gamut coverage but it should be around the standard for a mid-range IPS. Notebookcheck.com reviewed a custom built clevo with exactly the same panel model and the display test had great results. I'm not sure if i can directly link it here but the laptop i'm talking about is the Clevo M504.
The Performance
the intel i5 processor performs nice, along with the GPU (haven't tested with any game yet, but the GPU acceleration works great in Adobe Applications and Blender). The RAM is also good but I'm planning to put it in dual channel with another 8gb bank pretty soon. I filled it just once with Photoshop, but it's understandable, since i had several high-res TIFF images opened at the same time.
The Battery
I keep it always connected when I'm at home or university, but i had a couple of occasions to test the battery time and it lasted around 3 hours of continuous work. A pretty good result considering the amount of power it needs.
Not sure how many hours other laptops last, but i think it's in the average.
Conclusion
Except for the strange click i hear from time to time (see above in "The Insides" part if you haven't already) and that worries me a bit, and a build quality that could have been a bit better, i absolutely suggest this laptop to everyone, for all the things that can offer for such a low price. The Cosmos IV looks professional, PCSpecialist looks professional. Can't get any better than that!
Thank you PCSpecialist!
You can find the full photo album here: http://imgur.com/a/PcobF
Last edited:
