uberNoobZA
Member
I'll admit that I was a little sceptical buying a laptop from PCSpecialist in the first place - not because of anything bad I'd heard about them, but simply because I normally go with the 'big names' such as Samsung and Asus for laptops, and other 'specialized' devices, whereas I will buy a custom built PC (or buy the parts and assemble myself) from pretty much anywhere.
After looking through some reviews and looking at the price and spec of the laptop, I decided to take the plunge, and so far I am happy that I did. I went for one of the 'ready to ship' models ( I HATE waiting for stuff to arrive
), so did not make any customizations, and ordered the spec. at the end of this post.
Ordering -
I was very impressed with the ordering process, and the way I can track the progress of the order. I particularly also liked how the website keeps track of systems I have ordered so that I can easily link to them and choose upgrade options later.
Delivery -
Delivery was next day, as promised, and as PCSpecialist uses DPD, I did not have to wait at home for it all day, as I was notified of a one hour time slot in which the delivery would be made.
Packaging
Packaging was a bit bland and simple, yet effective, and everything ordered was neatly and safely packed inside.
Initial Setup
Initial setup of the laptop was pretty basic, with the normal Windows 8 'Out Of Box Experience' being the first thing I saw. Though there were a few third party applications already installed, I was not flooded with prompts for registering / purchasing / configuring them, which is a nice change.
Layout and Design of laptop
Not much can really be done with a laptop keyboard and mouse layout, as you have limited space to work with. However, I am glad to say that as the laptop itself is quite large (being a 17.3 screen), there is enough space for decent size keys (no issues typing this with my chubby digits) as well as a numeric keypad AND some special hardware keys (Aeroplane mode, Wireless on/off etc.). Also glad to say that the keyboard is a UK layout keyboard (don't take it for granted that you will get a UK layout keyboard on a laptop you buy in the UK....)
I also like how easy it is to open the back of the laptop to replace RAM, HDD etc.
Heat and Noise
I have not noticed any heat issues so far, but then this may be due to the fact that the fan is on quite often. Though it is a little irritating at first, it's not excessively loud, and you get used to it after a while.
The charger gets warm when in use, but not excessively so.
Performance
In my enthusiasm, I did something I try to not do, and ran a 3DMark test on the laptop, and then compared the results against some other results of similar systems. I was a little disappointed by my results (hence the reason I usually try not to run these benchmarks, but prefer real world testing). I expect that the reason that my results were different is because of the GFX card that is used in this laptop. Though it is the same model (GTX 765M) as the other systems I compared to, there was a big differences in memory and clock speeds (and probably some other things that are not reported by 3DMark) - I'm not going to go into details about the differences and explanations behind them suffice it to say that faster GPUs of the same model are more expensive than slower GPUs, so for the price I paid for this laptop, I'm happy with the performance.
Luckily however, I did some real world testing BEFORE I did the 3DMark test, so I was able to get a real feel for how the laptop performed. As it was replacing a low to mid ranged Samsung gaming laptop, it had to impress me and it definitely did. With the GFX settings turned up higher than on the Samsung, and with the screen resolution higher, AND running in a 'Full Screen Window' as opposed to Full Screen, I was more than happy with the performance of the laptop. I did not detect any graphics lag at all, and was very happy with the visuals.
I could easily see myself using this laptop as a desktop replacement, even without an external screen, as the display is good quality, with good viewing angles and a 1920x1080 resolution. I've used the laptop at work in meetings a couple of times, and though I have not run the battery completely flat, I would expect to get between 2.5 to 4 hours of use out of the battery on day to day use (not gaming), which in my opinion is not too bad for a laptop this size. Not once that I can remember did the fan turn itself on while being used in meetings, which is good :yes:
Job done Optimus V !!! (good bye faithful Samsung laptop)
All in all I am very happy with the laptop, and people who have seen it are quite impressed as well. I would definitely recommend this laptop (yes, there are better out there, but very few in this price range).
Chassis & Display Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Storage - 1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable 1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
After looking through some reviews and looking at the price and spec of the laptop, I decided to take the plunge, and so far I am happy that I did. I went for one of the 'ready to ship' models ( I HATE waiting for stuff to arrive
), so did not make any customizations, and ordered the spec. at the end of this post.Ordering -
I was very impressed with the ordering process, and the way I can track the progress of the order. I particularly also liked how the website keeps track of systems I have ordered so that I can easily link to them and choose upgrade options later.
Delivery -
Delivery was next day, as promised, and as PCSpecialist uses DPD, I did not have to wait at home for it all day, as I was notified of a one hour time slot in which the delivery would be made.
Packaging
Packaging was a bit bland and simple, yet effective, and everything ordered was neatly and safely packed inside.
Initial Setup
Initial setup of the laptop was pretty basic, with the normal Windows 8 'Out Of Box Experience' being the first thing I saw. Though there were a few third party applications already installed, I was not flooded with prompts for registering / purchasing / configuring them, which is a nice change.
Layout and Design of laptop
Not much can really be done with a laptop keyboard and mouse layout, as you have limited space to work with. However, I am glad to say that as the laptop itself is quite large (being a 17.3 screen), there is enough space for decent size keys (no issues typing this with my chubby digits) as well as a numeric keypad AND some special hardware keys (Aeroplane mode, Wireless on/off etc.). Also glad to say that the keyboard is a UK layout keyboard (don't take it for granted that you will get a UK layout keyboard on a laptop you buy in the UK....)
I also like how easy it is to open the back of the laptop to replace RAM, HDD etc.
Heat and Noise
I have not noticed any heat issues so far, but then this may be due to the fact that the fan is on quite often. Though it is a little irritating at first, it's not excessively loud, and you get used to it after a while.
The charger gets warm when in use, but not excessively so.
Performance
In my enthusiasm, I did something I try to not do, and ran a 3DMark test on the laptop, and then compared the results against some other results of similar systems. I was a little disappointed by my results (hence the reason I usually try not to run these benchmarks, but prefer real world testing). I expect that the reason that my results were different is because of the GFX card that is used in this laptop. Though it is the same model (GTX 765M) as the other systems I compared to, there was a big differences in memory and clock speeds (and probably some other things that are not reported by 3DMark) - I'm not going to go into details about the differences and explanations behind them suffice it to say that faster GPUs of the same model are more expensive than slower GPUs, so for the price I paid for this laptop, I'm happy with the performance.
Luckily however, I did some real world testing BEFORE I did the 3DMark test, so I was able to get a real feel for how the laptop performed. As it was replacing a low to mid ranged Samsung gaming laptop, it had to impress me and it definitely did. With the GFX settings turned up higher than on the Samsung, and with the screen resolution higher, AND running in a 'Full Screen Window' as opposed to Full Screen, I was more than happy with the performance of the laptop. I did not detect any graphics lag at all, and was very happy with the visuals.
I could easily see myself using this laptop as a desktop replacement, even without an external screen, as the display is good quality, with good viewing angles and a 1920x1080 resolution. I've used the laptop at work in meetings a couple of times, and though I have not run the battery completely flat, I would expect to get between 2.5 to 4 hours of use out of the battery on day to day use (not gaming), which in my opinion is not too bad for a laptop this size. Not once that I can remember did the fan turn itself on while being used in meetings, which is good :yes:
Job done Optimus V !!! (good bye faithful Samsung laptop)
All in all I am very happy with the laptop, and people who have seen it are quite impressed as well. I would definitely recommend this laptop (yes, there are better out there, but very few in this price range).
Chassis & Display Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4700MQ (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 765M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Storage - 1st Hard Disk 120GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery Optimus Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Cable 1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
