Jak
Member
Review of Vortex III (3)
Initial impressions + 5 months later
Ordering & Delivery
After I had ordered mine (after the month or two of research!), it was in prep for about a week before PCS told me there was a delay on ordering new stock for the i7-3720QM in which meant it took another 3-4 days (it happened over a weekend). The next week however, the build went ahead fairly quickly and progressed through to awaiting delivery and sent in 2-3 days. When it arrived, I took note it had been packed very securely in a huge box with plenty of padding inside, not to mention two boxes! Save for the small delays this was a great experience so far.
Initial Impressions/Inspection
After unboxing it, I was struck by how rugged it actually looked in person, I love matte stuff a lot more than gloss rubbish so this was a big plus in my book, granted it did look huge but that's also a personal favourite. First impressions were mostly positive (while having only used it for a week or so) apart from the usual driver hell, and I can freely say I was enjoying the latent power beneath my fingertips immensely. The lack of a VGA/D-Sub port did irk me slightly but considering there's a DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort offering it's not so bad.
One issue that started to raise its head fairly early was regarding BD playback. Ironically it's actually easier and more reliable to buy a piece of software to rip BD's than it is to simply slip them in and play them from disc with Cyberlink's software. Even on 7 with PowerDVD 10 it worked about once and then after rebooting, refused to play anymore, stating there was an error which put it at risk (this was later determined after much hair-pulling to be Cyberlink's inbuilt method of forcing people to pay out for upgrades).
Onto the more detailed sections of the review!
#1 - The screen
While ordering I had naturally (as someone who works in IT) done much research on the three panels that were available at the time when I was placing my order. One was a Hannspree which was glossy if I remember correctly, another was the AUO of which I had heard split feelings on (some said it was great while others said it was mediocre and was outclassed by the next panel) and then the Chi-Mei. This was the panel I settled on eventually for its excellent RGB spectrum reproduction (72%) and the overall quality of the panel. After about 5 months of use I can attest it is a very good panel! The brightness on offer by the LED backlighting is also quite retina scorching!
#2 - The keyboard/touchpad
I opted for the backlit keyboard while ordering and I must say, it comes in mighty useful in those late night gaming and chat sessions! For the most part the keyboard is great, however one problem it came with is the left Shift key often not recognising being pressed which for a £1,600+ laptop is simply inexcusable, especially when laptops costing a quarter of that price have keyboard that are perfectly fine including (as much as I hate to mention it) MBP's which are a fair comparison considering the price of these laptops. Regarding the touchpad, it's fairly good in operation but that's about as far as it goes. For the relative size of the laptop, the pad itself is woefully small and at least for me, came misfitted in that it was sunken on the right with a gap between it and the casing but flush and with no gap on the left side. Again, not really acceptable for something this expensive.
#3 - The chassis/exterior ports
One thing that impressed me initially about the Vortex was the seeming solidarity and ruggedness of the casing. After having had it for a few months I can safely say it's not all what it seems. Although the case is indeed rugged (it should be for ABS), it's by no means perfect on the fitting detail (again expected for this kind of expense) and if held anywhere there is a lot of very noticeable sag in the entire body from the weight of the hardware. To add to the detail point, the rear venting for the CPU & GPU both aren't fully machined out (it's a running joke that Clevo's engineers fell asleep at this point) which doesn't really help. Generally it's fine if you're just going to leave it in one place and hook it up to external inputs and monitor etc.
#4 - Audio (speakers/HDMI/analog jacks)
This is an easy albeit, slightly disppointing section to type again. Basically, ignore the Onkyo and THX stickers/logos because they count for naught. Add the bottom mounted 'subwoofer' to that too because it doesn't work, or work enough to be noticeable even if you were to put your ear to it. Although there seems to have been somewhat a lot of confusion regarding the number of physical speakers the laptop actually has, it only has two (ignoring the sub). Audio output from a 5.1/7.1 speaker system connected to the analog jacks is good as expected as is output from the HDMI port on the rear. A major failing (again thanks to Clevo) is in the jack you'd be plugging headphones into. Due to some fiddling by Clevo, the LFE channel (that's the bass) is routed over the Centre speaker jack instead which means you'll get 2.0 instead of the usual 2.1 over a pair of headphones sadly. This is only solved by either using HDMI or a 5.1/7.1 system on the analog jacks or alternatively, buying a USB soundcard.
Wrap-up
I will probably edit this a little more later when I grab the 'beast' - Arael (look here for the reference) and boot it (into Mint 14 I might add - screenshot here) but for the most part this review is complete so treat it as such. I'm not really the best at writing reviews so I've probably missed a detail or two so if anyone has any questions, please post them and I will do my best to answer them and then merge them into the OP.
Indeed it may sound like to many (it does to me a bit) like I'm bashing the Vortex III and to a degree I am (hell I've even seriously considered getting a refurbished MBP from Apple to go with this), because the number and nature of issues with it compared to something half the price is just nutty but overall, for the hardware you get it's amazing. If you're like me and you use it at Uni etc and move it around, yes it can be a slog but when I'm back at home I hook it up to a large 24" LG monitor and 5.1 Pioneer home theatre system (a VSX-520k + S-HS100) plus a keyboard and mouse I have, then hide it in the desk.
Happy computing!
Initial impressions + 5 months later
Ordering & Delivery
After I had ordered mine (after the month or two of research!), it was in prep for about a week before PCS told me there was a delay on ordering new stock for the i7-3720QM in which meant it took another 3-4 days (it happened over a weekend). The next week however, the build went ahead fairly quickly and progressed through to awaiting delivery and sent in 2-3 days. When it arrived, I took note it had been packed very securely in a huge box with plenty of padding inside, not to mention two boxes! Save for the small delays this was a great experience so far.
Initial Impressions/Inspection
After unboxing it, I was struck by how rugged it actually looked in person, I love matte stuff a lot more than gloss rubbish so this was a big plus in my book, granted it did look huge but that's also a personal favourite. First impressions were mostly positive (while having only used it for a week or so) apart from the usual driver hell, and I can freely say I was enjoying the latent power beneath my fingertips immensely. The lack of a VGA/D-Sub port did irk me slightly but considering there's a DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort offering it's not so bad.
One issue that started to raise its head fairly early was regarding BD playback. Ironically it's actually easier and more reliable to buy a piece of software to rip BD's than it is to simply slip them in and play them from disc with Cyberlink's software. Even on 7 with PowerDVD 10 it worked about once and then after rebooting, refused to play anymore, stating there was an error which put it at risk (this was later determined after much hair-pulling to be Cyberlink's inbuilt method of forcing people to pay out for upgrades).
Onto the more detailed sections of the review!
#1 - The screen
While ordering I had naturally (as someone who works in IT) done much research on the three panels that were available at the time when I was placing my order. One was a Hannspree which was glossy if I remember correctly, another was the AUO of which I had heard split feelings on (some said it was great while others said it was mediocre and was outclassed by the next panel) and then the Chi-Mei. This was the panel I settled on eventually for its excellent RGB spectrum reproduction (72%) and the overall quality of the panel. After about 5 months of use I can attest it is a very good panel! The brightness on offer by the LED backlighting is also quite retina scorching!
#2 - The keyboard/touchpad
I opted for the backlit keyboard while ordering and I must say, it comes in mighty useful in those late night gaming and chat sessions! For the most part the keyboard is great, however one problem it came with is the left Shift key often not recognising being pressed which for a £1,600+ laptop is simply inexcusable, especially when laptops costing a quarter of that price have keyboard that are perfectly fine including (as much as I hate to mention it) MBP's which are a fair comparison considering the price of these laptops. Regarding the touchpad, it's fairly good in operation but that's about as far as it goes. For the relative size of the laptop, the pad itself is woefully small and at least for me, came misfitted in that it was sunken on the right with a gap between it and the casing but flush and with no gap on the left side. Again, not really acceptable for something this expensive.
#3 - The chassis/exterior ports
One thing that impressed me initially about the Vortex was the seeming solidarity and ruggedness of the casing. After having had it for a few months I can safely say it's not all what it seems. Although the case is indeed rugged (it should be for ABS), it's by no means perfect on the fitting detail (again expected for this kind of expense) and if held anywhere there is a lot of very noticeable sag in the entire body from the weight of the hardware. To add to the detail point, the rear venting for the CPU & GPU both aren't fully machined out (it's a running joke that Clevo's engineers fell asleep at this point) which doesn't really help. Generally it's fine if you're just going to leave it in one place and hook it up to external inputs and monitor etc.
#4 - Audio (speakers/HDMI/analog jacks)
This is an easy albeit, slightly disppointing section to type again. Basically, ignore the Onkyo and THX stickers/logos because they count for naught. Add the bottom mounted 'subwoofer' to that too because it doesn't work, or work enough to be noticeable even if you were to put your ear to it. Although there seems to have been somewhat a lot of confusion regarding the number of physical speakers the laptop actually has, it only has two (ignoring the sub). Audio output from a 5.1/7.1 speaker system connected to the analog jacks is good as expected as is output from the HDMI port on the rear. A major failing (again thanks to Clevo) is in the jack you'd be plugging headphones into. Due to some fiddling by Clevo, the LFE channel (that's the bass) is routed over the Centre speaker jack instead which means you'll get 2.0 instead of the usual 2.1 over a pair of headphones sadly. This is only solved by either using HDMI or a 5.1/7.1 system on the analog jacks or alternatively, buying a USB soundcard.
Wrap-up
I will probably edit this a little more later when I grab the 'beast' - Arael (look here for the reference) and boot it (into Mint 14 I might add - screenshot here) but for the most part this review is complete so treat it as such. I'm not really the best at writing reviews so I've probably missed a detail or two so if anyone has any questions, please post them and I will do my best to answer them and then merge them into the OP.
Indeed it may sound like to many (it does to me a bit) like I'm bashing the Vortex III and to a degree I am (hell I've even seriously considered getting a refurbished MBP from Apple to go with this), because the number and nature of issues with it compared to something half the price is just nutty but overall, for the hardware you get it's amazing. If you're like me and you use it at Uni etc and move it around, yes it can be a slog but when I'm back at home I hook it up to a large 24" LG monitor and 5.1 Pioneer home theatre system (a VSX-520k + S-HS100) plus a keyboard and mouse I have, then hide it in the desk.
Happy computing!
(Disclaimer, don't blame me if you hit it too hard