barlew
Godlike
Full disclosure, initially I ordered the Ionico with the same specs as the Valeon I ended up with. I had to change the order as the Ionico chassis was out of stock when PCS got to my order. Initially I was worried about switching as I thought the Valeon aesthetically looked absolutely terrible, especially the central hinge for the screen. I also had to switch from an Intel I7-11800H CPU to an AMD 5900HX. My previous laptop had a 5900HX and it caused me all sorts of problems, so I had reservations about getting another one.
So now you have the context for how I ended up with a Valeon here is my review.
Aesthetics and materials:
I was pleasantly surprised when the laptop finally arrived as it is far less hideous than the pictures, in fact I really like it.
The laptop isn’t made from the most premium materials but by the same token they do not look or feel cheap or nasty. As this is not the first Tongfang I have owned I understood I was paying for the performance and not the external aesthetic. My last laptop was an ASUS Zephyrus with the same specs as this Valeon however it cost £1500 more. Even with the better build quality it was not worth the extra money.
The Valeon’s lid is made from brushed aluminium which feels nice and sturdy. There is a subdued PCS logo on the back which is quite subtle, so I don’t mind it too much. The only concern I have about the screen is the middle hinge, however it does seem quite sturdy.
The palm rest and keyboard surround are plastic which has a soft touch finish. It seems good quality and feels nice to the touch. The only downside is it attracts fingerprints and oil from your skin very easily but that’s just me splitting hairs.
The bottom shell of the laptop does detract slightly from the pleasing aesthetic of the device. It is made from a noticeably cheaper plastic than the top shell. It’s not all bad though as the bottom of the shell has a huge amount of ventilation to help cool the components inside. If you are going to open the laptop for upgrades or servicing, I would highly recommend using a proper electronics separation tool as I think it would be very easy to snap the plastic clips holding it together.
The keyboard was a concern for me as previous Tongfang models suffered from the letters rubbing off the keys. My Vyper 17 had this issue, and it was very disappointing. Looking at the keyboard on the Valeon it does seem better quality, although that may just be my wishful thinking. The keyboard does the job perfectly well and the LED backlight is nice and uniform throughout. The only complaint I have is that the numpad does not have a dedicated enter key.
The touchpad is glass and feels great to the touch, unfortunately that’s where the positives end. This touchpad is terrible, it is comically large, and I honestly have no idea why. The touchpad has the functionality to be disabled entirely by double tapping the top left or by just disabling the right half by double tapping the top right. I have the right half disabled when I type as the palm rejection seems non-existent, so I am constantly accidentally clicking or moving the cursor when I type.
It is also excessively sensitive; this results in me constantly accidentally activating the wrong gestures by mistake. For example, if I am scrolling through a webpage or text document with the two-finger swipe method, the laptop constantly thinks I am also clicking the left mouse button, so I end up either clicking and dragging something on the page or highlighting an entire page of text. Even more annoyingly because the touchpad is so big and sensitive quite often when trying to scroll, I won’t realise that the edge of my palm is gently touching the pad. The laptop thinks I am using three fingers and scrolls out to the application selection screen.
To put it bluntly the mousepad is horrific, and I won’t be using it.
Upgradeability and Internals
This was possibly the fiddliest laptop I’ve ever had to open. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t the crypton factor, but it did require some care due to the previously mentioned plastic shell. You also must remove the two led covers which flank either side of the screen hinge. This was no great hardship however they are also just held on by the plastic clips and I am worried that over time once the laptop has had to be opened for servicing a few times they may start to become loose.
The internal upgrade options are standard, you get 2x M.2 slots along with 2x RAM and an M.2 WiFi slot. No soldered RAM here which is a big win. The only complaint I have is when I opened the laptop, I discovered that one of the WiFi antenna either hadn’t been connected to the card or not connected properly so I had to reattach it. Again, not the end of the world but it is the second time I have received a laptop from PCS where I have had to reconnect the antenna.
So now you have the context for how I ended up with a Valeon here is my review.
Aesthetics and materials:
I was pleasantly surprised when the laptop finally arrived as it is far less hideous than the pictures, in fact I really like it.
The laptop isn’t made from the most premium materials but by the same token they do not look or feel cheap or nasty. As this is not the first Tongfang I have owned I understood I was paying for the performance and not the external aesthetic. My last laptop was an ASUS Zephyrus with the same specs as this Valeon however it cost £1500 more. Even with the better build quality it was not worth the extra money.
The Valeon’s lid is made from brushed aluminium which feels nice and sturdy. There is a subdued PCS logo on the back which is quite subtle, so I don’t mind it too much. The only concern I have about the screen is the middle hinge, however it does seem quite sturdy.
The palm rest and keyboard surround are plastic which has a soft touch finish. It seems good quality and feels nice to the touch. The only downside is it attracts fingerprints and oil from your skin very easily but that’s just me splitting hairs.
The bottom shell of the laptop does detract slightly from the pleasing aesthetic of the device. It is made from a noticeably cheaper plastic than the top shell. It’s not all bad though as the bottom of the shell has a huge amount of ventilation to help cool the components inside. If you are going to open the laptop for upgrades or servicing, I would highly recommend using a proper electronics separation tool as I think it would be very easy to snap the plastic clips holding it together.
The keyboard was a concern for me as previous Tongfang models suffered from the letters rubbing off the keys. My Vyper 17 had this issue, and it was very disappointing. Looking at the keyboard on the Valeon it does seem better quality, although that may just be my wishful thinking. The keyboard does the job perfectly well and the LED backlight is nice and uniform throughout. The only complaint I have is that the numpad does not have a dedicated enter key.
The touchpad is glass and feels great to the touch, unfortunately that’s where the positives end. This touchpad is terrible, it is comically large, and I honestly have no idea why. The touchpad has the functionality to be disabled entirely by double tapping the top left or by just disabling the right half by double tapping the top right. I have the right half disabled when I type as the palm rejection seems non-existent, so I am constantly accidentally clicking or moving the cursor when I type.
It is also excessively sensitive; this results in me constantly accidentally activating the wrong gestures by mistake. For example, if I am scrolling through a webpage or text document with the two-finger swipe method, the laptop constantly thinks I am also clicking the left mouse button, so I end up either clicking and dragging something on the page or highlighting an entire page of text. Even more annoyingly because the touchpad is so big and sensitive quite often when trying to scroll, I won’t realise that the edge of my palm is gently touching the pad. The laptop thinks I am using three fingers and scrolls out to the application selection screen.
To put it bluntly the mousepad is horrific, and I won’t be using it.
Upgradeability and Internals
This was possibly the fiddliest laptop I’ve ever had to open. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t the crypton factor, but it did require some care due to the previously mentioned plastic shell. You also must remove the two led covers which flank either side of the screen hinge. This was no great hardship however they are also just held on by the plastic clips and I am worried that over time once the laptop has had to be opened for servicing a few times they may start to become loose.
The internal upgrade options are standard, you get 2x M.2 slots along with 2x RAM and an M.2 WiFi slot. No soldered RAM here which is a big win. The only complaint I have is when I opened the laptop, I discovered that one of the WiFi antenna either hadn’t been connected to the card or not connected properly so I had to reattach it. Again, not the end of the world but it is the second time I have received a laptop from PCS where I have had to reconnect the antenna.
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