Vyper 17 - Thoughts after Two Weeks

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Ambassador Spock

Bronze Level Poster
UPDATE: I have submitted an RMA for this laptop and have ordered a 17.3" Defiance VII as a replacement. See my comment below for details on why: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/forums/threads/vyper-17-thoughts-after-two-weeks.69260/post-482657 )


Hey everyone, I ordered a brand-new Vyper 17 back at the end of April and it arrived on the 13th of May. Now that I've had it for almost two weeks I thought I'd write a quick review.

First of all, overall I am very happy with the purchase. There are a few issues/things I don't like, but none of them are deal-breakers.

Specs: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/vyper-17/SysFpN5RTA/

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The laptop is incredibly light and thin for how powerful it is. Even with the cooling pad I usually set this on, it weighs significantly less than my old ASUS ROG laptop. The performance has been fantastic (though granted I don't really do much super intense gaming besides VR, and I have no been able to test VR on it yet) and the thermals have been great. It definitely gets warm in the middle when I am playing Skyrim on max settings with texture mods, but even then the WASD keys are cool and I haven't seen any thermal throttling.The battery life is also fantastic. I haven't tried much gaming on battery yet, but while watching youtube with something like Factorio on in the background, it still lasts hours.

Issues:

- The camera placement is abysmal. Having the webcam below the screen gives an incredibly unflattering view of my face (mostly my chin!), to the point where I now plug in an external webcam for all my video calls. Not a huge issue, but a little inconvenient.
- The speakers are on the bottom of the machine, facing down. This means that when the laptop is sitting on my cooling pad, the sound is pretty terrible. Even off the cooling pad on a wood surface the sound quality isn't the greatest, but it does get loud enough to hear even in a loud room.
- Lastly, I have two minor issues with build quality that may be unique to my machine. The white lettering on some of the keys has already started rubbing off (this is pretty normal for the WASD keys on a gaming laptop, but I've only had this for two weeks!), and the cord doesn't fit very snug into the power brick, so I keep having to push the plug cord in. Neither issue is a deal-breaker, but both are a little frustrating to deal with on such an expensive machine.

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Final thoughts:

I am very happy with this laptop. The only issues I have with it fall into the "inconvenient" category.
 
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SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Excellent balanced review. I was particularly interested in the power pack on this one, thought they would have managed to slim it down by now.

Ive never understood this camera placement at the bottom!
 
M

maha

Silver Level Poster
The keyboard is also strange, the keypad has a missing column (the one containing end, -, + and enter).
I've seen +, - and end are on the upper line but home, pgup, pgdn and enter are missing :-(
All TongFang chassis have this strange keyboard concept.
 
A

Ambassador Spock

Bronze Level Poster
maha said:
The keyboard is also strange, the keypad has a missing column (the one containing end, -, + and enter).
I've seen +, - and end are on the upper line but home, pgup, pgdn and enter are missing :-(
All TongFang chassis have this strange keyboard concept.
Click to expand...

Yeah, having to press "shift+num3" for pgdn, "shift+num7" for home, etc. is strange. Will take some getting used to for sure. I'm transitioning from having used a US keyboard my whole life to the UK keyboard on this though, so my typing is already a little wonky!

The only key I am really missing is the numpad enter - I do wish they had kept that, as I used it all the time.
 
X

xarcan3x

Member
we have to wait for BIOS update and new version of control panel. Im following the scene on the USA forum. Eluktronics is working on this with tongfang.
 
S

Shanee1

New member
I was wondering if you could clarify something for me and help me to figure out the actual size of the screen and the general dimensions of the laptop?
 
A

Ambassador Spock

Bronze Level Poster
Update: PCS wants me to send the laptop back for both the keyboard issue (the "a" and "w" are also wearing off now) and the loose power brick. I really don't want to send it back for such minor issues though, as who knows how long I'll be without it.... Not sure what I'll end up doing at this point.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Ambassador Spock said:
Update: PCS wants me to send the laptop back for both the keyboard issue (the "a" and "w" are also wearing off now) and the loose power brick. I really don't want to send it back for such minor issues though, as who knows how long I'll be without it.... Not sure what I'll end up doing at this point.
Click to expand...
It won't get better on it's own and if you're unhappy enough after 2 weeks to mention these issues then after 2 years they're going to be extremely annoying. Get them fixed now under warranty. You'll be glad you did. :)
 
B

briggm

Bronze Level Poster
Ambassador Spock said:
Yep, that is exactly what it does.
Click to expand...

Do you know whether there's the option in bios to change the function of that button so it just maxes out the fans instead of cycling through power modes?

Also, there have been conflicting reports about whether the Vyper has the ability in bios to switch between the dGPU, iGPU and Optimus (MUX switch)... if you could confirm this it'd be greatly appreciated!
 
KXDyana

KXDyana

New member
Ambassador Spock said:
Yep, that is exactly what it does.
Click to expand...
Thanks for replying. I am considering purchasing one as well.
A few more questions if you don't mind:
1: Can you open it with one hand? (that is, to unfold it without holding the palm rest?)
2: Is there something like a control center software to let you adjust fan speed, keyboard light etc.?
3: Is the touchpad generally a good one? I ask this because some reviewers reported that the touchpad on early Eluktronics MAX-17 (same chassis) has rather loose bottom left and right corners, and I don't know if this is due to the chassis.
 
A

Ambassador Spock

Bronze Level Poster
briggm said:
Do you know whether there's the option in bios to change the function of that button so it just maxes out the fans instead of cycling through power modes?

Also, there have been conflicting reports about whether the Vyper has the ability in bios to switch between the dGPU, iGPU and Optimus (MUX switch)... if you could confirm this it'd be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Sorry, but messing with stuff in the bios is way beyond my pay grade.
 
A

Ambassador Spock

Bronze Level Poster
KXDyana said:
Thanks for replying. I am considering purchasing one as well.
A few more questions if you don't mind:
1: Can you open it with one hand? (that is, to unfold it without holding the palm rest?)
2: Is there something like a control center software to let you adjust fan speed, keyboard light etc.?
3: Is the touchpad generally a good one? I ask this because some reviewers reported that the touchpad on early Eluktronics MAX-17 (same chassis) has rather loose bottom left and right corners, and I don't know if this is due to the chassis.
Click to expand...

Yes, the lid opens easily with one hand. If anything it is slightly too loose - when I have my external webcam on the top (because the integrated webcam and mic are terrible) if I move the laptop too quickly the weight of the webcam will move the screen back a bit. I'd like to note that this isn't a huge issue - my webcam is a little heavy and without it the screen stays in place perfectly.

Yes, there is a control center, it is called ControlCenterU. I don't really use it much though, as you can switch between fan modes on the keyboard.

I've had no issues at all with the touchpad, but again, I use an external mouse ~90% of the time.
 
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