Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Clevo W110ERF) Review: Biggest Isn't Always Better Discussion

Overview

Don't be fooled by the 11.6" screen - this "Monster" packs an Intel Core i7-3720QM quad-core processor and Nvidia GT 650M graphics card while staying under 4 pounds and running cool and quiet. Read our review of this pocket powerhouse.

Read the full content of this Article: Eurocom Monster 1.0 (Clevo W110ERF) Review: Biggest Isn't Always Better

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nice review Charles,this is indeed a monster.We are seeing massive performance increase this generation in notebook category thanks to Nvidia Kepler and Intel Ivy bridge.
Its a pity there is no better screen option bcz otherwise it would have been a gem.

 

Produces a gaming laptop.... makes cursor keys as small as possible. *facepalm*

 

It is tough to have decently sized keys on an 11-inch notebook. That said, Clevo probably should consider designing a custom keyboard for this form factor that uses slightly larger keys for the most common gaming keys.

It would look weird, but I bet gamers would appreciate it on something like this that is designed for on-the-go PC gaming.

 

I dont know what to think about the W110ER, it seems it delivers the perfomance excellently but either averages or even fails on the rest. For example the battery life of about 4 hours, the mediocre screen or the build quality.

Id much rather game on my 13" P330 with weaker perfomance and middle details then on a tiny 11.6 inch netbook on which I probably couldnt even tell the difference between medium-to-high details settings because the screen is so tiny (and of bad quality)

Also with the weight of 1,8kg they couldve made a 13" or even 14" notebook out of it, the screen size stands in contrary to the thickness and the weight. My p330 for example weighs 1,7kg while being made out of a metal chassis (bottom is plastic) and sporting a 13" screen.

Many users have also reported high idle temperatures in the owners thread, including HTWingnut, and Load temperatures that go up to 95 deg. or higher.. So cooling doesnt seem that perfect? Maybe someone do a test with prime95 and furmark while checking temperaturesß

 

lol here come the "13-inch laptop in a 11-inch form factor" comparisons like we had with the M11x and the 2010 Sony VAIO Z. The point is that we've never had this much performance in this screen size.

 

Well yes, but why 11.6 inch when it could be 12,5" or even 13,3" ?

Its still a netbook when it comes with that screensize regardless of the perfomance it has

 

There will always be better specs available in larger notebooks because you can fit better parts inside. The 11-inch gaming notebook space is for gamers who want to play modern PC games at "acceptable" detail settings and frame rates but they want the smallest laptop possible.

The Alienware M11x was a MAJOR success for Alienware during the first year it was announced because it was the first notebook in this category, but subsequent sales have shown this is a niche market (people who want to game and are willing to make some sacrifices in exchange for extreme portability). The bean counters at Dell have decided to force Alienware to abandon the M11x because current sales figures suggest that "most" serious PC gamers are willing to sacrifice "a little" and buy a 14-inch or 15-inch gaming notebook for around $1,000 but fewer gamers are willing to spend $1,000 on an 11-inch gaming notebook with a low-res screen and tiny keyboard.

That said, it's interesting that this Monster 1.0/Clevo W110ERF has the almost the SAME technical specs as the new Alienware M14x. The M14x gives you a better screen option, a better keyboard, and more storage options, but it has the same CPU, GPU, and RAM options as this 11-inch notebook.

In my mind, if you are willing to live with a small screen and keyboard while traveling and you have a larger external LCD and keyboard/mouse at home then this actually makes a better choice than the thick and heavy M14x.

 

Well to each his (or her) own. For me 1366x768 @ 11.6" vs 1280x800 @ 12.1" is a massive difference, after using both for more than a year.

I do agree it is interesting that the specs are the same as M14x-R2, but a significantly lower weight (4lbs this laptop vs 6.5lbs M14x). In fact even the screen resolutions are the same if you go with the cheapest M14x screen. I can't say I would consider M14x and bigger laptops truly portable. And I am not quite sure I'd go for M14x given this laptop: it weighs ~60% more than this thing. If you carry a backpack with other stuff except for the laptop, it is quite noticable.

That said, for me the portability = WEIGHT (MASS) and not size. Macbook Pro 17" is actually quite portable in my book, simply because it is very light.

 

Most games use WASD instead of arrow keys anyway.

 

You realize that the AUO B116XW03 panel in the W110ER is actually superior to the LG LP133WH4-TJA1 panel in the P330, right? (same gamut/contrast, but slightly better viewing angles)

So if you're able to live with picture quality the P330 screen then you should have no complaints about the W110ER screen.

 

I wonder if this is just the beginning of putting Ivy Bridge quad-cores into ultraportables such as the Sony Z, Thinkpad X220, and MacBook Airs?

 

The current Macbook Air's can barely handle a 17 watt chip, I highly doubt they will get a 35 watt quad anytime soon.

 

Great review as always.You might wan't to link it to this incredibly detailed user review by HTWingNut
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...10-clevo-w110er-first-look-review.html#hd4000

He goes into great detail and gets into what we all really want to know...game benchmarks, they speak for themselves.

A reseller does offer a matte screen option for this, no others do but at least it's an available option. And to those that complain about screen size give it up, bigger isn't always better for some. Personally I think this would be a incredible secondary laptop to take on the road without sacrificing any performace, you wan't a bigger screen just plug it into a larger monitor or HDTV with a HDMI cable and your good to go. Is it perfect? Nope, but it's plusses far outweigh it's negatives in my eyes.
Only wish was a backlit keyboard then it would be almost perfect.

 

If only they could source the same 11.6" display that the Macbook Air uses. The contrast in that display is far better than any other 11.6" display I've seen.

or better: Make it 12.5" and use the X220's IPS display.

 

I fall into the latter category, I'd likely never buy this laptop. However, it's exciting to see products like this come out, what it says for the 'larger' end of the portable laptop gaming market is that there's no reason we shouldn't be seeing good specs, a good screen and portability in the form factor we want.

 

Are the USB 3.0 ports native, or supplied via a third party chip? That might be an important distinction to some.

 

The keyboard is odd and out of place with the small arrow keys. Compared withe my Asus Eee 1215b, they are pretty much identical size, but the Asus keyboard runs the entire width of the machine. Clevo has a habit of having these smaller keyboard islands.

Owning this laptop, I can say that I would much prefer it to be a 13". It would offer several advantages. For one, potentially better cooling, idle at 60C is just too hot, although it does keep the the rest of the system isolated and cool from the hot components. They could include GDDR5. Not a huge deal breaker, but the M14x version that comes with GT 650m with GDDR5 seems to have a 15% advantage and it increases as the resolution increases.

But one of the biggest pet peeves of this machine is the screen. The 11.6" isn't horrible, but it's average at best, and unfortunately there are no better LVDS 11.6" screens available. At least at 13" you would have options, and options for a nice 1600x900 screen.

That being said, the 11.6" does mange 1080p games quite well if you sacrifice some detail. It blows the snot out of my HP DV6z, like twice the performance. I like it so far. Just wish battery life was better as were the screen options.

Oh, and HM76 supports USB 3.0 natively: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/chipsets/hm76-mobile-chipset-brief.html

 

I know that Ivy Bridge supplies native USB 3.0, but some manufacturers may still opt for a third party chip, like some of the Z77 motherboards reviewed by Anandtech.

Like the ASRock.

 

is there an actual technical reason to care? or is it buying it for the label?

 

Drivers. For me I've always had best success and compatibility with Intel drivers (sans graphics drivers ).

 

Thanks for the comments on the review. I agree with the comments defending the 11.6" screen choice - Clevo didn't produce this as a 12.5" or 13.3" for a reason. Since Alienware is no longer making the M11x, this is the only viable choice for an 11.6" portable gaming notebook. It works nicely IMO. I still can't believe they were able to fit all that power in such a small chassis. This thing is almost identical to a netbook!

FYI I did test the USB 3.0 functionality with my WD Passport USB 3.0 external HDD, it was flawless. Can't say the same about the non-Intel USB 3.0 support in my HP EliteBook, which has been troublesome since day one. It is about time Intel added native chipset support for it. We should see a lot more notebooks coming with USB 3.0 because of that; it was expensive to do before due to the need for a daughter board.

 

I sincerely find this interesting, but too small for me, I wouldnt be able to stare at that screen for a long time, 13'' is perfect for me.

It would make the keyboard better
It would have more possibilities regarding screens, including higher res ones
It would improve cooling
I would buy it.

though I like the w110er, its not for me though

 

Right. But it is what it is. I just hope Clevo considers a 13" form factor though.

Glad NBR took temperatures of the casing. Pretty much < 100F everywhere (38C) when the CPU is running ~ 85-90C in most heavy load scenarios. Very good temperature isolation.

Of course having better control of the fan would be ideal. It's clear they chose noise (or lack of) over idle heat, but it would be nice to have options, like the Fn+1 fan toggle full throttle on the other Clevo models.

I'm a bit surprised by the battery life test too. With my "power saver" test, one web page refreshed every fifteen minutes, and brightness at 30%, I barely managed 4 hours with 5% battery life left. NBR test was 70% brightness, "balanced" power profile, page refresh every 60 seconds and with an i7-3720QM over the i7-3610QM in my machine, and gets 4 hrs 10 mins.

 

Do you have an SSD? We have the Intel 520 series 120GB in the review unit.

 

I considered that after a bit. I do have an SSD, but a WD SiliconEdge Blue. I may throw in my Intel X25-M 120GB in there and see what happens. I also ordered a 256GB Samsung 830 ($240!!! ) that should show some benefit.

 

Nice review, some of the resellers are shipping these with i7-3820qm's 2.7Ghz/3.7Ghz chips installed, same 45W Max TDP. One thing I didn't see in the review was the mention of Clevo locking the CPU from turbo boosting when the GPU is under load. This has been mentioned in the other reviews of the unit. I wonder if its due to the CPU/GPU sharing a common heatsink? I.e. too much thermal for it to dissipate at the same time if under load? Just a thought.

 

That's the idea behind it. Although I don't always see my CPU throttling

 

Has anynody tested one of these with an i5 in it yet? I am curious to see the heat/noise and battery life with an i5. In theory idle power consumption will be similar but I would like to know.

Very tempted to pick one up myself, just wish I lived stateside as it takes so long for tech to reach the UK.

 

What is the temp like when using i7 on a 11" for gaming?

 

See posts from R3d who has an i5-2530m I believe.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...er-np6110-clevo-w110er-first-look-review.html
See my review here:

 

and why couldn't they offer a IPS display screen option for this laptop?