EXOTIC PC Experience Sager NP8658-S (Clevo P650-RG) [Ordered 12/2/2015]

I heavily relied on several reviews posted on this forum when I was trying to decide which laptop to buy as well as from whom I should buy.

Now that I purchased one, I thought I would contribute my own review to help inform other potential buyers : )
Since this post is supposed to be about reviewing the reseller, I will try to focus on the reseller and not too much on the laptop.

Summary
Reseller:
XOTIC PC

Order:
Sager NP8658-S (a.k.a Clevo P650-RG) gaming laptop

Payment:
Debit Card

Rush Order:
No

Order Date:
12/2/2015

Delivery Date:
12/24/2015

Order-to-Delivery:
3 weeks and 1 day (22 days, 16 business days)

Notes:

• My laptop arrived undamaged, in-tact, and clean.
  
• My order did NOT include any post-production customization or calibration performed by XOTIC PC and my laptop shipped direct from Sager.
• XOTIC PC's sales department has been responsive and helpful. Wait time on phone (10 min) and response time on chat (2-4 min delays per response) was reasonable to me.
• I am still waiting for my free Bluetooth headset to arrive, but I am not too concerned about it at this time.
• I did consider buying direct from Sager, but I did not find any price difference between Sager and XOTIC PC when ordering the same laptop. Compared to Sager, XOTIC PC offers options that are NOT available through Sager, such as "Remove Sager branding" and "No operating system". Since I prefer a simple business-like discreet design (not a fan of rainbow-colored keyboard and glowing aliens) and I also had a spare Windows 10 license, I chose to order through XOTIC PC rather than ordering direct from Sager.

Laptop Details
Options (Customized)

• [$125.00] 6th Generation Intel Skylake i7-6820HK Overclockable (2.7-3.6GHz, 8MB Cache)
• [$125.00] 256GB Samsung 950Pro NVMe M.2 PCIe SSD
• [$25.00] Intel Dual Band AC 8260 802.11a/ac/b/g/n/Bluetooth M.2 Module
• [$0.00] Remove Sager branding
• (This removes anything that says SAGER but keeps other branding features like ONKYO speaker logo and Intel Core i7 and NVIDIA GEFORCE stickers.)
• [$0.00] Free Wireless Bluetooth Raptor Headset with purchases over $1500

Options (Default)

• [$0.00] No Operating System
• [$0.00] IC Diamond Thermal Compound
• [$0.00] 15.6" 16:9 FHD (1920x1080) IPS Matte Finish LED-Backlit Display with G-SYNC
• [$0.00] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 8GB GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 (Maxwell) with Optimus
• [$0.00] 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory
• [$0.00] 1TB 7200RPM SATA-II HDD
• [$0.00] 30-day No Dead Pixel Warranty
• [$0.00] XOTIC PC 24-hour lifetime U.S. based phone & e-mail support
• [$0.00] XOTIC PC limited labor & 2-year parts warranty (includes shipping both ways for parts warranty repairs)
• [$0.00] Free Shipping (FedEx Ground)

Total

• $2,094.00

Detailed Log
12/02/2015 (Wed) 08:17PM CST (0 day, 0 business day)
Pressed the OK button
After long deliberation, I hit the Ok button on the XOTIC PC website order form.

12/02/2015 (Wed) 08:20PM CST (0 day, 0 business day)
Received E-mail 1 "XOTIC PC: New Order"
Basic order information like billing address and billing amount.

12/03/2015 (Thu) 02:18PM CST (1 day, 1 business day)
Received E-mail 2 "XOTIC PC: Invoice"
Detailed invoice that lists all of the options selected, shipping method, payment details, and billing amount.

12/03/2015 (Thu) 02:20PM CST (1 day, 1 business day)
Received E-mail 3 "XOTIC PC: Order Update"
Notification for Phase 0 [Order Received & Processing]

12/07/2015 (Mon) 01:55PM CST (5 days, 3 business days)
Received E-mail 4 "XOTIC PC: Order Update"
Notification for Phase 1 [Payment Processed & Inventory Gathering]
Estimated shipment date: 7-12 business days from the time of this notification.

12/09/2015 (Wed) 10:00AM CST (7 days, 5 business days)
Called the sales representative regarding Pascal-based laptop
I called the sales department because I just learned about NVIDIA's next generation GPU series called Pascal, and I thought I better cancel this order and wait until Pascal is released.
I was placed in a queue for about 10 minutes when I called the sales department.
The sales representative was very understanding, and he informed me that he has only heard of plans about the desktop version of the next generation NVIDIA card.
He was not sure of when a Pascal-based notebook GPU will be released, but he assured me that XOTIC PC is not aware of any laptop manufactures that are preparing a Pascal-based gaming laptop at this time.
I thanked the representative for his insight and decided against cancelling the order.

12/17/2015 (Thu) 02:51PM CST (15 days, 11 business days)
Chat with sales representative regarding estimated arrival
I wanted to change my shipping address if the unit was going to arrive between 12/24 and 12/31.
Sales representative stated that my order won't be shipping until sometime shortly after the New Year.
I thanked the representative and kept my shipping address unchanged.

12/18/2015 (Fri) 03:35PM CST (16 days, 12 business days)
Received E-mail 5 "XOTIC PC: Order Update"
Notification for Phase 2 [Sager Assembly, Build, Technical Analysis, Stress Testing & QA]
Estimated shipment date: 2-4 business days from the time of this notification.
This positively surprised me since I was just told yesterday that my system won't ship until next year.

12/18/2015 (Fri) 05:19PM PST (16 days, 12 business days)
Shipped from Sager Factory
According to UPS tracking history, this was when the laptop actually shipped. I was not aware of this until I received the tracking ID in my next e-mail.
Since my order did not require any customization at XOTIC PC's facility, the unit shipped direct from Sager's factory.
UPS pick-up scan was from Baldwin Park, CA.

12/21/2015 (Mon) 02:31PM CST (19 days, 13 business days)
Received E-mail 6 "XOTIC PC: Shipment"
Same as E-mail 2 with shipment tracking added.
This really surprised me, but I was fine getting it earlier than estimated.
I also noticed that the carrier was UPS instead of FedEx (which was shown in my original invoice)

12/21/2015 (Mon) 02:35PM CST (19 days, 13 business days)
Received E-mail 7 "XOTIC PC: Update"
Notification for Phase 7 [Packaged & Shipped]

12/24/2015 (Thu) 11:57AM CST (22 days, 16 business days)
Got my laptop in my hand : )
Since I had to leave that day, I used UPS My Choice service to arrange for a pick up from their service center.

Packaging and Laptop Condition

• The package was undamaged and the laptop was in-tact.
• Nothing was missing in the box. The shipping box contained a inner-box with handle. The inner-box contained a laptop, a power brick, a printed copy of an abbreviated manual, and a DVD-ROM containing device drivers and an unabridged manual in PDF. (Not XOTIC PC's fault, but it was interesting how Sager gives us a DVD-ROM full of drivers for a computer that does not have a DVD drive.)
• No external damage and the laptop was free of fingerprints, dust, or lint.
• The rubber leg on the power brick was dusty, but I assume this was because they tested it on a QA bench. Otherwise, the adapter looked brand spanking new with no scratches.
• I also found two small blue rubbery rectangular pieces in a plastic bag. Not sure what these are for.
• I plugged in the laptop and it started up just fine. Since I chose no operating system, the unit displayed "insert disk" message once I turned it on. I just plugged in a Windows 10 USB stick (which I prepared on my own), rebooted the laptop, and voila, I had Windows 10 installed and running in less than half an hour.
• So far, the laptop has been working just fine.

Conclusion

• Very pleased with my new laptop!
• Satisfied with how XOTIC PC handled my order.
• I was positively surprised by how XOTIC PC was able to ship my laptop ahead of schedule during the Christmas season.
• Since Sager is the actual manufacturer of my laptop, XOTIC PC's shipment estimate can be a bit inaccurate, but I think it was reasonable especially given that it was December.
• If you need options like "remove Sager branding" and "no operating system", you should order via XOTIC PC rather than directly from Sager.
• I will be happy to order from XOTIC PC again in the future, and I would recommend XOTIC PC to others looking for a new Sager laptop.

 

Thanks for taking the time to fill out some feedback on your order. I appreciate that, and thanks again for ordering your system with us.

For the headset, that would be shipped out separately from us and not Sager, so that should be on the way soon. If you don't get it, just let me know here or through email, with your order number, and I can check in to that. But it should be coming soon though. The rubbery pieces you mentioned in there would probably be a couple of thermal pads, for putting on SSDs typically.

If you do have any questions in the future, just let me know what I can help with. Glad to hear you are please with your new laptop!

 

Thank you for the detailed review! Please let us know if there's anything that we can do! Hope you keep loving your laptop!

 

That is crazy. You got your laptop with no rush build, ordered after I ordered mine and got it in the mail last week and I still haven't seen mine. That is awesome for you and unfortunate for me. Glad to read someone is having luck with their order this month.

 

That one was built directly by Sager, and is a little bit different than the models that are done from our facility, and also didn't have quite some of the same customizations as yours. We are working on yours and doing what we can to get it to get it to ship as soon as possible.