My Malibal Review

My P170EM Configuration
Processor: Intel i7-3610QM
Memory: 2x Crucial 4gb 1600 MHZ
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 680M 4gb GDDR5
Display: Stock Glossy
SSD: Ocz Vertex 120gb (self added)
HDD: 500gb Seagate 7200 RPM
Optical Drive: 500gb Seagate 7200 RPM
Wireless: Killer 1202 Wireless-N
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit)
Thermal Paste: IC7 (CPU and GPU)

Ordering (9/10)
I have always wanted a gaming laptop but never had the money, I would ogle at the Alienware laptops. When I was finally serious about getting a gaming laptop I stumbled upon Clevos, more specifically the P170EM. I spend weeks comparing each brand, seeing which one was cheapest and which one offered me the best parts. I finally settled on Malibal because the pictures on their website looked different than the other P170EM's and it looked cool. Unfortunately those are the pictures of the old model P170HM, that is my reasoning for taking 1 point off. After I realized that Malibal's P170EM would look like the others I then began comparing the different brands again. I still stuck with Malibal because they were the cheapest brand who sold the Killer N Wireless 1202 and also had free Canadian Warranty while the other brands it costs approx $50 more. My order originally had the 7970M but after discovering this forum and reading all the horror stories of the 7970M I spent the extra $300 to get the 680M. Malibal allowed me to pay the difference via Paypal. There was a delay for the 680M but Malibal compensated for it by building my laptop in 2 days instead of the 5-7 days and shipping overnight.


Shipping & Packaging (5/10)
The reason I'm only giving this a five is because the shipping was horrendous, UPS is useless (for more information refer to highlight=UPS+is+useless http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/682049-ups-useless.html?highlight=UPS+is+useless

The packaging on the other hand was great, everything was sealed up and packaged nicely

Appearance (10/10)
As I stated before I was let down a bit about how I was hoping for my laptop to look as it is in the pictures on Malibal but as soon as I opened it up I fell in love with it. This laptop is beautiful, the nice clean black color with the crisp edges and the beautiful backlit keyboard.

Issues
I have had a few issues with this laptop but nothing too serious, my first one is I had some difficulty installing the driver for my 680M but Malibal helped immediately by sending an alternate driver that installed right away. My next issue was there was a problem with the certification with this laptop so it couldn't access the internet with in apps for example Windows Update couldn't check for updates and kept returning in an error. This was fixed by installing a fix directly off of Microsoft's website. My final issue is the keyboard, the tab key doesn't work when I'm typing, it won't indent but it works when I use it with "alt" or "ctrl", also the shift key cuts out when I am gaming but it works perfectly fine when I am typing. Other than those problems all of the keys work and it doesn't miss any letters when I am typing either.

Customer Service & Support (10/10)
Malibal constantly answered my questions right away with in 10 minutes, they were very polite and helpful. If I wanted to change something in my order they did, if I pestered them about the progress of my laptop they let me know how it was doing. They even helped me fix my GPU right away, this company is amazing

CPU (10/10)
This laptop is fast, it never slows down at all. This CPU, even though its the cheapest one you can get, is plenty fast enough for my needs.

GPU (10/10)
I am so glad I switched, it works perfect, I only had the problem with the driver that is all. I haven't tested it out completely yet I've only played Need For Speed The Run and it plays on ultra at 70FPS and the temps never go much higher than 60 degress Celsius. I will test out Battlefield 3 tonight

SSD (10/10)
This is my first SSD and all I can say is.. wow this thing is freaking fast. Windows boots in a matter of seconds. Installing windows onto the SSD took ten minutes, whereas on a regular HDD it takes at least an hour. I haven't had any troubles with this thing.

HDD (10/10)
I came from a 16" Toshiba laptop with a single 200gb HDD, now I have 2 500gb HDD, I have plenty of space now. I use the one for my user files (My music, My Documents, Downloads and etc...) and the other as just storage for the files that were on my Toshiba.

Memory (10/10)
The RAM works great the only problem I had was I checked the RAM to see if it was still seated properly and I accidentally knocked one loose. I realized this when I seen that I only had 4gb of RAM installed and began to freak out that one of my chips were faulty.

Wireless (10/10)
It works, that's all I really can say about it.

Speakers (8/10)
They work fine, I activated THX but the speakers a still a little tinny but I still have to change the settings.

Battery (10/10)
The battery lasts longer than I would have expected from a gaming laptop but I will be rarely away from a plugin so battery life doesn't mean to much to me.

Touchpad (8/10)
The touchpad is pretty good, it was a bit under sensitive but that was easily fixed though synaptic's settings. The only other problem is the scrolling is a bit twitchy but I can probably fix that in the settings too

Screen (10/10)
The first thing I said to my friend when I booted up windows was "Wow, this screen is beautiful." Now I realize that the vast majority of you are matte lovers and are probably asking why the heck didn't I Upgrade my screen. Well here's my answer for you, I love glossy screens, I hardly notice the glare in them. With this screen the glare isn't even really there even in direct sunlight.

Benchmarks



Battlefield 3 benchmarks

2012-08-10 22:36:55 - bf3
Frames: 2290 - Time: 60000ms - Avg: 38.167 - Min: 29 - Max: 50

 

nice review! + rep! I too have had an amazing experience with Malibal!

 

benchmarks added, if there is anything you think I missed or any questions you have feel free to ask. will upload pictures later

Tested with Battlefield 3 benchs added

 

Well this review is about a year old.

I've read many reviews about Malibal that state that over time their customer service has degraded a lot. As a firsthand user, do you feel the same? Have you had any recent interactions with them?

Hope you don't mind me bumping an old thread. I think I've found the perfect soul mate in the Malibal Lotus P150SM, but now I'm reading bad customer experiences.

 

Hey sorry for the late reply, I decided to randomly creep on this forum and seen your post. I have had my Satori for over a year now and I haven't had any troubles with it what so ever, I had to contact Malibal once when I first received my laptop with a driver issue. I received a prompt reply and they helped me solve the problem immediately. The only problem I have with the laptop is the power connector, it has a tenancy to fall out, I look at my laptop now and notice it has fallen out again lol. This is an issue with all sager/clevo laptops with that plug and not specific to Malibal. Sorry for the late reply and I hope I wasn't to late to be of help.

 

Hey, not a problem. To put in my two cents, I tried contacting Malibal to know about any offers and knowing if they can ship without Windows, and I got no reply. I contacted them via the ticketing system since they don't even reveal their email address. I'm from India so couldn't call them over the phone and inquire. Also, their "live" chat is ALWAYS offline.

This experience itself was enough for me to turn away. I ordered a Sager NP8265 instead from XoticPC, which is the same model (Clevo P150SM) except with the GTX 770M. It is slightly more expensive since I wanted the 765M offered on the Malibal model, but then for the extra price I do get a much better GPU and more importantly MUCH better customer service (from my personal experience). I have had a really good time with their customer service, someone or the other is always live on chat (in working hours) and they're polite and don't get irritated with incessant stupid questions (that I threw at them).

I have talked to only Hutsady@xoticPC though, but I can vouch for his promptness / great service.

It's good to know that you've had a good time with Malibal. I guess I just wasn't as lucky (or maybe I was).