My lukewarm-at-best experience with HIDEvolution

UPDATE: The HID team have responded and are going to provide a more than satisfactory resolution. Please see this post from @Donald@HIDevolution.

I'm more apt to post reviews of the hardware that I buy, than the retailer I buy it from, unless something about the experience was either great, or just not right. In this case, unfortunately, it's been both. Let me start from the beginning.

I finally decided to order a P650RS-G, and I settled on HIDEvolution because they're explicitly a Prema partner, and they came close enough to the pricing of another Prema partner that I was comfortable placing the order. @Donald@HIDevolution was very helpful in negotiating the pricing with me, then assuring that the order went through smoothly. With custom-built items I'm not picky about delivery date, but this one was on someone else's time table... it had to arrive in Texas by 12/24.

Donald really was excellent throughout the process; he kept an eye on the build team and their (paid to the tune of $50) instructions to rush build, then ensured the shipping process went in such a way that it absolutely would arrive on time. He was working quite hard over the Christmas season - after receiving a voicemail far too late, I called him back at what would have been about 10:30pm their time, expecting to get his voicemail. Instead, to my surprise, he picked up on the first ring!

The package indeed showed up on the morning of 12/24. I can't thank Donald enough for his help during the sales process - he was excellent to work with, and even shipped me a spare 750gb hard drive he had sitting around so I'd have something to back up onto while swapping my 850 Evo from my NP9170 into the new unit, as I'd have to wipe it.

However...

The same absolutely cannot be said for the rest of HIDEvolution. The disappointment started when I powered on my new $1700 device the next day, and found - despite having ordered the 4K screen, which was noted in the Owner's Lounge to be mostly free from light bleed problems - a terrible bleed in the top left of the screen. It was like a yellow spotlight. All that money spent, all that effort put in to get it to me on time... for it to be completely defective on arrival. I genuinely wonder if the HIDEvolution build team even powered on the damn unit. It was that obvious. I'd much sooner have gotten a "hey, there's a problem and we need to fix it, but it might be late, is that okay?" call than to be shipped a defective unit.

Then came the repair process. I was able to get it shipped in by 12/28 (it took a couple days for them to get me the shipping label)... and that's about where the communication stopped. Only once during the entire process did I ever receive an email from someone working on the thing - a one-liner stating " We are currently waiting for a replacement LCD to test on the computer. We will keep you posted when we have more information.". I had to ask them, via their chat, to please give me something to go on. Repeatedly.

What I got when I asked was first a "we have it but it's not started" (several business days after they received it)... Then that they needed the part... then that they had to ship it to "their supplier" (Clevo?).

It took until two days after the thing shipped for me to even get a tracking number notification email. I had already sought it out myself via chat, but that should show you how bad their communication was. By the time I had it in my hands again it was 1/21, three days short of a full month after I got it back.

And it was still defective.

Turns out I swapped one light bleed for another. I started this whole process by telling them to fix it right, and fix it right the first time, not to leave me high and dry swapping units with my reseller 4, 5 times like some unfortunate souls on here. But nope - couldn't even achieve that. Yes, the top-left spotlight was gone... and new bleeds were in, one in the bottom left (fairly small, livable) and one in the bottom right (almost as bad as the top left one, very clearly visible over any dark area, like the Windows 10 taskbar). I have not contacted them again about it, because I don't want to be without my unit for another month - and waste that much more time of their stingy one-year warranty (two years is pretty darn standard with other resellers...) just to get a non-defective starting point.

Let's be clear. I have not had a perfectly-working unit for one single minute since I've had possession.

That's not all, of course. Earlier today, as I was typing away (the unit was slightly tilted to the left) - bam, BSOD. I'm likely to blame Windows 10 for these things... but there was some awfully odd screen corruption as that was going on. After it booted again, no sound devices registered in Windows, as if they had entirely shorted out. It took a full power-off (after about six hours and five reboots) to bring them back. And guess what else?




Hello, defective-ass LED screen halo! (See that bottom-right bleed? That's a darkish grey desktop background and a black Windows taskbar. There's no wallpaper. That's the defect.)

Yes, that's hardware - it was showing up at any point during the boot process, even during POST. Luckily it's lessened considerably over the last hour or so.

Which brings me to my conclusion.

HIDEvolution's promise of superior customer service is a farce. @Donald@HIDevolution, you are an exception to this statement - you went above and beyond, and if the rest of the staff worked like you I'd be impressed, not disappointed as I am. Unfortunately, I can come to no other conclusion with a month-long repair process (it took less than two weeks to be built and show up originally) and radio silence during it. As these display issues keep cropping up, and time keeps ticking away on a way-too-short warranty, I can't help but feel I've been sold a lemon.

I've had better service from Dell. (Yes, those incompetent boobs.)

If someone asked me today whether I'd recommend buying from HID, I'd have to say, "nope". Sorry guys. This sucks.

 

Couple notes here:

Sorry about your experience that's rough. Please note that despite many users not having bad light bleed on the screen doesn't mean it isn't possible. I am surprised however, that it happened to you twice...

What is HID's chat? They have like a live chat? Do you need to be logged in to see it or something?

Also please note that alarming Halo of light around the display is completely normal and quite temporary. Both my friend and my own unit have had it happen. Best we can tell it's from the panel overheating as it usually only happens if the laptop is on but the display is closed or the display is off but screen still powered. ( @Meaker@Sager that's a good photo of it. Any new info on the cause?) You should be able to watch it fade fairly quickly and while fairly weird and annoying, I've found by the time I get a game going or something it's faded off. It's not normal. I've probably had it happen two or three times after extensive use for 5 months. Though taking an hour to fade is a little long, I think it was around that long the first time it happened (and I freaked out too).

Good luck, hopefully Donald or @Ted@HIDevolution see this and get you sorted out.

Can I ask about how you ordered the device? Did you install Windows or HID? Seems like you may have some driver issues.

Edit: as a quick fix, you can pop open the bezel where the lightbleed is on the inside. It doesn't actually like pop out the panel or anything just do the one on the bottom right where the backlight bleed is. That should relieve some of the pressure on the display. I think there are even materials you can stick under it to permanently relieve the pressure.

And @Donald@HIDevolution is always ridiculous. His response time at 2 in the morning is faster than Razer, Dell, or Asus has ever been to anyone ever.

 

That is indeed shocking... I would personally ask for a refund... You have a lemon and even if they fix it now, months down the road you might have more issues.. Not worth the risk IMO...

 

I have also seen that halo effect and it always dissipates quickly.

First time I saw it I freaked out.

I've also owned this unit for about 4 months. I got it with CLLU from HID - and my temos are quite a lot lower than others who have the same unit from other resellers.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

Not that I know of. There's a "tab" on the left side of the page that appears on at least some pages of the site; the easiest way to get it to show up is to click over to the Customer Service page.

That photo was from when the display was off and the unit was on but open. I had it lid-closed asleep overnight, and this time I got the reverse (WTF) of the effect:



I could even see the thing flickering. It's already begun to dissipate, but for this to be considered "normal" is... disappointing. Clevo's quality has really gone down it seems. At least this isn't confined to my unit.

I added a 960 Evo and some extra RAM (carefully matched) after I got the "repaired" unit back. I installed Windows 10 myself; I'm an IT professional by career, and I've got the drivers sorted. The sound devices universally disappearing was a one-time thing; there weren't any configuration changes of any type before or after the BSOD; luckily, I haven't seen another, and it hasn't disappeared again. I'd be happy to list the versions of all the major drivers I'm using, but that's for another thread. Overall - outside that bad BSOD with screen corruption - the system has been plenty stable, more than I expected Windows 10 to be. I chalk that up to the very extensive tweaking I did post-install (largely thanks to Education, like Enterprise, having much better telemetry/adware/etc. controls vs. Pro) and the rest of the hardware being solid.

I'm not sure I'm comfortable pulling apart the display assembly, particularly in light of this thread. I'm not chancing the warranty I have left.

Seems so. Thanks again Donald.

I've been considering it, but what else am I going to get? I'm a bit between a rock and a hard place - I don't expect the P650HS-G to be any better in terms of display issues (correct me if I'm wrong), and I can't buy a unit from another reseller (other than Eurocom) and get Prema's BIOS/vBIOS. ( @Meaker@Sager, you guys really need to consider allowing your resellers to offer Prema's mods stock...) Very little else matches my criteria specs-wise (4K display option, 1070, <=1.1" thick, etc).

I still can't believe this is "normal". Thanks Clevo (and Samsung? ..nah, blaming Clevo...)

 

Interesting that you're getting it so much. I don't mean you need to pull apart the display assembly btw.

You just pull on the tabs in the area I highlighted here:


The display bezel stays in place, you don't pull anything else apart. I would advise turning the machine off when you aren't using it. It should only take around 10 seconds to boot vs like 3 waking from sleep. Should stop the halo effect from happening.

Besides having crap luck on the backlight bleed, it may just be that this model isn't for you if you always leave the thing on all the time with the lid closed. That's pretty much the only conditions I've ever had it happen in. Though it is weird it's happening to you so often.

Also note that LPC-Digital apparently does offer the Prema bios. XoticPC is also listed. I don't think it will stop your issues though.

 

I'll consider it, and give the service manual another look.

It's kind of completely absurd that any notebook in 2017 should have issues being left on either open with the display off or closed and asleep. This is why Apple users laugh at us.

But again, what else is there? Just like when I was originally searching, I see no viable competitors. Asus still doesn't offer a 4K option, last I checked.

Maybe something has changed in the month and a half since I ordered... XPC at the time were only offering it on their (briefly offered) own-brand Clevos, not the Sager-built Clevos they usually sell. I don't know that a unit from another reseller would solve my issues, but I do know that if I got my money back, I could get an equivalent HS-G (and benefit from the slight Kaby Lake performance boost), and end up with either a longer warranty, faster two-way shipping, or both.

Really, if I could get my display issues solved properly, once and for all, and an extension of my warranty to make up for the time I ate because of initial defects (plus the time to fix it this time around), I'd be happy - as long as the repairs could be done in a timely manner and with some level of professionalism in communicating status.

 

HID is usually pretty accomodating. Ask Donald about it or something. I'm not sure if all the 4K users have the halo issue, but it really hasn't happened to me enough to make me notice, last time was in like mid December for like 10 minutes. @Phoenix always leaves a note saying make sure there is no backlight bleed on his orders and it's worked so far for him, but he's ordering different panels.

Apple users can laugh all they want lol. They're the ones paying way more for way less powerful hardware. If you want to take that route consider the Aorus X5 (though hardware is the same).

 

I tried on my repair order... it fell on deaf ears. I said:

So much for that.

I completely agree, with one exception: basic functions work. I think the same can be said for most every other notebook brand right now, too - heck, even other models. My last Clevo did not ever have anything like this. The display was the least of my worries. I did look at the Aorus when I was shopping, but it's hard to justify an extra $500 for the same hardware. If I could, I would have... the ultra-thinness they achieve is neat.

 

1) Would you be interested to pay more for a higher end unit that has a 4K Screen, GTX 1080, and a desktop class Kaby Lake CPU? If yes, then see this, it has an amazing MSI keyboard. It's basically an MSI White Label laptop built by HIDevolution:

EVOC 16L-G-1080 15.6" Custom Built Gaming Laptop w/ nVIDIA GTX 1080

2) I know what you experienced is frustrating, I'd feel the same if I were you, but from my experience I've always received laptops with no to little backlight bleeding that isn't noticeable

I am sure @Donald@HIDevolution will sort you out ASAP, just hang in there.

Before posting this, I researched for a while for other options to suggest but couldn't find one to fit your requirements perfectly with a 4K screen / 107o GTX, only found the higher end EVOC 16L-G-1080 so it's best to have the issue sorted rather than trying with another laptop and who knows whether or not it would have the backlight bleed or not.

I am sure this time they will do a more rigorous test before shipping it out as this is not the norm

Good luck

 

Unfortunately I don't think so - I've already spent enough adding RAM and this SSD (it alone is $480). Cost aside, that unit looks to be a lot thicker and heavier than the P650 series, and thinner/lighter/better battery life was something I was really aiming for this generation. That's why I'm stuck so completely where I am. The alternatives at the time were pricy MSIs with overheating problems, Asus units with no 4K option (but otherwise solid - the GL502 series does seem to be really nice), and the eyewatteringly expensive Aorus X5 ($2400, or an extra $800, for the same hardware just to shave off .3"? nopenopenope)

Thanks for your time. I'm a bit miffed that the HS-G series came out... well, right as mine was sitting in repair hell. If I had my way I'd have one of those as a replacement... but missing out on Kaby Lake is really nobody's fault but mine, so I can't expect that.

EDIT: ...and it turns out the HS-G is $55 cheaper to boot. With the latest gen CPU and a better (slightly - 8265 vs. 8260) wireless card. I could tack on CLLU and still save money. That's aggravating.

 

I understand and had a feeling that my suggestion wasn't the best but I thought I'd just throw it in.

Don't let this hurdle stop you from getting what you want. You WILL get the same laptop and perfect as you wish.

Sometimes, it's not always rainbows and butterflies. I also just ordered an MSI GT73VR Titan Pro with a 120hz /5ms screen that was supposed to have GSYNC, when I receive it, it seemed due to a BIOS issue it wasn't and there was no BIOS update at the time so they sent me a FedEx guy to my place to collect the system and now my replacement one is coming soon. Was I annoyed? sure, noone wants to be without his system but it ain't the end of the world, I just borrowed my wife's Dell Vostro and I am typing from it as we speak until the replacement comes. It's just a laptop man.

This wasn't even HIDevolution's fault here as even when I called MSI they told me "where do you see on out site that your model has a GSYNC screen?" Fact is, they never mentioned it was a GSYNC screen but HIDevolution worked with me and through their excellent contacts with vendors, they had a new system ready and luckily the replacement system did come with the latest BIOS that enables GSYNC.

Things like this may happen once in a blue moon, but I've had nothing but excellent service in all my 3 previous laptops purchased from them and even now I was happy how everything was handled. Yes, like you I wasn't given anything like hourly updates or whatnot and I certainly didn't expect that as I know they are building 10s of other systems at the same time, all I wanted was to get the new laptop to be shipped ASAP and it was.

 

I know there can be lapses with any vendor. MSI in particular I've almost permanently sworn off, after they mishandled my primary system so badly, three times, that the only possible resolve (almost four months in) was to demand a brand new replacement from the new-model-equivalent series. It was that bad. I'm not suggesting HID has gotten to that level... nor do I expect hourly updates, just a quick note when something changes without having to seek it out (and waste @Zoltan@HIDevolution's time), and better turnaround time than a month.

I'm sure at the end of this process I will see a resolve - and yes, it is just a laptop. It just happens to seem currently like I'm stuck with a lemon - see my edit above. I've ended up with a still-defective end-of-run unit for which I paid non-clearance prices ( which isn't to say they didn't work with me on price - they did and I appreciate that greatly - but that was off of full note, when the new model was on the doorstep), when the current model is a not-insignificant amount cheaper for better performance in the same chassis with the same display.

EDIT: Another halo after about 11 hours of sleep... The photo doesn't do it justice this time, as it was much brighter and thicker when it first powered on. This doesn't look like heat - if anything, it's a lack thereof. What's more curious is that this only started a few days after I started using this unit in earnest. The first few days it wasn't ever there.

 

Definintely defective, it shouldn't be happening so often, so brightly, and for so long.

 

Having seen this thread I became aware of this issue and have reached out to @k0nane.

I try my best to keep my customers informed that if our Support team disappoints in any way, they should contact me directly by email or phone. In this case we should have built @k0nane a new EVOC P650RS-G as soon as we became aware that we would have to wait for Clevo to provide a new 4K screen for his unit. This is our policy going forward.

We will be bringing his EVOC P650RS-G back, and replacing it with a new EVOC P650HS-G. We will do our best to provide a 4K IPS with the least amount of light bleed possible.

I have also suggested that one should never close the lid on a laptop while it is on, or in sleep mode, because it has to breath through the keyboard. When closing the lid, it is always best to have it either off, or in Hibernate.

We do our best to provide the best customer service and warranty support in the industry...but we are human and do fall short on occasion, so if anyone has any issues with our Support team not providing the satisfaction you reasonably expect, please report the issues to me by phone or email so that I can find the best resolution available to you.

I am hopeful that we will see 'sucks' change to "ROCKS!"
.

 

I spoke to Donald on the phone not too long before this post. I appreciate their quick action on developing new policy, and even moreso their willingness to provide me with an HS-G to replace my RS-G. As I noted before, regardless of any price difference and how I may have felt about it, missing that generation was entirely my fault. Donald and the HID team are going above and beyond in getting me the upgrade - on top of that, they agreed to tack on the CLU upgrade, and drop my outside-purchased RAM and SSD in as they're building the new unit. It would be well within their rights to tell me to deal with aftermarket upgrades myself - but that's not what happened, and that's quite nice.

I really think we will. Thank you.

 

Nice K0nane! I hope you will get an awesome laptop in the end. It's awesome to see how @Donald@HIDevolution take care of their customers after sale.

 

FWIW I have not seen this in a long time.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

It means a lot to me when a company acknowledges their failure, changes internal policy to prevent a recurrence, and makes it right with the customer. I'm not due for a new laptop just yet but when the time comes, I'm going to remember this thread. @Donald@HIDevolution

 

I can say the same, which is why I'll be updating this thread with photos of my awesome new HS-G as soon as I get it.

There were some minor mishaps in the process, but there's no need to go into details on those. What's currently going on is that the fine HS-G is stuck in FedEx Ground hell. This isn't HID's fault.

------------------------

But oh, god. FedEx, what are you doing. We're now on the second leg of shipment where they deliberately, knowingly hold the package for three days at a hub less than 90 miles from the final destination hub.

Here's a package that was inbound to me:


"Carrolton, GA" here is just Ellenwood. This package just milled around the Ellenwood facility for a grand total of 53 hours before being marked as departing. The Midland hub is exactly 81.9mi from the Ellenwood hub, a leisurely jaunt down I-85S and a couple of backroads. There's little excuse.

Here's where we are now:

As of this post, the package has been sitting around in Rialto for 64 hours as of this post. The Rialto hub is a mere 39 miles away from HID's office... and 33.4mi from HID's local FedEx hub in Anaheim.

I'm far from unique in experiencing this... a quick search of Twitter shows this happening everywhere, to many different people. I get that Ground is a discount service, but this is sub-USPS quality. In my experience, UPS would never do this except at the busiest of times. This isn't the busiest of times... this is FedEx choosing to be slow. Maddening.

------------------------

Again: the above is not HID's fault. In my opinion they deserve a refund of shipping fees from FedEx for these pathetic performances.

 

I had the same issue with FedEx where my laptop was stuck in customs for 2 days after customs had issued a clearance. they suck compared to DHL which is way faster

 

@k0nane

 

How'd you get access to FXG's surveillance cameras?