[Review] Eluktronics/Clevo N850HK1

I've had the Eluktronics/Clevo N850HK1 for a few months now and I've done a short review on it. This was my first Clevo laptop computer and first purchase from Eluktronics. Generally, I like the computer and I think it has a lot of potential, but my pre-sale concerns about doing business with a company I'd never heard of before turned out to be legitimate so my first Clevo laptop will most likely be my last.

You can read the review HERE. I'm not sponsored by anybody and I'm not selling anything.

 

Yo Ronbo!

Sorry to hear about your experience, sounds like Eluktronics oversold the model, didn't give you the details on the cooling, and tried to leave you holding the bag. Perhaps you got a bad salesman, but the after-sales experience sounds pretty poor as well. An out-of-the-box 65C? Hell no. Full Stop.

If I were you, I would take them up on the RMA offer and get a machine from HIDevolution. @Donald@HIDevolution would certainly have given you the lowdown on which Clevo models already have better cooling capacity, and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure everyone at HIDevo would be embarrassed to hear that a customer had to repaste one of their machines right off the bat...

 

Can you adjust the brightness with hotkey? fn + f8 f9? Mine doesn't work at all even on fresh install.

 

So far, all the FN keys on my computer have worked. Contact Eluktronics and get it fixed under warranty.

 

Sorry to hear about that man.

Firstly, you didn't buy a Clevo, you bought an Eluktronics N850HK1
.
Let me explain how this works and why you shouldn't generalize and say Clevo because really, you are not buying a Clevo, you are buying whatever model/machine THAT reseller/system builder is selling you.

So it goes like this right.....

Clevo, the ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) makes the base machine, give it a Clevo model number, and specify what features and capabilities it has (ie, which GPUs it supports, which CPU, SSDs, NVMe, etc.)

Then they sell those barebones system to 10s of system builders worldwide.

Next, the system builder (Elektronics) in your case, installs the components like CPU, RAM, SSDs, Wireless Card, does the thermal paste job, does quality checks on the machine, they might even have their specialized performance BIOS and a myriad of other optimizations/tweaks.

Then they ship it to you. So really, you didn't buy a Clevo, you bought an Eluktronics Machine which in this case, turned out to be sour experience.

So your Eluktronics N850HK1 might have been horrible but the same model like an EVOC N850HK1 might be the best machine you've ever used even they they are very similar. they are built differently!

If you browse around in the forum you will see 100s of other happy users with their Clevo machines. In fact, that's the best brand for enthusiasts who are after every bit of performance and they have other options that look more elegant like the one you bought and the P9xxx and P6xxx series.

Your same laptop, same model, same specs, had you had bought it from another reseller let's say like HIDevolution who's quality control, stress testing, configuration options (in terms of hardware) go above and beyond other resellers, and so is their superb customer service that we all here swear by, your experience might go up from a 0 to a 100! instantly!

I highly suggest you email [email protected] and see what he can offer you and tell him your NBR forum username so you can get your NBR discount as well or better yet, give him a call tomorrow he's a great person to talk to and never tries to oversell people, but you will see when you talk to him that he will try to his best to only get you what you *need* and nothing more to save on costs.

I bought many laptops from HIDevolution in the past and these are the stress tests that they did on my laptop before shipping it out to ensure it doesn't overheat and works 100%:

3Dmark11

Firestrike

Catzilla 4K

Passmark/Performance test

AIDA64 Extreme

HDtunepro (for SSDs/HDDs)

Intel BurnIn test

Heaven benchmark


They also perform online gaming with high end games tests for those with a heavy build and mods.

Also, to give you a clear picture about the difference between your reseller and HIDevolution for example, check their ratings:

HIDevolution.com

Eluktronics.com

As you can see, Eluktronics rating purely sucks! these are real honest reviews from actual buyers. Not some marketing paid fluff.

 

Thank you for the long winded HIDevolution fan boy sales pitch. Perhaps you missed the title of the thread that says ELUKTRONICS laptop review. The computer I have has a sticker on it that says "Clevo Made in China". So it's not a Clevo? If you buy a Ford truck and put an Alpine stereo in it is it an Alpine truck?
I'm glad you like your HIDevolution computer that is not a Clevo, but this thread is about Clevo computers resold by Eluktronics.

 

I looked up the review. I am not very surprised as many manufacturers usually fail with cooling effort especially with new generation Intel mobile processors, and Eluktronics have failed too. I read many postitive comments about Eluktronics on forums and Amazon but it appears they couldn't cope with Intel's HOT mobile Cpus ending with HQ, I bet they would fail with H (like 8750H) series which are way hoooot when under load. Msi, Asus and other companies are failing too.

It is unacceptable for us to be adviced as not to use them under %100 load as many people doing multitasking such as gaming / rendering / AI stuff at the same time which can easily utilize all the cores which would result in %100 CPU usage.

Many reasons are poor repaste and factory overvolted configuration, undervolting abot 125-150 mV would help to cool down even under load with a proper repaste.

It is embrassing in year 2019 to have overheating issues in Intel side. Looking forward to see Ryzen notebooks soon.