Impressions/Review/Thoughs on the Sager NP8130 (Clevo P151HM1)

Review of the Sager NP8130 (Clevo P151HM1)

Disclaimer: I am not a reviewer of any kind. This is a impressions/opinions/annoyances/irks/praise/whatever thread. Most of these things are subjective and remember to each their own! I will put some pictures later and some battery times when I can test it.

WOW! Wow. I’m going talk about my thoughts about this laptop and why I chose the reseller I did. I’m sure that many people have submitted benchmarks of the 460m, so there is no point in me putting them. If you would like pictures of the screen/laptop, I can offer you something much better. A link to a video review of the 8130!

Why XoticPc?

Yes, like most, I did shop around for resellers and talked to them. I sent the same question to resellers (mostly called personally) to test their knowledge about the products they sell. Not that I doubted them, or anything. I just was starting out on NBR and hadn’t really seen the work and effort these guys and gals put in before I joined. Anyways, all of them passed with flying colors, of course. To answer the question of “Why Xoticpc?” well, that is because of time zones. Yes, time zones. Xotic is in the central time-zone, where as LPC and PNB were too far west. I like to get as much as possible done in the morning and this made a big difference. I abhor coming back from a day of classes/work and having one more thing to get done before I can relax. Being able to call or live chat them at 10am (my time) is a big convenience. Then there is Brett. Awesome. Great. Fantastic. I am 100% positive that everyone else does it too, but responding to an email on the weekend is true service. He answered all my questions, even the silly ones, with the utmost respect and courtesy. Since this is my first purchase of this nature (as in never seeing it, only taking people’s words on it), Xotic/Brett made my purchase easier. Brett, I apologize for contacting you on Monday’s, but remember that it’s just 4 days away from Friday . In the end, pretty objective reason. Can’t change where you’re located. Xoticpc has definitely earned a repeat customer for my next purchase.

I feel I should point out Donald from Powernotebooks.com. When I spoke to him, it seemed like he truly cared about what my needs were. I told him I was in college and that I needed something to take around campus, if need be. Then something happened I’ve never experienced before. Donald said I should get the ,at the time, yet-to-be released 5160 because he said that it had better battery life and it would better suite my needs as a student. Donald, I will recommend you (and all resellers for that matter) for your considerations.

There is a quote that a reseller said, and I'm paraphrasing, "I want to buy a car, I don't want you to sell me one" or something close to that. This is what I felt throughout this entire 2 month wait of going back and forth between configurations. I chose them, I was not upsold them to make a quick buck. Sager resellers for eva!

Firstly, My Old Laptop

My previous laptop, and first one ever, is/was a HP dv2807nr. It has a 14.1” (which delivers a 15.4” viewing area) screen with 1280 x 800 resolution, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, a Nvidia 7150M GO with 1071MB of shared memory, and a 2.00ghz AMD Turion 64 x2 processor running 32bit Vista. Now, this laptop has given me no grief whatsoever, but at the same time it has not given anything to brag about either. I can surf the web, make documents, download movies/music without too much hassle. The bad part is I can’t watch full screen videos ever, can’t view youtube without going through extra lengths, and I can tell that its gotten a lot slower since I bought it. Netflix cannot be played after 5 minutes due to throttling. Did I mention it can’t play Starcraft 2 at all? That has to be the worst part about it

Specs/Shipping

I purchased a Sager NP8130 (Clevo P151HM1) with a i7 2630QM, Nvidia 460m, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Intel 6300 a/b/g/n, and a stock matte screen. Went into production on 3/3/11, shipped on 3/9/11, received on 3/11/11. I opted for 3-Day shipping and was originally was supposed to get on Monday, 3/14/11, but for some reason I got this on Friday, 3/11/11. Mind you that the Sager shipped from California and I live in Massachusetts, so it's not exactly close. For all you people that have their laptop shipped, there is a chance that it could arrive early . This really paid off since, if it didn't come today, then I would have had to wait over the weekend and that is just adding salt to already big wound due to this recall.

The laptop came in a nice Sager branded box and could easily tell that it went to some tough times to get into my hands . There is another box inside the Sager branded one which contains the laptop itself. It was very neatly kept together, with all the Styrofoam. All the disks were there and nothing was missing. For the laptop itself, it came covered in plastic and taped at all sides. Not a single scratch on it.

The Sager NP8130 (Clevo P151HM1)

Screen Quality/Opinions
Now, I have no other laptop to compare to except my previous ones and the ones in my house that belong to my parents. With that being said, the screen on this laptop is amazing. There is absolutely no glare whatsoever from the lights in my room. My old laptop would be a mirror in some instances and its going to get some getting used to not seeing my face every time I look at the screen . The viewing angles are great in my opinion. I can tilt the screen to a reasonable angle and the colors do not get washed out at all. I don't know why reviewing sites rotate a screen 90o to the right/left or make the screen flat with the keyboard to talk about viewing angles, but in my opinion, a majority of people will staring at their laptops right in front of them with the angle of the screen 60o to 120o relative to the keyboard . For watching a video with two people close to you this screen is perfect.

BRIGHT! This thing is bright with and without being plugged in. I truly do not think that anyone needs a backlit keyboard with this screen (as handy as it might be). I typed some of this review with the lights in the room turned off and I can fully see the keyboard. Granted, I do not have vision problems or anything that could make someone need a backlit keyboard at night, but for the most part I had no difficulty in seeing the buttons.

Oh, and no dead/stuck pixels as far as I can tell. I cycled through some black, white, gray, etc backgrounds and everything checked out fine.

Keyboard/ Trackpad Opinions

This is where the gripes start. It could be because I'm not used to it yet (Hell I've only had it for less than a day), but it seems off to me. It's definitely not something that I'm going to scream about, it just seems weird to me. The chiclet keyboard is new to me so it's something that I have to learn, especially with the spacing in between the individual keys. This whole 3-column number pad is awkward since the right arrow key goes into the number pad. Now, one thing that really got to me, even before I got the laptop was that there was no dedicated Page up/down, Home, End keys on the right side of the laptop. It is integrated with the number pad. It seems odd to me that keys that are used in productivity would get integrated into the number pad. I have to toggle the number function with the home/end/page function (kind of ruins the whole point of a number pad, ya know?). I would have gladly sacrificed the chiclet keyboard if it meant getting a full keyboard.

There is no discernable flex when typing, but there is a sound that comes from each keystroke that I have to get used to.

As Meraki1990 pointed out in his review that the rubberized coating ruins the use of the 8150's trackpad, I have to say the opposite holds true here. The trackpad is flush with the palm rests of the laptop and it completely smooth to swipe your fingers on. The side scrolling is easy to activate and is not too hard to get used to.

Also, the fingerprint reader is pretty accurate. I put in 8/10 fingers and fooled around with it and I have to say, I'm impressed.

Sturdiness of the Chassis

It's a Sager . The laptop feels very sturdy in my hand and has no real "push" to it when you hold it. It's hard to explain with words, but in my opinion, it’s a well built laptop. With that being said, it still is plastic. If you tap the palm rests, there is a distinctive "I'm plastic sound" that comes forth. Nothing to complain about though.

Sound Quality/ Sounds Generated by the Laptop

For laptop speakers, these are pretty darn good. I listened to some shows and watched some youtube and everything was clear (I was only about at 40% volume too). The subwoofer definitely adds something that wasn't there in my old laptop and I like it.

Another little thing that irks me are the fans of this laptop. I come a old HP dv2000 and I'm used to the fans being on all the time. After awhile the fan noise just became a part of using the laptop. I learned to drown it out and lived with it. With this laptop, the fans come on periodically. As in every 45-60sec. This is kind of annoying. It goes from completely quiet in the room, to fans revving up, then getting shut off 10sec later. I know there are ways to keep the fans on all the time, but I think the laptop should make its mind up of whether the fans should be on or off.

Gaming/Temps

For whatever reason SCII is taking forever to download so I can't comment on the few games I play. I did however download a game from Steam called Magicka and that ran like butter. I have been told numerous times that SCII (most games for that matter) will run great on this laptop. Now, this is where I think most people are going to differ from me. I have no intention of playing anything other than SCII and Diablo 3 on this laptop (besides the occasional $5 game deal on steam that renders in 2D). Due to this, I have no real need to overclock or anything of the sort. I'm not a type of person who needs to see the individual strands of hairs and beads of sweat on characters at 1080p with shadows on high. Personally, medium/high is perfect in 99% of situations. This laptop might be overkill for the circumstances, but since I was considering a Macbook Pro, the Sager is a much better option.

Concerning temperatures, this laptop is a champ. The palm rests are very, very, very cool to the touch. I have been monitoring my temps and my max CPU temperatures are 55 C (lows of 49) with GPU temps maxing out at 70ish C (lows of 40ish). Mind you that I don't game for long periods of time so these temps might be a bit skewed to the low end because of that
For simple purposes, such as browsing and document editing, one will have no problem doing this on their lap (it IS a laptop after all ). For monitoring temps I highly recommend getting the CPU monitor gadget and GPU observer. They keep everything in check.



Conclusion

In closing, it’s a fantastic laptop. The first "premium" laptop I have purchased and I have to say that I am not disappointed in the least bit. This a great all-rounder as well as a extreme machine (ok not as extreme as the 485m equipped ones), but for most it will do great. So, get this laptop and stop worrying about the little details! Go on! Stop reading and buy already!!!

 

Great job! Thank you for your first impressions!
_

 

Nice review! I'm also thinking about buying this laptop with the same specs as yours. However, what I would be interested to know is how heavy the ac adapter is (and how portable the laptop is too--do you think it "looks" thick compared to other laptops, etc.?) and whether things look uncomfortable small on your new 1920x1080 screen.

Thanks a lot!

 

Hmm...I wondered why they have different materials for all three models. If what you say about the trackpad is true, then the rubber one on the NP8150 is kinda inferior to the NP8130 / NP8170.

 

Its without a doubt heavier than my old laptop, but i can carry it from the first floor to the second floor, holding everything in one hand, without any real trouble. Although, I recommend that you close the lid, because you really don't want to be playing a balancing game with your brand new laptop

As for the 1080p screen, it really depends on your own vision. I have no problem reading text and stuff. Keep in mind that the size of all websites and the text in them can be changed in less than 5 secs.

 

Great!

I'm glad I got to ask someone who actually had the laptop. I'm also coming from a 14.1" screen laptop (Dell latitude D630), and I hate how I can't see certain spell effects on WoW without dropping to 15fps! Anyways, I will get this laptop for sure now (I was hovering between np5160/np8130 since I was considering bringing the laptop to lectures and stuff for college next year--which would make the np5160 a better candidate w/ longer battery life and laptop being lighter too), but then I thought that would just bring more distraction and after reading your review/responses to the np8130, I have decided on the np8130). Thanks a lot!

 

Glad I could help

 

Good review

Question about the packaging (I know right, who asks about this??), since you said it went through some tough times getting to you. Is there any kind of padding, styrofoam support for the inner box, or just around the laptop?

 

Hahaha, no worries i wrote about it too so its worth bringing up. The box in the box was pure styrofoam around the laptop, around the charger and the CDs/booklets. No damage whatsoever. It was more of a stains on the box. I thought for some reason that Sager-branded box would be in another big box to make sure the sager box would stay clean, but the sager box is the outer most box, with another box (with a handle too) inside it.

 

yeah would be nice to know as well since im shipping it halfway across the world

 

Thanks

So, it's like this?:

Sager box: Cardboard
Inner box: Cardboard
Laptop enclosure: Styrofoam

 

Yes, spot on.

 

thanks for the review..

the comment with the fan noise made me lil bit worried.. honestly I totally forgot to think about that at all...
plus, I guess I'm a bit spoiled from my old laptop (Samsung R70-despina).. no noise whatsoever.. really absolutely nothing .. you could not tell if it was on/off or on heavy load or just idling..

kinda sad, it's gone.....

nonetheless.. I'm still excited to get the 8130 in my hands finally..

 

Hey , Been a long time lurker on this forum.

But I just needed to ask , Does the GTX460 support Optimus like the GT540m?

And hows the Battery when your surfing the web? ( i Know you said youll put times up , but im just curious )

 

The GTX460M can support Optimus, however, in all NP81x0 Clevo-based laptops, it does not support Optimus. The display outputs have been wired straight to the dedicated GTX460M. In order for Optimus to work the display would have had to be wired to the integrated video on the CPU.

Edit: I'm not sure on the battery life, as I don't have one yet.

 

Damn it, Thats the deal breaker for me , Looks like I will have to settle for the 5160

Whats the battery on this beast?

 

3 - 4 hours reportedly.

 

Thanks for the great review! Can't wait to get mine!

 

Ok so battery is atleast 2.5hrs. I was installling (constant use of HDD) and going on youtube. I have to say for a computer like this, I am throughly impressed.

Also, I left the computer on throughout the night to complete downloading SCII and came back the next morning and logged right in with the fingerprint scanner. No Freezes!

 

Hmm so maybe the freezes were due to the flaw in the SB chips, or maybe you just got lucky. guess we'll find out when more people get there laptop.

 

True. But apparently I already have the intel rapid storage technology drivers included (its on the list of programs running since I got it)

 

Those drivers seem to have fixed everyone's problems that I've read. I still don't understand why people think it was due to Sandy Bridge or anything else, I don't think it was some giant conspiracy or anything..

All the sandy bridge recall did was remove the errant transistor from the original chipsets and introduce the new stepping. It didn't do anything else, nor were any other parts affected.

 

Starcraft II and Magicka, although not that graphic intensive as Metro or something else, fun flawlessly.

 

Quick question about the fans, how loud would you estimate they are when they are turning on for the short periods of cooling and is there a difference in noise emmision when under a heavy load?

The reason for my curiosity being that I spend a tremendous amount of time in the library (law student) and don't want to be "that guy." One of the primary reasons that I am going for this particular machine is that I can use it without looking out of place at work and class because of it's more subtle design. I don't intend to do much gaming when I am there but I spend a lot of time on the internet and streaming court cases (as exciting as it sounds).

And thanks for the great review!

 

I know exactly what you mean. There are quiet study floors in my library where even the chime of a computer logging on can turn some heads. In my experiences, these places all have people moving, coughing, turning pages, getting up/down, changing positions in chairs, etc... All that noise will become part of the "white noise" generated by the laptop fans turning on and off. I would say that the fans (only one side of it, either the CPU or GPU fan) are on the lowest possible setting for a bit, then turn off (and on and off)

In all honesty, I've been watching videos for most of the day, and the fans still don't stay on for more than 30sec (unless I play a game) at a time.

 

Good review! But I'm still looking for scores of the 3Dmarks06 and the fps of the
game like crysis. Because I am thinking to buy 8130 or Asus g53sw, they have the same system :2630qm, 460m... Asus is doing well but still not clearly know the game performance about 8130.
Will you test it in the future?

 

3D Mark is about 8800 as per YT reseller videos (driver updates included).

I watched all of them today in anticipation

 

8800 in 3DMark Vantage?

 

Snapped from the Xotic PC review on youtube:

 

Oh thanks! What a good score.

 

Welcome, indeed, i'm excited to get mine.

 

I had one of the earliest NP8130s, never had one single freeze. Running Windows + Ubuntu, gaming, development, browsing, name it ...

 

Day 3 and no freezes. At this point, I have no idea what caused the problem except the drivers.

Also, thanks for uploading the benchmarks

 

Thanks hispeed, great review! I ordered the exact same specs as you did, so I'm excited to get my hands on it. Fortunately, my hearing sucks so I always have the volume loud enough to drown out the fans.

 

A point on the sound. The included THX software is fantastic. There is a feature on it called "Smart Volume" that makes the volume so much louder and clearer than with it turned off. With the laptop volume below 20% and the video volume below 20% I still felt that it was too loud for 1am in the morning (people sleeping in the house). I figure I'm gonna turn it off at night and leave it on during the day.

 

Thats pleasantly reassuring.

 

since I've ordered the laptop without a windows license do I come to enjoy these various software you guys are talking about? Meaning, is there an included CD that contains that stuff?

just curious..

thanks

 

Yes, it comes with a CD with drivers, software and other programs that can be installed into your laptop.

 

Hi,

I'm also curious about the position of the battery--since I don't want to keep the battery in my laptop when I'm using it at home (so I don't need to unplug/plug whenever my battery is full or used up)--and if the battery is located on the left side of the trackpad--that's probably quite inconvenient hehe =D

 

The battery is on the bottom left of the machine, ie. left of the trackpad. You can see it from pics and the video reviews.

 

What Madkid said Left of the trackpad

 

When you said video review, do you mean you're going to put one up or are you referring to the ones already uploaded by XoticPC and PowerNotebooks?

 

I don't see why one would need to remove a battery, or unplug when its charged up. Why not just keep it in like everyone else? =/

 

I read a study that leaving the battery in would wear the battery more than using it everyday and recharging it. I need to find that article. It was from a not so famous website. Lol.

 

Even though the laptop may read at 100% fully charged battery, it could still be using it some how (maybe drawing some poor or constantly checking to see if battery power is used up).
Most laptops are supposed to stop charging the battery once it reaches full but that is not always the case.
Taking out the battery and charging it once or twice a month is probably better then keeping it in the laptop unless you don't care that in 2 years instead of having 3 hours you may get 1 hour of life.

 

Hey all,

About to buy my NP 8130 in a couple of days (probably by Wednesday tomorrow). Got a question for you guys:

I'm about to buy the NZXT Cryo LX so that I can protect my investment, and it sounds like an excellent notebook cooler. The only problem most people are having is: Sometimes the USB 2.0 ports are not powerful enough to run the cooler.

So my questions are:

1) Will the USB 2.0 Ports on the NP 8130 be enough to power up the cooler?

2) And if not, will the USB 3.0 Ports on the NP 8130 do the trick?

Mr. Mysterious

 

From the temps I see people are getting, I don't think you need a notebook cooler.

 

Lol, really?

Mr. Mysterious

 

Yea, I was curious since I don't want my battery to not work as well after 2 years....is there something liek an "empty" battery thing that i can place into the battery slot to keep my laptop in balance when I'm not using the battery?(since it is located on the left side of the trackpad, where my hand will be for pressing the wasd movement keys)

 

I honestly don't need one. I got one a year ago for my old laptop which is why I even have one. The laptop even stays reasonably cool under gaming on ones lap.

As for the video review question, I meant look at XoticPc. They have already done a 22min video/spec/look at the internals of the laptop. Plus, they are a lot more knowledgeable about these things.

As for the battery, I don't know if this matters, but when I go to bed every night, I unplug the charger. I figure 1)help the environment a bit and 2) helps discharge the battery a bit (5-10% depending on when I go to bed)