Kobalt G890 (Clevo X8100) Review

My first ever review but I have been so impressed with this notebook I just had to tell the world about it

I hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it.

Kobalt G890 (Clevo X8100)

This review is written with a standard user in mind. Let me explain that a little further.
I have basically owned and gamed on PC's and consoles for the past 30 years, right back to the days when ping pong was the latest and greatest thing on TV.
I have been through the overclock and tweak every last scrap of performance out of the machine phase myself, kudos to the guys that carry this on and push the machines as far as they will go. These days I find myself wanting to just buy the best piece of hardware I can afford with the funds that I have available and just get it out of the box and use it. So with that in mind all of the benchmarks have been performed on the laptop as it came out of the box. The only adjustment I have made is to install the latest video driver.

Laptop Spec:

Chassis Clevo X8100
CPU Intel Core i7 920XM Quad Core 2.0GHz – 3.2GHz 8MB Cache
Graphics Nvidia GTX285M x2 in SLI 2GB GDDR3
Ram 4GB Corsair DDR3 @ 1333 mhz
HDD 320GB 7200rpm SATA-II with 16MB Cache
OS Windows 7 64bit Home Premium

Chassis:

The chassis is a high gloss predominantly black frame with a silver trim. The lid has a tribal style logo that lights up in a variety of different colours which can automatically change or be selected from a button above the keyboard. Quite what this for is a little beyond me as when the lid is raised and the user is on the laptop they can not see the logo. All it does is scream out loud “I am a pimped up Laptop come and steal me”.
The chassis itself is very sturdy and extremely well built weighing in at 5.6kg It certainly is not light but realistically you don’t purchase an 18.4” laptop and expect a highly portable machine.
My only other criticism would be that it is a finger print magnet due the high gloss and shine of the finish.

In Summary:
It’s Big, It’s Black, It’s Beautiful.

Screen:

The screen is simply stunning at 18.4” in size with LED backlighting and running at a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Colours are vibrant and crisp to look at. The blacks are very solid and deep in colour.
The screen itself is very high gloss and reflective so if you sit near a window all day this may be an area of concern.
The viewing angles are very good despite this being a laptop where the user is predominantly sat directly in front of the screen for the majority of the time.
In Summary:
It’s Big, It’s Bright, It’s Crystal Clear.

Keyboard:

In my opinion by far the weakest component of the laptop, the keyboard itself is offset to the right hand side, which isn’t a major problem but takes a little getting used to.
The keys are well spaced out so there is no issue with hitting 2 keys in error at the same time.
I personally have always been a 2 finger typist mainly due to the fact that I have cut the top of 1 of my fingers off(the D key is the missing finger) however I have been teaching myself to touch type. When I try to touch type on this keyboard I consistently have issues with the space button and find myself back tracking through my text to reinsert the missing spaces. Also the right shift key is smaller than a full sized keyboard and I find that I hit the “?” key instead of shift. That being said if I revert back to my old trusty 2 finger typing method I find the feel of the keyboard is nice and positive with well spaced keys, so I will put down my issues to just a case of getting use to the different layout.
I would like to make an additional comment about the “Gaming Keys” placed on the left hand side of the keyboard. It is because of these that the keyboard is offset to the right hand side of the unit which makes it a bit awkward to use/get used to, and if I was to redesign the setup I would place these above the normal keys and this would allow for the keyboard to be laid out as a normal full sized keyboard or possibly even move the keyboard in its current layout to the left hand side of the unit and move the touchpad up to the right of the keyboard instead of underneath it.

In Summary:
It is well spaced out with a nice positive feel although I am having teething problems with a couple of the keys, mainly space and the right shift key.

Battery Life:

I removed the power supply while writing this review and even though I set the power mode to power saver I got the battery 10% warning after just 1 hour and 5 minutes of use. There are a lot of performance components inside this machine which take considerable power to run.
I personally consider this laptop as more of a portable desktop machine than a mobile computer. Due to the size and weight it does not lend itself to mobility and the battery life follows this trend as expected.

In Summary:
1 hour and 5 minutes sums it up really.

Connectivity and Ports:

The chassis comes with 3 USB2 ports and 1 USB2 port which also doubles up as an ESATA port.
There is a DVI out along with a HDMI output and a very novel HDMI input. I cant comment on the performance or usability of these ports as I dont have the hardware to test them.
There is a cat5 port for those whose wish to connect to an aerial and take advantage of a TV card if they so wish.
Wireless connectivity is provided by an Intel 6300 built in wireless card and bluetooth for the mobile devices. An ethernet port is on the left hand side for the wired LAN connections.

Performance:
The bit you have all been waiting for how fast is the laptop, how well does it play games.

3D Mark 05:
Total Score = 20159
CPU Score = 15575

3D Mark 06:
Total Score = 15925
SM2.0 Score = 6186
HDR/SM3.0 Score = 7939
CPU Score = 4095

3D Mark Vantage:
Total Score = P13017
GPU Score = 10907
CPU Score = 31028

CineBench:
OpenGL = 33.41
CPU Score = 3.85


Crysis:

Real world performance. Let us start with the classic gamers’ benchmark, the game that brings the majority of PCs to their knees. I installed the single player demo and used the benchmark tools to find the applicable scores. Please note that due to the nature of Crysis I have tested this game with Anti Aliasing turned off.

Run1: DX10: 1920x1080: No AA: 32bit test: Very High Quality: Average FPS = 26.255
Run2: DX10: 1920x1080: No AA: 32bit test: High Quality: Average FPS = 46.795
Run3: DX10: 1920x1080: No AA: 32bit test: Medium Quality: Average FPS = 63.795

Dirt 2 Benchmark:

For the racing fan I have tested Dirt 2. One of the first major releases to support DirectX 11 although this feature is not supported on the graphics cards in this laptop; it’s still a fine looking game. This test was performed on the full released version of the game.

Resolution = 1920 x 1080
Anti Aliasing = 8 x MSAA
All Settings at Maximum

Average FPS = 74.5
Minimum FPS = 62.6

Devil May Cry 4 benchmark:

For the hack and slash fan we have Devil May Cry 4. This test was performed on the benchmark program.

Resolution 1920 x 1080
Anti Aliasing = 8 x MSAA
All Settings Maximum

Scene 1 = 132.33
Scene 2 = 92.29
Scene 3 = 136.82
Scene 4 = 101.41

Street Fighter IV:
For the player who loves a good Beat Em Up. This test was performed on the benchmark program.

Resolution 1920 x 1080
Anti Aliasing = 8 x MSAA
All Settings Maximum

Score = 7986
Average FPS = 97.02

Stalker, Call of Pripyat:

For the player who wants to play Role Playing Games. This test was performed on the benchmark program.

Preset = Ultra
Renderer = Enhan, full dyn, lighting (DX10)
Resolution 1920 x 1080

Day = Min – 15.5: Avg – 78.3: Max – 117.2
Night = Min – 35.7: Avg – 71.6: Max – 114.3
Rain = Min – 49.3: Avg – 81.1: Max – 134.3
Sun Shafts = Min – 13.4: Avg – 30.7: Max – 57.8

Resident Evil 5:

For the First Person Shooters amongst us. This test was performed on the benchmark program.

Resolution 1920 x 1080
Anti Aliasing = 8 x MSAA
All Settings Maximum

DirectX 10 Fixed Benchmark Average FPS = 65.4

Purchasing Experience:

I purchased my laptop from Kobalt Computers who are a relatively small company that specialize in building high performance computers and laptops.
Being that they are a small company this can mean that if they go through a busy period the waiting time for laptops and PCs can be delayed.
I placed the order for my unit on the 2nd of March and the unit would have been delivered on the 20th of March. I did actually get my laptop 1 day earlier because Kobalt were kind enough to let me collect the unit in person.
I have emailed into the office and although on occasion they were a little slow to respond I have always found the communication to be accurate and helpful. If speed is the negative aspect of using a small company like Kobalt then personal touch and friendly helpful advice is the counterbalance to offset this effect. This is where Kobalt truly excel as a company and I have found the staff at Kobalt to be an absolute pleasure to deal with, every communication with them has been helpful, informative and friendly.

Conclusions and Final Summary:

All I can say is WOW what a laptop. When spending over £2500 on a laptop you are within your rights to expect something… a little special, something out of the ordinary. This laptop does not fail to deliver or impress.
Almost every aspect is above my expectation although if I had to choose the area that I feel is the weakest and would need improving for the next build then it would be the keyboard, but even this I feel maybe just a case of becoming accustomed to using it. I would also change the flashing icon which is on the back of the screen and use that power to add the option of a backlit keyboard.
There is a lot of talk at the moment about DirectX 11 and how that Nvidia are behind ATI in the race for the latest and greatest mobile card available and while I don’t disagree with many of the points raised about this I can quite honestly say that these GTX285M cards are extremely fast in actual game play due to the excellent driver support from Nvidia. This should definitely be taken into consideration when looking to purchase a new machine considering that the ATI card is first offering of the generation and and is still unproven.

Scores Awarded
Component & Build Quality 9/10
Battery life 6/10
Performance 10/10
Purchase Experience 9/10

OVERALL 9/10

EDIT:: Images can be found HERE

 

Great review!
Love the power of this laptop but it's a little too big for my tastes.
Congrats on the new toy!

 

I can`t argue with any of that.

Positives: Stunning performance, great build quality, excellent cooling, an 18.4 inch screen, the noise levels are very good considering whats inside.

Negatives: Offset keyboard to the right which doesn`t feel natural, strange feel to the space bar which doesn`t feel like the other keys, you have to press firmly to get a space.

The screen is highly reflective, also when the laptop goes into sleep/hibernate mode the screen won`t come back on after, it stays on a solid black screen and the laptop is totally froze. This is probably a driver issue which needs to be resolved, the only way to shut it down is to totally power the machine off at the power ON button which certainly isn`t ideal.

The speakers in standard form are not high end, they are acceptable but you would expect a little more given the cost of these machines.