Malibal Lotus P150HM (NP8150) Review

Well here it is. My full review for my Malibal Lotus P150HM. Everyone on these forums has been so helpful, I figured I'd take some time to give something back. This is my first in-depth review, so bear with me I leave anything out. Feel free to ask questions if you're curious about anything I left out.

Purpose/Reasons for Buying
I will starting my first year of college in the fall, and therefore needed a laptop. I have been a gamer all my life, but have been primarily using my PlayStation 3 for gaming needs the last few years. Bringing my PlayStation to college was not an option, so I needed a laptop that would fulfill my gaming needs and get me back into PC gaming. I was looking for something that would last throughout my college years, and so the upgradability of Sager/Clevo models was very attractive.
Other than gaming I was looking for something that I could take to class whenever needed and not draw the eyes of everyone in the room (...Alienware). I played with the idea of putting up for a 17-incher, but decided against it based on anecdotal evidence from other college students I know. I am going to be a computer science major and even though I will be doing most of that work on school computers, I like entertaining the idea of being able to handle any programming/heavily threaded applications on my laptop. The NP8150 was the perfect fit.

Making the Purchase
It took some time to pick a reseller, and I know that several people looking to buy a Sager machine have had similar issues. I decided to go with Malibal for several reasons.
1. Price - The configuration I created was best priced through Malibal with the free RAM upgrade they were offering as well as free shipping and the cash discount.
2. Location - I am going to school in California and Malibal appears to have very fast shipping times to California. Even though I live in Chicago if anything should happen to my computer while I am at school, I would not have to deal with long shipping times to get my computer serviced.
3. Terrific Support - The Malibal guys went above and beyond for me. I previously posted about my experience with them in another thread. But I will expand on it here. When originally ordering my laptop, the ATI 6970m was my ideal GPU. It had a great price/performance ratio and was significantly cheaper than the similarly performing NVIDIA 485m. To my horror, Malibal, along with other resellers, removed the 6970 as an option for the NP8150, meaning I was stuck with the 485, and thus way over-budget with the other upgrades I was looking at. I contacted Malibal asking why they took off the 6970 and if they had any more available. They responded quickly, telling me that they did still have some, and would be happy to let me have one. I was very happy both at the speed of their response and the availability of my desired card.
A few days later, NVIDIA released the 580m and the 485 instantly dropped in price, putting it only slightly more expensive than the 6970. I decided that the small price difference was worth the moderate increase in performance. I again contacted Malibal, asking if they could switch my machine back to the 485. They were happy to do so and after I submitted a small payment for the price difference, my final configuration was set.
The stellar customer service of the Malibal sales team blew me away. I imagine trying to make these kinds of deals/last minute changes would be an impossible nightmare with big box retailers *cough* Dell *cough*.
Here are the specs of my laptop:
Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte Display
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.2-3.3GHz
Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 485M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300 Hybrid w/ 4GB NAND Flash
Optical Drive Bay: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium; 64-bit
Wireless: Intel® 6300 Ultimate-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card
Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU
Warranty: 3 Year Ltd. Parts and Labor Warranty with 24/7 USA-Based Support
Total:
$2,104.31

Receiving the Laptop/Unboxing
My laptop shipped on July 7 and I received it July 12. It was very well packed. An outer box opened to reveal an inner box, which contained the plastic sealed computer and complimentary carrying case. The carrying case held the AC adapter and driver/OS/support discs. In hindsight, I should have snapped a picture of the packed computer so you can see how solidly this thing was shipped. It was clear that it was packed with the fullest intention of reaching me in perfect condition. The computer had plastic sheets adhered to the lid, screen, keyboard, and two small pieces on the fingerprint reader and camera. The plastic came off easily and the computer was ready to boot up. Going through the initial setup was a snap and within an hour of being held the box by a UPS guy, I was busy running updates and downloading MSE/Steam/Firefox/iTunes. It was a very exciting experience for me as this is my first laptop and I researched this purchase for a solid two months before pulling the trigger.

Exterior/Design/Aesthetics
There are no two ways about it, this is a good looking computer. The design is sleek and professional. The rubberized finish feels great and is fingerprint-free, although dust is an issue. More on that later. The ports are intelligently placed. I really like how the power plug, along with HDMI, e-SATA, and external monitor ports are on the back. All laptops should follow this design. The computer looks much better in person than seeing pictures online. I was a little skeptical that I was not going to feel great about how it looked, especially after hearing some fuss about the Malibal branding on the lid (Stickers vs "high quality electroform with permanent adhesive...). I can attest that the "MALIBAL" on the lid looks and feels great. It is slightly raised from the rubberized surface and the chrome-like letters really catch the light and make an otherwise totally matte black exterior much more attractive. The speaker grille above the keyboard is well designed over the speaker mesh and adds some subtle flair to the interior of the computer, which is otherwise unadorned outside the shiny THX and HDMI stickers under the left Ctrl key. I was pleasantly surprised with how good this laptop looks.



Keyboard and Touchpad
The laptop uses a chiclet style keyboard, which was a welcome change after using my brother laptop for some school projects. The keyboard has a little different layout than I am used to, but within a few days I had adjusted and had no problems. The keys are quiet when typing, there is little/no flex in the keyboard. It feels solid under your fingers. Some people will complain about the lack of multimedia buttons, but it is not an issue for me as I wouldn't have used them anyway. The function keys work as expected. The numpad has yet to see much use, but I suspect that will change once I start school.
I cannot comment much on the touchpad because I use an external mouse. I have read some people complain about since the touchpad has the same rubberized finish as the rest of the laptop, there is more friction on your fingers and makes using the touchpad less smooth than it should be. The few times I did use the touchpad, I did not think that finish caused much of a problem. The buttons work fine, although I'm not sure I would like to use them all the time. There is some noticeable "click-clack" to the presses that I find kind of annoying. But that is a minor gripe that is meaningless for someone like me who uses a USB mouse. I doubt many gamers will be using the touchpad anyway.



Screen/Speakers
Holy Moly. That is a good looking screen. The full HD 1920x1080 experience is unrivaled in sharpness and clarity. The 95% gamut upgrade provides deep and vibrant colors that really pop off of the screen. The matte option allows me to work in my brightly lit room, right next to a large window that receives a lot of sun, with no visible glare during use. When the screen is powered off, there is some slightly recognizable glare, but nothing compared to a glossy screen. I can comfortable use my laptop outside and as long as I'm not purposely directing the screen right at the sun, there are no problems with glare. Viewing angles are reasonable, allowing for others to comfortable view your screen from the sides at about the same vertical level.
Watching high quality videos and playing games with good graphics really makes this high resolution beauty shine, I highly recommend it.
Like the touchpad, I can only offer minimal comments about the speakers because I use external speakers. The THX TruStudioPro software that was installed gets the most of the speakers and the occasional times I've used my machine without the speakers, the sound is pretty sharp. Obviously it is substantially behind the performance of my AudioEngine 2s', but I feel comfortable using the internal speakers when my speakers aren't available.



Performance
This is obviously the major concern of this well-equipped laptop, and it rises to any challenges thrown at it and asks for more. I just recently benchmarked it with 3DMark06 and scored 19490, which I am pleased with. I'm sure I could boost the score by overclocking, but I don't feel the need to. This rig has more than handled every game I've played so far. Those games include, Company of Heroes, GRID, Metro 2033, Saints Row 2, Titan Quest, Dawn of War II... I played all of these games at maxed settings and had smooth experience. I had to turn down the effects density and a few other minor things in CoH to get totally smooth FPS without any hiccups, but it still looked great. I also usually played Metro at some high, some ultra settings to avoid any hiccups. Although I did spend some time playing totally maxed and the FPS was certainly acceptable the majority of the time.
Overall, the performance of this computer has blown me away. I knew I had invested in a great laptop, but I was not prepared for how good games would look on it. I am very, very satisfied. Clevo/Sager/Malibal have really outdone themselves with this beast. It has the power of a much larger machine. I can't wait the for the first time someone questions its performance based on its appearance and then I blow their system away



Other Notes
I've yet to run a comprehensive test of battery life. I'm trying my best to take good of my battery. Others have noted that it should can get over an hour gaming and up to three while browsing/idled. I will update once I can confirm these results. Battery life is not a large concern of mine. I don't expect to use it much while unplugged, especially for gaming. Battery life is definitely comparable to other machines of this class.
Fan noise while idle is pretty much only noticeable in a very quiet room. Any other ambient noise (fan, air conditioner, conversation, television, music...) will make the fan impossible to hear unless you are trying really hard to pick up on it. I use a USB cooling pad with two fans while gaming and when combined with the revved up fans of the computer, the noise is more distinguishable, but certainly not a bother. The noise of the game will almost always drown out the noise of the fan. I am very pleased with the cooling of this unit.
The laptop is weighty, but not heavy. It has enough weight to it to feel sturdy when you pick it up, but is very easy to carry, especially in a decent backpack (along with the AC adapter and other accessories). It weighs around 7 pounds, making it very easy to tote across campus or through an airport.
Temperatures on this laptop are great. It is well designed and effectively cooled. GPU never goes above 83 degrees, and idles under 40. The CPU idles under 35 and can ramp up to 55 when needed. The laptop remains cool to the touch while gaming, except near the rear exhaust vents, which is what they are designed for. I have naturally sweaty hands which can lead to some discomfort when resting my wrists below the keyboard, but nothing too bad.
The camera seems of decent quality, nothing spectacular. I have yet to skype chat or anything with it, I'm confident that it will function properly without any issues.
The upgraded wireless card is great. I think that the stock card would have performed just fine, but I am really happy with the 6300. I'm picking up wifi from business' across the street and down the block. Speeds are great when browsing and online gaming is quick and responsive.
I really enjoy the integrated fingerprint reader. I know it's a minor thing, but I like swiping in to log into Windows. I also have the ability to open my favorite programs by using different fingers. Currently my right thumb opens steam, my left thumb opens Firefox, my right index opens iTunes, and my left index opens Morrowind (prepping for Skyrim!). It's a nice feature that doesn't add a ton of convenience or productivity, but it doesn't hurt.

Conclusion
I am extremely pleased with this laptop. All of my hard work researching this purchase absolutely paid off. I cannot believe I almost went with AW before stumbling upon the crack team over at Malibal. I highly recommend this laptop for anyone looking for a gaming laptop, especially if 17"+ screens are over budget/unnecessarily bulky. The only minor gripe I have is its tendency to collect visible dust. It shows up pretty easily on the rubberized finish and in the display hinge and on the screen when it is powered off. To be fair, my room is relatively dusty and it's nothing a little canned air can't solve. Malibal has been exceptional throughout this whole process, and while I can't say I look forward to needing their service in the future, I am comfortable that if ever I have a problem with my machine, they will be there to assist me however possible. Buy it and love it, you won't be disappointed.
One final note. I would again like to think the community here at NBR. I would be writing this review of my much-loved Lotus without all of your advice and support.

 

OMG it so beautiful! That MALIBAL name make it look "Expensive", which could be a good or bad thing. And your picture are such high quality.

Rep!

I didn't realize the cover was Silver??? I thought it was all black? That just make it even look better in my opinion.

 

Thanks for the review!

 

I just realized this should be moved to the owner's lounge/reviews subforum. Whoops...

 

I'll ask a mod to move it there.

 

Great review.

Also, I like your style: buy brand new gaming laptop --> Install Morrowind. (one of the greatest games of all time imo)

 

nice review, one thing i can't figure out though, theres a 3.5mm jack that has a red light shining out, but when i put my optical cable the tip is too small. i remember when i bought it there was a clear rubber tip on it, was i supposed to keep that, or is there some sort of adapter?

 

Very Nice and Helpful Review. I was gonna go naked but looks like the Malibal logo is pretty sheek.

Questions Though: I would like to ask why you went with the CPU upgrade from the 2630 to the 2720 which is 160 dollars instead of using the money to go with a full SSD upgrade instead of hybrid drive? I am kind of torn. Also what is the difference between 6230 and the 6300 for wireless cards.

 

ok i have the core i7 2630qm and the 6230, so if we run a comparison for the cpus, and the cards, we can find out!

edit: im downloading 3dmark06 right now.

 

Great review, I think this put me over the top for a Sager Top! I think i'll order from Malibal also xD

 

oh btw the finish is matte and it reflects silver in the light.

edit: i can't get the 3dmark06 to give the results it failed the submission... oh well.

 

I agree with the assessment on the trackpad. I use it exclusively when I take my laptop to work, but I use a usb mouse at home. The trackpad buttons are relatively poor quality and are difficult to click unless you press them right in the center, and the side scrolling and zoom sensing are pretty abysmal. The rough matte finish doesn't bother me too much.

 

Pretty sure you need an adapter for that or an optical cable with one end being a male 3.5mm plug. My desktop soundcard has the same 3.5mm jack, and in order to hook anything up to it, I have to the provided 3.5mm male to Optical female adapter.

 

oh ok that explains it, ill just make one.

 

Yeah I did that after the reading the Skyrim thread in the gaming subforum and seeing some of the guys on there talk about how great Morrowind is reminding me of all the good times. And with heavy mods, it really doesn't look that bad.

I highly recommend sticking with the Malibal logo. I think it really adds to the overall look of the machine. Gives it a bit of a classy touch.

I shied away from a full SSD mostly because of storage space and questionable reliability, even though some people swear by them. The speed of the hybrid drive is more than sufficient for me, for now. I can always upgrade in the future once SSD's come down in price/up in space.
The upgraded processor was probably unnecessary. Several people reminded me that it would not boost my gaming performance, but could be useful with a lot of multitasking or cpu intensive programming. As a computer science student it seemed like an upgrade worth having since I expect this laptop to last me throughout college. I don't regret my decision, but if a larger SSD was available for a reasonable price I would have taken it.
As I understand it, and I could be wrong here, the 6230 has a built-in bluetooth card, while the 6300 does not. The 6300 is supposedly stronger. As I did not expect to use many, if any bluetooth accessories, the boosted strength was a better option.

 

Great review. Really appreciate it especially since I am going crazy trying to decide on a purchase and I have narrowed it down to an 8130 or an 8150. Question, I was looking at ExoiticPC which are the Sagers. Buying this branded as Malibu/Lotus, what bio/driver would be used? Are there any differences or it is all the same. Thanks.

 

Welcome to NBR! They are both the same laptop, different branding and warranties. We bundle 24/7 Telephone support with each purchase of a Sager Notebook and most sellers include additional labor warranties. The Sager will use a Sager branded Clevo bios and the same drivers.

 

You can use the Clevo BIOS with our notebooks, which is more readily available than the Sager-branded one. See: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/416916-clevo-bios-thread.html - also, you can get all of the drivers from our site and/or Clevo's site.

Please let us know if you need anything else.

 

Great review. Thanks for reassuring my decision on getting the 95% gamut matte display.

 

Great review! Really helping me decide on a laptop.

 

Happy to see that I am encouraging more people to pull the trigger on this wonderful laptop. Enjoy

 

I'm definitely considering this laptop as well, good review.

Question: what advantages do the 6230 and 6300 offer, in layman's terms, over the default integrated wireless card? And is it worth it for gaming?

 

It's not too much of a difference:

Stock - 1x1 antennas, 150Mbps, Bluetooth
6230 - 2x2 antennas, 300Mbps, Bluetooth
6300 - 3x3 antennas, 450Mbps, No Bluetooth

Basically, if you have a router that supports the higher speeds, the upgraded cards will take advantage of that. The larger number of antennas will also make your connection stronger at the same range as the lesser cards. The 6300 is the only card WITHOUT bluetooth.

For gaming, you probably won't notice much of a difference except in signal strength at range. The big benefit is for people moving large files around on their local network as the speed boost can be significant.

 

If you are getting ready to buy keep your eye open as the new Bigfoot Killer Wireless Cards should be live on many sites very soon. We are getting our first shipment in the next couple days. (The current version is a 2x2 where the new one is a 3x3)

Killer? Wireless-N 1103

 

Well, as Malibal said, I may not even need to look into the Intel cards if I'm not gonna be moving files around...so would the new Bigfoot cards offer any advantage for the price? I'm just trying to keep costs down.

And since you guys are so nice and answering questions, how much more would it cost to request a GTX 485m instead of the 560m?

 

The 485M as listed is $295. There was another user on here that posted about a shootout that Maximum PC did comparing the 6200 to the Bigfoot Killer 2x2 and won most tests. Since this 3x3 is so new, nobody has reviewed it and most companies are just getting it in stock. I would suspect this card (if it follows it's 2x2 brother) will surpass performance of the 6300.

 

If you're comparing it to the killer cards, they use software for QoS and some other tweaks that the Intel cards don't do by default (you can do it yourself through the router or with software- Killer just bundles it in). That said, there's very little you can do to limit latency on a game connection because it's almost entirely out of your control (You control the hop to your router out to the ISP- but the ISP may have 10 more hops after that across the internet before it reaches the game servers)

 

So the wireless card difference is mostly unoticable for gaming? What about downloading? would the 100mbps card limit my downloading capabilities if my ISP offers 100mbps internet?

 

It's mostly unnoticeable if you're comparing the Intel cards to stock, but not if you throw in the killer cards. They have some software tweaks out of the box to make them a little faster (which you can do with some fiddling with settings for the Intel cards anyway).

Do you mean the 150Mbps stock card? Assuming you found an ISP that even offered speeds that fast, yes it would be a limit. Most real WiFi throughput is about 60-70% of the rated speed due to attenuation at range and overheads in the protocol.

 

An excellent review, with great photo's. + rep

 

Take a picture of the carrying case

 

Here you go. It's not a very high quality bag. But hey, it was free, so I can't complain too much. I doubt I will be using it much, if at all, because I already have a backpack. As you can see there is a detachable shoulder strap. Hope this helps.

 

With the GTX485M, your AC adapter is the one that can handle 180W, correct? If so, how large is it? I keep hearing about how it's quite the brick. Compared to the width of the mouse in one of your photos in your first post, is the brick much wider?

Thanks for the review, by the way. I was always looking forward to configuring my own P150HM/NP8150, and reviews like this help me make better informed decisions.

 

You can get an idea of the size of the power brick in this review:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...7-sager-8150-malibal-lotus-p150hm-review.html

It's ~6.5"x3.5"x2" and 1.5lbs give or take.

 

Oh, another review! For some reason it never occurred to me that I can search for reviews. Thanks!

EDIT: Noticed you supplied the measurements, which were not included in that review. Thank you for that as well!

 

You are correct about the AC adapter. It is rather large, to be sure. It isn't so big that it's a major pain to carry around. I make frequent trips up and down two flights of stairs from my room to my basement with the laptop, mouse, cooling pad, and power brick. No problems so far. Here is a photo comparing it to the mouse and a standard size credit card.

If you have any specific questions about your configuration, feel free to start a new thread if you haven't already. I did as I was preparing to order mine and the people on this forum were extremely helpful.

 

Flickr: meraki1990's Photostream

I have some photos here.

 

Great review!

can you tell me more about the Malibal logo? does it feel cheap? nice? fixed on the cover well?

How would that same logo look if it was under the LCD panel?

 

Thanks for the comparison photo, pretty sure I will have no problems fitting that AC adapter in my backpack.

As for creating a thread, I started one up yesterday. Both Malibal and Xotic PC have chimed in providing some helpful information already.

Ryan took some extremely good photos of the laptop, who also used the credit card for size comparison. The laptop sure gets dusty after a bit of time!

 

It is fixed on very well. I personally like it a lot. Without it I feel like the laptop would look very plain. It really adds some sparkle to the exterior. Then again, it's really a personal preference thing. It's hard to say how it would look elsewhere, I like it where it is.

Yes, dust is probably my biggest gripe with the computer. All in all, I'd say that's a pretty minor issue on an otherwise awesome laptop.

 

looks good...I won't complain since i got no bag lol...

 

Same here!

 

Nice review! i think im getting this one!

 

Go for it! You won't be sorry

 

i am also thinking about buying the np8150 with the 6990m.

only 1600 dollars what a steal

 

I got mine today it was worth it, Stonecoldcrazy's review made me pull the trigger also lol.

 

You have a very good setup! I'm a bit of an old school so I like having an optical drive and love watching blu-ray movies. I also didn't want to deal with any hassle of a SSD for now I stick with my trusty HDD.

 

HaHa thanks, its my first laptop ever and I'm loving it! As for the SSD, the boot times are just amazing it makes my desktop feel so sluggish.

 

Is weird you say that, but my boot up take less than 20 second and much faster than my desktop as well and I have no SSD

 

Awesome review man! I made the purchase before i read this review though, but you mire than confirmed that I will enjoy this thing. And big thanks to the pictures. I can also testify to the MALIBAL sales team. I probably bothered them a bit too much, but they were responsive and professional with their answers.

You're pretty lucky for this being your first college laptop Good lcuk with freshman year also.

My first laptop was a Dell xps m1530 in 2008. Not too shabby but nothing compared to this. I'm excited to get this in the mail