Mini 870CU review

Recieved my Malibal Satori (Clevo 870CU) last week, so I thought I'd post a little review. It's mostly going to be in comparison with my old laptop, a 17" OCZ whitebook/Alienware M17, which died unexpectedly.

Purchasing experience with Malibal
Since my previous laptop died, I was looking to pick up a replacement quickly. After looking around at Sager modeks, I decided that the 870CU was the model for me. The right price/size/performance combination.

I priced out notebooks on a couple sites, but ended up deciding to go with Malibal. I called on Monday Nov 9 and inquired about whether they had models in stock since I knew it was backordered elsewhere, and when they thought they could ship one because I needed it by the weekend before Thanksgiving because I wanted it while I was traveling. The rep I talked to said they should be able to ship by the end of that week (13th) or early next week (16th or 17th), which would get it here in plenty of time.

I waited until the next Monday (the 16th) and called to inquire about the status of my order (never waiting on hold) and was told that the shipment they got that week was smaller than they expected and I'd have to wait until the week of Thanksgiving for a shipment, which meant that I wouldn't have it by Thanksgiving. Obviously this was disappointing, since I partially based my purchase on the projected shipment dates they gave me. I (politely) let them know that I was pretty unhappy about this and they were apologetic, but there wasn't much they could do.

A couple days later, on Wednesday the 18th, I get an email, and it turns out they managed to pull some strings for me, found me a notebook, configured it, and shipped it out that day! And what's more, they upgrade my shipping from Ground to Next Day Air, for free! I was pretty floored -- I wasn't expecting it, but they didn't want to overpromise and underdeliver, so they went the extra mile. So even though I started out a bit disappointed and feeling like I was somewhat misled, they went above and beyond and absolutely won me over. I'd buy from Malibal again in a heartbeat and couldn't recommend them more.

So, on to the laptop itself:

Specs
i7-820QM, 1.73GHz
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M 1GB GDDR3
4GB RAM
OCZ Vertex 120GB primary drive (added myself)
320GB HD secondary drive (added myself)
8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive

GPU/CPU
Overall performance is excellent. The CPU is a bit faster in practice than my M17 (x9100 @3.06Ghz), and the GPU benchmarks slightly slower but I don't notice in practice (3860x2). The biggest pro is how cool it runs, though! Even under the full load of video compression, I haven't seen any CPU go over 52C as measured by SpeedFan. The GPU topped out at about 55C while playing Dragon Age and MW2.

And, contrary to other reports, it's really quiet for a laptop that performs this well. Not sure if it's just my model or what, but it's WAY quieter than my M17, which I could literally hear upstairs when it was downstairs. The fan on the 870CU is certainly audible and a bit higher pitched, but it's never obtrusive. I can play whatever I want sitting on the couch with my wife and with the TV on I can rarely even hear the fans. It's great.

Keyboard
I would have liked a backlit keyboard for those times I'm working in the mostly-dark, but the keys are crisp with a short throw. They're not totally silent and have a tiny bit of clatter as part of their normal action, but nothing annoying. They have a bit of a rough surface which makes for nice "finger grip".

My one gripe is that the inverted-t cursor keys are jammed right up against the other keys, in between the number pad and the main part of the keyboard, which means the right shift key is short -- the right side of it isn't flush with the right side of enter, which means that I often hit up-arrow rather than shift. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I would have liked to have seen a less cramped layout.

Screen
First reaction: holy crap this screen is BRIGHT. Like, WAY brighter than any other screen I've used. And it doesn't sacrifice contrast to do it. In normal use, sitting in a well-lit room, I actually run with the brightness down 3 notches, which I've never done with any display ever. Full-brightness it is by far the brightest and best-looking display I've ever seen.

Build
The laptop feels very solid and well put together. The finish is largely matte, very lightly textured, which is great for avoiding fingerprints. Everything fits together well, there are no sharp edges or visible seams, and the screen hinge is firm without being too tight. It will be going back and forth to work with me every day, and I have no qualms about it not holding up.

Nitpicks
As much as I love the laptop, I do have a few minor complaints:

- The little hinge door on the back that covers 2xUSB, power, HDMI, and a network connection is annoying. I'd rather it just didn't exist -- it's not like I'm going for looks on the back of the laptop.

- I really would have liked a hardware volume control. Having to Fn+F5/F6 to adjust volume sucks.

- The speakers aren't really useful, which is nothing new on a laptop, but I wish they would have used some of that top real estate for a less cramped keyboard. Four speakers? Basically a waste.

- HD access is a little complicated -- to get at the primary drive you need to remove the bottom panel which is 9 or so screws. Not a huge deal, but harder than previous laptops I've owned.

- The BIOS doesn't let you put the SATA controller in IDE mode. Normally not a big deal, but it means you can't access the drives if you boot to DOS, which I need to to upgrade the firmware on my OCZ Vertex.

- I would have preferred a 1920x1200 screen to 1920x1080. Not a dealbreaker, but I do miss that screen space.

Overall
Really, I couldn't be happier with the notebook and the service I've gotten so far. Given its excellent performance, it's both light and quiet, has a gorgeous screen, and is relatively affordable.

I can run benchmarks and take pictures if people want, but it seems like there are plenty of those out there. If you want me to test anything out, or have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

Great!! Thanks for sharing your input. I'm glad you had a great experience with Malibal. They far exceeded my expectations with support as well, as I had to send my original unit back.

I agree with you, the screen is BRIGHT (at least the 1920x1080 on the 860CU is)! I love it.

 

Which warranty did both of you get?

 

I got the 1-year warranty. I thought about the 2-year but I rarely keep a laptop for more than 1.5-2 years, so I decided against it.

 

Whatever came with it, so I guess 1 year? I'm capable of fixing pretty much anything myself, as long as it's not at the motherboard circuit level. If the motherboard happens to blow after 1 year, I'll just turn it into homeowners insurance (~$500 deductible) and get a new laptop rather than have it fixed.

 

This according to ccarollo, Clevo W870CU is incredible, I am very happy with the notebook. But it would be nice to have some shortcut buttons to the volume among other things, all this is done by pressing Fn +.....
At first I buy the Clevo M570TU but I did problems with the games, it seems that Kingston Hyper X memory go wrong with Windows XP. The notebook was not working as it should have told the dealer that I changed it W870CU Clevo.
After taking the two models I can say that the M570TU was good, but the W870CU is much better in that it makes so much noise the fans, has better screen, the hard drive heats up much less, has better cooling, better design, besides power in a future update graphics and processor.

--- Here I put my settings from my previous M570TU (Price 1974.54 Euros) Purchased on 28 August 2009.

Intel ® Core 2 Duo T9600 (2.80Ghz/6MB/FSB1066/45nm/35w)
4096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066Mhz (2x2GB)
500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
280M nVidia Geforce GTX 1024MB DDR3 PCI Express Video
17.1 "WUXGA (1920x1200) Widescreen Extrabrite
DVD ± R / RW Dual Layer SATA
Skip to Intel 5300AGN Wireless
Integrated Fingerprint
Integrated Bluetooth
SAT 2 years guarantee.

- My new computer W870CU: Value of the replacement equipment is dated from 03 November (1872.24 Euros).

Intel ® Core ™ i7-720QM (45nm, 6MB, 1.6GHz)
4096MB (4GB) DDR3 1066Mhz (2x2GB) Kingston HyperX
500GB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
280M nVidia Geforce GTX 1024MB DDR3 PCI Express Video
17.3 "Full HD LED Display Glare (1920 x 1080)
DVD ± R / RW Double Layer SATA
Skip to Intel 5300AGN Wireless
Integrated Fingerprint
Integrated Bluetooth
SAT 2 years guarantee.
Full insurance for 2 years.

Best of all, I have money left over 102 euros and this had more than enough I've done 2 years insurance against all risks. Although I must admit that I would have preferred the CPU i7-820QM but had none in stock and would not want more.

I recommend very good notebook Clevo W870CU Gamer special and well above the M570TU model as this is very old.

 

Nice mini review. Short, sweet and gets to the point. Maybe add some pictures from a user standpoint and it would be even greater.

 

Can you remove the (useless / stupid) rear cover? IF it didn't cover the power connection it might make sense, but... NO! Also, I read one review where they blasted the build quality -- glad it's not so bad!

Thanks for the review -- I'll do one also once I get mine (backordered

 

I'm planning on it It'd be nice if they made it easy, but I'm not beyond yanking / breaking it off with pliers.

 

Don't you have both a W860CU and this W870CU?