Personal review of Sager NP8170 bought at reflexnotebook.com

Hello!

I've been using and testing my Sager NP8170 for about a month now, and I want to share here my impressions on this machine. First of all, I must say that I am very pleased with this computer and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking in this range of products.

Here's the specs (that'll maybe save some time for some people):

-17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)
-2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.20GHz)
-AMD Radeon HD 6990M w/2GB GDDR5
-8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB
-2 x 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive in RAID 0
-IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
-8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive
-Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module


The reseller and buying experience

It's not always easy for a Canadian customer to buy something like a laptop in the USA. I've looked at many Sager or Clevo resellers in the USA, but I wasn't at ease to buy my laptop in all of those places (not because of customer care or because of the products, it's just a matter of trust and outrageous shipping costs ).

I've then looked at Reflexnotebook.com. I wasn't fully impressed with their website at first (Compared at Malibal's website, which is awesome), but it still does the job to inform you well on the products and on different configurations.
Their real strength is customer care. I sent a (relatively long) email with questions about the notebook and shipping, and I was sent a very complete reply the following morning, answering my every question.
Phone support is also great, these guys are friendly and know very well what they're doing and what they're selling. The after sell support is also great, I had a minor problem with the screen but their solution worked well.
Also, 50 bucks for shipping in Canada, brokerage included and shipped in 2 weeks. Enough said.

Reseller's score: 9/10 because the website deserves a little refreshment ​

Packaging and unboxing

Packaging is important when you buy a notebook. You don't want your investment to arrive in your hands nonfunctional or broken, don't you?
Here's a few pictures of the unboxing process:

The box


The box that was in the box


Interior of the box


The notebook


Overall, the packaging is great. If the box doesn't get smashed with a hammer, rolled on by a car or if you're not the unluckiest person ever, no worries! The notebook itself inside the box is also very well protected with plastic sheets, protecting the cover and the screen.

Packaging score: 10/10​

Discs and stuff

The notebook comes with a standard amount of standard stuff. Standard things, you know?





Here we have drivers for the network card, a DVD suite (which is I haven't tested so far but looks good), drivers for the overall notebook (which are easy as f*ck to install), the user's manual in 5 languages, a microfiber cloth, a DVI adapter and the AC adapter.
The notebook also comes with a neat carrying case that can contain a great amount of stuff along with the notebook.

Only complaint: the AC adapter is VERY short. You're alright with a extension or powerbar, but it's still a problem.

Discs and stuff score: 9/10​

Design of the notebook





The keyboard


The pad


The speakers




The battery


The subwoofer


Sager


The back:
HDMI port
eSATA port
DVI port
AC Adapter input


Right side:
USB 2.0
Sound inputs
DVD reader


Left side
2x USB 3.0
USB 2.0
MiniCard Slot for WLAN module (I think)
3-1 Card reader


The overall design of the notebook is great. If you're all about flashy things, LEDs and all that, let me redirect you to Alienware. The notebook looks professional while being discrete (for a 17" ). It's just nice to look at.

The ports are very well placed for their use (Ex. DVI and HDMI at the back) and the notebook does not lack any very useful port. They're also well spaced in-between them One thing I hate though is the emplacement of the DVD reader. I don't like that it's on the same side of my mouse.

The keyboard is nice, but could have been a little wider considering it leaves some space on both sides. It takes some time to get used to, but it works good and the keys feel and respond great. It is not backlit though, but that's minor IMO.

The status bar (For CAPS LOCK, etc.) at the top right of the keyboard looks well and displays the basic information that any laptop has to. It has a lot of unused space though.

Complaints:
-The DVD reader feels cheap, and I'm always afraid it's gonna fall in pieces when I open it
-The USB ports are VERY hard to insert things in, but it has improved since I received it so no big deal here
-The cover of the laptop is a f**king fingerprint magnet. Seriously, it's as if they made the cover especially for fingerprints.

Overall, it's a well designed and neat-looking laptop with some minor things I would change.

Design score: 8/10​

-----Performance-----

The overall performance of the notebook is simply amazing. Even with 10 tabs opened in Opera on my 17" monitor and Skyrim running on my laptop's screen (I dual monitor at home) while Itunes' playing, NetBeans' opened and I'm having a Skype conversation, everything runs smoothly.

Graphics

First of all, the screen is gorgeous. 1080p resolution + 17" widescreen = this
The angle of view is veeeery good (like you can have some friends gathered around you watching you play Skyrim and they'll all perfectly see what you're doing ). Also, the glossy effect isn't bothering me. It does reflect light, but not enough to be annoying.

The screen


My setup at home


As for the card (Radeon HD 6990M), it performed great in every game I threw at it (not many so far but I'm in final exams...).
You can rely on tests and numbers on this page, I have similar framerates and performances.

Starcraft II Ultra: No problem
Skyrim Ultra: around 40FPS outdoors and/or when there's much action. It overall plays greatly. In dungeons or houses, it's max FPS.
Worms, Oblivion, Terraria... Any other game without great graphics will run without any problem.

I'll definitely post more games as I test them
Keep in mind that all those games ran with default setting in the Catalyst Control Center. I tried Skyrim with CCC maxed out and it suffers graphical lag (like 15 fps outdoors) but eh, it's a notebook.

The only thing: don't let this beast get hot, or else you will suffer great lag. I was amazed to see that even after playing Skyrim at ultra on a table in a room at moderate temperature for about an hour, it didn't even go over 60 degrees (only one screen). With one screen and good ventilation, I sure it won't reach 70 degrees, no matter what I do (Speculation). On the other hand, when I was in my college's computer lab between two computers with my bag and lunchbox right behind the notebook, I had good lag and the card went over 80 degrees (It was pushing REALLY hot air behind). As long as you keep a relatively good ventilation, everything should be fie.

Graphics score: 9/10​

Sound

As for the speakers, I really didn't know what to expect because I never really payed attention to other laptops' sound (and this is also my first laptop). I must say that I'm not impressed with the sound quality, but not disappointed either. The subwoofer does not make any big difference too, and the max volume is not that loud.
If you have a speaker set at home, I recommend plugging it in. If you use a headset, you'll have similar performances than an integrated desktop sound chipset (maybe less).
One thing that sucks big time is the microphone. If you have a microphone on your headset, you're okay with full microphone boost but forget about desktop microphones. I have one that works perfectly on my desktop PC, but on the notebook it just won't record voice at a proper volume, even when screaming in it.

Overall, the soundcard on this notebook is okay, nothing more, and the speakers work good.

Sound score: 6/10​

Wireless network card

It works great and the software is good and easy to use. No problem so far with this card, and my mind is at peace when I play Starcraft II online with this card.
As for the range, I can get full signal everywhere around my college's two buildings. I might test it on my street with my router to determine the real range. To be continued...

Network card score: 10/10​

Temperatures

IC Diamond Thermal Compound is great. Buy it with your notebook if you can (or apply it if it's too late).
Right now it's 10PM here and I've been running 2 screens for web browsing, school work, coding, skype, and a little bit of Skyrim since 11AM:
-CPU: 36 degrees
-Mobo: 38 degrees
-GPU: 58 degrees (two screens Normally it's around 45 degrees)

The key: if you have good ventilation, you're fine. Even better: a notebook cooler (like a stand), but without fans, they would be unnecessary.

Temperatures score: 9/10​

Overall performance score: 8,5/10​

Battery

You're not buying this for battery life
2 hours and a half is my best time so far without gaming.
Starcraft 2 at medium took half the battery in 30min.
Just find a wall socket and everything's fine!

Portability

This notebook is relatively heavy and pretty big, so I recommend a good carrying backpack made for laptops if you're bringing it to school. The carrying case that comes with it it great too, but I just prefer backpacks I got my dad's Dell backpack that can handle the notebook, the adapter, my mouse, 1-2 binders, some documents + random stuff.

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Overall, this notebook rocks my socks. I'm very happy with it so far, and if you're looking for a powerful desktop that fits in your bag, this is what you're looking for. I don't know what else to say, so I'll just let you comment about this review or about if I forgot something, and I'll end this with my overall notebook score:

Overall Sager NP8170 score: 8,7/10​

Cheers!

Buzzzsaw

 

really nice review, I am expecting my p170hm this Friday! cant wait

 

Thanks! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do