After a long, and I mean LONG debate with myself over what laptop I should purchase, I finally had to decide. I tend to be the person who will look far and wide, through every angle, and pick through each grain of sand to find what will work best for my needs.
I compared numerous notebooks. At the very LEAST, I believe I had a list of 25 different notebooks. My search included pretty much every brand known to earth: HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, Sager, MSI, Lenovo, etc.
I just by chance stumbled upon Sager/Clevo while looking through GPU benchmarks and seeing what notebooks offered which CPU.
After deciding on a Sager/Clevo, I then compared each model through every reseller to find the best bang for my buck. (I really must have inherited this trait from my father. He'll spend months researching watches, knives, or even fishing reels until he knows every specific detail. Once he find out all of that, he will then proceed to purchasing.
Quite honestly, before I begin this write-up, I must say that I am very happy with my choice. The price, at just over $1,000USD shipped is not only a great value, but is an excellent machine as well! I was leery at first, especially during the 9 days I had waited for the notebook to be delivered, but it is definitely a quality product.
SPECIFICATIONS:
-Sager NP6165 / Clevo W150ER
-15.6” FHD (1920x1080) Glossy Display
-nVIDIA GeForce GT 650M w/ 1.0GB GDDR5
-3rd Gen. Intel Ivy Bridge i7-3610QM
-IC Diamond Thermal Paste
-8GB Samsung PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600) @ 11-11-11-28
-Hitachi Travelstar 500GB 7200RPM HDD
-Intel 6235 Advanced N Wi-Fi Adapter + Bluetooth 3.0
-Windows 7 Professional x64 Modified/Stripped of quite a bit of nonsense.
-Official Sager drivers
-6 Cells Battery Pack (62.16Wh)
-2.0MP Web Camera
-Removed Branding
Over the next month of so, I plan on increasing the RAM to 16GB and adding a 128GB SSD for my main drive.
SYSTEM OVERVIEW:
Just like every other Clevo model, the W150ER is plain. There is no flashy aluminum or colorful palm rest. Instead, Clevo leaves us with something simplistic, yet powerful.
Simplicity is something I like. I prefer to have something streamlined and to the point rather than have it sticking out like a sore thumb. In fact, I'd say that most other notebooks I was looking into stick out like a Smart Car on the highway. They were just WAY too much. Instead, Clevo left us with an aesthetically pleasing, yet simple notebook.
The entire notebook feels very sturdy with the exception to two things:
-The keyboard has VERY little flex, however it IS a bit more noticeable near the optical drive. However, if you're putting that much pressure on it, you may be better off with one of those Military-Grade laptops.
-The display feels a little.... flimsy shall I say? It's thin, however it has does seem to bend a tad given the right pressure. The rear of the display also has a little bit of flex, which I feel is a good thing. I'd prefer to have that little cushion of air vs. having it backing right up to the LED display.
The port setup on the notebook is great. Having no ports along the rear makes everything easily accessible.
While boasting an optical drive, USB 2.0, and audio ports along the right side, we also have an eSATA, 9-in-1 Card Reader, HDMI, 2 USB 3.0, RJ-45, VGA port, and the power adapter port along the left side.
The dimensions may tend to worry some people, myself included at first thought, however, it isn't too bad. I find the notebook very portable even with the weight being just over 6 pounds.
The display on this notebook is pretty darn nice. It doesn't get overly bright, nor does it get too dim to read. 1080p in a 15.4" display is incredible! Most importantly, the display is flawless. It had 1 little stuck pixel that fixed itself over the past few days. What I have also found is that the replacement displays aren't too expensive. I always tend to worry when it comes to thin displays just because they're they're that much easier to break. However, finding a replacement LG LP156WF1-TLC1 isn't too difficult.
Speakers.... What's there to say? They're sharp, with no bass. Listening to music on them, I just can't do. I honestly think those free earphones they give you on flights produce a better sound then these speakers. If you choose to get this notebook, be sure to also get a pair of headphones if you don't have any already.
In fact, the only overall design flaw I have with this notebook is the lack of a illuminated keyboard, which would be VERY nice to have. Although, the chicklet keyboard helps alleviate some issues in darkness.
Also, on a silly note: I have to get used to NOT hitting the function key + F4. I've got a habit of doing it by mistake, which leaves me in sleep mode all too much!
Noise & Heat
Until I can officially get everything written up, let me just leave you guys with a few numbers:
Max CPU Temp: 81C @ 1080p
Max Noise: 80dB
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Being my first high-performance notebook, I have definitely became a fan of Sager/Clevo.
Overall, I feel as though the W150ER is worth purchasing. While it may not be as portable as the W110ER, the performance increase of the GDDR5 and the 1080p display is well worth the small difference in price. Needless to say, they're both great machines and I have yet to find any issues with my W150ER.
The notebook doesn't get overly hot, nor does it tend to burn you like my old Thinkpad T60. (Well, maybe not burn but let's just say that an idle T60 was good enough to give me heated blankets throughout the winter... Something I may actually miss now that I think about it.)
There were only a few things that disappointed me with this notebook, yet I think the cost to performance value make up for it.
PROS:
+ Full HD LED Display
+ Factory TWO hard drive bays.
+ Solid construction
+ Port Location & Quantities
NEGATIVES:
+ Speakers
+ Mediocre Touchpad
+ Battery Life
+ Lack of Illuminated Keyboard
NEUTRAL:
+ Control/Function Keys (Used to full-size control key)
-----WILL BE UPDATING THIS MORE THROUGHOUT THE EVENING!!-----
Feel free to chime in with any requests or more detailed info.
I do apologize because I may get distracted with Diablo 3.
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Saving for future use.
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Saving as a just in case.
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Thank you for taking your time to do this write-up. Do you think you'll be able to report on the non-gaming battery life on this laptop? I would like to see if it is significantly worse than on the np9130 since the np6165 uses a 6-cell battery as opposed to an 8-cell.
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Awesome, +rep! Going to be good when you bench stuff
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Waiting to see your Full Review
Of course some benchmarks of the CPU and GPU would be awesome, battery life and toss in WEI, viewing angles of the display, whatever you can think of, LOL. -
I'm concerned about temperatures primarily, thanks to my previous Acer 4820tg being a nightmare in that area.... Test with HT off and on... HT does contribute to heat in a lot of cases, and stutter in some games.. it only helps in benchmarks.
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Would also be interesting if the 150 also disables turbo boost when 650m is on.
Like it happens on the 110. -
650M Disables Turbo Boost in the XMG A502(W150ERQ)
Test Schenker XMG A502 (Clevo W150ER) Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests
Translated:
Since our laptop was struggling with a turbo problem, designed to speed the measurements more complicated than thought. When enabled Intel graphics card, the system behaved quite normally. Under load the CPU speed has been increased significantly: Instead of the normal reach of the 2.3 GHz Core i7-3610QM usually about 3.0 GHz (see pictures). As soon as the Nvidia GPU came into play, the Turbo Boost feature, however, was suddenly disabled. On demand we Schenker confirmed that this is not an isolated case, but the entire pre-production is affected.
The turbo was absent in any case mean that the results of all graphics benchmarks were negatively affected (albeit only slightly). Compared to the M73 One-2O, which also includes a GeForce GT 650M, expecting the XMG A502 close to 10% slower.
Update: We were now told that the Clevo CPU Turbo deliberately disabled to run the Nvidia graphics card with the highest possible clock. Given the benchmark results we believe this decision is not optimal. Schenker is a similar view, and still want to interact with Clevo. -
I updated this thread a bit, added some more/changed things around. Still going about running tests. Diablo 3 is definitely going to hold me back this evening. I also got caught up playing Counterstrike for the first time in ages last night.... FPS was pegged at 100 no matter what was going on. Full AA/AF. Mind you, it's nearly a 13 year old game.
I'm having some issues with the following:
-3DMark 11 : Apparently I stripped something that won't allow me to install .net4. Silly me.
-3DMark Vantage : Getting P Score for different resolutions
-Charts : Forget how to make them Well not quite, Google just won't allow me to show the labels. So I need to find my Office CD and make them through there. -
I was guessing the speakers were gonna suck, why did they put them in the bottom , well it doesn't matter just use Headphones instead . Hope you can benchmark a lot of games, well be here waiting , keep up the great work.
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Can you try this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/660283-you-guys-know-you-can-overclock-lcd.html
very interested to know if this works on the W150ERQ. -
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max noise 80dB....
so its a hockey arena? thats incredibly loud... -
Where did you read this?!?! -
But a hockey arena isn't 80dB... Let's just say with me sitting in front of the laptop about 15-20 inches below my ears on a desk; fan fully engaged, I can still hear my ceiling fan and desktop fans over it. Perhaps that sounds better -
So I'm looking to replace a dead Sager 8662 with another laptop, has anyone had experience with both the 8662 and 6165 to be able to make some comparisons regarding the quality and performance?
Specifically I'm wondering about accessories such as webcam, speakers, optical drive. And do you have temperature readings for the hard drive? And really any other information anyone could offer. -
Max temperature I have seen for the HDD, mind you it's a 7200RPM, is 44 C. -
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Thanks sO much for posting the review. I've been looking for one for a little bit and will probally buy the laptop myself. Where did you buy it at? I was probally going to get it from xoticpc.
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Also, how is the case, does it seem
Sturdy or flimsy ? -
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Getting mine today, I'll try to add some stuff to this thread about it, going to be testing Battlefield BC2 and Diablo 3, Heat and throttle, Afterburner OC 880/1200.
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So how was it able to handle D3?
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Enjoy
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Thanks for answering!
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Runs Diablo 3 maxed out pretty well, but I see stuttering no matter what... vsync helped a lot. I OC'd this thing(650m) to 880/1500 and played BFBC2 for 10 minutes and max CPU core temp was 81C and GPU didn't break 68C..........CPU had no throttle from what I could notice but remained at 2.3ghz the whole time.
I have a "stuck pixel" I believe... first time i have ever had one since my first batch PSP.. it hasn't fixed itself but I will give it until the 30 return deadline.
Edit: apparently this whole time, afterburner wasn't OC'ing the card or at least it made absolutely no difference. -
Looks like I'm SOL with this single stuck pixel.......
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660m stock is 2000mhz and is does not even perform like it, I really think there's a bottleneck here..............look at how well the 7870m performs on notebookcheck. I did not notice a difference with the OC...
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So how's the build quality on this laptop? Could we get some screen shots? Been thinking about buying the 17" model. Thanks
Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk 2) -
I just got one of these. I got it w/o any OS, so I am still at the installation phase.
Initial thoughts:
pros:
- I like the 2 hard drives, I already installed my dead laptop's disk in it and cloned it onto my 750GB 7200 rpm drive. I plan to install an SSD in the 2nd bay in the future.
- nice display, I chose the non-glare option on XoticPC
- not too big, not too heavy
- it comes with a 6-cell battery, but I'm pretty sure they should soon have bigger batteries, since it's all in the back and it has space for expansion. Actually the installed battery is amazingly small and light.
- I like the keyboard
- Opening the bottom to install the disk, etc was a breeze
cons:
- I have one bright pixel, too
- Linux doesn't recognize the Realtek wifi card so far, but I'm not done yet
- the palm rest area heats up more than I like. it may also be because I have no power management running as yet
- no backlit keys
- haven't tried yet, but the speakers surely suck. I wonder if I can make calls on this machine -
What do you think of the durability of the hinges for the display? I have heard that Clevo / Sager models can have issues with the hinges getting weak and cracking, or even outright breaking.
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Since the screen is thinner he hinges aren't extreme sturdy but it doesn't seem like heir going to break or are that flimsy
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Would have been cool if there were more intermediate fan speeds. I have the W170ER which has basically the same cooling system and i find the fan to be unnecessary brutal. It's loud on load. Hope they will do a bios revision.
As for the sound, if you install the THX drivers stuff it's pretty cool. Without it, it's just horrible.
Webcam is pure garbage. -
And, yes, the webcam is terrible. It is high resolution, but has no auto brightness settings. It feels like it's the same webcam I had 10 years ago
On another note, I've been impressed by the battery life. I went for about an hour playing games. That was unthinkable with my old laptop -
Is there definitive results for Heat, Noise, and Battery Life for this notebook? It would be helpful if the review is in english (German one does not translate in Google).
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Thanks for the review! I am quite envious for the new graphics card (NVIDIA finally made the jump to GDDR5 for its Optimus card) but its good to know that CLEVO thought the W1XX chassis was dependable enough to not completely revamp this generation.
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So I'm looking at pictures on the Sager website. Are the speakers actually on the bottom of the laptop?
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Wow that's a nice Internet connection you got there. If I got external speakers would thx affect them? -
Hi there, nice review.
Does anyone know how much difference the disabled turbo actually makes to general running of the unit? It sounds like a big diff to me.
Also, has the turbo been disabled in other Sager/Clevo units, such as the P151EM1, which has the 670M card?
Cheers. -
Oh yes, I would imagine so, slightly better as the THX software has some special equalizers and such (but I'm not totally sure.. it would make sense if it got better ) -
Any answers as to what the temperatures are like on this laptop?
I'm not sure I like how long the heat pipes are for the CPU (on the left).
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3a7s0NQDd1rud513o2_1280.jpg
Also, how's the battery life? -
The heat is pretty nice on this notebook, haven't broken 81C gaming, and thats when the fan kick in some more and take it down to 76-79C.
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I haven't tested it out properly, but with the Optimus, it feels like it will go for 2-3 hours easily.
Update: When I watch non-HD movies, the battery lasts exactly two hours.
Sager NP6165 / Clevo W150ER Review
Discussion in 'Sager/Clevo Reviews & Owners' Lounges' started by Rauch, May 13, 2012.