Sager NP8130 User Review

Sager NP8130
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Greetings, and welcome to the Sager NP8130 short user review.

In this review, I will be going through the functionality of the laptop under heavy usage.

Previously Owned Laptops:
GX740; G53JW; G73JW-3DE.

Here is a breakdown:

Main Review​

Screen 5/5:
The glorious 1080 matte display will give the user stunning visuals. Whether it’s school, work, or laying in bed to watch a movie, the quality is superb. Reflection has not been an issue at all and I’ve used the laptop everywhere imaginable thus far. Compared to glossy, I blink alot less after hours of usage. Matte is definitely much better on my eyes.

Keyboard 5/5:
Comparing keyboards to my previous laptops mentioned above, the Sager wins hands down. Typing is very nice, easy and smooth and I haven’t experienced any issues.

If we take a look at the G73 series, it was plagued with missing keystrokes. Some users could fix it with BIOS updates and driver updates, however not all users were fortunate and some were forced to endure this nonsense.

As for the G-Series in general (53/73) if you type extremely fast, the keys surrounding the key you just used would latch on to your finger since they were elevated. This became quite annoying.

Touchpad 2/5:
The touchpad is below average and feels quite cheap. I would compare the touchpad to laptops half the Sager’s price. Although the cursor and button response were satisfactory, it left something to be desired.

Battery 3.5/5:
The ideal battery life would of been almost 5 hours for long days at school. Many schools have a very limited number of power sockets, so this is where the laptop lacks. I was able to achieve a tad bit over 3 hours (3h09 to be exact on min settings; WIFI; 1 tab), which is decent.

Hard Drive 3/5:
Hard drive was average. I have the 500GB 7200RPM, which met my needs. Had absolutely no issues with reading and writing. I will remain neutral in this category.

Vents 4/5:
The ventilation system is very, very good. I game on my laptop, in bed or on the couch for the majority of my “game time” and barely felt any heat at all (several hours at a time ). I will say, though, that the G-Series is a little better in this department since their vents are elevated. The elevation allowed the user NEVER to feel heat whatsoever.

Speakers 3.5/5:
A tad bit above average.
I use 7.1 headphones for everything, so the speaker quality never matters in my purchase decision.

Gaming Performance (nVidia 460m) 5/5:
Every single game I threw at the laptop, it handled without breaking a sweat:
- Starcraft II (ultra)
- WoW (ultra w/vsync off; shadows med; windowed-full screen)
- Rift (ultra)
- Civilization V (max)
- Battlefield: BC 2 (ultra w/vsync off; shadows med)
- Command & Conquer 3 and 4 (max)
- Need4Speed: Hot Pursuit (max)

Note: Every single game handled max/ultra, so I have 0 complaints and only praise in this department. This laptop will be able to handle all the new games for years to come, but as years pass, settings will obviously have to be sacrificed.

SIDE NOTES​

Weight & Commute:
This is one of the lightest 15” notebooks I’ve ever owned/carried. I honestly thought I was sent the wrong laptop when I made the purchase (thought a 14” was sent to me) and was a little upset until I realized it was actually a 15.6”. To me, the 8130 seems around 20-25% smaller in general than the G53.

$Price$:
At around 1300$-ish, this laptop is the best bang for buck. I went for the stock version if I remember correctly with Windows 7-Basic and thermal compound. I received free RAM upgrades as well, which was very kind of my reseller.

Multitasking
The sheer CPU power from the 2nd gen i7 has been a wonderful experience. To give you an idea of how good this laptop is at multitasking, I had:
- WoW (ultra) ...standing in Org
- Rift (ultra) ...questing
- FL Studio ...working on a beat
- Adobe Audition ...chopping samples
- WMM ...making a movie
...and several other applications going on at once.

I could alt/tab and instantly see another game/app with 0 lag/delays.


Looks:
There’s two ways of looking at this part. Since my G53 was a big eye catcher, it eventually got stolen in a break-in by some lowlife, so with the Sager looking plain/normal, it fits right into the campus/work life. People will think it’s a 400-500$ junk laptop from Best Buy just from looking at it, so this is a big plus if you’re worried about theft. You may not think this is a big deal but on campus people will paint a bullseye on you if you walk around with a flashy Alienware/MSI/Asus.

Fingerprint Reader:
This nifty tool is excellent. After spending approximately 10 minutes scanning all 10 fingers and registering them all, the log in process was quite simple. Simply hold a finger on the opposite hand in a forward position and give it a slide. I would say 9/10 times it works unless you scan a tilted finger or do it very fast.

Warranty Service:
A good thing about purchasing a Sager from a reseller is that you deal with the reseller if anything goes wrong with your unit and you require replacement parts mailed or the laptop serviced if you’re unfamiliar with part replacement or if the damage is too significant.

Technically speaking, your laptop could be repaired in just a few days if parts are mailed to you or 2-2.5 weeks if you ship it back and forth (depending where you live; faster if you live near your reseller), versus the Asus/MSI repair facility, where they take over a month to fix your laptop.

The only downside is that if you move outside of your reseller’s zone, for example, Canada/USA to Thailand, there could be difficulties in dealing with repairs, therefore it’s always good to buy Sager’s from resellers in your country or another Western nation that is near by (such as US-Can, etc.).

Reseller:
I purchased this lovely machine from Ken @ GenTechPC. The level of service provided was top-notch 10/10. I was informed regularly by e-mail if there were delays with my order and given ETA’s on the new dates. I opted for UPS Expedite (for around 144$), which got the laptop from California, USA to Ontario, Canada, which is 3,800KM away and 12hrs later it was in my hands!

That’s extremely fast!

I would highly recommend GenTechPC!
To keep this review fair, there are other resellers on the NBR forums that can also provide Sager laptops such as powernotebooks, xoticpc, etc.

In closing, I would recommend this laptop to anyone. It’s been very good to me thus far.

Thanks for reading!

@Pics: Sorry I couldn't post any pics. I slipped down a flight of stairs last week and smashed my BlackBerry, which was my only camera (waiting on a new one from ebay).

 

Nice review. +1 rep

Still waiting for my NP8150...

 

So what is the big difference between the NP8150 and NP8130. They seem practically the same save the fact the 8150 can have other GFX cards put in it.

 

u can put other gpus too in 8130 like gtx 485m and 6970m but u must also have the 180watt psu.its the same laptop.

 

There are only three differences between them:

* 8150 has a glossy screen, 8130 matte
* 8150 has a rubberized exterior, 8130 is plastic
* 8150 has a 180w power supply, 8130 is 120w. The larger power supply allows for the higher TDP graphics cards (the 6970 and 485m)

The 8130 could theoretically allow for swapping the power supplies to get a matte screen and plastic finish, with support for higher end GPU's, but this configuration is not approved by Clevo.

 

Straight up curiousity, but why did you ultimately end up purchasing from GenTechPC? Surely you could have saved that $144 in shipping by going through Fortnax or Reflex which both seem to offer free shipping, and are Canadian.

I'm in the GTA area just like yourself and have been considering a Sager/Clevo as a replacement to my first gen MBP (which played WoW fine for years) and to stop playing games on my work laptop (ThinkPad T500, Radeon HD 3650 shockingly...). Not only am I undecided about what laptop I ultimately want, but if I went Sager/Clevo, really not sure who to ultimately buy it from.

Just wondering what tipped the scales to importing from the US.

Thanks!

 

^^^When you buy online you are essentially buying on faith. If I had a do over I would have bought from Gentech, Ken Lee really cares about customers & regulary contributes to the forums here. I had a very so so experince with one of the other highly touted etailers here.
I have been lurking/posting here for many months & have seen only praise about him. If you are interested let me know via PM.

 

Great review! Thanks!

 

Agreed 100% with the review. The only thing lacking on this laptop is the keyboard/touchpad. Speakers are meh, but I usually use headphones as well.

 

I shall extend my gratitude to you, OP good sir. Another helpful review to the future owner of P151HM1. Also, Starcraft II is awesome! Glad to hear that this baby will tame the ultra settings, hopefully 30+ FPS.