Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
Hello all,
There are quite a few reviews on NBR that are posted quickly after the user has received the machine. I've decided to post my review after approximately ten months of using the machine, to give more of an "extended use" perspective. This should still be relevant, as there are likely people looking to buy a used machine from last year's lineup. Further, the changes between the 8150 and 9150 aren't terribly dramatic for the most part.
I won't be posting pictures of the machine - there are lots of those already, and mine looks like all the rest.
Buying Experience:
Please see my post ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/reseller-feedback-forum/614510-xoticpc-experience-np8150.html) for details regarding my reseller interaction. Short version: great experience with XoticPC, so much so that I helped a friend buy an 8170 from them several months later.
Configuration:
I ordered a Sager NP8150 with the following options:
- 15.6" Matte 95% Gamut screen
- i7 2630QM CPU @ 2GHz
- 8GB RAM
- 2x 750GB 7200RPM Hard Drives (no optical drive)
- AMD Radeon 6990m GPU
- Intel 6320 Wireless + Bluetooth
All other options were stock.
Upgrades:
I have installed a 256GB Plextor SSD drive as the primary HDD. I took the extra 750GB mechanical drive out to use as a backup drive.
Performing this upgrade was simple. Some of the screws were a little tough to get out, so have a very small screwdriver on hand if you plan on doing this. Other than that, easy to do. I did follow "Seans SSD Guide" ( Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs & HDDs) to configure Windows after installing.
Unboxing:
Upon receipt of the laptop, I opened the box. Basic package: laptop, power supply, a laptop case I didn't need but is nice enough, some manuals and driver CDs. Barebones, but well-packed.
Physical Appearance:
At first I was somewhat nonplussed by the basic appearance of the Sager. It's thick, and honestly, looks a little dated, like a laptop from several years ago. I was nonplussed, but not disappointed; after all, I had bought this for the power. If I wanted sexy, I would have gone with an ultrabook or something.
As the months of ownership have gone by, I've grown to really appreciate the look of the Sager. It is quite understated, but I like that. I think the Clevo engineers have chosen a function-over-form aproach to design, but it is still classy. In particular, I like the touch of flash the silver Sager logo puts on the nice rubberized matte top. Other than that, everything is just simple, well-built, and even a little elegant.
Feel:
The feel of the 8150 is, simply put, solid. The lid doesn't clasp to the body, but stays shut on its own just fine when being carried. The wrist-rest area is perhaps the sturdiest, which is great.
I carry my 8150 with me around the house throughout each day. It is easy to pick up and honestly doesn't feel heavy at all. I also use it on my lap ~80% of the time, where it feels like pretty much any other laptop, albeit a little bit heavier. Note that if you are going to use a Sager on your lap while gaming, you want to wear long pants (it gets hot!) and position the machine so it receives good ventilation between your legs.
Keyboard:
One area in particular has changed in my perspective over the last ten months, and that is the keyboard. When I first received the machine, I didn't like how the body under the keyboard felt "hollow." It *does* flex a little if you push on it pretty hard. What I came to discover, however, is that this is really the ideal laptop keyboard for me. I am a heavy typer, and I'd much rather not be banging away on system internals that are right up against the keyboard every day. The keyboard feels great to me now; the keys are well-spaced, and I love having a full 10-key section when I need it. No keys have gotten stuck or shown signs of wear.
Mouse:
The Sager 8150 comes with a trackpad, nothing else. I hate trackpads. It will do in a pinch, and there isn't anything wrong with the one on the 8150 per se. I purchased a Logitech Anywhere MX wireless mouse that compliments the Sager quite nicely, so the trackpad is only used when I take the laptop outside or temporarily to another room.
Ports:
The 8150 comes with the following ports: 2 USB 2.0, 2 USB 3.0, 1 eSATA/USB combo, 1 Firewire, 1 HDMI, 4 audio jacks, 1 Ethernet, 1 DVI, and 1 Multi-card reader. I have had zero issues using them, though I've never tested the Firewire or several of the audio ports.
In particular, I like the HDMI port. Hooking a laptop up to my home theater has never been so easy, and the display looks incredible on my 55" 1080p flatscreen. The USB 3.0 ports are nice too, giving crazy-fast transfer speeds when a USB 3.0 drive is connected.
Screen:
I prefer a matte screen, which is actually what led me to Sager in the first place. It is quite difficult to find a powerful laptop with a matte screen option, but I'm glad I did. I get no glare from windows, and as mentioned earlier, use the laptop outside a lot. I couldn't really say if there is a difference between the 95% gamut screen I have versus the standard matte, but I can say that of the 4 laptops I have in the house that are used regularly, the Sager screen easily looks the best. It's the highest resolution though, so it may have more to do with that than the increased color spectrum.
Other Components:
The webcam is kind of crappy, low resolution. The fingerprint scanner works fine but is kind of a pain to configure. I have no idea what the covered "CATV" port is for, and I don't care about the laptop lock latch. The microphone is nice, though, I sound perfectly clear over Skype with no external mic.
Performance:
The Sager is an absolute beast! I have yet to throw a game at it it couldn't handle easily. I play every game on max settings, and I love it. Much of the credit probably goes to the 6990m GPU, which was absolutely worth the upgrade cost.
In other areas, the Sager performs exactly how you would expect a top-of-the-line laptop to perform. No weird slowdowns, encoding video and music is fast, zip archives decompress faster than I've ever seen. The aftermarket SSD helped take it to a new level, and again, is an upgrade I highly recommend.
The only odd behavior I've seen has been a couple of sudden shutdowns. However, these were all when the system was under extreme load while gaming and I hadn't gone out of my way to improve ventilation. I am certain that the laptop overheated and shut down as a safety mechanism, so on hot days when gaming, I typically put something under the back of the laptop to prop it up a little and give it more ventilation.
Usage:
I am completely blown away by how versatile my 8150 has been. When I purchased it, I did so for gaming only. After discovering that I didn't agree with the idea that "Sagers are desktop replacements, not like other laptops, and should always be left on a desk", that all changed. I had been thinking of getting a second, smaller laptop for travel and daily websurfing, or going with a tablet for the couch. Turns out, no need... I use my Sager daily for everything!:
- Gaming... my XBOX360 and PS3 have been relegated to media devices almost exclusively at this point. I sit on the couch with a wired 360 controller in my hand and HDMI out to my home theater. The graphics and sound are unbelievable, not to mention how much more affordable games are via Steam.
- Development... I run MS SQL Server on my Sager in addition to coding and compiling .NET applications with Visual Studio. As a technology consultant, I almost feel bad when a client issues me a corporate laptop and claims it's high-powered. They don't know I'll just be using my Sager for "real work"!
- Travel... given that the 8150 is much more portable than I had thought, I take it with me everywhere. Great to have that terabyte+ of media storage to hook up to televisions in hotel rooms, or to game on the go. the Sager also plays nice with my PICO projector and Jawbone Jambox, so if the tv in the hotel room sucks, I have an on-the-go home theater!
- Media encoding and storage... have I mentioned how much I love having two hard drives, 8GB of RAM, and a quad-core proc?
- Skype, web surfing, etc., etc.. Basically, it's a powerful computer, one that can handle pretty much anything you ask it to.
Critiques:
Some of these have been touched on above, but to summarize:
- Webcam is low resolution
- No option to trackpad other than external mouse.
- Battery life is only about 90 minutes unplugged, would like to see (affordable) extended battery option.
- Needs hardware controls for volume up, down, and mute.
- No backlit keyboard (my next Sager will have one)
- The power cord is L-shaped on the end that plugs into the laptop. This swings down every time I life the laptop, and then gets in the way when I set it back down. Seems like an easy fix for a future model.
Overall:
If you read this far, you probably know where I'm at with my Sager. I love it! It reminds me of the quality of machine I used to get when I did my own DIY desktops, back when there was a reason to do that. No one I know has a machine that performs like this.
My next laptop will be a Sager, I'm 99% positive of that. I only wish that Sager/Clevo moved a little faster to add features and upgrades so I could have an excuse to buy a new one sooner!
-
Great story!
Really liked all the spaces in between your sections, gives the break one needs to switch on to the next "topic"
Congratulations with your machine, and it is indeed a beast! looking stylish and sleek as well as a business laptop too
I hope you'll enjoy it for a year or two to come there should be a new Sager up by then hehe
-
We have practically same system
Only differences: 95% gamut glossy vs matte, Bigfoot killer 1103 vs Intel, 24gb (bought with 16gb, my buddy bought two 8gb sticks for fixing his laptop so now I have 24gb) vs 8gb, and 360gb OCZ vs Plextor.
I'm happy you're still enjoying your laptop. I received mine last October and I share the most of the same thoughts as you! I do wish the function keys for volume and brightness were lit or easier to see, especially when I'm on it at night. Anyways, happy computing!
Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2 -
May as well turn this into a 12-month review
Humorously enough, in the two months since I posted this review, I've had two things go wrong with the laptop. One is minor, and the other... well, it's less minor.
1. As stated, I move around with this laptop a lot. It seems that this has taken a toll on the machine in one way. On the bottom of the laptop, there are a variety of vents to allow for air intake. The vent near the middle and rear of the laptop is apparently where I place my middle finger when I'm picking it up. Right after I posted this review, a piece of the plastic that comprises the vent broke off. Unfortunately, this led to more of the little pieces breaking off, and now I have a ~.25 inch hole instead of the plastic "slats". Seems fine though, I've just adjusted how I pick up the laptop.
2. Two days ago, the video card started to die. Major graphical corruption, manifested by large (~1 inch) lines or ugly solid "blocks" appear throughout the screen. It happens during POST as well as prior to Windows loading and once I get into safe mode. Trying to load Windows normally results in a blue screen and reboot loop. I hoped it was just bad memory, but it passed Memtest86 and the Windows 7 memory test utility. Since it happens during POST, I think it has to be the AMD 6990m.
#1 above doesn't really matter to me, though it would be nice if Clevo made the plastic a little more sturdy. #2, however, obviously renders the machine virtually unusable. I've emailed my reseller for next steps. I'm just thankful that it happened when it did, with a little more than 1 week remaining on the warranty.
I had hoped that I wouldn't have the opportunity to review the service and warranty aspect of buying a Sager, but here we are. I'm curious as to how this goes, since the general impression I've always received is that customer service is one of the major reasons to buy a Sager over one of the larger manufacturers. -
Wanted to post a few updates to this review.
After emailing XoticPC about the video card issue above, they got Sager to issue an RMA. Unfortunately, I was travelling immediately after the RMA was issued, so the laptop wasn't sent back to Sager in a timely manner. By the time I sent it, it was nearly two months past the date of RMA being issued.
When Sager received the laptop, they agreed that the video card was malfunctioning. They focused on the fact that so much time had passed since the RMA was originally issued and did not want to cover the repair under warranty. I was presented with a bill of $545 to replace the AMD 6990m, and $50 to replace the damaged back cover plate.
I balked at this, and worked through XoticPC with a stance that since the defect had occurred while the machine was under warranty, it should still be repaired under the terms of the warranty. XoticPC got Sager to agree - to an extent. Sager agreed to replace the 6990m, but stated that it would only carry a 1-month warranty. I was just happy to have it fixed and not pay another $600 toward a machine that had failed within one year. Sager did not replace the cover plate, which I understand.
The laptop and video card worked fine when I got it back. About a month after that, though, the "new" video card gave up the ghost, going from fine, to graphical corruption, to not displaying anything in the course of one hour. I would have to imagine that the replacement card was a refurb or something, given that it failed so quickly and only carried a 1-month warranty.
I emailed XoticPC again, who once again were able to get Sager to issue an RMA for it. This time, they wanted me to pay for shipping, which cost me about $70. I'm currently waiting for the laptop to get to Sager for their evaluation.
I'm pretty nervous about what they will say. I'm sure that they are tired of dealing with this issue, especially since at this point, the machine is well past the one year warranty. Hopefully the 1-month warranty on the "new" card was provided by AMD, and they can just pass that through to them.
XoticPC has been great through the whole thing of course, and I do appreciate that Sager was willing to work with me on the initial warranty issue. That said, this naturally is not what I had in mind when I bought an expensive laptop with an eye toward using it for the next three years or so. If this current issue is resolved, I can certainly see myself buying Sager in the future and continuing to advocate for them. Next time, though, I will definitely be getting the 3-year warranty option
-
-
Sager NP8150 - The 10 Month Review
Discussion in 'Sager/Clevo Reviews & Owners' Lounges' started by Lint21, Aug 1, 2012.
