This is a hybrid gaming laptop that I think I can recommend to everyone so far. I bought this for media creation, video editing in Premiere, Photoshop, Light room, & Adobe After effects. I used a desktop for editing purposes for almost 2 years but when I decided to buy this laptop and used it instead, it makes my life easier. Let me share my thoughts on the pros and cons after doing some test.
PROS:
- It is thin and light so if you are on the go on gaming, then this is for you.
- It has an amazing full HD display and delivers sharp color to have a realistic viewing.
- It has a matte screen that acquired less battery usage and a 3 GB VRAM video card: GTX970M.
- I downloaded DOTA to test it on max settings and the data transfer rate is so fast.
- It has improved settings that make navigation smoother and faster.
- The keyboard has tactile-fast action keys.
CONS:
- SSD size is not enough for gaming. The OS Windows 10 takes up a third of that. It would be best if there is an additional memory of 256 GB. This model has already that kind of memory however acquiring an additional upgrade is really a waste of money and time. Moreover, the performance will not be as smooth as expected. The hard drive should have it all. For example, after downloading two games, the memory will be full. It is easy to replace SSD and it is inexpensive but buying additional parts to upgrade it is not an option. The hard drive should have been better on this model.
- I encounter a lot of problems with the Intel HD graphic chipset. The screen flickers and turns to black especially when I am on Facebook. I installed the latest drivers and didn’t work better still.
- The position of the windows key and the bloat ware is not strategic. The windows key is located in the right section. I find it confusing since most windows keys are located on the left portion of the keyboard.
- The size of the keyboard is very small for me. The main keys became smaller to occupy all the secondary keys with the same size. The Delete key has been positioned in the middle of the home key and end key. These are confusing as a writer.
- The power cord connects about mid-way to the left and I find it awkward and usually encounter the cable wire because it gets in my way often when I move around.
Other thoughts:
The battery doesn’t last long. It lasted for almost 4 hours while on eco mode without gaming. I did a lite Photoshop and WordPress works, browsing with 15 tabs at the same time and writing. I played two rounds of DOTA while on battery and it was great. The microphone and speakers don’t have an outstanding quality sound output. With this, I used external speakers or headphones most of the time. I don’t have any review for its touchpad since I usually use a wireless mouse especially when gaming. When starting up the laptop, I encountered a lot of bloat ware but it didn’t take much time.
Thanks the author: Frank